Best Sleep Remedy

“I have remembered thy name, O LORD, in the night, and have kept thy law. This I had, because I kept thy precepts.” (Ps 119:55-56 AV)

 

That which occupies the mind in the quietness of the evening is often that which is of greatest concern, or of the highest interest.  Our psalmist’s thoughts are occupied with God Himself.  His mind can be because he has sought to live his life in accordance with the word of God.  He could pray in the evening because he strove to live in obedience to the law during the day.  I am sure he did not live in perfect obedience.  I am sure, throughout the day, our writer struggled with sin.  I am sure he did not write the above claiming absolute perfection.  Like everyone else, our writer battled with the flesh and the world.  He spent his days vacillating between success and failure.  However, he was able to claim, because he sought to keep short accounts with  God.  When the writer failed, he was quick to repent and seek forgiveness.  We know this because of his claim above.  He remembered the name of God in the quietness of the night because he had a clear conscience towards all that he had done, or failed to do.  How we fall off to sleep is a good indicator of how we lived our lives that day.

One of the pieces of advice which wedding officiants tend to give to a young couple preparing for marriage is to never go to bed angry.  Remember the videographer interviewing you during that couple’s reception?  They would often solicit advice from married couples and what they have learned over the years.  Again, one of the most common pieces of advice is to never go to bed angry.  This has a biblical origin.  The Bible tells us not to let our sun go down upon our wrath.  It is not good for two people who dwell together in love and commitment, to lie down together when there are issues between them.  Over the years, my wife and I have had our moments.  However, no matter how difficult they were, we always resolved them before we fell off to sleep.  I have to admit it.  There were a few times when one of us would head toward the couch with a pillow and blanket.  However, it was the persistence of one of us that drove us to reconciliation.  By the grace of God, we have never slept apart because of differences.  There is a reason for this.  It is not good nor healthy to allow the last emotion one feels to be anger or bitterness before slumber arrives.  How we fall asleep together reveals much about our relationship at that moment.

The same is true of God.  How we fall to sleep will tell us much about our walk with Him.  Is He in all our thoughts?  Is He the center of our being?  Do we love Him with all our hearts?  Did we strive to live in obedience to the word of God that day?  Or, are we falling off to sleep with nary a word towards our heavenly Father because we failed to live by His word?  The writer is able to have sweet sleep because he fought through the day with obedience and faith in his heart.  He was able to fall asleep, while at the same time, in prayer because he didn’t walk with God any differently at the end of the day than he did all the day through.  He was able to pray himself to sleep because the word of God was his guiding light all through his waking hours.  If we are not falling asleep with God on our hearts, then, generally speaking, there is something between God and us.  There is some failure that we haven’t confessed nor forsaken.  Keeping short accounts with God goes a long way in our sleep.