Sleep Tight

October 14, 2017

Psalm 127 is one of the shortest of the Psalms, consisting of only five verses, but touching upon three different subjects. It begins by talking about how God’s house is built not merely with human labor, but only with the Lord’s activity in the building. It ends with speaking about children being a gift from God, and how blessed is the man who has lots of them. Sandwiched between these two topics (which BTW, are related; the building of God’s house is never accomplished apart from the building of a godly family) is this solitary verse that seems to be a digression. Verse 2 says, “It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows: for so he giveth his beloved sleep.” 

The connection between the first verse which talks about building God’s house, and the second which talks of sleep, may not be immediately apparent, but it is there. God’s house, and families, for that matter, are not well built by worry or even by long labor, but by trusting God enough to know when to call it quits for the day and simply get a good night’s rest. Those who study such things tell us that the average American is getting less sleep than previous generations. We thought labor-saving devices would give us more time for stuff we want to do, but apparently sleep is not one of them. If it isn’t worry keeping us awake, the advent of computers, smart phones, and tablets has countless numbers of us staring bleary-eyed at the dancing pixels into the wee hours of the morning. 

Christians often have felt that there is so much work to be done that we don’t have time for rest. We imagine that God cannot possibly survive without our efforts, our wisdom, our help. Sometimes, we just need to sleep, as Jesus did, even in the back of a storm-tossed boat filled with frightened disciples. Or Elijah, running for his life into the desert, where God twice tells him simply to take a nap. 

It has been a long and busy day following a late night. I don’t do late very well any more, and I am tired. It might seem more spiritual to read my Bible and pray, but I think right now, the most godly thing I can do is to turn out the lights and sleep, thankful that God will do just fine while I slumber. Another Psalm (121:4) says, “he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.” As long as God is going to stay awake, there’s no need for both of us to be up all night, so I’m going to bed. Goodnight.