Psalm Chapter 3

Psalm 3: Sleep as an Act of Faith

This is a psalm written while on the run — David, we are told, fleeing from his own son, surrounded by voices whispering that God has finally washed his hands of him. And in the middle of it, almost casually, comes one of the most astonishing sentences in all of Scripture: "I laid me down and slept; I awaked; for the Lord sustained me." Consider what that sentence contains. A man hunted by an army, betrayed by his own flesh and blood, with every earthly reason to lie awake all night sharpening his fears — and he slept. He slept because the Lord sustained him. Sleep, it turns out, is sometimes the highest form of worship; to close one's eyes in the middle of the storm is to confess, more eloquently than any hymn, that the keeping of the world is not on your shoulders. The ten thousands who set themselves round about are real, but they are not ultimate. The shield is already up. Lay you down.

00:00 Many Rise Up Against Me
00:15 Thou, O Lord, Art a Shield for Me
00:30 I Laid Me Down and Slept
00:48 Salvation Belongeth Unto the Lord