Psalms 44:23

23 Awake, why sleepest thou, O Lord? arise, cast us not off for ever.

Psalms 44:23 Meaning and Commentary

Psalms 44:23

Awake, why sleepest thou, O Lord?
&c.] Not that sleep properly falls upon God: the Keeper of Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps; his eyes are always upon his people; he never withdraws them from them, and he watches over them night and day: but sometimes he seems and is thought to be asleep; as when wicked men flourish and triumph over the righteous, and go on in sin with impunity; when their judgment seems to linger, and their damnation to slumber, though it does not; and when the saints are under sore afflictions, and the Lord seems to disregard them, and does not appear for their deliverance; and when things are as when the disciples were in a storm, and Christ was asleep, to whom they said, "carest thou not that we perish?" and the Lord may be said to awake, and it is what is here prayed for, when he stirs up himself and takes vengeance on his enemies, as he will before long on antichrist and his followers; and when he takes in hand the cause and judgment of his people, and pleads it thoroughly, and delivers them out of the hands of all their oppressors, and gives them the dominion and kingdom under the whole heaven; see ( Isaiah 2:9 ) ( Psalms 78:65 Psalms 78:66 ) ( 35:23 ) ;

arise;
to revenge the blood of his people, and to have mercy on his Zion;

cast [us] not off for ever;
as he might seem to do, by suffering their enemies to triumph over them; but in reality he does not; much less with loathing and abhorrence, as the word F18 used signifies, since his church is his Hephzibah, in whom he delights, ( Isaiah 62:4 ) ; and still less for ever, since his love to them is from everlasting to everlasting, and they shall be for ever with him; (See Gill on Psalms 43:2).


FOOTNOTES:

F18 (xnzt la) "ne abjicias cum fastidio", Gejerus.

Psalms 44:23 In-Context

21 Shall not God search this out? for he knoweth the secrets of the heart.
22 Yea, for thy sake are we killed all the day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter.
23 Awake, why sleepest thou, O Lord? arise, cast us not off for ever.
24 Wherefore hidest thou thy face, and forgettest our affliction and our oppression?
25 For our soul is bowed down to the dust: our belly cleaveth unto the earth.
The King James Version is in the public domain.