Rise Up and Redeem!

Psalm 44

23 Awake! Why are you sleeping, O Lord?
    Rouse yourself! Do not reject us forever!
24 Why do you hide your face?
    Why do you forget our affliction and oppression?
25 For our soul is bowed down to the dust;
    our belly clings to the ground.
26 Rise up; come to our help!
    Redeem us for the sake of your steadfast love! 

Thus concludes this psalm by the Sons of Korah. The psalm begins with a statement that the people have heard the stories of God's great deliverance passed down through the generations. They then offer praise to God as their King and Savior. After an interlude introduced by the word Selah, the tone of the psalm takes a sharp turn into an agonizing plea: they cannot understand why they now are facing defeat after defeat at the hands of their enemies. They believe they have been faithful to God, not turning to worship idols, yet they are falling in bondage to their enemies, climaxing in the well-known verse quoted elsewhere: 22 Yet for your sake we are killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. It is this setting which prompts them to ask this series of three "Why" questions, and to claim the ultimate reason God would answer: Redeem us for the sake of your steadfast love! They are appealing to God's faithfulness to His character when all else fails.