From Restless Waiting….to Sound Sleep

Scripture: Psalm 130 and Psalm 131

Sermon: From Restless Waiting….to Sound Sleep

Topics: sleep, insomnia, waiting, sleeping, rest

Preached: August 27, 2017

Rev. Mike Abma

Preamble: This evening we will be in the book of Psalms. The Psalms are not simply a random collection of prayers. Some Psalms belong together, they fit together – like Psalm 42 and 43 which both have the refrain

Why are you cast down, O my soul,

And why are you disquieted within me?’

Or Psalms 103 and 104 which both have the refrain

Bless the Lord, O my soul

Psalm 103 blesses the Lord for his care for us, his human creatures

Psalm 104 blesses the Lord for his care of all creation.

These kinds of Psalms are often called Twin Psalms.

The one Psalm helps complete the other.

This evening we will be looking at a set of Twin Psalms. – Psalm 130 and Psalm 131.

Each has the Refrain O Israel, put your hope in the Lord!”

But there is more than that refrain that connects them.

Let’s begin by reading Psalm 130 Responsively as it is found in Blue p. 848

Psalm 130

Waiting for Divine Redemption

A Song of Ascents.

¹ Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord. 

²   Lord, hear my voice!

Let your ears be attentive
   to the voice of my supplications! 

³ If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities,
   Lord, who could stand? 
⁴ But there is forgiveness with you,
   so that you may be revered. 

⁵ I wait for the Lord, my soul waits,
   and in his word I hope; 
⁶ my soul waits for the Lord
   more than those who watch for the morning,
   more than those who watch for the morning. 

⁷ O Israel, hope in the Lord!

   For with the Lord there is steadfast love,

   and with him is great power to redeem. 

⁸ It is he who will redeem Israel
   from all its iniquities.

This is the Word of the Lord

Thanks be to God

INTRODUCTION

According to surveys done by the National Sleep Foundation, a large percentage of us, at least a third of us, are not getting the sleep we should. Why is this?

Well, there are all kinds of factors.

There are external factors:

Televisions with hundreds of channel selections to view;

internet connections with millions of websites to visit;

cell phones with messages to read and send;

fireworks that seem to explode all summer long …

These are some of the external factors that distract us from sleep.

But there are also internal factors.

We lie in bed, regretting or stewing over the events of the past day.

We lie in bed, anxious and worried about the events of the coming day. Because sleep is something of an act of trust and an act of faith, sleep does not come easily

when our mind is racing,

When our heart is pounding

And when our eyes refuse to stay closed.

The American author, Samuel Clemens, who we probably know better as Mark Twain, described the falling of darkness with the rise in worry in this way:

With the going down of the sun,

faith faded and clammy fears surrounded my heart.

These were awful nights.

In my age as well as my youth,

night brings me many a deep remorse.

I realize that from the cradle up, I have been like the rest of the human race – never quite sane in the night.^[1]

PSALM 130 — A Restless Night

Psalm 130 gives us an image, a picture, of a restless night. This psalm puts us with the watchmen who are pacing the floor, waiting for morning. This psalm puts us with the watchmen, who peer into the darkness and are haunted by the dangers they see all around.

This Psalm goes from loud restlessness,

to deep remorse,

and finally to waiting and anxious hope.

Verses 1-2 start with loud restlessness. This is not a quiet psalm. It starts with a cry, with a shout, with a plea for mercy. It starts with a cry from the depths, the depths of darkness. The cry comes from that dark place where we feel most alone with our troubles, and most vulnerable to the disappointments of life.

In verses 3 and 4 there is an explanation of the cry – deep remorse. This prayer is not the prayer of an innocent victim seeking to be rescued. This prayer is not the prayer of someone surrounded by wicked enemies.

No, the trouble of the person praying this psalm is their own doing.

The person praying has dug their own pit and now they have fallen into it.

The person praying this prayer has made their own bed, and now they cannot sleep in it.

The person praying knows they have done wrong.

They know that the reason they are crying to God for help is because they have gotten themselves into a mess.

The person praying knows that one of the reasons they cannot sleep is because they are filled with regrets about what happened in the past and

filled with worries about the consequences for the future.

So they come to God.

Why? Because they know who God is.

They know that with God there is forgiveness.

But notice how that knowledge of forgiveness doesn’t

Automatically create peace.

Notice how knowing that God is a forgiving God does not

suddenly quiet the soul,

and bring sleep to the body.

Clearly this takes time.

Verses 5-6 are the picture of a person waiting –

waiting, pacing,

desiring to know they are forgiven and loved,

and wanting to find peace and rest.

The dominant image of this psalm is the picture given in verses 5-6.

It is a picture of restlessness:

“I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I put my hope…

My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning

More than watchmen wait for the morning.”

Notice how the word wait is repeated again and again and again. Practically half the Hebrew words in verses 5 and 6 are the words for waiting, for watching,

for trying to glimpse any sign of light at the end of the tunnel,

any sign of grace at the end of the gauntlet,

any sign of morning at the end of the night.

