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Psalm 78 · a question people ask

"Then the Lord awakened as one out of sleep" (78:65). Does God sleep?

In the text

The verse is a comparison, and it says so twice: as one out of sleep, and like a mighty man: "Then the Lord awakened as one out of sleep, like a mighty man who shouts by reason of wine" (78:65). In Hebrew as one out of sleep is one word, keyashen: like, with yashen, which Brown-Driver-Briggs gives as "sleeping". Then the psalm says what he did: "He struck his adversaries backward" (78:66). Another psalm says plainly, "Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep" (Psalm 121:4), and some psalms cry, "Wake up! Why do you sleep, Lord?" (Psalm 44:23). Psalm 35's chapter sets those two side by side, and these notes don't repeat it. Psalm 78 doesn't say more than its two comparisons.

The verses

“Then the Lord awakened as one out of sleep, like a mighty man who shouts by reason of wine. He struck his adversaries backward. He put them to a perpetual reproach.”
Psalm 78:65-66 · World English Bible
“Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.”
Psalm 121:4 · World English Bible
“Wake up! Why do you sleep, Lord? Arise! Don’t reject us forever.”
Psalm 44:23 · World English Bible
“Wake up! Rise up to defend me, my God! My Lord, contend for me!”
Psalm 35:23 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Psalm 78

Psalm 78: I will open my mouth in a parable

Psalm 78 tells Israel's story in 72 verses and never names Moses; every act is God's, and the one leader it names is David, taken "from the sheepfolds" (78:70). In between, the people forget and remember, and God "remembered that they were but flesh" (78:39). And its opening, "I will open my mouth in a parable" (78:2), is the line Matthew gives for Jesus' parables (Matthew 13:35).

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions