Why Sleepest Thou

Picture someone in the dark with a hand on a sleeper's shoulder, shaking hard because the sleeper will not wake. That is the picture in this verse: "Awake, why sleepest thou, O Lord? arise, cast us not off for ever." And it is spoken to God by a whole congregation, in a song from the book Israel used in its public worship.

Psalm 44 opens with the stories their fathers told: "We have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have told us, what work thou didst in their days." Then it turns, and from there one word, "thou," runs all the 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." That last line complains about the price as well as the sale, because God seems to have given His people away for nothing. Then comes the line 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 a sin. They are inviting God to look for one: "Shall not God search this out? for he knoweth the secrets of the heart."

Another psalm in the same book says, "Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep." This one shouts at Him to wake up, and God kept both songs in His book. Psalm 44 gets no answer on the page. It runs on for three more verses and ends with "Arise for our help, and redeem us for thy mercies' sake." Even at their lowest, the people appeal to the one thing they still trust, which is God's mercy. So if your own prayers sound like this one, you are allowed to pray them, in church as well as alone. God put this song in His people's mouths, and the mercy they called on is still the ground you can stand on while you wait for Him to arise.

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