Why Sleepest Thou

A hand on a shoulder in the dark, shaking somebody who has not woken up yet. Awake, why sleepest thou, O Lord? arise, cast us not off for ever. That is addressed to God, by a congregation, out of a book of songs approved for public use.

Psalm 44 opens on the fathers' stories: We have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have told us, what work thou didst in their days. Then it turns, and one pronoun runs the whole way down. But thou hast cast off, and put us to shame. Thou makest us to turn back from the enemy. Thou hast given us like sheep appointed for meat. Thou sellest thy people for nought, and dost not increase thy wealth by their price, which is a complaint about the price as well as about the sale. And then the clause that makes this psalm what it is: All this is come upon us; yet have we not forgotten thee, neither have we dealt falsely in thy covenant. They are not confessing anything. They invite the audit instead: Shall not God search this out? for he knoweth the secrets of the heart.

Another psalm, sung by the same congregation out of the same book, says Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. This one shouts at him to wake up. Nobody removed either of them, and Psalm 44 is given no reply; it runs on three more verses and stops at Arise for our help, and redeem us for thy mercies' sake, and the page turns. So which of the two have you been allowed to sing lately, and who taught you that only one of them was fit for church?

Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year one reading for day 304 is Crown of Life Promised (James 1:12).

All 365 readings in Daily Manna, Year Two