Sunday, October 20, 2024 PM

Troubled Nights and the Need for God’s Help

We've been around in the Psalms today to see what our Lord has for us tonight, but we'll start there. Let's begin with a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you again for tonight. We thank you for the blessings that you give us as a good and heavenly Father who does not change, but remains ever kind, ever patient, ever full of grace for us.

We thank you, Lord, for giving us all that we need and much, much more. Thank you, Lord, that in Jesus Christ we receive every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. We ask for your help tonight. We ask for your grace and for your mercy.

As we look into your word, may we see Christ there, and may we take your word and apply it to our lives. And it's in Christ's name that we pray. Amen. Have you ever had trouble sleeping? And maybe it's not something that is a physical problem.

You're physically fine. It's not you had too much caffeine recently. But your soul is agitated. You have a lot of worries, a lot of fears, possibly dealing with some guilt. It's a real problem in a fallen world.

We need sleep, but it can be hard to obtain. And the Bible talks about this struggle. In Job chapter 7, the afflicted man who's going through both physical pains as well as pains of the soul, he says in chapter 7,.

So I've been allotted months of futility, and wearisome nights have been appointed to me. When I lie down, I say, When shall I arise, and the night be ended? For I have had my fill of tossing till dawn.

Wearisome nights are a real problem in this fallen world. And some experience it even on a high level, experiencing night terrors in the night, in the morning, or before they go to bed. So with this problem before us, what do we do?

Where do we go for answers? Where do we go for a solution? We go to the one sufficient true source that can help a troubled soul. We go to the Word of God to hear the voice of Jesus Christ and to hear His solution for our troubled soul as we experience troubled nights.

It could be that we have trouble sleeping because something physically is wrong. We know from the Word that we're made both body and soul. The two are joined together. They're not separated, but interwoven by God's good design.

And the use of medicine, when it's used properly and wisely, is a good thing, a blessing from our Heavenly Father. But no medicine can heal the soul. Only Jesus Christ can do that. So now we come to His Word to learn what do we do in our troubled nights.

Meditating on God and His Word in the Night Watches

And the Word of God tells us first that these troubled nights, it's a time to meditate. Psalm 63, beginning in verse 1. I invite you to read along with me. A psalm of David when he was in the wilderness of Judah.

O God, You are my God. Early will I seek You. My soul thirsts for You. My flesh longs for You in a dry and thirsty land where there is no water. So I have looked for You in the sanctuary to see Your power and Your glory.

Because Your lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise You. Thus I will bless You while I live. I will lift up my hands in Your name. My soul shall be satisfied as with morrow and fatness.

And my mouth shall praise You with joyful lips. When I remember You on my bed, I meditate on You in the night watches. Because You have been my help, therefore in the shadow of Your wings, I will rejoice.

My soul follows close behind You. Your right hand upholds me. Here is a psalm of David and he finds himself in the wilderness. It is quite possible that he is being hunted right now by his son Absalom or by Saul, the previous king.

So here is a man on the run, hunted by his own government. He finds himself in a wilderness. Do you think that David would have some trouble sleeping? Do you think that his soul would be agitated with fear and with worry?

I definitely would think so. But what do we see in this psalm? We see that David seeks the Lord early in the morning. In a dry and desert place, he seeks the Lord. In verses 6 and 7, he says, When I remember You on my bed, I meditate on You in the night watches.

Because You have been my help, therefore in the shadow of Your wings, I will rejoice. He remembers God. He meditates on the Lord of glory. Meditation is not the emptying of your mind, not the clearing of your mind, but it is the filling up of your mind with a particular subject or a particular person.

Here is David filling up his mind with the Lord, with the King of glory. He is recalling God and the character and actions of the Lord. God has been David's help and the king rejoices in the shelter of God's wings, in the divine protection and care that only the Lord brings.

This is David's refuge and strength in his trouble. And he finds peace during the night in his Lord, in his God. He takes time in those troubled nights to meditate upon the Lord. Turn over to Psalm 119, verse 49.

Psalm 119, verse 49. We come to the longest of the psalms, a psalm that is dedicated exclusively to looking at the glories and various different aspects of the word of God itself. And we read in verse 49,.

