Psalm 4

How to pray before you sleep

Read/pray the psalm. (Full text at bottom.)

“Now I lay me down to sleep, 
I pray the Lord my soul to keep, 
If I should die before I wake, 
I pray the Lord my soul to take.” 

• Generations of English-speaking families prayed this prayer with their children before sleep, with early versions appearing in texts like The New England Primer (c. 1680s–1690s), a widely-used textbook in colonial America.

• It is of course loosely based on the verse above, the last of Psalm 4.

• The prayer closely connects sleep and death—sleep as a symbol of death, repeated daily.

  • You will go to sleep, inevitably.

  • You will die, inevitably.

  • And sleep is like death.

    • The body prone, in darkness, eyes closed, spirit/mind ‘separated’ from body, with no control over limbs, and the mind aware only in the imagination of dreams.¹

    • The Bible often speaks of the dead in Christ as “sleeping,” waking in the next age, at the resurrection of the body,

    • Across the centuries, Christians have prayed the prayer of Simeon, anticipating his death after seeing the Messiah as a baby.²

So…

Put a note/Bible on your bed, or set a timer, to pray before you sleep:

Psalm 4:8 above

or Simeon’s prayer:

Lord, now let your servant depart in peace,

according to your word.

For my eyes have seen your salvation,

which you have prepared before the face of all people;

To be a light to lighten the Gentiles,

and to be the glory of your people Israel. [Luke 2:29-32]

Psalm 4
Cum invocarem

1	Hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness; *
		you set me free when I was in trouble; have mercy upon me, and hear my prayer.
2	O you children of men, how long will you blaspheme my honor, *
		and have such pleasure in vanity, and seek after falsehood? 
3	Know this also, that the Lord has chosen for himself the one that is godly; *
		when I call upon the Lord, he will hear me.
4	Stand in awe, and sin not; *
		commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still. 
5	Offer the sacrifice of righteousness *
		and put your trust in the Lord.
6	There are many that say, “Who will show us any good?” * 
		Lord, lift up the light of your countenance upon us.
7	You have put gladness in my heart, *
		more than when others’ grain and wine and oil increased. 
8	I will lay me down in peace, and take my rest; *
		for you, Lord, only, make me dwell in safety.

New Coverdale Psalter

1. See the excellent podcast “The Night Life,” on dreams in Christian perspective. Host Sandy Scheffler’s interviewed me, on biblical symbolism and the symbolism of dreams.

2

Lord, now let your servant depart in peace, *

according to your word.

For my eyes have seen your salvation, *

which you have prepared before the face of all people;

To be a light to lighten the Gentiles, *

and to be the glory of your people Israel. [Luke 2:29-32]