How dare a person go to sleep at night, if he doesn't believe in God? If he doesn't believe in God's constant care for him, how dare he trust himself out of his own care? It would seem as though he would want to sit up and watch himself, to be sure that he did not stop breathing during the night.
Who is there that has not really had some such feeling as this at some time? It is safe to say that there are very few who do not know the sensation of feeling afraid to go to sleep, lest they should not wake up again. It is not a pleasant feeling, is it?
Truly, the only safety for anybody in sleep is in the Lord who "wakes and watches." "He that keeps you will not slumber. Behold, He that keeps Israel shall neither slumber nor deep. The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade upon your right hand. The sun shall not smite you by day, nor the moon by night." (Psalm 121:3-6)
Only because the Lord keeps awake, is it possible for us to go to sleep and to awake. But for His watchfulness we should literally "sleep the sleep that knows no waking."
Why is it necessary for the Lord to keep awake, in order that we may sleep? It surely is necessary, else He would not take such pains to assure us that He, our keeper, will not slumber nor sleep. He does nothing that is not necessary.
But if the idea that so many have were true, that God has "set certain laws in operation," in accordance with which everything regulates itself, as it were, then He certainly could go to sleep occasionally, and leave the universe to run along by itself for a time.
Even the man who is minding an engine in a huge factory can doze off once in a while, when the fires are well and the boilers are full, for the machinery once set in motion will run by itself. If he sleep too long, however, woe to the people dependent on his watchfulness! But God sleeps not. Of His vineyard--His people--He says: "I the Lord do keep it: I will water it every moment; lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day." (Isaiah 27:3)
The reason why is that He has not machines, but living creatures, to tend. He must supply them with life; and life is something that cannot be stored up, but must be fresh every moment. So, "Moment by moment I'm under His care."--Daniel W. Whittle, Hymn: Moment by Moment, 1893.
And moment by moment He breathes into our nostrils the breath of life, just as He did for Adam in the beginning.
What a mighty God is ours! Think of the greatness of Him who personally supplied breath to every living creature. For every creature born since Adam, God has moment by moment been repeating the operation of breathing into his nostrils the breath of life. And yet this does not exhaust His energies, nor tax His time, but He has sufficient of both to give personal attention to the innumerable worlds, keeping them all in their proper orbits. Who cannot trust Him?
Beneath His watchful eye
His saints securely dwell;
That hand that bears creation up
Shall guard His children well.
--Philip Doddridge, Hymn: How Gentle God’s Commands, 1755.
The writer can never forget the sweet content that came when he first learned to trust the Lord over night. He cannot forget it, because it continues still. The man who tumbles into bed and goes to sleep without a thought of fear, any more than the beasts, nor any more thought of God than they, does not know anything about the joy of life. That comes only when one knows whom he believes, and who is his keeper, and consciously rests in the arms of God as a babe in the arms of its mother.
To such a one the joy of childhood continues to old age; and if childhood has been robbed of its rightful heritage of joy, old age may find it. "I will lay me down in peace, and sleep; for You, Lord, alone make me dwell in safety." (Psalm 4:8)--Present Truth, August 1, 1901--Psalm 121:3-6.