Something woke me at 3 AM today, and I struggled to get back to sleep, as I sometimes do. Thoughts and concerns tumbled through my head as I lay prey to a dozen worries. “Quiet down!” I told myself. This is no way for a believer to spend the night. That only made things worse. Then I began to remember a favorite psalm, Psalm 63.
O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is;
2 To see thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary.
3 Because thy lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise thee.
4 Thus will I bless thee while I live: I will lift up my hands in thy name.
5 My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness; and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips:
6 When I remember thee upon my bed, and meditate on thee in the night watches.
OH! I realized. Here I am on my bed! Maybe I am supposed to remember Him and think about Him, listening for His Voice in the still of the night. Maybe He has something He wants to tell me, a word of wisdom, a solution to a problem, a new step into Grace, more of Himself. So I listened. Sure enough, clarity came. Wonderful words of life, straight from my Lord. And I fell back into peace and rest.
I am so grateful that Jesus stayed awake for me through the sorrow of Gethsemane, the agony of the Cross, the three horrific days in the realm of Death. Such wondrous love. Could I not keep watch with Him for just one hour? Maybe it’s not such a bad thing to wake in the night, if Jesus is waiting for me there.