18 th April: 3 rd Sunday of Easter

Psalm 4 is the hope of insomniacs everywhere. Who doesn’t want to be able to sing, ‘I will both lie down and sleep in peace’?

When I was young, we had a family friend who owned a bakery. He and his wife always brought the most delicious goodies to a party. More memorable was how he would instantly fall asleep the moment he sat down. In fact, he would sleep through the entire soirée. His wife would jostle him when it was time to leave. He would wake up and say his goodbyes, thanking everyone for a great party. I always wondered how he knew it was a great party. He’d slept through the entire thing! These days I wish I could fall asleep so easily. I can be dead-dog tired at the end of the day, climb into bed, only to find myself wide-awake. My brain won’t turn off. Instead of counting sheep I count troubles, tasks, annoyances, and anxieties. I would do anything to trade my tossing and turning for even a tiny bit of our friend’s narcolepsy.

Psalm 4 is a prayer that moves from lament to restful sleep. It is a practical Psalm providing advice to those of us kept awake by anxiety. The Psalmist expresses a quiet confidence in God, trusting that God knows his needs and will care for them. He bases this trust and confidence in past experience. The poet cries out to God saying, ‘Answer me when I call!’ Yet, he also remembers how God has done this for him in the past. ‘You gave me room when I was in distress’, he says. We can almost feel the worry and anxiety crowding in around him, crushing him, so he can’t breathe. But God gives him space to breathe and move around.

The psalmist’s anxiety festers as a result of attacks from enemies. They were slandering his good name. They were assaulting his honor. Now, I am not sure about you, but I can relate to that. A few years back I lost sleep because one of my parishioners (who is certainly not an enemy) decided to assault my homiletical honor. He had taken umbrage with one of my sermons. It wouldn’t have caused any restless nights had he simply made a comment as he shook my hand or sent me an e-mail. Instead of doing any of those normal things, he decided to complain about my sermon by sending a letter to each of the deans of all nine Episcopal seminaries. He wanted them to know that his ‘young minister’ was unable to make sense of Jesus’ Parable of the Talents. Since they were responsible for training young ministers to make sense of Jesus’ parables, he thought they might like to take a crack at it themselves. He offered to share what he was certain would be their superior responses with me. Learning about the letter kept me up for hours talking to myself. I found myself saying what the psalmist says of his tormentors: doesn’t he understand ‘that the Lord hears when I call?’

Perhaps insults and slander are not the prime worries that keep you up at night. More common anxieties have to do with things like work, family, money, or relationships. What’s on your list? Is it anger? Perhaps you stay awake all night indulging fantasies of quitting your job. Does fear keep you up? What was that noise? Is there someone in the house? Did someone just sneak out of the house? The psalmist may sing about those who slander him, but we can easily replace that with any of the fears, anxieties, and pressures that keep us up at night.

This is the perfect song for those who are restless at night. It is perfect because it includes more than just lament. It leads us somewhere new. There is an interesting structure to the poem. The first three verses are lament from the poet, speaking first to God and then to those responsible for his current problems. But a new voice speaks in the fourth verse, the voice of an instructor who recommends, ‘When you are disturbed, do not sin; ponder it on your beds and, and be silent. Selah. Offer right sacrifices, and put your trust in the Lord.’ Now, I normally skip over the untranslatable ‘Selah.’ However, in this instance that might be unwise, especially if it means ‘take a breath’. As James Limburg puts it, ‘When everything is falling apart, ease off. Reflect. Be silent. Go to worship. Turn things over to God so you can lie down and sleep.’ ¹

Lament leads to worship. What better way to stick a thumb in trouble’s eye than to worship anyway? We are consistently invited to make our needs known to God in prayer. We are welcome to voice our complaints, crying out to God. Psalm 4 is indeed a song of lament. But that lament leads the poet back to the great congregation where worship is offered. We hear the echoes of the Aaronic blessing when he sings ‘Let the light of your face shine on us, O Lord!’ Worship brings us into the presence of God who is able to help us in our time of need. It also brings us into the presence of brothers and sisters who walk with us. We need not lament alone. There are ‘many who say, “O that we might see some good!”’ The isolation of lament is replaced by community as we gather together to worship.

Trust God. Ultimately, that is the conclusion of this Psalm. The Lord hears our prayers and knows our needs. Join with others in the congregation who will worship with us and walk alongside us. Doing these things leads us to the psalmist’s conclusion, ‘I both lie down and sleep in peace; for you alone, O Lord, make me lie down in safety.’ The peace the psalmist speaks of is the shalom of God. It is more than just the absence of conflict. It is the abundance found in relationship with the divine; the joy of having enough to share with others. ‘You have put gladness in my heart more than when their grain and wine abound.’

Psalm 4 is the hope of insomniacs everywhere. Any who are kept up at night by troubles, be those troubles slanderers or any other anxiety inducing, sleep-depriving struggles, can sing this song. It reminds us that we are welcome to make our complaint known to God, it invites us to worship alongside others despite our troubles, and it results in the kind of peace only God can give. The song never tells us our troubles will go away. It simply reminds us to trust in God, who makes us lie down in safety, so we can finally get some sleep.