Psalm 127:2 It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows: for so he gives his beloved sleep. During sleep the brain becomes inactive, consciousness and volition are in abeyance; in the body the expenditure of energy is curtailed, the constructive forces dominate the destructive. It is a time of building up the system after the tear and wear of a day. God is the great giver of sleep. I. THE SOUND SLEEPER. Exercise of body and mind in the day promote sleep at night. II. THE BAD SLEEPER. 1. There is the ambitious man who sits up late at night planning for to-morrow; by and by he goes to bed, his mind still full of business. You can see this man rolling from side to side of the bed. What is he doing? Is he formulating some great scheme for the benefit of his fellow-men? No, not likely; he is planning how he can make money. He has the "gold fever," and when people have fever of any kind their body is diseased and they cannot sleep. Such an experience is the first step to a lunatic asylum. 2. The man with the evil conscience. Sin, like a terrible worm, is gnawing his inner life; the fire of sin is raging within, and the hot flames drive sleep away. III. THE GOOD SLEEPER. Our text should read — "He giveth His beloved in sleep," as if He imparted a gift to them in the quiet hours of the night. Sleep itself is a precious gift; it helps us to forget the cares and worries of daily life. We could not live amid life's great anxieties unless God came to us night by night, breathed upon us the spirit of peace and rocked us to sleep; as the mother rocks the tired child to rest, so does God stand by the bedside of His beloved and give them sleep. The beloved of the Lord can lie down at night without fear; the day may have been hard and trying, enemies plotting and slandering, but in the arms of God His beloved find peace. (W. K. Bryce.) Parallel Verses KJV: It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows: for so he giveth his beloved sleep. |
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