Remember the word to your servant, upon which you have caused me to hope. This is my comfort and my affliction, for your word has given me life. The proud have me in great derision, yet I do not turn aside from your law.

I remembered your judgments of old, O Lord, and have comforted myself. Indignation has taken hold of me because of the wicked who forsake your law. Your statutes have been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage.

I remember your name in the night, O Lord, and I keep your law. This has become mine because I kept your precepts. Let's stop there. So we see that the psalmist faces enemies and affliction of some sort, but instead of falling into worry and fear, he uses this situation as an opportunity to authentically turn to the Lord and to find help in him.

He turns to God's word and finds comfort in it. God's word is his comfort and his pain, for it has given him life, spiritual life, for by it he knows more of his Lord. And God's word has been his song during his travels.

As a pilgrim, he's walking through this land, he's heading home, and during his travels, he sings the word of the Lord. It's his constant companion, his song as he travels. He finds real comfort in God's word and actively calls upon it and calls it to mind.

I remember your name in the night, O Lord, and I keep your law. He meditates upon his Lord and upon the word of his Lord. And, of course, we remember the words of Psalm 1, Blessed is the man who delights in the law of the Lord, and in his law he meditates both day and night, meditating all day and all night upon the word of the Lord.

That man is blessed, happy, and content, the man who delights in the word of the Lord. So during troubled nights, what do you think about? Where does your heart go? These psalms show us that these are times to meditate, to remember God and to remember his word and to draw immense divine comfort from it, from him.

Worship and Thanksgiving in the Night

It's also a time to worship. Turn over to Psalm 92. Psalm 92, beginning in verse 1. A psalm, a song for the Sabbath day. It is good to give thanks to the Lord and to sing praises to your name, O Most High, to declare your lovingkindness in the morning and your faithfulness every night.

Here is a psalm for the Sabbath day, that weekly day of rest, that day of trusting in the Lord to be enough. And we see from the psalm this is a time to worship him. The first two verses tell us that it's good to give thanks to God, to practice that great spiritual discipline of thankfulness, to bring thanksgiving to the One Most High, the One exalted and above everything, the One who is altogether other than all things.

To sum it up in a word, we could say that the Lord is holy, completely other than everything else. No one can match his glory or his majesty. No one is on the same level as God. He alone is holy. It's also good to declare the Lord's lovingkindness in the morning, rising up to meet a new day, to enjoy that Sabbath rest, to declare privately to yourself and to declare to others audibly the lovingkindness of the Lord, the Great Covenant Keeper.

And it's good to declare his faithfulness every night, privately to yourself and publicly to others, to speak of how God has been faithful, that is, he always keeps a promise. A promise made by God is a promise kept.

He never breaks a promise, never. He's always faithful. And it's good to speak of how God has worked wonders in the past for his people, how he's always provided, how he's always blessed. He has been faithful.

And it's good during the night to bring up praises and worship to him and declare you have been faithful in this way, in this way, and in the other way. The Lord has always been faithful. The nighttime is a time to declare the faithfulness of God, both to yourself and to those around you.

It's a time of worship, a time to worship him who has always been faithful. Turn over to Psalm 134. Psalm 134. And yes, we'll read the whole psalm. A song of ascents. Behold, bless the Lord, all you servants of the Lord, who by night stand in the house of the Lord.

Lift up your hands at the sanctuary and bless the Lord, the Lord who made heaven and earth. Bless you from Zion. Here's a psalm of wonderful worship and praise. And it's interesting to note, when are the people praising the Lord in his temple?

During the night. Instead of sleeping, they're filled with joy and with praise. So instead of resting for the next day, they go to the temple of the Lord and they praise him. Because they're filled with zeal and with joy, and they want to lift up praises to the Lord and worship him.

He is always worthy of our worship, during the day and during the night. And here, the people of God want to worship their Lord, even during the night, to simply praise the Lord and bless his name. The night time can be difficult for some who genuinely struggle.

But the scriptures have shown us that that is an appropriate and good time to worship, especially during the troubled nights. To lift up our hearts and the words of our mouth to praise the Lord, to bring him glory.

