Sleepless Nights and Stressful Days

What do you do when the pressures of daily life assail and assault you?

Since the LORD God has saved you by His grace from beginning to end, why should you tremble before the lesser dangers of this life?

King David tells of an experience how he was able to lie down and sleep in the midst of a sudden danger occasioned by his son Absalom’s rebellion (2 Samuel 15-16).

“I lie down and sleep; I awake again, because the LORD sustains me. I will not fear the tens of thousands drawn up against me on every side” (Psalm 3:5-6).

David went to sleep trusting God with one of the greatest threats to his life. God was a shield around David as he slept trusting God with his life.

  1. H. Spurgeon said, “It is the most bitter of all afflictions to be led to fear that there is no help for us in God.” Those are the most crushing moments in our lives. We feel as if the very floor has been pulled out from us, and someone has greased the rope we were holding on to desperately.

King David in the first stanza gave expression to the great crisis he was experiencing. He acknowledged and deeply experienced the deep anxious feelings. His enemies have risen up against him. “O LORD, how many are my foes! How many rise up against me? Many are saying of me, ‘God will not deliver him’” (vv. 1-2).

Think about it. Sometimes we, too, feel like our enemies are giants much larger than life, and we are mere ants ready to be crushed. We seem overwhelmed when we take inventory of our lives.

David was fleeing from his son Absalom. Are you fleeing the presence of a son, daughter, or spouse who has turned their lives against everything you believe in and are committed to in life? Perhaps you face an uphill battle in pursuing the God-given goals in your life. You may feel like the cutthroat environment where you work is an open warfare. Instead of swords, knives and bullets they are swords of lying gossip, rumors, deceit, misrepresentation, etc. As you go to work you are dreading the living hell in the jungle at the office. There is always that animal that is pushing buttons trying to find your vulnerable spot. The enemies of the gospel are saying, “God will not deliver you.” Who hasn’t felt the assault of the enemy?

The second stanza tells us how David gained the victory. He put his confidence in the LORD God. There is no other way to explain the change. He takes his mind off his enemies and focuses his attention on the only one who can deliver him.

“But You are a shield around me, O LORD, You bestow glory on me and lift up my head. To the LORD I cry aloud, and He answers me from His holy hill. Selah” (vv. 3-4).

Like a great crescendo of orchestra music the psalmist says, “Pause. Just think about it.” We often respond with “Praise the Lord!”

Faith says, “I have committed my soul to the LORD God in His matchless grace in Jesus Christ. Since He has saved me by His grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, He is quite capable as my sovereign God to take care of this frightful matter at hand. This personal ordeal I am presently facing is small in comparison to what God has done to save my soul. I can trust this to Him and rest.”

When we gaze at the problems we face and see our weakness it all seems impossible. However, when we bring God into the picture we see Him in His true great stature as the eternal sovereign one. Our mountains become foothills. Our giants become ants. Our fears become occasions to see the great hand of God in our lives.

David cried out to God for help, knowing that God heard Him. He leaned upon the LORD saying, “I lie down and sleep; I wake again, because the LORD sustains me. I will not fear the tens of thousands drawn up against me on every side” (vv. 5-6).

Are you willing to say? “Lord, I hand this matter over to You. You are bigger than this problem can ever become. Nothing gets out of hand with You.”

David prayed, “Arise, O LORD! Deliver me, O my God! . . . From the LORD comes deliverance.” And like David, you can go to sleep knowing the LORD will deliver you.


One Response to “Sleepless Nights and Stressful Days”

  1. Hazel says:

    This devotion could not have came at a better time! Thank you

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