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If you live to be 75, you will spend about 25 years asleep!
Sleep is a gift. Imagine if we never slept. Always working. Always anxious. No turning off the thoughts and to do lists!
Sleep is a gift. It is a daily reminder of our creatureliness. God does not sleep. The angels do not sleep. Humans, like all the other animals, require sleep. It is a gift from God, because our need for sleep urges us to acknowledge our creatureliness. It is His grace that allows us to accept this and welcome it.
God designed the course of a given day to remind us that He is God and we are not. From the beginning, “evening and morning were the first day.” The day begins at sundown. We thank the Lord for a new day and then go to sleep. And while we sleep, He keeps the planets aligned, He raises up kings and puts down kings. He feeds the lions and the owls. He watches over all. And we sleep! This is a daily lesson in the truth that I am not the ruler of the universe. This is a blessing. A gift.
Psalm 127 is a Psalm about sleep. “He gives his beloved sleep.” 127:2b.
The first half of this Psalm is about the importance of dependence on God.
Unless the Lord builds the house,
those who build it labor in vain.
Unless the Lord watches over the city,
the watchman stays awake in vain.
It is in vain that you rise up early
and go late to rest,
eating the bread of anxious toil;
He gives his beloved sleep.
The word for “vain” is worthless or meaningless. Empty.
The word for “sleep” is the word for rest. It includes the idea of confidence and satisfaction.
Building a home or protecting a city without faith and trust in God is vain, meaningless. Trying to add to your day by getting up early or going to bed late, if done from fear or anxiety, does not make the day more profitable. It is laboring in your own strength. It is trusting in your own security. The results of your efforts will not satisfy; it will not alleviate anxiety. It will not give you the sense of being in control or finding approval that you are seeking.
Our need for sleep is a gift from God to remind us of our need for Him. It is a reminder that “apart from Him, we can do nothing.” John 15:5
Moms, especially moms of newborns, know how precious sleep is. Women of a certain stage of life know how precious sleep is. Anyone who is prevented from sleep for any reason begins to understand how casually we take for granted one of God's best gifts.
The advice I want to give you today is, “Do not be anxious about your sleeplessness.” The Lord knows what you need. And sometimes experiencing our weakness in sleeplessness, acknowledging it, accepting it and welcoming it is more important than sleep.
Some readers of Psalm 127 have found the “shift” in focus at verse 3 a little surprising.
Solomon, who is attributed with writing this psalm, surely knew a little bit about building homes and defending cities. And he knew a lot about the vanity of life. He learned the importance of depending on the Lord. But in verse 3 he shifts to talk about children.
Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord,
the fruit of the womb a reward.
Like arrows in the hand of a warrior
are the children of one's youth.
Blessed is the man
who fills his quiver with them!
He shall not be put to shame
when he speaks with his enemies in the gate.
Maybe we shouldn’t be surprised about this shift. He has not really moved on from the theme of the necessity of reliance on the Lord. Raising children may be one of the hardest task a human can do, and it requires tremendous dependence on the Lord.
Mothering in particular, is hard - pregnancy, labor and delivery, nursing, loving, disciplining, teaching, providing, protecting, letting go. Mothering is a constant laying down of one’s life for another. It often means not getting enough sleep.
Mothering without dependence on the Lord is vain, meaningless. The work does not satisfy; it does not alleviate anxiety, it increases it!
Motherhood is a gracious gift from God to remind us of our creatureliness!
Do you know the name that the Lord gave Solomon at his birth? “My beloved”
“Then David comforted his wife, Bathsheba, and went in to her and lay with her, and she bore a son, and he called his name Solomon. And the Lord loved him and sent a message by Nathan the prophet. So he called his name Jedidiah, because of the Lord.”
(2 Sam 12:24, 25 Jedidiah = my beloved)
What a wonderful example of God forgiving us and making beauty out of ashes! I think Solomon knew this story and the context of his birth. His God given name, “My beloved, ” is the same word he used in verse two.
There is another time in scripture this word is used. And it is also used with the same word for sleep (although sleep is translated “rest” in this passage.)
“Let the beloved of the LORD rest secure in him, for he shields him all day long, and the one the LORD loves rests between his shoulders.”
Deut. 33:12 (New International Version)
What an intimate, tender picture! Imagine a child piggy-backing on his father’s shoulders. Perhaps it has been a long day. And the father picks up the child to carry him to bed. Along the way, the child falls asleep between his shoulders.
This is what the Lord does for us, his beloved ones. He carries us. He gives us secure rest.
Jesus picks up this idea when he calls us to:
Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
Matt. 11:28,29
This is the gospel for mothers.
Motherhood is not about doing it right, making your children happy, earning acceptance from your community, or gaining God’s approval. Motherhood is about learning to depend on God. It’s about uncovering your sin and finding God loves you. It's about experiencing your own creatureliness and learning that God works for you. It’s about falling to sleep between the shoulders of the one who never sleeps, but it always is building, always is protecting. It is about learning to rest because God cares for us.