“Be angry, and do not sin; ponder in your own hearts on your beds, and be silent. Selah”
(Psalm 4:4 ESV)
A Psalm for Bedtime
This psalm seems to take place at night. Not only does the author talk about laying on his bed thinking about life, but he ends the psalm with “In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety” (Psalm 4:8 ESV). This is a “bedtime” psalm.
A Simple Bedtime Instruction
Now, there’s a lot you could say about this simple verse, but I want to draw your attention to one phrase: “Ponder in your own hearts on your beds” (Psalm 4:4 ESV).
Throughout the Bible God speaks to us in many ways and provides wisdom to us in many different forms. Here in Psalm 4, we find the most practical, simple, gentle, and quiet words of wisdom. In short, this psalm is saying, “when you’ve gotten into your bed at night under the covers, think.” Biblical instruction can’t get more ordinary.
The Uniqueness of Our Modern Bedtime
This psalm encourages us to think while in our beds at night. We might at first feel insulted by such an obvious word of advice, but I think this short phrase of counsel proves especially helpful to our technological age. Here’s why.
Your bed is a very personal place. It’s where you are finally alone, or with your spouse, and where you sleep. It’s the most private of places. Yet, from our beds in this millennium, we have more access to the outside world than any other people in history. In our own beds, if we have our phones, we sit, so to speak, in the public square.
Just think, on your bed you can access the supermarket, the mall, the marketplace, the newsroom, the government, the neighborhood drama, the dating world, and the theater, to name a few. If you have a smartphone next to your bed, you bring the world with you to bed.
To “ponder in our own hearts on our beds and be silent” (Psalm 4:4 ESV) may actually not be very natural to us. We may grab a book when we are on our beds and read ourselves to sleep. Or we may grab our phone and do who knows what apart from scrolling, scrolling, scrolling in our beds. We may slip headphones on the second we are under the covers and drown our thoughts in music to help us sleep.
What to Do When It’s Bedtime
Do you ever just lay quietly under your covers and think when you get into bed? Do you welcome the silence? This psalm would seem to indicate that the simple act of thinking when you get into bed could keep you from sin. And I’m sure in those silent moments, the Lord can work in your heart!
So, I won’t take the thought further than this. What do you do at the end of the day right when you get into bed? Do you ever “ponder in your heart and be silent” (Psalm 4:4 ESV)? God’s Word would tell us that it’s wise to do so. Maybe tonight is a good evening to begin.