Divine Images, part 6: Bed

 

After a long day the bed can be a welcome sight; but for the anxious or the sick the bed can be something else.  Some through fear or depression find no pleasure in going to their beds and others because of sickness are confined to them.  But God also speaks about the bed.  Here I want to highlight some things God has said about the bed, about lying down and about sleeping.

When you go to your bed either because you are sick (and confined there) or because it is the end of the day remember the following.

First, remember that you are not the first to weep upon your bed.  The psalmist said, “all the night make I my bed to swim; I water my couch with my tears (6:6).”  These tears - God says - are put in His bottle (Psalm 56:8-9).  

Second, remember that God makes your bed in sickness.  Ordinarily perhaps you are the one who makes it, but now He does.  God is saying that He takes particular notice of the sick saints (who have considered the poor) while they are upon their beds.  He not only notices them, He attends to them.  In their time of weakness He draws near to them and communes with them.  It is a promise: “The LORD will strengthen him upon the bed of languishing: thou wilt make all his bed in his sickness (Psalm 41:3).”

Third, the bed is a place for remembering God.  As you remember Him and meditate upon Him in the night you will find yourself like David rejoicing and praising because He has been your help!  “My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness; and my mouth  shall praise thee with joyful lips: When I remember thee upon my bed, and meditate on thee in the night watches.  Because thou hast been my help, therefore in the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice (Psalm 63:5-7).”  

Fourth, remember that the bed is a place for singing aloud.  The psalmist says, “let them sing aloud upon their beds (149:5).”  It is good to sing praises with the congregation, but it is also good to sing praises alone upon your bed.  Happy is that people whose God is the LORD (Psalm 144:15)!

Fifth, remember that you can seek God upon your bed (Song of Solomon 3:1; 1:13).  Seeking God needn’t only be done in the prayer closet or at the prayer meeting.  You can seek Him while confined to a bed whether in the day or in the night.  There are other things you cannot do upon a bed, but you can pray.  

Sixth, remember that even if you should make your bed in hell He will be with you.   The psalmist is not speaking of a literal hell where the damned are tormented.  Rather, he is speaking of the tastes of hell (or Sheol) we get in this world.  He is speaking of what has been called the dark night of the soul.  There are times in the life of the believer when all seems lost, when our grief is very great (Job 2:13) and we are ready like Job to curse the day we were born (Job 3:1-13).  The psalmist says “if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there (Psalm 139:8).”  The language is symbolic and refers to those times in the life of the believer when all is dark and all seems lost.  Then wee seem to make our beds in hell - yet what is the promise?  Still God is there.  Still we are held firmly in the Father’s hand.  Which is why we can still say “I know that my Redeemer liveth.”  When Jesus comes asking, “will you also go away” you will find that you have an answer: “Lord to whom shall we go?  Thou hast the words of eternal life (John 6:68).”   You may have made your bed in hell nevertheless you can say, “thou art there.”

Seventh, remember that it is good to commune with your own heart upon your bed.  Ask the Lord to search you and try you and see if there be any wicked way in you.  Consider your ways and try them by the standard of God’s law. “Stand in awe, and sin not: commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still (Psalm 4:4).”

Eighth, remember that the LORD give His beloved sleep (Psalm 127:2).  “I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep: for thou LORD only makest me dwell in safety (Psalm 4:8).”  “When thou liest down, thou shalt not be afraid: yea, thou shalt Lie down, and thy sleep shall be sweet (Proverbs 3:24).”  “I laid me down and slept; I awaked; for the LORD sustained me (Psalm 3:5).”

Ninth, remember that that there is a spiritual sleep to be avoided at all cost.  “For the Lord hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep, and hath closed your eyes: the prophets and your rulers, the seers hath he covered (Isaiah 29:10).”   It is a dreadful thing when in judgment God gives His people over to a spiritual sleep so that they are like drunken men, deceived and spiritually stupid (Isaiah 29:9).  Pray you may be spared this dreadful sleep. “Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light (Ephesians 5:14).”

Tenth, remember that there is a sleep of sloth and carelessness that we are warned against.  We are called to watch for His return and to live as we would like to be found living on that great and terrible day.  But we are told that like the foolish and wise virgins, many will be found sleeping and caught unawares on the last day.  Jesus Himself warns us lest we should be found sleeping (Mark 13:13)!  Paul says, “Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober (1 Thessalonians 5:6).”  “And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed (Romans 13:11).” See also Ephesians 5:14.

Eleventh, remember that there are watchmen who are sleeping when they should be watching.  Pray for Zion.  Pray for sleeping watchmen, that they would “come to understanding (Isaiah 29:24),” that they would wake as from a dream and begin to sound the alarm.  Isaiah says, “His watchmen are blind: they are all ignorant, they are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark; sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber (56:10).” For such things we ought to weep and cry out in the night giving God no rest til He make Jerusalem a praise in the earth (Isaiah 62:1, 7).

Twelfth, remember that there is another sleep - a more final one - from which we will all one day wake.  For the saint this sleep is a blessed one.  Even the ungodly can’t help but say, “Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his (Numbers 23:10)!   Isaiah says of the righteous that perish, “He shall enter into peace: they shall rest in their beds, each one walking in his uprightness (Isaiah 57:2).”  This is the sleep of death which Paul says is gain.  He longed to depart because departing meant being with Jesus, “which is far better (Philippians 1:23).”   He understood, as every believer does, that the sleep of death is followed rather by life.  We who die in Him shall be together with the Lord.  Paul speaks of Him, “Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him (1 Thessalonians 5:10).”  “And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt (Daniel 12:2).”