Then there is something akin to a pause between verse 6 and the final section of this psalm, verses: 7-8.

The last two verses are words of encouragement to all of us waiting.

This prayer ends with a call for all of us who wait for God to put our hope in the Him.

There is then an explanation of why we should put our hope in God:

Because with him is unfailing love.

Because with him is full redemption.

Because he will redeem.

Notice the verb tense is still future: He will redeem …. but he hasn’t done so yet.

There lingers over this psalm a sense of unmet expectations.

There lingers over this psalm a sense of brooding hope rather than gleeful gratitude.

And hope is different than gratitude.

In the memoir he left us called My God and I, Lew Smedes ends with an explanation of the difference between gratitude and hope. Gratitude comes more easily than hope. Gratitude looks at the gift given and gushes with thankfulness right there, right then.

But hope is different.

Gratitude looks back and gushes over something we have.

Hope looks ahead and passionately longs for something we do not have.

Hope is our guts aching for what we are longing for.

Hope is the restless farmer looking longingly into the sky, anxiously waiting for

rain after 30 days of drought.

That is why hope can feel unbearable.

That is why hope can make us restless, impatient.

That is why hope can make us toss and turn in bed.

That is why hope can keep us awake at night praying.

In your mercy, hear my voice

FROM THE DEPTH OF SIN AND SADNESS BLUE 130F

Soloist st. 1

All st. 2-4

PART 2 Psalm 131 …..to Soundly Sleeping

Now to its companion Psalm, Psalm 131 – which, if I remember correctly, Peter Jonker once said was one of his favorites.

Let’s read it responsively as it is found in Blue p. 858

¹ O Lord, my heart is not lifted up,

   my eyes are not raised too high;

I do not occupy myself with things

   too great and too marvellous for me. 

² But I have calmed and quieted my soul,
   like a weaned child with its mother;
   my soul is like the weaned child that is with me. 

³ O Israel, hope in the Lord
   from this time on and for evermore.

This is the Word of the Lord

Thanks be to God

A DIFFERENT PICTURE

If Psalm 130 leaves us with the image of

pacing the floor with the watchmen of the night –

heart pounding,

mind racing,

eyes alert and open –

Psalm 131 leaves us with a much different picture.

The heart is not proud or pounding.

The eyes are not haughty, darting here and there

trying to envision every possibility.

The mind is not racing, trying to grasp the very things that refuse to be

grasped.

The body posture in Psalm 131 is so very different:

The heart is still.

The eyes are lowered.

The mind is calm.

Psalm 131 is also quieter.

Where Psalm 130 begins with a loud cry to the Lord, a wail for mercy, a shout for attention,

In Psalm 131 things are calm, and tranquil.

The soul has been stilled and quieted.

Remember the story of Jesus and his disciples in a boat during a storm.

The disciples are panicky, afraid, terrified..

And Jesus is sleeping in the boat.

The disciples are living Psalm 130.

Jesus is living Psalm 131.

The picture of Psalm 130 is a person pacing the floor with the watchmen of the night …….waiting… waiting for morning,

waiting for light, waiting for redemption.

The picture of Psalm 131 is of a sleeping child.

That is the repeated phrase — of a child in the arms of its mother.

… like a weaned child with its mother

like a weaned child is my soul within me.

Before being weaned, a child is fussy.

Before being weaned, a child is loud.

Before being weaned, a child demands instant gratification.

Before being weaned, a child will cry and keep everybody in the house awake,

until he or she receives what they are crying for.

But the weaned child is different.

A weaned child has learned to wait in faith.

A weaned child has learned delayed gratification.

A weaned child has learned to trust that their needs will be provided.

A weaned child has learned to rest quietly, trustingly, in their mother’s arms.

A weaned child has learned how to sleep through the night.

PUT YOUR HOPE IN THE LORD

Did you notice Psalm 131 ends with the exact same words as Psalm 130

O Israel, put your hope in the Lord.

But this time there are no explanations for why we should put our hope in the Lord.

This time there are no qualifiers,

This time there are no clauses that affirm

why the Lord can be trusted and should be trusted.

This time there is simply the bold statement

put your hope in the Lord, now and evermore.

Put your hope … in the Lord;

Put your hope for a new and better you,

Fully free from sin,

Fully free of the all the misery,

Put your hope in a new and redeemed you in the Lord;

Put your dreams for a new and redeemed world

A world without violence

A world without starving parents or abused children

A world without warring nations or huge economic disparities

A world where creation is lovingly tended instead of greedily

exploited;

Put your dreams of a new and redeemed world in the Lord.

In fact put all your deepest desires,

Your most wearying hopes

Your most burdensome prayers

Put them all on the Lord,

And he will give you rest.

He will give you sleep that will refresh and renew.

He will give you peace, so that you do not have to pace the floor.

Let’s sing of this peace with

FOR YOU THE PRIDE OF MY HEART IS BANISHED Blue 131D

Solo st. 1

All st. 1-2

1. In Beuchner, Speak What You Feel, 47-48. ↑