Slept

I lay down and slept; I woke again, for the Lord sustained me. Psalm 3:5

We have just seen in this song the Psalmist crying out to God because he says “many are his foes.”  The Psalmist is in peril.  The Psalmist is in need.  His natural posture is to cry out to his God for help.  This verse, which immediately follows his crying out is such a beautiful verse for those of us who are Christians.  The Psalmist simply says that after he has cried out he lays down and sleeps.  The peace that comes from knowing THE GOD, the great I AM, is profound.  Even in the midst of great need the one who cries out to God for help can simply and softly go to sleep.  Why can the Psalmist exhibit this posture?  Why can we, who call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ exhibit this same posture?  Because the great God who reigns over all things is our God.  We know that the worst that the world can hurl at us is earthly death.  We know that the sovereign Lord wins, indeed has already won through the cross of Jesus Christ.  Therefore, we can rest in the peace of His presence and His triumph.  It is precisely this level of peace that every follower of God should delight in.  The comfort that is bestowed by the hand of the One who controls all things quiets the most raging of storms and stills the loudest of cries.  If we have tasted this peace then we should praise our God once again for the peace that only He can provide.  If we are need of this peace then we must cry out to the only One who can provide it.  We must seek after Him more and more.  We must run into His arms, knowing that it’s only in the arms of a perfect Father that our hearts can be still.  Know Him!  Know His peace!  Lay down and sleep!  

To know this peace, though, is also to know the sustaining power that this peace brings.  The Psalmist lays down and sleeps, and then very simply wakes again the next morning.  While this may have been profound for the Psalmist, for possibly he didn’t know if he would survive the night, the simple act of sleeping and waking seems like no profound event to our ears.  However, the one who yearns for the peace of God recognizes when it has been given.  This is what it means to be sustained…to cry out for peace, experience it and then continues to live into that peace.  Through God’s peace we are preserved and strengthened to carry on.  While that moment will come for all of us when breathe our last breath on earth, it is purely God’s sustaining power that carries us through until that day.  For the Psalmist it wasn’t merely simply a natural event that he slept and woke.  Rather, this was a supernatural phenomena.  The Lord sustained him!  The Lord sustains us!  If we cry out to God out of our great need, which should be our regular and continual posture,  we cannot be blind to the sustaining work of our God that faithfully comes to us.  The Psalmist pours out his thanks to God for His sustaining power and continues to live into the peace that God has brought to him.  This must also be our posture.  Know the peace that comes from our God and live into it…be sustained, be strengthened by the One who brings peace to move more and more into His presence.  Be sustained to carry on, press forward, and know the freedom that comes from walking in the sustaining peace of our God!  

PRAYER OF THE DAY: God, thank you that You bring peace and that Your peace carries with us so that we can find life on You.  Help me to know this peace and to live into Your presence more and more.