Psalm 3

We're going to have our passage now from the scriptures, which is Psalm chapter 3. And the words should come up on the screen. But if you have your bibles at your home, we're going to be reading to Psalm chapter 3. It's quite a short sum, so we're going to be reading the whole thing. But let me pray before we read this.

Father, we thank you for that song. We've just sung. We do ask father that this year your name would be renowned again in this world. And that there would be honor attached to your name again. Father, we pray this first of all in our own hearts We ask that in our hearts, your name would be honored and your word would be honored.

And so as we turn to it now and we read it, we pray, please, that you would help us, help us to listen, give us ears that are willing to hear things we don't want to hear, that we must hear, give us hearts that are willing to be molded by you and your spirit. Father, we need help with these things. So would you help us now in Jesus name, amen? Okay. Psalam, chapter 3, from verse 1.

Lord, how many are my foes? How many rise up against me? Many are saying of me, God will not deliver him, but you, lord, are a shield around me. My glory, the 1 who lifts my head high. I call out to the lord, and he answers me from his holy mountain.

I lie down in sleep. I will wake again because the Lord sustains me. I will not fear though tens of thousands are sale me on every side arise, Lord, deliver me, my God, strike all my enemies on the jaw, break the teeth of the wicked. From the Lord comes deliverance. May your blessing be on your people?

Pete. Morning. It's gonna say happy new year, but this sort of feels like we've been in this year for a long time. But may Christ be more real to us this year. That's that's a that's a good thing to be praying for, isn't it?

So Psalm 3, keep that open. I wanna ask this question. How how do you sleep at night? How sleep going for you? How do you how do you sleep at night?

Do you do you actually look forward to bed or are you resistant to it? Are you like a little newborn baby that just goes to sleep on the way to bed? Or are you like 1 of those terrible toddlers that resist sleep, and I'm not tired. I am not tired. I don't want to go to bed.

Are you someone like that? Are you Do you hit the bed with abandonment or resistance, or actually do you ever find it hard to go to sleep? Or you wake up in the middle of the night, there are things that stop you from sleeping or they or they wake you up. Are you that sort of person? There's a sense of failure or guilt.

Why did I say this to that person? Why did I speak like this? Why didn't I speak this. Why did I do that? Why didn't I do that?

So do you lie sort of in bed with your mind racing and racing as you go over problems of the day, again and again and again and it's worse than counting sheep, the problems keep jumping up Is that what you like? To let ourselves fall into unconsciousness is hard, isn't it? When we're trying to hold on, to control, and that's often our trouble, isn't it? But sleep forces us to let go of our control. You're not in control when you're asleep.

Who is it in control? When you're asleep, have you ever thought about that? The way we go to sleep may well reveal something very deep about us. A truth that's very deep about us. And what about waking up after sleep?

How how do you wake up in the morning? How do how do you wake? And how does sleep set you up for the day ahead that you've just woken up from? Sleeping is described as the most mysterious thing we do. We know it's vital, but no 1 actually really knows exactly why we have to go to sleep.

If you're deprived of sleep, you will die eventually. And actually, if you're deprived of sleep, often an extra hour can save you apparently from cancers and all kinds of problems. So sleep is a very vital thing. 1 writer on sleep says this, that I read this week. Sleep has been tied to a great many biological processes, but why we should be required to totally give up consciousness for sleep is a question yet to be answered.

It isn't just that we are disengaged from the outside world when slumbering. But for much of the time, we are actually paralyzed. We lose a third of our lives to sleep if you can say lose. The evolutionists, of course, they don't understand sleep at all because it leaves us so vulnerable attack. Why on earth would we evolve that?

And we sleep more than other animals, so it seems crazy. San chapter 3 verse 5, I think, gives us an answer to sleep. I will lie down and sleep I will wake again because the Lord sustains me. It's an amazing sentence. I will lie down and sleep I will wake again because the Lord sustains me.

So secular biologists, they may not know why we sleep but the bible does tell us. That's why you need the bible. So I'm gonna do a 2 part series on this verse, really, on sleep. It doesn't tell us everything the bible says about sleep, but it does tell us some very important stuff. And it really really is important that you listen to tonight.

That isn't the sort of trick thing, because tonight just will seal how important these these issues are. And bring us to Christ. Psalm 3, if you like, is about going to bed and getting up in the morning. Going to bed and getting up in the morning, and it's written by a man David. David who had many enemies.

