Bible Strands
Psalms 44:23
Wake up, O Lord! Why are You sleeping? Arise! Do not reject us forever.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The psalmist addresses God directly, pleading for intervention while the community endures slaughter-like persecution. The appeal occurs within a corporate lament where the speaker recounts national suffering and questions divine absence.
The words — The imperative עֵרָה ('U.ra/h) literally means 'awake,' while תִישַׁן (ti.Shan) translates to 'do you sleep.' The phrase לָנֶצַח (la./Ne.tzach) literally means 'to perpetuity,' establishing the temporal boundary of the plea.
The thread — The motif of divine awakening and rising appears in Psalms 7:6, 35:23, and 78:65. These passages similarly frame God's intervention as a sudden awakening to defend the afflicted or execute judgment.
Why it lands — The text demands a reader confront the tension between God's covenant faithfulness and His perceived silence during suffering. It requires acknowledging that persistent prayer, not passive resignation, is the prescribed response to divine delay.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Awake, why sleepest thou, O Lord? arise, cast us not off for ever.
Cross-references
- Psalms 7:6 Arise, O LORD, in Your anger; rise up against the fury of my enemies. Awake, my God, and ordain judgment.
- Psalms 78:65 Then the Lord awoke as from sleep, like a mighty warrior overcome by wine.
- Psalms 35:23 Awake and rise to my defense, to my cause, my God and my Lord!
- Psalms 74:1 A Maskil of Asaph. Why have You rejected us forever, O God? Why does Your anger smolder against the sheep of Your pasture?
- Psalms 77:7 “Will the Lord spurn us forever and never show His favor again?
- Psalms 88:14 Why, O LORD, do You reject me? Why do You hide Your face from me?
- Psalms 12:5 “For the cause of the oppressed and for the groaning of the needy, I will now arise,” says the LORD. “I will bring safety to him who yearns.”
- Psalms 44:9 But You have rejected and humbled us; You no longer go forth with our armies.
- Psalms 59:4 For no fault of my own, they move swiftly to attack me. Arise to help me, and take notice.
- Isaiah 51:9 Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the LORD. Wake up as in days past, as in generations of old. Was it not You who cut Rahab to pieces, who pierced through the dragon?