He is always worthy of our worship. Though we might go through a hard night or have an easy night, he is always worthy of our worship. The troubled nights are also a time of prayer. Turn over to Psalm 42.

We'll read verse 8 of Psalm 42. The psalm says, The Lord will command his loving kindness in the daytime, and in the night his song shall be with me, a prayer to the God of my life. Here is a psalm that shows one struggling with depression.

He is thirsting after God and feels as if he is drowning in much sorrow. Yet in all of that, we see the man consistently and authentically turn to the Lord with all of his sincere questions, with all of his concerns, and with all of his praises.

He comes to the Lord, and instead of listening to his depression, he speaks truth to himself. He proclaims truth to himself. He says, Hope in God, for I shall yet praise him. Why are you downcast, O my soul?

And in verse 8, He remembers that the Lord will command his loving kindness in the daytime, and in the night his song shall be with me, a prayer to the God of my life. The sovereign of all things, with divine authority, will send mercy upon mercy of his love on his people during the day.

He'll send his loving kindness continually and be their help during the daytime. And in the night, the psalmist says his song shall be with me, a prayer to the God of my life. During the evening, the depressed individual offers up a song, a prayer to God.

He sings in the night a prayer. He lifts up his heart and the words of his mouth to the Lord who gives him life, both physically and spiritually. During the night, when one is faced with depression and great affliction of the soul, this is a time to pray, to authentically, truly turn to the Lord and seek help from Him, sing praises to Him, and to commune with Him genuinely, to bring to God all of your sincere questions, all of your worries, all of your sadness, and all of your praises, to speak with the Almighty and commune with Him.

And we know that all of the psalms have this wonderful blend of both praise and prayer. The psalmist, in every opportunity of life, in every season, they turn to the Lord in times of joy and in times of sorrow.

In the daytime as well as in the nighttime, we see that the psalmist always turns to the Lord and that is the key for those who experience a troubled night. Turn to the Lord and spend time with Him. Seek help from Him during those troubled nights.

And we know it's because of Jesus that we have access to God the Father wherever we are, at whatever time. It's because of Jesus that we can come boldly to the throne of grace for help and hope during those times.

He, in fact, is our help and our hope. Because of Jesus, these precious promises that we've just read are applied to us, to those who believe in Him, who place their personal trust and faith in Him as Savior.

For all the promises of God are yes in Jesus and we give our amen to Him. As creator of all things, Jesus Christ has made both the daytime and the nighttime. And that's really interesting because before the fall, before sin, there was daytime and nighttime and God said it was good.

Jesus is the maker both of the physical light and the physical darkness. Jesus is still your priest and still your prophet during the troubled nights. He's still there. He's still working for you. He's still interceding for you during the troubled nights.

He still cares. And even the darkness is as light to Him. You cannot be hidden from His sight. You are still in His hands. The good shepherd says, no one will take you from my hand. Do you believe that?

In the troubled night, do you believe that? Jesus is faithful and He doesn't change. He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. Jesus is still king during the night. And He still watches out and provides for His people.

During our troubled nights, it's a time to meditate upon God and His word. It's a time to meditate upon the gospel and our Lord Jesus Christ. For we know that the word testifies of Christ. He is its main subject.

So during the night, it's a time to meditate upon Him, the Son of God, Jesus who is the Christ. It's Jesus who has delivered us from great darkness, our own personal sin, and from this dark fallen world.

And it's Jesus who has taken upon Himself the greatest darkness that one will ever experience, the wrath of God. And because He has done that, we who believe in Him will never face that darkness. Never.

But we look forward to seeing Him when He appears, not just with the eyes of faith, but with resurrected eyes, to see Him and to be with Him forever. That is our glorious and bright hope in Jesus Christ, a living hope in the living Savior.

A Bedtime Routine of Confession, Scripture, Prayer, and Praise

So now I'd like to talk about we've learned what the word of God has to say. We've thought about Jesus Christ. And now how do we take that and apply it to our lives in a concrete way? And for that, I think one application is to develop a bedtime routine.

And you might have that for your kids. You might tell them, brush your teeth, get ready for bed, make a prayer, go to sleep. That's their routine. But what about for you? What's your routine of turning to the Lord authentically?