Look at verse 1 of the Psalm, Lord, how many are my foes, how many rise up against me. So David is in this this is surrounded by these foes. Now, what we gotta get about David is he was a great king in many ways. He did many great things, but he is also a great failure in nearly every area of his life. And it's important for us to get this to understand this psalm.

He was a great failure as a leader even though he was a great leader. He was a great failure morally He was a great failure as a father. His family life was a disaster He was a failure in family life. He failed publicly and personally, and those failures produced enemies. That are now surrounding him.

I'll tell you more about that in a minute. But even with all this history of guilt, and failure and personal failure, David has learned in this psalm to lie down and sleep in the midst of his It's an amazing thing. So let's see how he did it. Here's my first point. The story behind this psalm.

So we're told in this psalm as the introduction of the psalm, which is in the scripture, by the way, it's not just added in, that it's the psalm of David when he fled from his son, absalom. If you go to that story in 2 Samuel 15, we read these words. A messenger came and told David, the hearts of the men of Israel are with absalom. Then David said to all his who were with him in Jerusalem come, we must flee, or none of us will escape from absalom. We must leave immediately, or he will move quickly to overtake us and bring ruin upon us and put the city to sword.

So here's David, king of Jerusalem, king of Israel, living in Israel, and absalom now is going to attack him and he has to flee. Now, of course, there is a story behind why David is being attacked by his son behind this rebellion. And it's 5 chapters into Samuel from chapter 11 to chapter 15. And I'm gonna give you a very brief history. Okay?

Because I can't read all those those things. Here's the great king David. He's neglected his responsibilities in being a leader, and he stays at home rather than leading his army. Because of that, he has too much time on his hands. Because he's got too much time on his hands, he sees Beth's Beshiba, and he commits adultery with her.

Because he's committed adultery with her, and she gets pregnant and her husband is at war where David should have been at war. He brings her husband back. So that he will sleep with bathsheba, and he can cover up the whole sordid affair. Eureiah, the husband doesn't sleep because he thinks he should be on the on the field fighting, unlike David, and doesn't sleep with her. So David has Erya murdered.

Yeah, to cover up again. And because Beshiba is pregnant, he tries to cover up that again, and he marries Beshiba. So it all looks legitimate. Now, it's at that point when David is in in the middle of trying to cover up his own sins, of adultery and murder and all of that stuff that God sent Nathan a profit to expose David. To expose his sin and to expose David to the living word of God.

It must have been a painful event for David and for Nathan the profit I imagine. But in the end, David comes to his senses. He comes out of hiding trying to cover up his sin. He confesses his sin and he repents. Now, if you read David Psalms of Repent that go along with that story, Psalm 32 and Psalm 51, and it's worth reading all of them.

You get the sense that while David was hiding his sin while David was trying to cover up his own sin that he didn't sleep very well. In fact, he didn't sleep very well until he confesses his sin, repents of his sin, and knows that God covers his sin. God purifies him. God covers his sin with the blood of the sacrifice Until he knows that, he can't sleep very well. Let me just show you some verses.

Look, this is from Psalm 32, 1 of his repentance psalms. Blessed is the 1 whose transgressions are forgiven. What a wonderful sentence. Bless is the 1 whose transgressions are forgiven whose sins are covered. By God.

Bless is the 1 whose sin, the Lord does not count against them and in whose spirit is no deceit. In other words, he's opened up, he's confessed, he's not lying, he's not hiding. Verse 3, When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. And for day and night, your hand was heavy on me. My strength was sapped like the heat in summer.

He couldn't sleep. In the day, it was painful as he was trying to cover up. At night, The heavy hand of God was upon him until he confessed his sin. Or look at Psalm 51. For I know my transgressions and my sin is always before him.

Going over before him as he's trying to cover up. Cleanse me with hyssop and I will be clean, wash me and I shall be whiter than snow Let me hear joy and gladness. There's no joy in this man's life as he's covering up his sin. Let me hear joy and gladness. Let the bones you have crushed, rejoice.

It's hard to go to sleep when your bones are being crushed. Hide your face from my sin and blot out my iniquities. And that is what God did. And this is where we've this is the hard work, by the way, this this this this point. This is this is what we've really got to understand David was forgiven.

His sins were blotted out. Nathan even says in the story, that the Lord has taken away your sin. We've got to understand that the Lord had taken away his sin, but nevertheless, there are consequences in this life for his sin. And the consequences are that his sin made him weak, Because he was a adulterer, he was weak in the area of sexuality, he's gonna be weak to other people that commit those sins. And because he was weak in the area of murder, he's going to be weak in dealing with other people with murder, and that's exactly what happened.

