How to Get a Good Night’s Sleep

“HOW TO GET A GOOD NIGHT’S SLEEP”

Psalm 4

 

There is a Psalm for almost every situation in life. When facing difficult circumstances—illness, job loss, troubled marriage; read Psalm 46: “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.” When feeling lost and alone, read Psalm 23: “The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.” When overwhelmed by guilt, read Psalm 32: “I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,’ and You forgave the iniquity of my sin.” When wondering how attentive God is to your needs and desires, read Psalm 37: “Delight yourself also in the LORD, and He shall give you the desires of your heart.” When depressed, read Psalm 42: “Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him for the help of His countenance.”

A Psalm for virtually every situation, including HOW TO GET A GOOD NIGHT’S SLEEP. And so King David wrote in Psalm 4: ¹Hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness! You have relieved me in my distress; have mercy on me, and hear my prayer. ²How long, O you sons of men, will you turn my glory to shame? How long will you love worthlessness and seek falsehood? Selah. ³But know that the LORD has set apart for Himself him who is godly; the LORD will hear when I call to Him. ⁴Be angry, and do not sin. Meditate within your heart on your bed, and be still. Selah.  ⁵Offer the sacrifices of righteousness, and put your trust in the LORD. ⁶There are many who say, “Who will show us any good?” LORD, lift up the light of Your countenance upon us. ⁷You have put gladness in my heart, more than in the season that their grain and wine increased. ⁸I will both lie down in peace, and sleep; for You alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety.

 “I will both lie down in peace, and sleep.” Upon first consideration of these words we may think: “Yes, well, of course David slept peacefully. After all, he was the king of Israel; powerful, popular, and wealthy. He had armies at his command and servants for his every whim. He lived in a luxurious palace with a panoramic view of Jerusalem; not in a dismal, one-bedroom apartment with obnoxious neighbors. People referred to him as ‘David the Giant Killer,’ not ‘David the Underachiever.’ He had no real worries—not the type of worries I have. Why shouldn’t he sleep?”

Yet, when David wrote Psalm 4, he was not in a palace. He was not even in Jerusalem. He was fleeing for his life. Like the third psalm, David likely composed the fourth during the heartbreaking circumstances recorded in 2 Samuel 15-18; namely, an armed rebellion led by his own son Absalom.

Consequently, we can understand the personal anguish he expressed in these two psalms. “LORD, how they have increased who trouble me! Many are they who rise up against me. Many are they who say of me, ‘There is no help for him in God,’ ” Psalm 3:1-2. And in Psalm 4:2, “How long, O you sons of men, will you turn my glory to shame? How long will you love worthlessness and seek falsehood?”

Betrayal, danger, discontent, slander, armed rebellion, the threat of death; these were the historical circumstances in which King David wrote Psalm 4. What sort of problems are keeping you awake at night? Are they worse than David’s problems? And yet, amid such hardship and heartache, David still wrote about finding peaceful sleep. Psalm 4:8, essentially a bedtime prayer: “I will both lie down in peace, and sleep; for you alone, LORD, make me dwell in safety.”

Consider David’s words carefully. Was he describing a fitful nap, a moment of restless sleep before rising again to pace and moan and lament? “O God, what will I do now? I have no place to go. My life is in danger. My own son has turned against me. I’m barefoot and hungry and exhausted and afraid.” No. The sleep David spoke of in Psalm 4 was a peaceful sleep.

In fact, the Hebrew word for “peace,” SHALOM, is placed at the beginning of the sentence for emphasis. A more literal translation of Psalm 4:8 is: “In peace I will both lie down and sleep.” Despite his difficult circumstances, David was able to lie down and sleep because he was at peace. The question is, what led him there? What gave him the peace to sleep? Psalm 4 provides the answers. For the sake of our meditation this morning, I would like to summarize the answers with four words: prayed, weighed, stayed and laid.

