May 25, 2024

Psalm 127.2 (NIV)

For he grants sleep to those he loves.

It is impossible to get exhausted in work for God. We get exhausted when we try to do God’s work in our own way.*

Everyone sleeps. Some high-energy types don’t need as much sleep as I do. Insomniacs may not sleep when they want to or as much as they would like but eventually their bodies shut down. Jesus was so tired that he fell asleep while on a fishing boat and would have slept through a fierce storm if his terrified disciples hadn’t decided to wake him. (Can’t you just hear the discussion among the other passengers? “You wake him up.” “No, you wake him up.” “How can he sleep through this?”)

Within context, this verse is talking about the futility of getting up early and staying up late to work for our sustenance. An alternate rendering says, “For while they sleep, he provides for those he loves.” In other words, we may work ourselves to death but it is God who provides for us. So whether the psalmist is telling us that God provides for our needs or that he provides us a good night’s rest, it is still true.

I like this writer’s thoughts: “We often feel guilty when we rest. Perhaps we ought to feel guilty when we refuse to rest. . . . Pushing hard through every day without a break may be an indication that we believe we are the ones responsible for our provision and success, when in reality God is in control of these things.”*

Everyone sleeps, but God’s children can rest easy in the confidence that God is in control.

Ours is so often a self-imposed busyness.*