Because David was a failure in the area of adultery and murder, he became a very weak father. 1 of his sons, Amnon, Amnon raped 1 of his daughters, Tamar. It's horrific. It's in 2 Samuel chapter 13. Amon raped his own sister and then dumped her, and David did nothing about it.

He just said he was angry. He was weak. And because David needed nothing about it, absalom Another 1 of his sons and the brother, of course, to Tamar, was furious with David for not doing anything about Amden's sin. And so in the end, Absolute took it into his own hands and killed his brother, Amnon. And David did nothing about that.

Now, again, this is really important to understand that even though David had been stored to God in repentance and faith, the consequences of his sin remained in this life. In fact, God had told him Through Nathan that this is what would happen. Look at this prophecy in 2 Samuel chapter 12. This is what the Lord says. Out of your own household, I am going to bring calamity on you.

Before your very eyes, I will take your wives and give them to 1 who is close to you, and he will sleep with your wives in broad daylight. You did it in secret. But I will do this thing in broad daylight before Israel. Now they're hard words, aren't they? But I'm trying to show you, David is restored to God, but there are still consequences.

Now why God did this? There are all kinds of reasons, and you can go and work some for yourself. But for David, he needs to listen to these words in Hebrews, chapter 12. Endure hardship as discipline. God is teaching you as sons, as treating you as sons.

For what son is not disciplined by his father, God disciplines us for our good that we may share in his holiness. Now, what Hebrews is telling us is that that that if we're being ciplined, if there are hardships in our life, it doesn't mean you're not a son of god. It means you are a son of god. Do you see that? The hardships God brings is is a father dealing with his son because he wants his son to grow in holiness.

He wants his child to grow more like his child, his son, the lord Jesus Christ, of course. We're in the family of God. And because we're in the family of God, there are consequences to sin and he wants us to know those consequences to actually help us grow. Now, all of that's a background, and I hope you've got that. And if you work through that, that's why you need to come back tonight because you're you've done the hard work in this sermon.

That's the background. That's the story line. David sinned, all kinds of things happened because of that, and now he's on the run from his son, absalom, who's taken over fame. In Jerusalem and and Israel. But during that time, even with these enemies, even when the enemies are partly due to his own sin, He can sleep at night.

He can sleep at night. He's learned to sleep at how? Well, that's where we get into the rest of the song. That's the hard work. So I hope you're with me there.

Are you with me? Please give us a nod or something. So we come to the second point, which is the situation, the immediate situation. Look at it, in verses 1 to 2. Lord, how many of my foes But notice is not a question mark.

He knows. He's expressing himself. Lord, how many of my foes? How many rise up against me? Many are saying of me, God will not deliver him.

3 times, you notice, many, many, many, David is very realistic about the the enemies that are around him and there are many, many, many of them. Verse 2, many are saying of me, God will not deliver him. So these enemies of David are are to beat him down and they're using words. It's if you're a Christian, you'll know this attack. Whether it comes from people or within yourself or guilt or whatever, you'll know this attack.

Many are saying God will not deliver him. So his foes are many, they're mean, they're mouthy enemies. They love to use the mouth, and his enemies wanna knock down his greatest defense and his greatest security. They're trying to undermine his faith in God. They're trying to undermine the fact that God may be disciplining him like a child.

They're trying to say, no. No. No. No. He's not disciplining you like a child.

He's judging you like an enemy. And that's what the enemies have got always do. They're very active in this line of attack God is not really going to help you. God will not deliver you. Look at the mess you were in.

It's your fault you're in this mess, isn't it? It's your fault, at least partly your fault you're in this mess. God is not disciplining you and teaching you lessons to bring him closer to yourself. He's judging you. Remember bathsheba, David?

Remember who Erya, David? Remember those sins Remember the mess of your family life, amon, and absalom? God isn't in yours on your side? God won't deliver you. In Revelation, chapter 12 and verse 10, we're told that the devil is the accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our God day and night.

He accuses the devil, and who does he accuse the brothers, Christians, Those who are trying to live for God. He accuses them as as if he as if he cares about justice. It's quite extraordinary, isn't it? I don't know whether you know, you know when people have a go at you. It's if they really care about justice.

As if, you know, when the guilt comes back and you're failure, does it really care about justice? The accusations come. And where does he accuse you before God? Isn't isn't that classic? You go to pray.