First, David prayed.  David found peaceful sleep through praying. Is this a surprise? Surely, you and I also know the importance of prayer to peaceful sleep. Through the years I always told my two sons: “Good night. Sleep tight. Don’t let the bedbugs bite. And don’t forget to say your prayers.” This reminder of mine was a ritual; but the praying was not.

True prayer is not a ritual; it’s a power. What did James write in his epistle? “The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective,” James 5:16. And what makes the prayer of a believer so powerful and so effective? Obviously, giving our burdens and worries to God; and then relying on His power and His effectiveness.

When we pray in the name of Jesus, are we not also putting the name of Jesus on our problems? Are we not also saying: “Here, Jesus, these are your problems now too? See, they have Your name on them. A transfer of ownership. I’ll do what I can with my limited strength and wisdom. But I’ll sleep tonight knowing that there is nothing You cannot do with Your infinite strength and wisdom.

And if we don’t leave our burdens with Jesus—why not? Isn’t it because we’re not  always certain that He will hear us; that He will answer us; that He will act in our best interest?  Yet, in Psalm 4, David declared otherwise. In a single verse he gave us two great reasons why we should have every confidence that God will hear, answer, and act in response to our every prayer.

He said first, “Hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness!” That God is the Source of our righteousness; that God in undeserved love and grace saved us when we could not save ourselves—if He did this, will He somehow refuse to save us from the most serious threats or the most trivial needs in our lives? Of course not.

More than a thousand years later, Paul made the same blessed argument in his letter to the Romans, saying, “He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all—how will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things?” Romans 8:32. In other words, if God gave us Jesus, will He refuse  to give us any other wholesome blessing: a loaf of bread, a change of clothes, the strength to enrich a troubled marriage? Absolutely not. And shouldn’t that quiet our worries? Shouldn’t that lead us to peaceful sleep?

Next David said, “You have relieved me in my distress.”  Looking back over his life, David had ample evidence of the many times God had saved him from trouble and distress. Saved him from the giant Goliath. Saved him from the murderous plots of King Saul. Saved him when he had no food to eat or place to stay. Saved him from his own foolishness in committing adultery with Bathsheba. Saved him through many wars and battles. In all these past acts of deliverance, David saw the guarantee of all future acts of deliverance. “God, you’ve helped me in the past. I know you will help me now.”

Should our prayers not be the same? If only you and I remembered  God’s past acts deliverance when facing troubles, would we lie sleepless in our beds? Would we toss and turn and twist the sheets with worry? Would we pace the floors?  “Lord, I’m facing this difficult problem. But I remember how you provided for me when I lost that job. I remember how you protected me when I was in that traffic accident. I remember how you healed me after that cancer surgery. I remember how you comforted me when I lost a loved one. Most importantly,  I remember how you sent Jesus Christ to be my Savior—Jesus, who came as the fulfillment of every good and gracious promise You ever made to redeem lost sinners. I can see how You’ve acted in my past. Am I to believe that You will fail me now?” Never. Doesn’t this reality fill us with peace, enabling us to let go of worries and take hold of sleep?

Second, David weighed. Weighed what? His problems and opponents. Psalm 4:2-3, “How long, O you sons of men, will you turn my glory to shame? How long will you love worthlessness and seek falsehood? Selah. But know that the LORD has set apart for Himself him who is godly; the LORD will hear when I call to Him.”

Who were these “sons of men?” In all likelihood they were some of the people who had supported Absalom and opposed David; people who, even after the end of  the rebellion and the death of Absalom, were still attempting to undermine David. Were they hurtful? Yes. Were they dangerous? Perhaps. Yet, before going to sleep, within the privacy of his thoughts, David asked them: “Who are you compared to the God who loves me, hears me, and has set me apart to be His very own?”

