Psalm 44:23–26 Does God Sleep?

44:23–26 Does God Sleep?
How strange is this accusation that the Lord may be sleeping and need to be aroused! Other psalms, including Psalms 7, 35, 59, 73 and 74, also speak of God as sleeping or arising from sleep, just as other Near Eastern deities are said to do. But Psalm 121:4 asserts just the opposite: “Indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.”
Bernard Batto2 has attempted to argue that in Near Eastern mythology to sleep undisturbed was a symbol of the supreme deity’s unchallenged authority. He further argued that the motif as applied to Yahweh expressed Israel’s belief in Yahweh’s absolute kingship. He could be counted on to “awaken” and to maintain justice and order.
Batto’s explanation of Psalm 121:4 is not satisfactory; the sleeping deity image here, he counters, is turned around as an image of one who is ever vigilant, allowing not the slightest evil to be tolerated. Exactly; but which is correct? Or are we to have it both ways: Yahweh sleeps but he never slumbers? Furthermore, why is Elijah’s taunt effective when he mockingly suggests that the prophets of Baal should call louder to awaken him, for he is known to sleep at times? Surely Elijah is not reciting their theology approvingly.
Batto believes that the motif of divine rest is connected with the theme of sleeping. In this association of ideas, he may well be on to something important. Scripture does declare that as God concludes his work in creation he rests. Is it from this moment of leisure that he is now called to “awake” and act on behalf of the one in trouble? It is to be noted that Psalms 7, 35 and 59 are all laments of an individual who is in dire straits. But in each case they are confident that God will “arise” in time to vindicate them. Thus there is an element of poetic license and the use of an anthropomorphism to describe God’s action.
Psalm 44 represents the believing community’s search for answers after suffering military defeats of national proportion. The problem raised was this: if the king and the people have been faithful to the covenant (Ps 44:18–22), then why was God unfaithful to his promise to deliver and defend?
There is no attempt here to give either a theological or a practical solution. In fact, this psalm is one of the clearest examples of a search for some cause or reason for national disasters besides deserved punishment by God for sin and guilt. The psalmist exclaims in exasperation, “Yet for your sake we face death all day long” (Ps 44:22). The wrath they experienced on this occasion had little to do with their sin but more to do with the spiritual battle between their enemies and the Lord they served. Theirs was a faith that went beyond any available evidences or handy theologies, but they continued to believe, to trust and to pray.
Accordingly, the psalm contrasts the glorious past (Ps 44:1–8) with some present disaster (Ps 44:9–16). God seemed not to have been with the army when they had gone out to battle (Ps 44:9). Israel’s defeat had made them a reproach and the scorn of their enemies (Ps 44:13–14). All this had happened even though Israel had not forgotten God (Ps 44:17–18); nevertheless, God had crushed them with a humiliating defeat (Ps 44:19).
In spite of all of this ignominy and shame, their prayer and hope still centered on the Lord (Ps 44:23–26). This prayer is phrased in military terms. The call for God to awake and to arouse himself here does not refer to sleep but to a military action similar to that in the Song of Deborah in Judges 5:12: “Wake up, wake up, Deborah! Wake up, wake up, break out in song! Arise, O Barak! Take captive your captives.” The same battle chant was used time and time again when the ark of the covenant was raised at the head of the procession as Israel went forth into battle: “Whenever the ark set out, Moses said, ‘Rise up, O LORD! May your enemies be scattered; may your foes flee before you’” (Num 10:35).
The prayer is for divine help in the crisis that may have continued even though the battle had been lost. Perhaps the same war continued. “Rise up and help us” (Ps 44:26), they cried in the psalm. But the final word of the psalm is the confidence that God would yet help them because of his unfailing love —that word of grace which occurs in the Old Testament over two hundred and fifty times and speaks of God’s unmerited lovingkindness, mercy and grace (Ps 44:26).
Therefore, this psalm does not contradict the psalm which assures us that our God never slumbers or sleeps. He does not! That God sometimes defers his punishments and extends apparently unwarranted tolerance to the wicked and their evil indicates to the superficial observer that God sleeps and needs rousing. But such divine long-suffering and mercy must not be confused with indifference or unawareness on his part. Furthermore, the language is not the language of weariness or slumber, but the language of a call for God to march forth to defend his holy name and his kingdom.