Speaking Silence
“When you are on your beds, search your hearts and be silent” Psalm 4:4
Search – Do you want to know the secret to a great night’s sleep? It’s not Posturpedic or Serta or Sleep Number. It’s not The Tonight Show or a good novel. It’s not even sex. It’s damam. The same Hebrew word that we found in Psalm 131:2 is here. It means, “the absence of emotional turmoil, churning and distress”. How do you get this state of blissful composure? For that question we need to look at the other verb in this phrase, ‘amar. But how strange is this? ‘amar means “to speak”. The Psalmist is saying that the secret to being silent is to talk. What kind of paradox is this?
It’s late. You crawl into bed. You’re tired. You want a good rest. But it won’t happen, says David, if you haven’t had a conversation with your heart. The insight that we are given is quite simple: When we go to bed with unresolved thoughts, we won’t make it through the night. Searching my heart is a lot more than just cataloging the “to-do” list for tomorrow. ‘amar means that I need to have an internal conversation of confession. I need to bring before God all those things that are weighing on me. I need to get them out and let them go. Then the Sleep Number won’t matter. I will find that quiet, peaceful composure (damam) when I have taken care of ‘amar.
Insomnia is another name for sin. Confession brings rest. When I am right with the Lord of the world, the world cannot deny me the rest that I need.
Do you start your day with Him? That’s great. How could you imagine a day that did not begin with directions from the boss? How would you know the orientation for your effort if you never consulted the Engineer? But if your day is like mine, things get messed up. At the end of the day, I have two choices. I can take all those messed up things to bed with me and work on them all night long, or I can have a conversation with my heart and put them before my Lord.
Luke 9:23 is Jesus’ version of the same divine instruction. Taking up my cross daily implies that I lay it down at the end of each day. I start fresh in the morning. By the end of the day there is plenty of dust on my shoes. I am not on guard 24-7. I put down that cross so that Jesus can work on its shape and weight while I sleep. And in the morning, well, that’s another story.