You can't pray? Who do you think you are to pray you sinner? You failure. Remember, bathsheba? Look at your family mess.

Look at the mess wherever you've been in your life. You've messed it up. You can't pray. He accuses you before God. Do you see that?

Or when you try to evangelize, who are you to tell anyone about Christ? Do you filthy person? Who are you? You failure? You can't pray?

You can't tell anyone about who do you think you are? You ever felt that? And and how does he accuse you I I love this. It says day and night. I guess they're different tactics.

See, how can you sleep at night when you've failed so badly? In the day. If God had forgiven you, you wouldn't be going through these problems, would you? See, that's why I kept on saying you've got to remember. He had been forgiven, David, but there are still consequences in this life.

That's why I was trying to tell you, God gives hardships to help us grow as a Christian. Not to say I don't love you. Paul says this, in Ephesians chapter 6, for our trouble is not against flesh and blood. Now often, flesh and blood are the ones that mouth off to us, aren't they? But there's a demon, there's a devil behind the flesh and blood, he say.

There's a in fact, you gotta feel sorry for those mouthing off enemies of us. Because they're just being like puppets of Satan. Listen, for our struggle, he's not against flesh and blood but against the rulers, against the authorities, against powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Our enemies behind the flesh and blood enemy is Satan who wants to destroy you, who is the liar, who is the murderer. Our enemies may attack us in life in body, in spirit, in mind.

And sometimes we say, how can I apps how can I live in this life? How can I sleep at night? And this is why we need to really understand our sins are covered. This is why it's often called the doctrine. It all sounds so heavy.

The doc enough justification by faith alone and Christ alone is so utterly vital that we keep coming back to that. We're justified not by my works, not by my failures, not how good I am, but why what Christ is done. My sin is covered. So there's the situation that he's in. How does he deal with this so that he can sleep?

Here's my third point. The sermon to self. You've heard me say this, many times and you'll probably hear me say it many more times and the older I get are probably waffle on saying it again and again and again because that's what happens to old man, isn't it? You have to preach to yourself. If you don't preach to your heart, your heart will preach to you.

You've got to preach to yourself, and here's the sermon verses 3 and 4. But you lord are a shield around me, my glory, the 1 who lifts my head high. I call out to the lord in the answers. He's surrounded by enemies. Many of those enemies are because of his failings How does he sleep?

Well, he preaches who God is. How does he deal with his attacks? He preaches who God is. It's a sermon before bed, and it's a sermon after he wakes up. It's not a bad idea, by the way, to get into that habit, and it's it's a new year.

We're supposed to have all these new year's resolutions, although I've heard nothing about them of you. New year's resolutions this year. It just sort of faded into the next year, hasn't it last year. But here's a good 1. Before bed, get the scripture in you, not just television, not just the world.

And then after you wake up, get the scripture into you. It's not a bad idea, is it? Morning and evening. He takes a fresh look at God, morning and evening. And who is this lord?

Look what it says. But you, lord, are a shield around me. David is surrounded by enemies that want to back him and they're mouthy, but God is a stronger shield. God enough, good enough, strong enough to hide David from all the enemy attacks. Even the most powerful, mouthy weapons, that are coming against him, the devil, the devil can fire at him.

God is a shield. Epision 6 talks about the armor of God. Here's 1 of them verse 16. Paul says, in addition to all this, the other bits of the armor, he says, take the shield of faith with which you can extinguish the flaming arrows of the evil 1. You see?

That is what you need. A shield of faith in who God is, and when you have faith in who he is and what he's done for you in Christ, that will be god's shield around you, and even the flaming lies and darts of the evil 1 can't get in. Put up the shield. Know the shield of God. Christ died for sinners.

Are you a sinner? You failure? You sinner? Yes. That's what I am.

But who did Christ die for? Not for the perfect, but for sinners, so he die for me. There's a shield. Are you a failure? If every area of your life, if you failed, if you failed as a father, are you weak?

Yes. But who did Christ come for to seek and to save the lost and the weak and the sinners, the shield of faith. Is he? No. I've got 1 here.

You, Evan. Isn't that amazing? Christ came to seek it to save those who are lost. The blood of Christ cleanses us from All sin, all even yours. Even that 1 that you're embarrassed to let anyone else know about, but your enemies do.

I'm cleansed by the blood of the lamb. By his grace, I have been touched by his word I have been healed by his hand. I've been delivered by his spirit. I've been sealed. I'm saved by the blood of the lamb.

