Wake up, O Lord! Why are You sleeping? Arise! Do not reject us forever.
Parallel translations
- WEB Wake up! Why do you sleep, Lord? Arise! Don’t reject us forever.
- KJV Awake, why sleepest thou, O Lord? arise, cast us not off for ever.
- 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 awoke as from sleep, like a mighty warrior overcome by wine.
- Ps 7:6Arise, O LORD, in Your anger; rise up against the fury of my enemies. Awake, my God, and ordain judgment.
- Ps 88:14Why, O LORD, do You reject me? Why do You hide Your face from me?
- Ps 77:7“Will the Lord spurn us forever and never show His favor again?
- Ps 35:23Awake and rise to my defense, to my cause, my God and my Lord!
- Ps 74:1A Maskil of Asaph. Why have You rejected us forever, O God? Why does Your anger smolder against the sheep of Your pasture?
- Mark 4:38But Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on the cushion. So they woke Him and said, “Teacher, don’t You care that we are perishing?”
- Ps 12:5“For the cause of the oppressed and for the groaning of the needy, I will now arise,” says the LORD. “I will bring safety to him who yearns.”
- Isa 51:9Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the LORD. Wake up as in days past, as in generations of old. Was it not You who cut Rahab to pieces, who pierced through the dragon?
- Ps 44:9But You have rejected and humbled us; You no longer go forth with our armies.
- Ps 59:4–5For no fault of my own, they move swiftly to attack me. Arise to help me, and take notice.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
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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.