HIS KEEPING IN OUR SLEEPING

Psalm 4
HIS KEEPING IN OUR SLEEPING
In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for you alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety. (v.8)

A patient preparing to undergo a minor operation confessed that his greatest fear was to wake up a vegetable. "You never know what could go wrong when you are under anaesthesia," he said, "You could wake up and find your brain or some organ accidentally impaired."

No doubt, the danger is there – however remote it may be. Yet, each day we subject ourselves voluntarily to a similar risk. We switch off our senses and go to sleep. In an operation, the patient commits his life to the hands of the surgeon. In sleeping, whether we realize it or not, we commit our life to the higher hands of God.

The psalmist has said earlier, "I lie down and sleep; I wake again, because the LORD sustains me" (Ps 3:5). Now he makes it his prayer and affirms that he sleeps in peace.

Not all people sleep in peace. Some are tormented by recurrent nightmares. Some suffer from insomnia. Without prescribed drugs, they cannot sleep. Thus, they may lie down, but they may not find a good night's sleep, or wake up ready for the day ahead.

How does the psalmist find such restful sleep at night? The secret lies in what he thinks about in the day. "How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand. When I awake, I am still with you" (Ps 139:17-18). Commentator John Stek puts it vividly, "The sleep of exhaustion overcomes every attempt to count God's thoughts/works, and waking only floods my soul once more with the sense of the presence of this God."

Instead of counting sheep, we do well to count God's many blessings. Before we are through, we would be soundly asleep.

Sleep in the night depends on trust in the day.