Whenever the New Testament quotes something in the Old Testament, it sends out a doubly important signal that it’s time to pay attention!

Psalm 44 is a tough cry to God, written during desperate times, by someone who is trying to remember the good times of the past, but is lost in the heaviness and heartache of the present.  The language in this Psalm is brutal in its honesty and feeling of abandonment by God saying, “Wake up! Do something, Lord! Why are you sleeping? Don’t desert us forever.” ^{Psalm 44:23CEV} 

The mere fact that this cry against God is written in the Bible, God’s very own book, goes to show how God understands us so deeply, and cares for us so much, that he encourages us to speak to him with uncensored hearts.   He hears our cries of prayer and is not afraid when we are honestly angry at him or don’t feel his presence.

Can we even begin to imagine the millions of Christians throughout history that have felt this way about God?  That God is asleep – the same way that Jesus “was in the stern, sleeping on the cushion” during a fierce storm.  So, the disciples “woke him up and said to him, “Teacher! Don’t you care that we’re going to die?”  ^Mark4:38

More pointedly, try to imagine being the apostle Paul, a man devoted to God who had been shipwrecked, whipped, flogged, stoned and was now in prison when he quoted Psalm 44 with: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” ^{Romans 8:36 and Psalm 44:22}

All this angst leads us to our lives, today, where many people say, “Wake up, Lord!  Where are you God” as they are afraid or suffering.

Like Job, the Psalmist, the apostles or Paul, many people cry out, “Do something, Lord!”  But in the end, we need to hang onto the cross.  We need to cry before the cross knowing that “nothing can separate us from God’s love–not life or death, not angels or spirits, not the present or the future, and not powers above or powers below. Nothing in all creation can separate us from God’s love for us in Christ Jesus our Lord! ^Rom8:38-39

Yes!  We can know unquestionably, without any doubt, that God is not asleep.  He is still God, still in charge, and won’t be rushed in his plans.  The cross proves God does care and there is nothing that can ever separate us from his love.  In today’s world, it’s a message that needs to be shared.