April 1, Decision to Rest

Today’s reading: Psalms 1-5

“I lie down and sleep; I wake again, because the Lord sustains me. I will not fear though tens of thousands assail me on every side” - Psalms 3:5-6.

When you read the psalms in order, you realize there was often a crisis that caused the writers to write and the editors to place the psalms in the order they did. In Psalm 3, we see that King David and the monarchy were in danger when David was badly outnumbered and fleeing from Absalom, his rebel son. Yet in the midst of it all, David found time to write and pray, and in both to make his affirmations of trust and hope in God. When David said he could sleep and not fear when thousands came against him, he wasn’t exaggerating. If David could create, write, pray, trust, and sleep in the midst of his life’s problems, can you do the same in yours? It seems that all those things he did were decisions within his power to make and he followed through with the physical proof. It should remind us of Jesus’ peace in the midst of a storm: “The disciples went and woke him, saying, ‘Master, Master, we’re going to drown!’ He got up and rebuked the wind and the raging waters; the storm subsided, and all was calm” (Luke 8:24). Have you made the decision to be at rest, even though there is turmoil all around you? What are you doing to prove that you are resting?