When thou liest down, thou shalt not be afraid: yea, thou shalt lie down, and thy sleep shall be sweet.
Pro 3:24
Yea, thou shalt lie down, and thy sleep shall be sweet.
The peaceful slumbers of the righteous
Slumber is the common privilege of thousands undistinguished by any great virtue. But slumber may be the ordinary effect of nature. While there is no physical ailment or deep sorrow to hinder it; it is the natural result of weariness and daily toil. The slumbers of the text are those which come through freedom from fear.
I. The security of a good mans rest. The body demands rest. To withhold this rest, or to give it reasonable limits, is moral suicide. When the good man lies down he is not to be afraid. Afraid of what? Of bodily danger and accidents and calamities. It is an instinct to have more fear in the darkness than in the light. It is in the night that we dread the outbreak of the smouldering spark; it is the night which favours the robbers murderous purpose; it is the night which adds terrors to the lightning flash and to the storm. The promise of the text supplies a rational warrant for calm security. You may sleep and take your rest, for He that keepeth Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The powers of evil shall not destroy further than may be consistent with the Divine designs of mercy, or with an overruling purpose for good. It is a promise that in lying down we need not be afraid of death. When we close our eyes in slumber we know not in which of two worlds we may wake again. We can only overcome the fear of death by knowing that we have a part in Him who is the destroyer of death. How may we lay down and not be afraid? Only by endeavouring that, whether we wake in one world or another, we may have Christ with us at our rising.
II. Thy sleep shall be sweet. This is a second privilege of the good.
1. Sleep is sweetened by the thought of duties attempted, if not duties done. We are all unprofitable servants, but that is no reason why we should be slothful servants.
2. Sleep is sweet through an enjoyed sense of the Divine forgiveness. It cannot be a healthy sleep which men enjoy while the pillow is pressed by a weight of unpardoned, unrepented sin.
3. Sleep may be sweetened by kind and charitable thoughts towards all mankind. Cultivate those dispositions which minister to a holy and gentle charity. Conclusion. You must share in the good mans labour if either in this life or in that which is to come you would share in the good mans rest. Sleep to the labouring man is sweet, so also is the sleep of the labouring Christian. His struggles with sin, his contest with the world, the labour of keeping the heart right, and the hands pure, and the eye single, and the ways direct–these are things which make rest needful for him, which give refreshment to his slumbers and repose to his rest. And this warfare of the Christian every day, followed by a night of rest, is but a type of the whole warfare of time followed by the Sabbath rest of eternity. (Daniel Moore, M.A.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 24. When thou liest down] In these verses (Pr 3:23-26) the wise man describes the confidence, security, and safety, which proceed from a consciousness of innocence. Most people are afraid of sleep, lest they should never awake, because they feel they are not prepared to appear before God. They are neither innocent nor pardoned. True believers know that God is their keeper night and day; they have strong confidence in him that he will be their director and not suffer them to take any false step in life, Pr 3:23. They go to rest in perfect confidence that God will watch over them; hence their sleep, being undisturbed with foreboding and evil dreams, is sweet and refreshing, Pr 3:24. They are not apprehensive of any sudden destruction, because they know that all things are under the control of God; and they are satisfied that if sudden destruction should fall upon their wicked neighbour, yet God knows well how to preserve them, Pr 3:25. And all this naturally flows from the Lord being their confidence, Pr 3:26.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Free from distracting cares and terrors, which ofttimes haunt sinners even in their sleep, because thy mind shall be composed and serene through the sense of Gods favour and providence, and the conscience of thine own integrity.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
When thou liest down thou shalt not be afraid,…. That is, when thou liest down on thy bed at night in order to take sleep, having committed thyself into the hands of a faithful Creator and covenant God and Father, and of Christ the Redeemer and Wisdom of God; thou shalt not be afraid of thieves breaking in to hurt thy person or rob thee of thy property, or of fire to consume thy dwelling and substance, and of nocturnal apparitions and diabolical spectres deceiving thy sight and disturbing thy mind: or when thou art “asleep” e, for so the word also signifies; thou shall not be surprised out of it with any of the above things, or terrified in it with uneasy imaginations, anxious cares, and distressing dreams;
yea, thou shalt lie down, and thy sleep shall be sweet; free of all uneasy thoughts and cares, sound and refreshing, pleasant and comfortable, like that of the labouring man, Ec 5:12; see Ps 4:8. This epithet of “sweet” is often given to “sleep” in poetic writings f.
e “dormieris”, V. L. “eum dormies”, Vatablus. f , Homer. Odyss. 7. v. 289. & 19. v. 511. Theocrit. Idyll. 11. v. 22, 23.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
24. Sleep sweet The preceding verse describes the safety and prosperity of more active life; this one, the security and pleasantness of repose. The truly wise man the virtuously wise knows that the Lord is his guardian, that he that keepeth him shall neither slumber nor sleep. Comp. Psa 127:1-2; Jer 31:26.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Pro 3:24 When thou liest down, thou shalt not be afraid: yea, thou shalt lie down, and thy sleep shall be sweet.
Ver. 24. Thou shalt not be afraid. ] See this exemplified in David; Psa 3:5-6 Peter; Act 12:6 and Mr Rogers, our late protomartyr, who when he was warned suddenly to prepare for the fire, he then being sound asleep in the prison, scarce with much shaking could be awaked. a
Thy sleep shall be sweet.
a Acts and Mon., fol. 1356.
b Daniel’s Hist. of Eng.
c Thuan, lib. lvii.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
liest down. Septuagint reads “sittest”.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
liest: Pro 6:22, Lev 26:6, Psa 3:5, Psa 4:8, Psa 121:4-7, Eze 34:15
and: Psa 127:2, Jer 31:26, Act 12:6, 1Th 4:13, 1Th 4:14
Reciprocal: Job 11:18 – thou shalt take Ecc 5:12 – General
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Pro 3:24-26. When thou liest down thou shalt not be afraid Of fire, or thieves, or any of the terrors of the darkness, knowing that when thou and all thy friends are asleep, yet He that keepeth Israel, and every true-born Israelite, neither slumbers nor sleeps, and that to him thou hast committed thyself, and taken shelter under the shadow of his wings. Yea, thou shalt lie down And shalt not need to sit up to keep guard; and, being laid down, thou shalt sleep, and not have thine eyes held waking by care or fear; and thy sleep shall be sweet Refreshing to thee, not being disturbed by any alarms from without, or apprehensions from within. The way to have a good night is to sleep with a good conscience; and the sleep, as of the labouring man, so of the wise and godly man, is sweet. Be not afraid That is, thou shalt not be afraid. For that it is a promise seems most probable from the context; only, for greater emphasis, it is delivered in the form of a precept; as if he had said, I require thee not to be afraid; it is both thy duty and privilege; of sudden fear For sudden and unexpected evils are most frightful and grievous; and fear is here put for the evils feared. Neither of the desolation of the wicked Which befalls them, when the Lord cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity; and thou mayest be ready to fear, lest thou shouldst be involved in the common calamity; but fear not, for God will then hide thee in his chambers, Isa 26:20-21. For the Lord shall be thy confidence A sufficient and sure ground of confidence; and shall keep thy foot from being taken In the snares either of sin or of mischief.