The psalmist maintains that the reason for Israel’s woes cannot be traced to defection from God; that even though the nation had remained loyal, it had been punished.
In thy covenant.
It is difficult to understand how the psalmist could maintain that Israel had remained faithful, in the light of her continued defection. Perhaps he means that although individuals—even a majority of them—had broken the covenant, still, as a nation, she had not formally disavowed God. Or, perhaps in the intensity of his grief, he speaks hyperbolically, as is customary in the East.