Bible Commentaries

Psalm 4:8

I. To go to sleep is a thing of exceeding solemnity, because, when we close our eyes, we cannot be sure that our waking will be in this world. There is only a step between the present life, which in the daytime seems to be the only real life, and the life to come. II. It is the height of meanness as well as of folly to lie down without contemplating the goodness of Him who neither slumbereth nor sleepeth, and to Whom alone we are indebted for the safety of our persons and dwellings. In this age of ours, which makes an idol of Action, and which clamours for rapidly gained results, Meditation—and especially that kind of meditation which passes into prayer—has practically become a lost faculty.

III. I can suggest no more effectual remedy for this spiritual atrophy than the reading or singing of an evening hymn before we close our eyes in sleep. I prescribe an evening hymn because there is no season that lends itself like the night to holding converse with the things belonging to the spirit.

There are three great evening hymns in our language, and without awarding the palm to any one of them, it may be observed that "Sun of my Soul," Keble's greatest hymn, is the work of the most original and the most popular of English sacred poets, and, according to Julian, "one of the foremost hymns in the English language".

—W. Taylor, Twelve Favourite Hymns, p115.

References.—IV:8.—J. Keble, Sermons for Holy Week, p230. C. J. Vaughan, Voices of the Prophets, p75. S. A. Brooke, The Spirit of the Christian Life, p277. A. Maclaren, Life of David, p246. J. Parker, The Ark of God, p125. I. Williams, The Psalm Interpreted of Christ, p111. S. Cox, Expositor (2Series), vol. iii. p178. Preacher's Monthly, vol. iii. p356.