On my bed I remember You; I think of You through the watches of the night. (Psalm 63:6)

I wouldn’t say I’m a textbook insomniac, but I have trouble getting to sleep most nights. So I lie there. I rethink what I should have done that day. I make mental lists for tomorrow. I return to mistakes God has long ago forgiven. I also get hungry. What if, instead of getting up (quietly) and opening (really quietly) a box of white cheddar Grooves which I know will satisfy that hunger, I do what David did: “On my bed I remember God. I think of Him through the watches of the night” (v.6, emphasis mine). I could turn my physical hunger (which probably wasn’t real hunger anyway) toward a soul hunger for God. David provides a pattern I could follow to do just that.

Psalm 63 is David’s personal, passionate plea to experience more of a God he already knows: “O God, You are my God, earnestly I seek You” (v.1a). Hiding in the desert, David could so easily, so naturally pray for deliverance and rest, but no: “my soul thirsts for You; my body longs for You” (v.1b). We all know the irritation and torment of physical hunger and thirst which gnaw at us until satisfied. David’s hunger is almost physical, too, as he desperately seeks communion with God. That’s the first lesson in tackling my insomnia: earnestly seeking God “through the watches of the night,” not rehearsing my regrets.

David’s next step in satisfying his hunger for God is to rehearse what he’s seen and experienced: “I have beheld Your power and Your glory (v.2). That naturally leads to praising God (vs.3-5). The more David praises, the more “his soul is satisfied as with the richest of foods” (v.5a). Forget the Grooves; praise is the real Bread of Heaven. Finally, “on his bed” (in my insomnia, too), David meditates: “I remember…I think” (v.6). His meditation ends with a veiled prayer request: “Because You are my help, I sing…I stay close to You” (vs.7-8). David knows God is for him, so while he doesn’t specifically pray for rescue, he does assume it is coming: “they who seek my life will be destroyed’ (v.9).

Whereas I grow more and more anxious the longer sleep eludes me, David sings as he hides in a “dry and weary land where there is no water” (1c). Yes, he sings. So can I…well, maybe quietly, after I have rehearsed God’s goodness to me (vs. listing everything I failed to accomplish that day), praised Him for His character, and meditated on all I have in Him. 

Middle of the night hunger + a box of Grooves = satisfaction, but not for long. And it just distracts me from what I really need. Soul satisfaction doesn’t come from external circumstances going my way (sleep for me, protection for David). it comes from experiencing God on the inside. And when God satisfies that hunger, we’ll likely hunger even more.

I love the King James version of v.8: “My soul followeth hard after Thee.” Next time worry crowds out sleep for you, how could you follow “hard” after God? Try getting up close and personal; let God’s “right hand uphold you.”