What does it mean that "I will lie down and sleep in peace" (Psalm 4:8)?

For this reason, the psalmist can confidently say, "I will both lie down in peace and sleep, for You alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety" (v.8). This is not the sleep of exhaustion, but that of confiding faith. Those whose riches increase may more likely lie awake at night worrying about how to preserve their wealth or how to spend it. The believer can depend on the Lord to lead him in the use of what he may be entrusted with, and he does not need to worry about thieves stealing it.

(vv. 6-8) The psalmist closes by unburdening his soul before the Lord. Looking at the prevailing evil and the apparent prosperity of the wicked, many would be tempted to say, “Who will shew us any good?” Faith, however, sees that the favour of God — the light of His countenance — enjoyed by a suffering remnant, is far better than the outward prosperity of the wicked. The favour of God brings gladness into the heart which far exceeds the enjoyment of temporal blessings. In the enjoyment of this favour the soul can lie down in peace and security, untroubled by over-anxiety as to the evil of the world. The enemy, as in the last psalm, may number ten thousands, but “Jehovah, alone” can make the godly dwell in safety (JND).

In the second place there is peace: such peace that David could lay himself down and sleep in happy forgetfulness of himself and his troubles. Jehovah was a shield to him, so why should he not do so? If God cared for him why should he be consumed or distracted with care for himself? This again be it noted, was the fruit of an earlier experience. When many had risen up against him under Absalom's leadership he cried to the Lord, he was heard, and then in childlike confidence he lay down and slept, and awakened sustained of the Lord. What he had done once he could trustfully do again. And he could testify to the sons of men that he was prepared to do it, no matter what the distress or pressure he was under.

And in the third place there was the safety that was guaranteed to him by the presence of the Lord. Men might threaten and imperil, but the Lord, and the Lord alone, made him dwell in safety.

The mocking words "who will show us any good?" the challenge of unbelief, is met by prayer and the assurance of faith. "Lift upon us the light of Thy countenance, Jehovah." This we shall find later is a choice prayer of the Jewish saints in the tribulation. (See Psalm 80.) His heart is filled with joy; he knows he is safe. "For Thou, LORD, only makest me dwell in safety." Such is the experience of the godly, who trust the Lord. Their hearts are filled with gladness; their safety is the Lord.

The psalm passes on from the general to the particular, — to the present distress and the needful deliverance. Here already there has been obtained a foretaste of this, in the peace that has entered and possessed the soul. "I have laid me down and slept," he says; not evidently the sleep of one merely worn out, to whom it has become a necessity: men have been known to sleep on the deck of a ship in action; but not such the sleep that is spoken of here. It is the peace of the known rampart round about which qualifies for this. Night has its special dangers in the midst of warfare, and the imagination pictures in the darkness more than may be found; yet faith can rest and be quiet under the watchful eye of God, and the morning justifies this assurance: I awaked, for Jehovah sustaineth me."

(vv. 4-6) Having this simple faith the soul confides in Jehovah — cries to the Lord, and is heard. The result being he can lie down and sleep though the circumstances are unaltered. Moreover he can awake and face ten thousands of opposers and not be afraid.

Where there is peace, such peace as peace with God and conscience, there can want no pleasure. David goes merry to bed, when he had nothing to supper but the gladness that God by this puts into his heart, and promiseth himself a better night's rest than any of them all, that are feasted with the world's cheer: "Thou hast put gladness in my heart, more than in the time that their corn and their wine increased. I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep" (Ps. 4:7-8). This same peace with God, enjoyed in the conscience, redounds to the comfort of the body. Now David can sleep sweetly, when he lies on a hard bed; what here he says he would do, in Psalm 3:5, he says he has done, "I laid me down and slept; I awaked; for the Lord sustained me." The title of the psalm tells us when David had this sweet night's rest; not when he lay on his bed of down in his stately palace at Jerusalem, but when he fled for his life from his unnatural son Absalom, and possibly was forced to lie in the open field, under the canopy of heaven. … The great care which Christ took for His disciples, when He left the world, was not to leave them a quiet world to live in, but to arm them against a troublesome world: He bequeaths to them His peace.

"I laid me down and slept: for Jehovah sustained me." How emphatic and simple! Is it so with you reader? Does all trouble find your heart so resting on God as your Father, that, when it is multiplied, it leaves your spirit at rest, your sleep sweet, lying down sleeping, and rising as if all was peace around you, because you know God is and disposes of all things? Is He thus between you and your troubles and troublers? And if He is, what can reach you? The thousands of enemies make no difference if God is there. The Assyrian is gone before he can arise to trouble or execute the threats which, after all, betray his conscious fear. We are foolish as to difficulties and trials, measuring them by our strength instead of God's, Who is for us, if we are His. What matter that the cities of Canaan were walled up to heaven, if the walls fell at the blast of a ram's horn? Could Peter have walked in a smooth sea better than on a rough one? Our wisdom is to know that we can do nothing without Jesus — with Him everything that is according to His will. The secret of peace is to be occupied with Him for His own sake, and we shall find peace in Him and through Him, and be more than conquerors when trouble comes; not that we shall be insensible to trial, but find Him and His tender care with us when trouble comes. J. N. Darby.

David wrote in Ps. 4:8: "1 will both lay me down in peace, and sleep, for Thou, Jehovah, although in solitude (R.V. margin) makest me dwell in safety." Elijah at Cherith could have said the same; no wild beast or other enemy could harm the lonely man who was there by the word of the Lord, and abiding under His watchful eye.

The godly man, as here, may go to bed and sleep (v. 8); but he warns others to go to bed, and there commune with their hearts, and search their spirits (v. 4). He knows His own full title to rest in God undisturbed; for "God giveth His beloved sleep." The Lord Jesus realized this, though winds and waves tossed the ship on the sea of Galilee. (See Mark 4)