I lie down and sleep; I wake again, for the LORD sustains me. Sermons I. THE SORROWS OF THE NIGHT. The darkness without images the darkness within. 1. There is the consciousness of danger. Enemies are numerous. Thrice are they called "many." They are also strong and merciless - wild beasts that make the night hideous with their roaring. 2. Worse still, there is the feeling of helplessness. Friends are gone. Solitary and forsaken, all seems lost. There is no star of hope to break the gloom. The piteous cry of onlookers is echoed by our own hearts, "No help!" 3. But worst of all is the sense of sin. If conscience were clear, if we could say that trouble had come upon us without fault of our own, this might help us to be brave and patient. If all were right within, we might dare the rage of our enemies, and defy the babble of an idle world; but alas! it is otherwise. We have been foolish and disobedient. We have obstinately persisted in our own way, and have not set the Lord before us. Hence the heart sinks. At such a time the peril is great. We are on the brink of the gulf. Well for us if in our misery we turn to God. II. THE JOYS OF THE MORNING. As the true light shines, we see things more clearly. We gain more self-control, and better thoughts arise. As from a troubled dream awaking, we look back with shame at our weakness and our fears. If the "many" are against us, "God is for us." This is enough. Therefore we put on the armour of light, and gird ourselves with invigorated strength and hope for the work of a new day. 1. Refreshment. "Slept." Body and soul have been benefited. We feel that virtue has come to us. It is of God. He giveth sleep. 2. Renewed hope. Another night is gone, and we are not only spared, but saved. If there is work to do, we have now the will to take it in hand. If there are difficulties before us, we have now the heart to face them with resolution. Our enemies may shoot at us, but God is our Shield. 3. Anticipated victory. (Vers. 8, 9.) We rise to a better conception of God. So far as we are in sympathy with him, we are in the right. So far as we are on the side of God, and fighting for him, we are strong and must prevail. His honour is concerned for our defence. What he has promised, he will surely perform. Alleluia! But let us take a word of caution. While we seek the destruction of evil, let us work for the salvation of our enemies. Also a word of encouragement. Relief does not always come, or does not come in the way we wish. The grief that saps the mind may be ours, the burden of care and trouble may lie heavy on our souls. The morning, which brings joy to others, may leave us still in gloom. Our very trials may be enhanced by contrast. The light once sweet to the eyes may now be bitter. The music and the flowers and the beautiful things of earth, that once brought us delight, may only aggravate our wee. Our interest in others may falter, and our capability for the duties of life may fail. But still let us hope in God. The morning cometh, and also the night; but for God's people there is the sure hope of the morning that will usher in eternal day. - W. F.
I laid me down and slept; I awaked; for the Lord sustained me. The reason why we sleep in peace and rise up in safety is, "the Lord sustained me." This is one of those truths, long familiar and unrealised, which later on m our spiritual life may become to us fresh discoveries. Underneath the beating of every heart, and underneath the whole order of human things, and underneath the world and all worlds, there is forever a present active sustaining power from one generation to another, and that power is the power of God. The same truth is equally true if stated more widely. Whether we take as our measure the short time of the earth turning on itself, or the longer time of the earth travelling round; whether we speak of the day or of the sum of all the year, with its multitude of thoughts, its complexity of circumstances, its frequent risks and incessant occurrence of events; — still there is always abiding over us the same Divine protection, never tired, never slackening. Some people are so situated in life that they have but very little pressure and very few cares. All along the path of life seems smooth to them. That is but a tame life, and unless we have the nerve to make ourselves useful in some way, time so passed is a yoke which soon sits uneasy on the shoulder. Days wasted are a bad investment of life, and a dark account to be laying up. But the many are blessed with the pressure of responsibilities, and obliged to take up the happy burden of usefulness. All Christian burden bearers have laid them down to sleep, and risen again feeling that a benefit has been conferred on them, a sustaining hand has been bearing them up, and their good God has been giving to the human trial the promise He speaks of, "As thy days, so shall thy strength be." The Hebrew word translated "sustained" means to place the open hand under a thing to support it. The Sept. renders by a word meaning "to take hold of one another by the hand, the weaker being so supported." How does the kindness of God support the weakness of all Christians? He tells His own secret in Colossians1. It is done by His Christ and our Christ. There He says how He has qualified us to partake of the portion of the saints in light; how He has rescued us from the power of darkness, and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of