“Insomnia Solutions” – FBC Morning Light (5/20/2024)

Well, a good Monday morning to you. Hope your weekend was a good one, and especially you appreciated the Lord's house yesterday and gathering with God's people and learned something from his word that helped you grow in Christ.

Psalms 72, 127, and Proverbs in the Reading Plan

Well, today we're in our Bible reading plan, we're reading a couple more of the Psalms, Psalm 72 and 127, and then we begin reading several readings in the book of Proverbs in this chronological reading through the Bible.

Most of the Proverbs were written or compiled by Solomon, so we're getting into that time period of Solomon, his reign and so forth, and so we're moving into the Proverbs. But today I want to focus on Psalm 127.

It's a short psalm, it's only five verses long. Many people are familiar with the last few verses, talking about children being a heritage from the Lord, that they're a blessing to us, and that's a very important perspective that we need to have on our children.

Anxiety Over Household, Provision, and Protection

But I want to focus primarily on verses one and two, and do so by asking this question. What keeps you awake at night? What is it that causes you to toss and turn? You should be going to sleep, it's late, you're tired, but your mind is racing and you just can't get to sleep.

What is it? You know, Psalm 127, verse two, talks at the end of the verse about, well, in the ESV it puts it this way, it's vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil.

Eating the bread of anxious toil. It's talking about just being filled with anxiety over something. Now, the psalmist, in verse one, suggests two areas of life that can fill us with anxiety. One of them has to do with the building of the house, so he says it's, unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain that build that house.

And that building of the house doesn't necessarily refer to the physical structure, you know, brick and mortar, if you will, and wood and shingles, but has to do more with the household, building the household.

It can be related to your child rearing, how you're doing with your kids, and how you're developing, how they are developing. And you can be filled with anxious toil over your child rearing. It can refer to the provision for the household, you know, making sure that you have adequate resources, that you can pay the bills and things of that nature.

And sometimes, you know, circumstances come in life where it's very difficult and challenging to make ends meet. And we can lose sleep over trying to figure out, how are we going to pay the bills? How are we going to put enough food on the table?

So that's one area of concern. The other area has to do with protection. Last part of the verse says, unless the Lord guards the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. Now, a very specific reference to protection and shelter and so forth, but that can be applied very broadly.

I can be worried about my security. And again, think about all the different ways that that can be applied. Certainly, you know, if we live in an area of the city where crime is on the increase, and there's been some violent crime happen down the street or in our neighborhood, we can become very concerned about that.

But it can go much broader than that. We can become very anxious and concerned about the security of our nation or our security in a nation that is crumbling, and, you know, economic security and so forth and so on.

So those are just a couple of areas that can keep us awake at night. What is it that keeps you awake at night? Well, the psalmist goes on to say, it's vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, and to eat the bread of anxious toil.

Trusting God's Providence Instead of Anxious Toil

Why?

Why is that vain? Well, because in reality, you can't control the circumstances and everything that are involved in those situations. So what do we do? What do we do? I mean, I can't control what's going on in my city.

I can't control what's going on in the nation and, you know, what the president and the Congress decide and so on and so forth. I don't have any control over any of that. None whatsoever. You say, well, you can go to the ballot box and vote.

Yeah, yeah, I know. But yeah, okay. So I really don't have any control over so many of these circumstances in life that cause me anxiety. So what do I do? Well, again, the psalmist gives us insight. He says, unless the Lord builds the house, unless the Lord guards the city, my trust needs to be in the purposes and the providence and the sovereignty and the work of God in my behalf, on behalf of His children.

I can trust in Him. And when my heart and my mind become filled with thoughts that produce anxiety, by the grace of God, I need to turn those things into prayer and say, Lord, I don't know what to do about this, but I am so glad you do.

Lord, I don't have any control over this, but I'm so glad you do. I'm turning these things over to you. Please, please grant me sleep. And verse two ends and says, for so He gives His beloved sleep. Trust in Him.

Trust in Him. And by His grace, allow Him to give you sleep. So our Father and our God, we thank you for this encouraging passage this morning. And we realize that in this world in which we live, there's so many, so many things that can fill us with anxiety.

May we learn to turn those anxious thoughts and concerns into prayer and then trust. We pray in Jesus' name, Amen. All right, listen, have a good Monday. Hope your week gets off to a great start. May God bless.