In peace I will both lie down and sleep, for you alone, oh Lord, make me dwell in safety.
– Psalm 4:8
Now that’s a really good verse to memorize. I think about one of my kids who was having a hard time sleeping, who would be scared in their bed at night. And one night I was talking with them about this verse. I just said, “Let’s memorize it together.” And this child still has that verse memorized and still says it over and over again on some nights. “In peace, I will both lie down and sleep, for you alone, oh Lord, make me dwell in safety.”
Psalm 4:8 Reminds Us we Can Sleep in Peace
Isn’t that a great verse? To lay your head down on a pillow at night in peace, and to sleep in peace. So many times we’re restless in sleep with all the things going on in our lives, the things going on in the world around us, but God intends for us to lie down and sleep in peace, for He alone. If our minds are fixed on all kinds of things in this world, we will be restless in our sleep. But when we fix our minds on Him alone and the safety he gives, the security, He is, you alone, oh Lord, make me dwell in safety. You are safe in the arms of God, secure in the promises of God, and you are able to rest in the peace of God.
Psalm 4:8 Reminds Us God is Our Safety
Oh God, I just pray this over every single person who’s listening to this right now. And if they’re listening to this at night, may they lie down and sleep in peace knowing that you alone, oh Lord, make them dwell in safety. Just cover them as they lie down in their bed and listen to and meditate on this verse. And others who are listening to this maybe first thing in the morning or somewhere else during the day,
God, I pray that they would look forward to sleep in peace. No matter what this day brings, that they would know at the end of it that they can lie down and sleep in peace in the safety and security that You make us to dwell in, that You alone make us to dwell in. Our hope, our peace, our rest, our safety, our security is in you alone, oh God.
Praying for the Ganja Balanta People
And we pray, we intercede, for people who don’t know this kind of peace. Entire groups of people in the world like the Ganja Balanta people of Senegal, hundreds of thousands of them, so few followers of Jesus who are lying down in peace tonight in the safety and security you bring. God, we pray for those who are followers of yours among the Ganja Balanta of Senegal, amidst the challenges they face in spreading the gospel around them. We pray for your peace over them as they sleep.
And God, we pray that that peace would spread to more and more and more Ganja Balanta people in Senegal and through us to people around us today. God, help us, in our lives and our spheres of influence, to spread this peace, this safety, this security that is found in You alone. In peace we will both lie down and sleep, for you alone, oh Lord, make us dwell in safety. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