His love. It is in Him, He says, we have redemption through His blood, even the remission of sins. Let us count up, discover, and consider these many mercies until our heart warms into some honourable and loving recognition of this care, which is never tired of us and never leaves us. We may feel confident from the past that God will take care of us in the future. (T. F. Crosse, D. C. L.) (Samuel Pascoe.) (James Gilmour.) And rose up again. Plain Sermons by Contributors to, Tracts for the Times. The whole world is full of Divine tokens. Everything should put us in mind, more or less directly, of Jesus Christ our Saviour. The sun rising in the east is nature's token, to remind us of Christmas Day; and here in the text we find a no less clear token of the mysteries of Easter, our Lord dying and rising again. It is not anything new to have such a verse applied to the death, burial, and resurrection of our Lord. The old fathers and bishops so explained it from the very beginning of the Church. We do well to connect thin mystery with our own lying down and rising up as often as night and morning return. Sleep is an image of death. To a Christian it is an image of the death of Christ. Our daily lying down and rising up is given us for a sacramental sign and pledge of Christ's death and resurrection, and of our own. Our falling asleep is a mystery, a thing which takes place we know not how, a thing out of our power, as much so as death itself. What becomes of us during our sleep? That longer sleep which we call death may come on us we know not how, and leave our bodies without power or thought for awhile, our souls in the meantime departing we know not where, and employed we know not how. There is a still higher and more awful depth of mystery in the Psalmist's words, spoken as they are in His person, who is both God and man. It is as if we heard Christ Himself, risen from the tomb, and saying, "I laid Me down and slept, and rose up again, for the Lord sustained Me." The Lord, the most high and glorious Godhead, still in our Saviour's Person, inseparably joined to His human soul and body, even while the one was in the grave and the other in Paradise, or elsewhere in the regions of the dead, — He still continued the same Christ, very God and very man, and by virtue of that Eternal Spirit He raised Himself from the dead when His time was come. Notice what gracious help is afforded to those who are willing so to lift up their hearts, by Christ's making so common a matter as our daily sleep and awakening a token and sign of this most awful mystery. Christ, even now abiding in His people, makes them already in this world partakers of a heavenly and Divine life. He sustains them, sleeping and waking, in life and in death, in their beds and in their graves; for in both conditions they are alike members of Him. But all this depends upon our keeping our baptismal vows. One or two rules of recovery and perseverance —1. Since it is Christ only who sustains us, when in our lying down, or sleeping, or rising up, how dare any of us lie down or rise up without solemnly committing himself to Christ on his knees in devout prayer? Private devotion must be one great help towards saving and recovering the heavenly life which our Lord offers to sustain in us. 2. The Holy Communion of the Body and the Blood. This is the sacrament of perseverance and growth in grace, as baptism is of repentance and regeneration. The heavenly life which Christ has. begun in us can be sustained in no other way besides that which He has appointed. Prayer, then, and Holy Communion, are necessary to all. (Plain Sermons by Contributors to "Tracts for the Times. ") I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people, that have set themselves against me. It is said that the Romans were accustomed only to inquire where the enemies were. and not after their numbers Faith revived and invigorated by prayer and fixed on God alone is a stranger to fear in the worst of times.(Bp. Horne.) People Absalom, David, PsalmistPlaces JerusalemTopics Awake, Awaked, Awakened, Awoke, Laid, Lain, Lay, Lie, Myself, Rest, Sleep, Slept, Support, Sustained, Sustaineth, Sustains, Wake, WakedOutline 1. The security of God's protectionDictionary of Bible Themes Psalm 3:5 1080 God, living 5087 David, reign of 5511 safety Library Table of the Books of Holy Scripture According to Date. HISTORICAL BOOKS. PROPHETIC AND POETICAL BOOKS. B.C. 4004 1689 Genesis 1529 Job Psalm lxxxviii. by Heman, the Ezrahite, (See 1 Chron. ii. 6) 1491 Exodus 1491 Leviticus 1451 Numbers Psalm xc. and (perhaps) xci 1450 Deuteronomy 1451 1427 Joshua 1312 Ruth 1120 Judges 1171 1056 1 Samuel Psalms, certainly vii, xi, xvi, xvii, xxii, xxxi, xxxiv, lvi, liv, lii, cix, xxxv, lvii, lviii, cxliii, cxl, cxli, and many more 1056 1 Chronicles Psalms, certainly ii, vi, ix, xx, 1023 Psalms … Charlotte Mary Yonge—The Chosen People The History of the Psalter Rules to be Observed in Singing of Psalms. The Godly are in Some Sense Already Blessed Of the Necessity of Divine Influences to Produce Regeneration in the Soul. Christ's Kingly Office The Consolation Psalms Links Psalm 3:5 NIVPsalm 3:5 NLT Psalm 3:5 ESV Psalm 3:5 NASB Psalm 3:5 KJV Psalm 3:5 Bible Apps Psalm 3:5 Parallel Psalm 3:5 Biblia Paralela Psalm 3:5 Chinese Bible Psalm 3:5 French Bible Psalm 3:5 German Bible Psalm 3:5 Commentaries Bible Hub |
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