Wake up! Why do you sleep, Lord? Arise! Don’t reject us forever.
Parallel translations
- KJV Awake, why sleepest thou, O Lord? arise, cast us not off for ever.
- BSB Wake up, O Lord! Why are You sleeping? Arise! Do not reject us forever.
- NKJV Awake! Why do You sleep, O Lord? Arise! Do not cast us off forever.
- NASB Wake Yourself up, why do You sleep, Lord? Awake, do not reject us forever.
- NLT Wake up, O Lord! Why do you sleep? Get up! Do not reject us forever.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The psalmist boldly cries for God to wake up and not reject His people forever. It matters because it shows faith pressing God to act even when He seems asleep.
Overview
Using vivid, daring language, the prayer urges God to rouse Himself, not implying He literally sleeps but pleading for Him to intervene. Such bold petition rests on confidence in God's covenant love. It anticipates the disciples' cry to the sleeping Jesus in the storm, who arose and stilled the sea, proving God is never truly indifferent to His own.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- Ps 78:65Then the Lord awakened as one out of sleep, like a mighty man who shouts by reason of wine.
- Ps 7:6Arise, Yahweh, in your anger. Lift up yourself against the rage of my adversaries. Awake for me. You have commanded judgment.
- Ps 88:14Yahweh, why do you reject my soul? Why do you hide your face from me?
- Ps 77:7“Will the Lord reject us forever? Will he be favorable no more?
- Ps 35:23Wake up! Rise up to defend me, my God! My Lord, contend for me!
- Ps 74:1A contemplation by Asaph. God, why have you rejected us forever? Why does your anger smolder against the sheep of your pasture?
- Mark 4:38He himself was in the stern, asleep on the cushion, and they woke him up, and told him, “Teacher, don’t you care that we are dying?”
- Ps 12:5“Because of the oppression of the weak and because of the groaning of the needy, I will now arise,” says Yahweh; “I will set him in safety from those who malign him.”
- Isa 51:9Awake, awake, put on strength, arm of Yahweh! Awake, as in the days of old, the generations of ancient times. Isn’t it you who cut Rahab in pieces, who pierced the monster?
- Ps 44:9But now you rejected us, and brought us to dishonor, and don’t go out with our armies.
- Ps 59:4–5I have done no wrong, yet they are ready to attack me. Rise up, behold, and help me!
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
The Psalms are Christ's own prayer book and a gallery of his portraits — the suffering one of Psalm 22, the risen Lord of Psalm 16, the priest-king of Psalm 110, the Son to whom the nations are given.
How Psalms 44:23 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.