Is God Asleep?

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Psalm 44

“God never sleeps” wrote the Scottish commentator Murdoch Campbell in his notes on Psalm 44.  You may remember after the prophet Elijah mockingly hypothesized that the gods of the Canaanites failed to respond because they were asleep in 1 Kings 18.

The Psalmist of Israel imagines that Yahweh is asleep in verse 23:

“Awake! Why are you sleeping, O Lord? Rouse yourself! Do not reject us forever!”

Remember in Mark 4:35-41—

It was the Lord Jesus sleeping amidst a terrible storm that caused such panic for the disciples. 

Also, it was the thought of God sleeping which is the occasion for the writing of the 44^th Psalm.  And, in our day when it seems as if God is not answering our prayers we, like the Psalmist and the disciples on the Sea of Galilee can become frightened and despairing.  

Have you ever felt as if God wasn’t hearing your prayers?  Perhaps you are like the Israelites in this Psalm and you know you have done nothing that would make God turn a deaf ear to you and yet it seems as if God is not there, it seems as if God is sleeping.  Let us awaken to the reality of Who God is and what He is doing in times when we feel as if He is sleeping!

We are not given a historical context for the writing of Psalm 44.  But apparently, the Israelites had recently suffered a serious military defeat on the battlefield.  It’s during times of our defeat at the hands of our enemies when we may feel as if God is asleep.

1. God’s Past Deliverance in Verses 1-8—The psalm opens with a glance at the past history of the nation and the acknowledgment that, from the first, every victory which they had won had been won not by their own strength, but by the immediate hand of God. This was, it might be said, the perpetual lesson of their history. They did not rise upon their Egyptian masters, but God bowed the heart of the monarch and the people by his signs and wonders, till they thrust them out in haste. At the Red Sea they did not turn to fight with the chariots and the horsemen of Pharaoh; they were but to stand still and see the victory of Jehovah. When they came to Canaan, their first exploit was not a feat of arms, for Jericho fell by a miracle…The Jewish host with a better faith believed that in every battle an invisible Captain led them and knew that, whenever they conquered their enemies, it was because an invisible arm gave them the victory.—J.J. Stewart Perowne  
   1. The Jewish people were keenly aware their many victories in the past could be attributed to God alone.  The Psalmist calls to remembrance a 2-Fold victory:
      1. The Distant Past—In verses 1-3.
      2. The Recent Past—In verses 6-8. 
      3. Application—
2. The Perplexing Present in Verses 9-25—This is another anticlimactic Psalm.
   1. A Painful Reality—In Verses 9-10, we see the phrase “but now”.  In view of God’s mighty acts in the past why is God not working that way now?
      1. In Verses 17-18—The Psalmist says they were doing everything right according to God’s Word and yet they were defeated.
      2. In Verses 20-21—The Psalmist specifically says they had not done any sinful act to incur a reason for their defeat at the hands of their enemies…and yet they were defeated nonetheless.  What in the world do you do when you do everything right and nothing wrong and you are defeated?
         1. Doing everything right in church yet defeated…
         2. Doing everything right by children and yet defeated…
         3. Doing everything right by your spouse yet defeated…
         4. Doing everything right at your job and yet defeated…
      3. In Verse 22—This verse is quoted by St. Paul in Romans 8.  Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us (Rom. 8:35–37).  The people of God suffer innocently.  It’s one thing to suffer because you are bad (sinful)…but its altogether a different kind of suffering to suffer because of doing good.  Christ, Paul and the early Christians served God faithfully, yet they faced death all day long because of just that.   
      4. Final Take-Away:  It would be easy to say that Christians suffer for their sins but that’s not what Psalm 44 and Romans 8 teach us.
3. A Redemptive Hope in Verses 22-26—In simple terms, in a nutshell the Psalmist says “Lord, you helped us in the past, we are asking you to help us now.  But you are not helping us, even though we have done nothing to keep you from helping us.  So therefore, help us”.  There are at least 2 closing points which help us with the problem of suffering in this Psalm:
   1. When God’s People Suffer for Righteousness we must remember its “for your sake”.  In other words, we suffer for God’s sake.  Jesus mentions this in Matthew 5:10-1
   2. When God’s people suffer for Righteousness we must remember our final deliverance will also be “for the sake of your steadfast love”.  In other words, God’s gracious covenant will have the final word in our destiny and NOT the defeats we face at the hands of our enemies.  The love of God for us infinitely outweighs any defeats we receive in this life.  No enemy, however great can separate us from God’s love:  “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us…For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 8:18 & 38-39)
   3. Final Application:  Perhaps the most perplexing thing about all this is that it is slaughtered sheep who will ultimately conquer the world.  They will conquer because God is actually in control of all human history bringing His sovereign will to pass, His hesed “steadfast love” is unfailing and God Himself is the Only One Who has the final say so in what happens to you!

God is not asleep in Psalm 44 and He does not need to awaken.  We are the ones whom God is awakening to His omnipotent sovereign power over all things and He is calling us to trust Him for the greater reality of His kingdom work unfolding!