Yeah. He's a shield, but he says he's my glory. David has a fresh vision of the beauty and glorious, magic of the Lord. He's glorious, he's majestic. He's bigger and grander and more beautiful than all the troubles.

This is what happened with Stephen was going through, wasn't he? The first martyr. Christian Martha, who's standing having rocks thrown at him. They hurt, but there was something bigger he looked at. It was a vision of Christ.

Christ is your glory. That's a great shield. You are clothed in the glory of Christ When god the father looks at you, he's not disappointed. He's saying, way. You are astonishingly beautiful.

You're in Christ. Cleansed by Jesus. Look, the 1 who lifts up my head. He's a shield around me. He's my glory.

The 1 who lifts up my head. See, don't be cast if you look at yourself, you will be cast down. If you look at your failures, you'll be cast down. If you look at what you deserve, you will be cast down. But if you look at God, he'll lift up your head.

And it was because of the attacks of the enemy. Many of those are because of his fault, that actually he gets a greater vision of God. You see that? Do you use this 1 when you're attacked? If you don't use this, When you're reminded of your failure and your sin, thank you very much.

It's wonderful. When you're tempted and you're thinking things that you shouldn't think. Thank you. It's wonderful. It just reminds me of what a rotten sinner I have, but it reminds me of how deep the love of Christ is for me, that he would die for a filthy old man like that, who has thoughts like this.

A bloke who's been an evangelist and a pastor for years and still his filthy little mind works. Thank you for reminding me of how sinful I am, because what it does is remind me how wonderful a dear savior is. That he would die for someone like this is extraordinary. Now, how did David get this fresh vision of God? Well, verse 4 tells us, see it?

I called out to the Lord. And he answered me from his holy mountain. His troubles, you see, brought him to his knees. Do you see the sanctifying work of hardships and troubles and discipline? He was hardly a praying man into Samuel chapter 11 when he was eyeing up Bashiba.

He wasn't a praying man. Was he when he was in bed with her? He wasn't a praying man when he was manipulating uriah to come back from the army so that he would sleep with his wife. He wasn't a praying man, was he? When he was covering up and had Eurya killed, He wasn't a praying man then, was he?

But now he is. God in his grand design has used trouble to trigger prayer. Do you see that? Does God leave you in times of trouble if you're his? No, he doesn't.

He's teaching you to call out to him, to rely on him, because you can't rely on yourself, because you've already failed. It's part of his work. And look, he answered him, it says, from his holy Hill. I mean, doesn't that remind you of the the prayer that all told us to to pray, our father in heaven, our father in heaven? Which leads me to my fourth point.

The sleep The sleep. This is the result of his sermon to himself, and it's partly the sermon. The sleep itself It's not just a result, but it is his sermon. Look at look at verses 5 and 6. I lie down and sleep.

I wake again because the Lord sustains me. I will not fear, though tens of thousands are sale me on every side, the daily act of sleep is a massive sermon, a massive lesson to him. It's not just the result of the sermon, it's of sermon itself. Because it shows us, when you sleep, you are not in control. For a third of your life, you are Blotto.

Yeah? And that's only an illustration to tell you you never are in control even when you're awake. You're not in control. You need someone bigger than you to be in control. Who doesn't sleep?

The lord, the shield, the glorious 1, The 1 who lifts your head. Verse 5, I lie down and sleep. I wake again because the lord sustains me. So when you sleep and you've been and you wake again, it's utter proof that someone's been sustaining you, isn't it? Because you weren't, because you were asleep.

You couldn't do anything. You couldn't even do good works. You can't justify yourself when you're asleep. You can do nothing. It's the lord who sustains it.

So for the Christian, going to sleep is a daily reminder of trust in the lord. That's what sleep means. Verse 5, I lie down and sleep. I wake again because the lord sustains me. First 6, I will not fear though tens of thousands assail me on every side.

All these enemies are around David, on every side, but he comes to the position where he feels so secure, he can give up any control that he thought he had and go to sleep. He comes to the positive position of confidence that even though the majority is against him, God is for him. Now, I wanna say this. He's not shutting his eyes to the seriousness of the enemies. We've seen that in verse 1.

I don't think he's sort of got a defeatist attitude. He's, oh, well, shove it. You know, I can't do anything. There's enemies around. I might as well just not worry and go to sleep.

I don't think that's his attitude. His attitude is that he trusts in the lord who will deliver him and sustain him. And that is the sermon of sleep. You went to sleep and then you woke up, who kept you. That's the lesson.

