Mensa Otabil - God Will Sustain You (11/01/2025)
Psalm 3:5 I lay down and slept; I awoke, for the Lord sustained me. As I’ve said from the beginning, Psalm 3 talks about David’s time of difficulty when his son Absalom rebelled against him, and a lot of his leaders followed Absalom. David was overthrown as king; he left Jerusalem. People were insulting him on every side; people were fighting him on every side, and there was so much coming against him during this time in his life.
This is when this Psalm of prayer was prayed to God. In this verse, he says he laid down and slept, and he woke. That’s a very instructive note for us to see because David was able to sleep through his problems. Problems have a way of keeping us awake, and many times, when we have problems, our minds are so occupied, our hearts are so occupied that we’re not able to sleep. Sometimes people go on all kinds of medication, and sometimes even the medication doesn’t help, so people are not able to have a good night’s sleep. But David had a very different experience in this time of crisis.
Remember, he cried to the Lord, and he had his peace. Then he says, I lay down and slept; he was able to sleep in a time of crisis. That’s not a reckless statement; it doesn’t mean he was unconcerned or not bothered. He was not apathetic-no, he understood all that was happening to him, but he also had a way of putting his burdens on the Lord, and that is what gave him sleep. After pouring out his heart to God in prayer, there was no need to go to sleep with his burdens. Many times we think we’ve given something to God, but we’re still carrying it. We think we’ve prayed about something, but we’re still worried about it.
However, after David had prayed, he had his selah, his peace, and now he says, I went to bed and slept; I had good sleep. Then he said secondly, after sleeping, I awoke, and he says I awoke because the Lord sustained me. David awakened in the morning; he felt renewed, he felt revived, he felt rejuvenated because the morning was very important for David. That was when his praise went up to the Lord. He lifted up his hands in praise in the morning because God gave him rest at night. When we learn to surround the throne of God with our pain and our anxieties, God gives us his rest, and when he gives us his rest, we’re able to sleep and wake up every morning renewed, revived, rejuvenated, revitalized. That’s how God wants it to be.
The reason why David says I awoke in the morning was because God sustained me. I trusted the Lord, and He sustained me. The Lord helped him, the Lord gave him peace, and the Lord gave him strength. That is the same God you worship, and that’s the same God that you talk to and pray to. So after you have talked about all your problems, may the Lord give you peace and rest for your soul so that when you go to bed at night, you sleep like a baby and wake up renewed to face a new day. It may have trouble during the day, but you have strength to deal with it, and God is able to help us to sleep and to wake up even in the midst of trouble.
Let’s pray. Say with me, Heavenly Father, I ask you for peace of mind and quietness of soul. Renew me every morning by your Spirit. In Jesus' name, Amen and Amen.