“Then the Lord awaked as one out of sleep, and like a mighty man that shouteth by reason of wine.”
My Notes
What Does Psalms 78:65 Mean?
One of the most startling anthropomorphisms in the Psalms: "The Lord awaked as one out of sleep, and like a mighty man that shouteth by reason of wine." God is compared to a warrior waking from sleep and shouting like someone invigorated by wine — full of energy, full of voice, ready for battle.
The sleeping metaphor doesn't imply God was actually asleep (Psalm 121:4 says he never slumbers). It describes Israel's experience: it felt like God was sleeping. The silence, the inaction, the apparent absence — and then suddenly, dramatically, God is awake. The contrast between the perceived sleep and the explosive awakening is the point.
The wine-shouting warrior image suggests uninhibited, exuberant, overwhelming power. God doesn't tiptoe back into the situation. He bursts in, shouting, energized, unstoppable. The restraint of the sleeping period is replaced by the full force of the awakened warrior.
Reflection Questions
- 1.Have you experienced a season where God seemed asleep — and what happened when he 'woke up'?
- 2.How do you maintain faith during God's apparent silence?
- 3.Does the warrior-shouting-with-wine image of God surprise you — and what does it reveal?
- 4.What would it look like for God to burst into your current situation with overwhelming force?
Devotional
God wakes up shouting like a warrior who's had wine. It's one of the Bible's most vivid and almost irreverent images of divine power — and it's meant to shock you into understanding what it feels like when God finally acts after a long silence.
There are seasons when God seems asleep. You've prayed. You've waited. You've wondered if he's listening, if he cares, if he's even there. The silence stretches. The enemies advance. The situation deteriorates. And it feels exactly like God is sleeping.
Then he wakes up. And when he does, it's not gradual. It's not tentative. It's the explosive, shouting, warrior-energy of someone who bursts from rest into full battle mode. The transition from silence to action is instantaneous and overwhelming. Everything changes.
The wine metaphor adds something important: uninhibited intensity. A warrior emboldened by wine doesn't hold back. He shouts. He charges. He's past the point of measured response and into full, exuberant engagement. That's what God's intervention feels like after a long absence — not careful, strategic adjustment but overwhelming, irresistible force.
If God seems asleep in your situation, this psalm says: the awakening is coming. And when it does, it won't be subtle.
Commentary
Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.
And he smote his enemies in the hinder parts,.... Not the Israelites, as Kimchi interprets it, but the Philistines, who…
Then the Lord awaked as one out of sleep - literally, as one sleeping; that is, as one who is asleep suddenly arouses…
The matter and scope of this paragraph are the same with the former, showing what great mercies God had bestowed upon…
At length Jehovah took pity on His people, and delivered them from their adversaries.
Cross References
Related passages throughout Scripture