So I'd like to suggest to you a couple items in how you can create your own bedtime routine, how you can turn authentically to the Lord and seek Him and help. Number one, and this is the difficult one, write down your fears, your anxieties, and anything you need to repent from.

Adam and Eve, when they were found out for their sin, sought to cover up their sin, to hide away, and to shift the blame. For our own sin, we should not do that. We should confess it, bring it to the Lord, bring it into the light, and find forgiveness and cleansing in Jesus Christ.

And until we write those down and figure out what those specifically are, we can't adequately deal with those by the light of Jesus Christ. So we have to write those down, ask the Lord to search us and try us, reveal in us any anxious thoughts or any evils that we have to turn or repent from, and give that to the Lord.

Now we don't spend a whole lot of time there. Just enough to identify those and to bring those to the light of Jesus Christ so that He can cleanse us of those fears, cleanse us of those worries, and give us cleansing for our own sin.

If it's fear we struggle with, let the Word of God bring the right remedy. When I am afraid, I will trust in You. If it's worry, cast your anxieties and your worries upon the Lord, for He cares for you.

Remember the words of your great Savior. Don't worry about tomorrow. Your Father knows what you need. Seek first the kingdom, and all these things will be added unto you. Another scripture for fear that I have really been blessed and benefited by, I sought the Lord, and He heard me, and He delivered me from all my fears.

If it's guilt or shame you struggle with, seek the Lord Jesus Christ, who has removed your guilt as far as the east is from the west. He offers you forgiveness full and free. He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us of all unrighteousness.

So make sure to go to bed with a clean conscience, a purified conscience by the Lord Jesus Christ. Number two, scripture meditation. Consider reading a passage before you go to bed, or on a little index card, write down a passage that you want to meditate on, or perhaps memorize.

Writing it down can help the Word of God be hidden in your heart, and you actually learn to memorize the passages you write down. It doesn't have to be a whole lot. It doesn't have to be the entire book of Leviticus, but maybe just one or two verses that will help you as you draw near to Jesus Christ during the night.

I appreciate the words of Martin Luther, who I know that he had some troubled nights himself, as he faced, it seemed like, sometimes, the entire world. What was his solution? He said once, at night always carry in your heart something from holy scriptures to bed with you.

Meditate upon it like a ruminant animal, and go softly to sleep. But this must not be too much, rather a little, that it may be well pondered and understood, that you may find a remnant of it in your mind when you rise in the morning.

I don't know if this story is true, but I remember hearing a story about Martin Luther in the later years of his life. He had written on his wall next to his bed, Psalm 46, so that it was the last thing he saw before he shut his eyes and went to sleep.

I remember the story of Charles Spurgeon, who had on his wall next to his bed, blessed are you who are persecuted. So he looked at that every morning as he arose. And so for us, when we experience troubled nights, we have to take in God's word and let it direct our hearts and our minds and calm our agitated souls.

Only it has the power to calm a soul, to heal a soul. Number three, prayer. Simply pray and commune with the Heavenly Father to pray to your Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ. You don't have to pray for a whole lot of items, but it would be good to write down one or two things to pray for.

Pray for something that's heavy on your mind or your heart, or perhaps consider the needs of others and pray for someone else. Who can you pray for before you go to bed? Again, it doesn't have to be a whole lot.

Two, maybe three items of prayer. In that prayer, number four, make sure to offer up thanksgiving. List out and write down two or three things that you can be thankful for and give praise to God for. You can think back before you fall asleep.

How has God been faithful to you today? How has He provided? How has He been faithful this last week, this month, this year, and what ways has He provided for you and been gracious to you? And what ways has He demonstrated His love toward you?

Thanksgiving. And you'll find, dear Christian, that once you exercise that spiritual discipline of thankfulness more and more, you'll find it very difficult to keep just two or three items of thankfulness.

But you'll be thinking about 10, 20, 50 things to be thankful for to the Lord Jesus Christ. Because as you exercise that spiritual muscle, it'll get stronger and stronger and it'll become more natural.

It'll become more of a habit to thank the Lord and to turn to Him during the nighttime. Another item to consider, worship and praise. To sing with your heart and to sing with your mouth. Now, if you live with a family, singing audibly before you go to bed might not be the best thing.

