The Use of Psalm 44 in Romans 8: Pauline Response to God’s Hiddenness

Abstract

Paul’s citation of the communal lament Psalm in Ps 43 LXX/Ps 44 MT presents challenges that have not been adequately addressed. Psalm 44 underscores the suffering of the righteous and their anguish when faced with the apparent hiddenness of God. It contains a litany of accusations against God, who seems to inexplicably break the covenant. On the contrary, Rom 8 rhetorically affirms the faithfulness of God amid the despair of suffering. Paul asserts that nothing can separate God’s people from His love in Christ. This perceived dissonance between the two contexts raises the question: How does Paul relate to Ps 44 in using the communal lament Psalm in Rom 8? The present study is an attempt to answer this question by analyzing and comparing the contexts of Ps 44 and Rom 8, and then discerning the hermeneutical explanation of the use and function of the quotation in its new context in Rom 8. I will argue that Paul uses Ps 44 typologically to depict Christ as the fulfilment of the psalmist’s plea, establishing the ground for God’s faithfulness, the inseparability between God and His people, and the ultimate victory even through temporal sufferings. Beyond biblical scholarship, this study ventures into a reflection on the implications of this finding for the philosophical discourse surrounding the hiddenness of God, His past and future actions, and the ethical dimensions.