Puritan Prayers: Sleep

Have you ever read a love poem that resonated so much it gave you that “aha!” moment?  The moment that you read another’s articulation of thoughts and feelings that both communicate and clarify your own?  What the love poems of Shakespeare, Daniel, and Solomon are to love between two souls, so the Puritan prayers of The Valley of Vision are to my joys, vexations, and frustrations toward God. I find myself constantly amazed at the ability that these pastors have to articulate what I want to say to God.

Tonight’s prayer, appropriately enough, is about sleep.  You see, for some people, the thought of getting into bed at night doesn’t always bring positive feelings. Some are kept awake with racing thoughts. Others with racing hearts. Instead of respite, some only find nightmares they can’t escape. And for many, going to bed only means idle hands and straying thoughts.  Anger, hatred, lust, worry, despair – all find captive audience at night.

I can’t help but feel as if this pastor understands the dual nature of sleep. I’m also reassured by his understanding that in the darkness we are not alone. But enough from me.

~~~

Sleep

BLESSED CREATOR,

Thou hast promised thy beloved sleep;

Give me restoring rest needful for

  tomorrow’s toil;

If dreams be mine,

  let them not be tinged with evil.

Let thy Spirit make my time of repose

  a blessed temple of His holy presence.

May my frequent lying down make me familiar

    with death,

  the bed I approach remind me of the grave,

  the eyes I now close picture to me their

    final closing.

Keep me always ready, waiting for admittance

    to thy presence.

Weaken my attachment to earthly things.

May I hold life loosely in my hand,

  knowing that I receive it on condition

    of its surrender;

As pain and suffering betoken transitory health,

  may I not shrink from a death that introduces me

    to the freshness of eternal youth.

I retire this night in full assurance of one day

    awakening with thee.

All glory for this precious hope,

  for the gospel of grace,

  for thine unspeakable gift of Jesus,

  for the fellowship of the Trinity.

Withhold not thy mercies in the night season;

  thy hand never wearies,

  thy power needs no repose,

  thine eye never sleeps.

Help me when I helpless lie,

  when my conscience accuses me of sin,

  when my mind is harassed by foreboding

    thoughts,

  when my eyes are held awake by personal anxieties.

Show thyself to me as the God of all grace,

    love and power;

  thou hast a balm for every wound,

    a solace for all anguish,

    a remedy for every pain,

    a peace for all disquietude.

Permit me to commit myself to thee

    awake or asleep.

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