Awake, Lord! Why do you sleep?
Daily Reading: Genesis 44, Psalm 44, Mark 16, Proverbs 13
But now you have rejected and humbled us;
you no longer go out with our armies.
You made us retreat before the enemy,
and our adversaries have plundered us.
You gave us up to be devoured like sheep
and have scattered us among the nations.
You sold your people for a pittance,
gaining nothing from their sale.
You have made us a reproach to our neighbors,
the scorn and derision of those around us.
You have made us a byword among the nations;
the peoples shake their heads at us.
I live in disgrace all day long,
and my face is covered with shame
at the taunts of those who reproach and revile me,
because of the enemy, who is bent on revenge.
All this came upon us,
though we had not forgotten you;
we had not been false to your covenant.
Our hearts had not turned back;
our feet had not strayed from your path.
But you crushed us and made us a haunt for jackals;
you covered us over with deep darkness.
If we had forgotten the name of our God
or spread out our hands to a foreign god,
would not God have discovered it,
since he knows the secrets of the heart?
Yet for your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.
Awake, Lord! Why do you sleep?
Rouse yourself! Do not reject us forever.
Why do you hide your face
and forget our misery and oppression?
We are brought down to the dust;
our bodies cling to the ground.
Rise up and help us;
rescue us because of your unfailing love.
Psalm 44:9-26
We don’t know exactly what historical event was taking place at the time this Psalm was written, but it is clear that it was during a time of struggle for the people of Israel.
We hear the author lamenting the feeling that God has deserted them, and wondering what they did to deserve this.
I think we have all been there.
There have certainly been seasons in my life where it feels like one thing after another is happening, and I have wondered why God is letting it all occur. I felt like I was doing my best to walk with him, and yet challenges continued to arise.
In some cases in life, God allows challenges into our lives for a specific reason. Maybe it is to grow us in ways we are unaware we need or perhaps it is part of God’s bigger plan for our lives that he intends to use to advance his Kingdom.
However, there are also times where we have been straying from the path God has laid out for us, and we may not have the self awareness to realize it.
When we read the old testament it is filled with pretty terrible acts, even from our main characters. The level of deception and manipulation is off the charts. The amount of lying, selling out of family members, treachery, and occasionally murder is quite overwhelming.
So, even though we don’t know exactly what might be taking place historically when this psalm was written, I think it is a safe bet that there were at least some ways where the Israelites were not walking fully with God.
And yet the sentiment is:
“All this came upon us, though we had not forgotten you; we had not been false to your covenant. Our hearts had not turned back; our feet had not strayed from your path.”
I wonder how often I have prayed a similar prayer to God, only for God to be smiling up in Heaven wondering when I will get to the part where I ask him to show me my blind spots.
How many times have I felt like “I was doing everything I should” and did not have the humility to come before God and ask, “Lord, show me where I have strayed from your path. Open my eyes to areas of my life that are out of alignment with your will. Search my heart and shine a light on the areas that have drifted from you.”
Our God never forgets us.
Our God is always present.
He is a good and faithful father.
When he feels distant, sometimes we just need the humility to find our way back to him.
Daily Reflection & Dialogue
When is a time in my life where I have felt God was distant from me, and yet when I look back, I can recognize that I was actually the one who had been drifting from God?