Sleep tells us, we're not in control and we never have been. And it makes us ask the question, then who is in control protecting me while I'm asleep? When I'm unconscious, it reminds us that God is The lord sustains me through the night even though there are more enemies than you imagine, tens of thousands of them. It's interesting. How many fell out of bed last night?

Then it hands up if any of you fell out of bed when you were unconscious. Isn't that extraordinary, no 1? And yet you move in a tiny bit of space 30 to 40 times every night, and not 1 of you fell out of bed. Did you? Anybody fall out of bed?

Listen to this. I read this. No matter how profoundly unconscious we get, or how restless we almost never fall out of bed, even the unfamiliar beds in hotels and the like. We may be dead to the world but some century within helps us keep track of where the bed's edges and won't let us roll over except in unusual unusually drunk and fevered circumstances. Some part of us, says this writer, some part of us, it seems, pays heed to the edge of the bed.

Even with the heaviest sleepers. Well, is it some part of us or is that the lord? Isn't it extraordinary? How many wet the bed tonight? I know little kids do.

How many wet the bed last night? Anybody? Hands up? It's extraordinary. The Lord keeps us.

The Lord keeps us safe. So when you wake up in the morning, That's the perspective you should wake up with. When I was at my most vulnerable, when I was at my weakest, When I was unconscious, I didn't even fall out of bed. The Lord kept me. So now in the day, won't he keep me from my enemies?

And the other thing you know about sleep, There's sort of like a washing, isn't there, of the mind in sleep. You go to bed, perhaps very negative about what's happened in the day. But you can wake up more positive, and things have sorted themselves out. What is God doing? Reminding you that he's in control, he'll sort things.

If God is in control when I'm at my most vulnerable, I can face the day. It leads me onto my last point. The rising sun of a new day of battles. You see it there in verse 7 and 8, arise Lord. Now, he's not saying that the Lord was asleep.

He's saying, I'm arising, and let's go into the day together. A wise lord deliver me, my god. He slept God was ruling him in control, and so he can go into the day, strike all my enemies on the jaw, break The teeth of the wicked, from the Lord comes deliverance. May your blessing be on your people. His day is secure and sleep has proved that.

Do you see that? The Lord is in control. I mean, the words of his the mouth the enemy, where the where the attack, weren't they? And so now, he's asking for for those those enemies that are mouthing it off to to have broken teeth and get caught like an old person, but with no teeth of caution. It's just a joke in Here they are accusing us, oh, do you remember what you did?

Do you remember what you did? Take her old broken and What's he saying? Lord, break the teeth. Now we see more of that to nothing that's really important. But my future is secure.

I've gone to sleep, I've woken up, proves God is in control, and therefore I can rise into another day of battles. And now the enemy that's mouthing it off to show that I am a sinner has no not with the lord, because in him I'm forgiven. So what do we learn from sleep then? Here's a number of things. I want you to I hope this hasn't been too too much.

1, to sleep well Get under the covers. You need a really good duvet to sleep well, don't you? Get under the covers of God's love. Warm yourself under the covers of justification by faith alone warm yourself that whatever you've done, if you've confessed your sins and repented and known what Christ has done for you. You are forgiven.

Get under those covers. And you're asleep. Don't cover up your sin. You're never sleep. Pray for sleep.

Ask the lord for it if you're not a good sleeper. Understand that hardships that you're going through are to help you call out to him, not to drive you away from him, even if they're your fault. They're there for you to save father in heaven, our father in heaven. Before sleep, Remind yourself who God is and what Christ has done for you. Listen, take up that habit, CH spurgeon wrote 1 of the best they are, I think, the best.

I have never ever, ever found better devotions. Than morning and evening by a c h virgin. They only take you 6 minutes to read. They're quaint language sometimes, but actually I find that help It sort of it sort of makes you think a bit more, but I tell you he always shows me Christ. Morning and evening, morning and evening, evening and morning.

Why not do that? See who Christ is. Sleep tells you that you need a savior and a deliverer who's more awake than you. So wake up and learn the lessons of sleep and thank God for it. If you're a good sleeper, thank God for it.

Thank God for it, because it says he's in control, even when you're at your weakest Let's pray. Father God, we thank you for this wonderful little psalm and all the background to it. And how it teaches us to go into this new year, looking forward to sleeping well and waking up well. We pray please that the lessons that we've heard would, by your spirit, take hold in us, help us not to just ignore it and Go back to normal. We pray that you'd give us good sleep.

As we rely on you to protect us. And we pray in Jesus' name, amen.