Ps. 4:9 (Dwelling in safety)

Ps. 4.9

Diag.

In peace  /  I will both  /  lie down  /  and sleep,

For you  /  alone  /  are the Lord;

You  /  make me  /  dwell  /  in safety.

A room of peace and safety: Here, several strands of the Psalm are woven together into a very tight unity. In analyzing vs. 1 I intentionally skipped over this rather odd request: “When in distress, give me room.” Although it is not completely nonsensical it does seem puzzling. There are many other ways, it would seem, the Psalmist could have conveyed the sense of ‘pressure’ and ‘release’ other than a request for “room”.

What does the image of “room” convey? First off we see here the Psalmist hinting at something that is absent for the rest of the Psalm until the very end: that the attacks on his reputation, and the consequent sense of injustice about it, have engendered a feeling of claustrophobia, of unbearable ‘closeness’. This feeling is not, itself, unusual; we saw it Ps. 3 very clearly with David. But there is something about that is so devoid of power.

That is, until we get to the final verse where spatial imagery is again picked up: “In peace…; you make me dwell in safety.” This “room” has become a place of peace and, in effect, a bedroom (here, he lies down and falls asleep). It is a “dwelling” of safety. It is almost like Eden. I think one way to capture this is to think of this “peace” as a place; it is something he is in and a dwelling.

Sleep following joy: following vs. 8 the fact that the Psalmist falls asleep may strike us unexpected. This righteous man has requested that a joy more profound than every emblem of God’s blessing be placed in his heart and then, in almost a sigh of relief, he falls asleep. It would seem as if he has just started the race but instead he is seen crossing the finish line, exhausted. This image of sleep, within this Psalm, has already been hinted at in regard to the wicked: they are “speak within themselves and be still no their bed” (vs. 5). These men are obviously not granted sleep as their agitations will rob them of rest. And here we realize this: this Psalm is spoken at night-fall. Everyone is entering into the darkness of a new day (we have already contemplated in Ps. 3 the power behind envisioning the world as beginning when the sun goes down and the world falls asleep). The evil man, though, will not be granted “rest” and “peace”. He will not be allowed into this “room” but will have to stay outside, gnashing his teeth in the darkness.

Sleep being a consequence of joy makes sense in this context (of nightfall). As we have observed before, the falling of night is the natural and ordained time for man to enter into rest. To be awake during the night is to fail to enter into this beginning and this re-creation. A prayer for blessing and joy at nightfall is then a prayer that the righteous man be allowed to enter into this cycle and drink in the peace of sleep. Creation’s rhythm and the righteous man’s coincide. This is covenantal rhythm.

It is of profound importance that when the “day of the Lord” arrives, though, that this ordained time for sleep will become a time of intense watchfulness and, in fact, those who sleep will fail to enter into the wedding of the bridegroom and his bride.

You alone are the Lord, You make me dwell in safety: this is something very poignant and intimate in these words, especially in light of the fact that they are the righteous man’s final words as he falls asleep. There is something captured here that Ps. 3 did not convey: a loving calm has descended upon the righteous man. He knows he is not sleeping alone.