“Who do you think you are?” Should we not ask the same of our problems when we lie sleepless in our bed? I’m not speaking figuratively or hypothetically, but literally. When sleepless, address your problems. Call them out BY NAME. Put them in the balance and weigh them for what they are, as David did. “Troubled marriage, who do you think you are? Financial difficulty, who do you think you are? Cancer, who do you think you are? Loneliness, who do you think you are? Yes, like those who opposed David, you may be hurtful, even dangerous. But you are nothing when compared to Almighty God. You are nothing compared  to the God who loves me and gave Himself for me and made me one of His own. You have been weighed in the balance and found wanting.”

And once again, a thousand years after David, the apostle Paul invited the same comparison when he said, “What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us?” Romans 8:31. Well, what’s your answer?  Are the problems keeping you up at night worse than the problems David faced when writing Psalm 4—armed rebellion; betrayal by a beloved son; the constant threat of death? Even if your problems are worse, is anyone or anything opposed to you stronger than the God who is unequivocally for you? If the answer is “no,” why are you worrying? Why are you restless and fearful? Weigh them all in the balance of God’s infinite love and faithful devotion to you and be at peace.

Third, David stayed; that is, he stayed his heart and mind on the word of God. He stayed the all-too-human desire for revenge. And, as a result, he stayed in bed and slept. And the godly advice he implemented himself he also shared with others in Psalm 4: “Be angry,” David wrote “and do not sin. Meditate within your heart on your bed, and be still. Selah. Offer the sacrifices of righteousness, and put your trust in the LORD,” Psalm 4:4-5.

           The Hebrew word translated as “be angry,” RAGAZ, means “to be moved or disturbed; hence, to tremble.” Within the context of Psalm 4—David being so wrongly treated by his son and subjects—the meaning is almost certainly ‘trembling with anger.’ Have you ever been angry enough to tremble?

           Many things can keep us awake at night; but few things are more upsetting and agitating than anger. When angry, we toss and turn in our beds. When angry, we roam the hallways at 2:00 AM bleary-eyed and bath-robed , clenching our fists and jaws, and saying, “I can’t believe she embarrassed me in front of all those people. I can’t believe the insensitive way he treated me after being married all these years.” And let’s face it. There are times when we go sleepless because we are angry at God. “God, why did you let this happen? Why did you let me get sick, lose my job, wreck my car, fail my exam? Why didn’t you let me win the lottery so I could stop the collection calls and start living a life of luxury?”

Yes, there is a place for so-called “righteous anger;” that is, for being angry at disobedience to God. Yet, all too easily, the anger we have toward others, even righteous anger, lays hold of us and becomes an occasion for us to sin. Quoting from Psalm 4, the apostle Paul wrote to the Ephesians: “In your anger do not sin. Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold,”  Ephesians 4:26-27.

Why not let the sun set on your anger? For one reason, we won’t sleep. For another reason, anger can become the devil’s foothold and lead us to sin. James wrote: “My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, for man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires,” James 1:19-20.

Rather than to nurse his anger, David nourished his heart, mind, and faith with the word of God. Instead of fuming and tossing in bed, he lay still; meditating on how God would want him to behave—what he referred to as ‘sacrifices of righteousness; and how the answer to angry sleeplessness was simply “put your trust in God.” So like David, let go of your anger. Stop fretting. Let God take care of matters. Instead of counting sheep, count on the Good Shepherd. Isn’t that the means to a night of peaceful sleep?

Finally, David laid. Through prayer, through weighing his problems, through staying his mind and heart on the Scriptures, he was able to lay his problems to rest and his head on the pillow. While others were saying, “Who will show us any good?”, David expected only the best from God. With words reminiscent of the Aaronic benediction, he said, “LORD, lift up the light of Your countenance upon us.” And dear friend, if you go to bed each night thinking, knowing, always expecting the very best from God, how can you not sleep?

So, how to get a good night’s sleep? Pray, weigh, stay, and lay. PRAY: Give your problems and worries to God in prayer. WEIGH: Measure your problems and worries against God’s almighty power and eternal love. STAY: Focus your thoughts on Scripture. LAY: Place your head on the pillow, turn out the lights, and for heaven’s sake—meaning for the sake of God’s love and grace in Jesus Christ—go to sleep.