SLEEP!

Twenty-two years of married life was celebrated yesterday. That’s my brother and his wife. We stayed up late to celebrate. At least, some of us did. The rest succumbed to the weariness of married life! (Just kidding, folks!)

Maybe it was the company! Or the all the food we had been consuming the last few days, courtesy of my sister-in-law’s exceptional culinary skills. Whatever it was, they slept.

But there is a theological reason why they—and all believers—can sleep.

For He [God] gives to His beloved
even in his sleep.
Psalm 127:2

God gives even when we sleep. That’s the Psalmist’s way of saying, “Nope, don’t fool yourself into thinking you are in control, or that you need to be in control—wide awake, senses alert, sweating profusely, working hard, wearying oneself. Not at all. It is God who gives. And He gives even if you are sleeping. And, well, if He gives even when we sleep, we might as well do so peacefully, trusting Him.”

Interestingly this Psalm is labeled as one of Solomon’s. When this dude was born to David and Bathsheba, Nathan the prophet named Solomon “Jedidiah,” meaning “beloved of the LORD.” And Solomon, our author puts his own name in this Psalm:

For He [God] gives to His beloved
[= Jedidiah, a.k.a. Solomon]
even in his sleep.
Psalm 127:2

“For He gives to me even in my sleep,” Solomon seems to be declaring. God does. All our frantic efforts at manipulating life, forgetting that it is God who gives, even when we sleep. The first two verses of Psalm 127 are worth hearing, especially for us who dwell in a hectic world, living out frenetic days in a feverish pace, never stopping, always going. Worrying, even when we sleep.

Unless the LORD builds the house,
They labor in vain who build it;
Unless the LORD guards the city,
The watchman keeps awake in vain.
It is vain for you to rise up early,
To retire late,
To eat the bread of painful labors;
For He gives to His beloved
even in his sleep.
Psalm 127:1–2

I don’t know how your 2009 has been. Sleepless? Fretful? Loaded with care? weighed down with woe? And we’re going to do our best to make 2010 nothing like 2009, aren’t we? Struggling, striving, straining, stressing, stretching, …. Sleepless.

If that’s what we plan to do, then we need to read Solomon’s words again … and relax. For it is God who gives, and, you know what? He gives even when we sleep. Even when we are not in control.

But God is. Completely and totally in control. And He, this God of ours—He doesn’t sleep.

I will lift up my eyes to the mountains;
From where shall my help come?
My help comes from the LORD,
Who made heaven and earth.
He will not allow your foot to slip;
He who keeps you will not slumber.
Behold, He who keeps Israel
Will neither slumber nor sleep.
Psalm 121:2–4

That’s why you should be sleeping …

… casting all your anxiety on Him,
because He cares for you.
1 Peter 5:7

May we sleep soundly in 2010!

The LORD is your keeper;
The LORD is your shade on your right hand.
The sun will not smite you by day,
Nor the moon by night.
The LORD will protect you from all evil;
He will keep your soul.
The LORD will guard your going out
and your coming in
From this time forth and forever.
Psalm 121:5–8

Amen!

Happy New Year!