But it could be, and I would like to suggest to you, it might be a good habit for you and your family. Sing a song of worship to the Lord before you go to sleep, together as a family, so that you all might be attuned to Jesus Christ.

Your hearts might be set upon Him as you fall asleep. But if you find yourself in the middle of the night, and it's a hard one, some might face night terrors, if you can't sing audibly to the Lord, try and find a place where you can, quietly.

Another place of the house, maybe outside on your property somewhere. And if you can't do that, read a psalm, read a spiritual song, read a hymn. Sing with your heart if you can't with your mouth. Or, get a nice pair of headphones and be edified by worship and praise of other brothers and sisters, lifting up worship and praise to the Lord.

And the last item, remember Jesus Christ. Risen from the dead, of the seed of David, according to the gospel. Remember Jesus Christ. The world right now needs the gospel. Right now, you need the gospel.

And during those troubled nights, make sure to preach the gospel to yourself. Jesus Christ has come and He has saved you from great darkness. He has brought you into the kingdom of light, His kingdom, and you'll never be lost.

Think on the glories of Christ. What about Christ is most precious to you? Write that down before you go to sleep. About the routine, it doesn't have to be super long. We're not aiming to have like a Puritan routine where it's like three or four hours long.

It can just be ten minutes, five minutes. The goal is not to trust in the routine or in the formation of the routine. It's a means of grace to draw close to Christ. He is our goal, whether we have a good night's sleep or not.

Christ Our Goal, God’s Sovereignty, and the Hope of Rest

And I'd like to address that in closing. What if a believer takes this practice, takes this discipline, and finds no immediate relief? What if a believer tries these disciplines multiple times and nothing seems to happen right away?

There's no immediate relief. I think it's important to recognize that Jesus is our goal in this as a means of grace to draw close to him. He is our goal. More important than a good night's sleep,.

Actually.

Jesus said that the Father is mindful of all of our needs, but seek first the kingdom. And it's Jesus who also quoted the scriptures and said, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.

And that's certainly true of our sleep as well, too. Man shall not live by a good night's sleep, but by the word of God. So the goal is to rely upon Christ, who provides for us our daily sleep. And he will.

Because he's a good shepherd and he knows what we need, and he'll provide that every single time. He'll take care of you. He'll take care of not just your soul, but your physical needs as well. We are satisfied in Jesus alone, whether we're granted a good night's rest or not.

And it's good to remember that in his sovereignty, God uses even our sleepless nights for his glory and for our good. We remember the story of Esther, the historical story of Esther, where the king couldn't sleep in chapter 6, and so he had the records of the kingdom read to him.

And God used that sleepless night to further the redemption plan in history, to protect his people and to deliver them from a great threat. Just like that, God uses your sleepless nights for his glory and for our good.

We might not know the reason this side of heaven, but there's a reason for it. Take that time, redeem that time, and draw close to Christ. And even if you get up the next morning, you've had no sleep, your dog tired, your soul will be refreshed and at peace in Jesus Christ.

He's the one who said, come unto me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Turn over to Psalm 91. Let's have our good shepherd have the last word. Psalm 91. It begins in verse 1.

He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, he is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in him I will trust. Surely he shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the perilous pestilence.

He shall cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you shall take refuge. His truth shall be your shield and buckler. You shall not be afraid of the terror by night, nor of the arrow that flies by day, nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness, nor of the destruction that lays waste at noonday.

A thousand may fall at your side and ten thousand at your right hand, but it shall not come near you. Only with your eyes shall you look and see the reward of the wicked. Because you have made the Lord, who is my refuge, even the Most High, your dwelling place, no evil shall befall you, nor shall any plague come near your dwelling.

For he shall give his angels charge over you to keep you in all your ways. In their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone. You shall tread under the lion and the cobra, the young lion and the serpent you shall trample underfoot.

Because he has set his love upon me, therefore I will deliver him. I will set him on high because he has known my name. He shall call upon me, and I will answer him. I will be with him in trouble. I will deliver him and honor him.

With long life, I will satisfy him and show him my salvation. Chris, do you mind closing this out?

Cool.