Awake! Why do You sleep, O Lord? Arise! Do not cast us off forever. Why do You hide Your face, and forget our affliction and our oppression? For our soul is bowed down to the dust; our body clings to the ground. Arise for our help, and redeem us for Your mercies’ sake. Psalm 44: 23-26, NKJV.
Dear Merciful and Gracious God, today our prayer is that You will help us to live in a spirit of endless praise and gratitude. Help us to know that beyond what our feeble eyes can see, and what our limited feelings can transmit, You are working out for us, our eternal salvation. May this bring us peace, and may we give You the praise. This is our prayer in the holy name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
Today we will conclude our journey through Psalm 44. We will look at the accusation the Korahites have brought against YHWH, and finally, their plea for redemption. I believe that together, the positiveness of the latter, defeats the negativism of the former. I said in one of our devotionals, on the kingdom of heaven, that, the revelations in Scripture are limitless. I truly believe that. Because of the personal God that I know, I believe every passage of Scripture contains a personal, customized message, for every individual.
In conjunction to our Scripture for today, I would like us to take a quick look at Psalm 121, (especially verses 3b & 4): “I will lift up my eyes to the hills—From whence comes my help? My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth. He will not allow your foot to be moved; He who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, He who keeps Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. The LORD is your keeper; the LORD is your shade at your right hand. The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night. The LORD shall preserve you from all evil; He shall preserve your soul. The LORD shall preserve your going out and your coming in from this time forth, and even forevermore.” Emphasis supplied.
This generation of Korahites are asking YHWH to awake and arise. He is being accused of “sleeping on the job.” This act was considered a crime, punishable by death, in some occupations. The guards who were keeping watch over Peter when the angel set him free, paid for it with their lives (Acts 12: 19)! This is an indictment against the Almighty!
A spirit of ingratitude, or forgetfulness, will make us see God through human lens. They had forgotten that it is humans who slumber and sleep, not God. Thank God that He does not! Can you imagine what would happen to our world if one day God fell asleep? You may argue, that this is just a figure of speech. To that I would respond, Do not undermine the power of your thoughts and words! They are molding you – for good or for evil, and will one day – reveal who you are.
Jesus speaking to the Scribes and Pharisees of His day, had this to say about their words, “Brood of vipers! How can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things. . . For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned” ‘ ” (Matthew 12: 34, 35, 37). Here again we are faced with the secrets of the heart. The minute we open our mouths, people begin to get a glimpse of what is going on inside of us! Their words expressed exactly how they felt about God.
Thank God, they ended on a positive note: “redeem us for Your mercies’ sake.” Beloved, how much better it is for our physical and spiritual well-being to think that God is redeeming us instead of rejecting us. How much more rewarding to think about God’s grace and compassion! What assurance and peace of mind is ours when we rest in the knowledge, that He who keeps watch over us, “neither slumbers nor sleeps!” When we “think on these things,” our mouths will sing His praises.
God has taken upon Himself the task of redeeming us, and we can be sure, that He will not “sleep on the job!” Have a blessed and peaceful Sabbath!