Rest and Renewal
“I lie down and sleep; I wake again, because the Lord sustains me.” —Psalm 3:5
“Now I lay me down to sleep…”
The old 18th Century children’s bedtime prayer rightly attributed our ability to close our eyes and rest in God’s faithful keeping.
In Psalm 3, King David offered up a bedtime assurance. In David’s case, it wasn’t general and speculative. His was specific and experiential.
The title of Psalm 3 reads, “A Psalm of David. When he fled from his son Absalom.” Look at the opening verses at the start of this passage—“How many are my foes! How many rise up against me!”
What will you face today? Hopefully it won’t be as troubling as someone wanting to take your life—your own child, pursuing you with an army to that end.
David didn’t write this while he slept in the comfort and safety of a palace, surrounded by servants and soldiers. He wrote it as he fled—he was on the run, likely sleeping under the stars or in a cave or crevice.
His circumstances were life and death. That scenario would render any human being restless. Sleeping with one eye open is no sleep at all.
Yet David confidently attributes his ability to lie down and sleep, and also the assurance of waking in the morning, to God. While his enemies raged around him, David knew he could sleep soundly in God’s protection and rise again by God’s providence.
The dangers didn’t keep him from sleep. He’d awake, refreshed, because the Lord sustained him.
When you face troubling circumstances or endure trying seasons in life, where do you turn to find quietude in your heart? What is as good and refreshing as a sweet and restful night’s sleep? As a brand-new day? As hope? Have they been in short supply?
Turn as David did to your God, your Rock and Redeemer.
My prayer for this week:
Heavenly Father, As my responsibilities occupy my mind, the things of this world clamoring for my attention, my finite mind and abilities leave me weary. You are both my Maker and Sustainer. You see clearly the things that trouble me, their temporal nature in the context of your eternal good. Please help me to rest in you, and to awaken in hope, with renewed expectation of your glory.