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Psalm 44:23

Wake up! Why do you sleep, Lord? Arise! Don’t reject us forever.

21won’t God search this out? For he knows the secrets of the heart.
22Yes, for your sake we are killed all day long. We are regarded as sheep for the slaughter.
23Wake up! Why do you sleep, Lord? Arise! Don’t reject us forever.
24Why do you hide your face, and forget our affliction and our oppression?
25For our soul is bowed down to the dust. Our body clings to the earth.
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← Psalm 44:22Psalm 44:24 →
Notice

“Wake up!” voices the strain of crying to God amid slaughter and oppression, when his help seems absent and the suffering has no end in sight.

Questions to write on. Each one opens a new entry with this verse already attached.

What, if anything, makes “Don’t reject us forever” a prayer you could pray today?

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Whose suffering comes to mind when you read this community’s demand that God arise?

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Connect

Where else Scripture says this

9 passages readers most often link with this verse, and the thread each one shares with it.

This verse's connections, by chapterThe Bible's strongest chapter linksHover or tap a book to trace it
Psalm 35:23Wake up! Rise up to defend me, my God! My Lord, contend for me!Both prayers cry “Wake up!” to God, asking him to act for people who need his help.
Psalm 78:65Then the Lord awakened as one out of sleep, like a mighty man who shouts by reason of wine.Both portray divine action through waking from sleep: Psalm 44 pleads for it, while Psalm 78 describes it through a comparison.
Psalm 7:6Arise, LORD, in your anger. Lift up yourself against the rage of my adversaries. Awake for me. You have commanded judgment.Both prayers ask God to arise and awake amid violence, with Psalm 7 naming the rage of adversaries.
Psalm 3:7Arise, LORD! Save me, my God! For you have struck all of my enemies on the cheek bone. You have broken the teeth of the wicked.Both plead for the Lord to arise, seeking his intervention amid the threat of enemies.
Job 8:6If you were pure and upright, surely now he would awaken for you, and make the habitation of your righteousness prosperous.Both use waking language for God’s help, though Job’s speaker makes that help conditional on purity and uprightness.
Isaiah 51:9Awake, awake, put on strength, arm of the LORD! Awake, as in the days of old, the generations of ancient times. Isn’t it you who cut Rahab in pieces, who …Both appeal to the Lord through waking language, with Isaiah asking his arm to put on strength.
1 Kings 18:27At noon, Elijah mocked them, and said, “Cry aloud, for he is a god. Either he is deep in thought, or he has gone somewhere, or he is on a journey, or perhaps …Sleep and waking appear in both, though Elijah mocks a supposed god while the psalm addresses the Lord in distress.
Mark 4:38He himself was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke him up and asked him, “Teacher, don’t you care that we are dying?”Both pair sleep with an urgent appeal amid danger, questioning apparent indifference while seeking help from the one addressed.
Luke 8:23But as they sailed, he fell asleep. A wind storm came down on the lake, and they were taking on dangerous amounts of water.Sleep appears amid danger in both passages: the psalm uses it in lament, while Luke describes Jesus sleeping during a storm.
Where this verse fits

Feeling distant from God. injustice and anger. waiting.

What the Bible says about doubt →What the Bible says about anger →What the Bible says about patience →
One step

Something small to carry out of this verse

Pray Psalm 44:23 aloud for an oppressed community

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Encouragement

Even this blunt plea is addressed to the Lord. The people fear lasting rejection, and their prayer remains unresolved here, still asking him to act.

Now put it in your words.

Start an entry on Psalm 44:23. Write what it stirs. Psalmlog sets your words beside Scripture and gives you one next step. Your first entry is free, no account needed.

Keep goingPsalm 44 · the whole chapter with its connection mapPsalms · every chapterBuild a reading plan through Psalms

Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).