In 2025 I’ve experienced more sleepless nights than any other time of my life. I’m not talking about sleeplessness because of doom scrolling, or poor choices, or bad health. I’m talking about waking up for no reason, completely unable to fall back asleep: change position, stumble towards the restroom, grab a glass of water, fold the pillow, toss again, watch another hour go by. Meanwhile my mind is going about things I need to get done, planning, problem solving, determining what would I do if a bear attacked me, and so on. All things I don’t want to be thinking about at 3 am.

I’m sure you can relate. I know for many, the midnight hours can be filled with anxieties, fears, loneliness.

          More than once, while lying awake in bed, I’ve remembered a bit from when I preached through Proverbs. It’s about those who seek wisdom.

          If you lie down, you will not be afraid; when you lie down, your sleep will be sweet.

                                                                                      -Proverbs 3:24

          And in Psalm 127, Solomon writes,

          [The Lord] gives to his beloved sleep.                        -Psalm 127:2

          Peaceful, refreshing sleep is a gift from God. Has my sleeplessness been a consequence of my folly? Why has the Lord taken rest from me? I know God uses sleeplessness to teach his children prayerfulness, is that what is happening? I have spent many night hours in prayer, and they are sweet. Even still, I want sleep.

Back in November, Eric Moore, Erik Gallagher, and I, went to a conference in Boston. While there I heard a talk by Professor Tom Schwanda titled “When you can’t sleep, pray!” It was a study on David’s nighttime prayer life, as seen in the Psalms. I’ve been unable to stop thinking about it. Though I’ll be approaching the topic very differently, I’ve stolen both the theme and the title for this sermon. Know, this sermon is as much for me as it is for you.

          Let me read the passage again. As I do, I want you to hear how much David loved God and his word. With his whole heart, he yearned for God.

          Read Psalm 119:145-152

          Can you hear how profoundly David loved God and God’s word? I know I can say, with my whole heart, I want to love God as deeply as David did!

          But David so hungered for the Lord that he sacrificed his sleep for God’s presence. In verse 147, Daivd writes that he was waking up before dawn to pray; and I don’t get the sense he was waking up 15 minutes before daylight. David was crying out to God. It gives me the impression of an intentional, prolonged, intense time of prayer. Perhaps he was rising hours before dawn simply to pray.

          But David goes even further. Verse 148: His eyes are awake before the watches of the night. In David’s time, it seems people measured the night in three watches: approximately, the first watch was from sunset to 10 pm, the second watch was from 10 pm to 2 am, the third watch was from 2 am to sunrise.

          Before the sun went down, David was praying. Before 10 pm he was praying. He woke himself before 2 am to pray. And just like his prayer time before dawn, I don’t get the impression that these were brief moments of prayer. He was earnestly seeking God, longing for his holy presence. In verse 148, through the watches of the night, David says he was meditating on God’s promises. Prayerful meditation is not something done quickly!

And it’s not something done with a groggy mind. How easy it would be to accidentally drift away while quietly and prayerfully meditating in the middle of the night! The posture of your body will aid the posture of your mind. Stand up, and your mind will better be at attention. Pace, and let your prayers be more alert.

          Since the world is filled with strange ideas about mediation, let me clear a few things up. Mediation is not emptying your mind, like the Zen Buddhists. Meditation is focusing your mind on something about God. For instance, Psalm 119 is the longest chapter in the Bible, and the whole thing is David’s mediation on God’s word. He meditates on the goodness of God’s word, its wisdom, how it gives life, how it judges, how he responds to it, and so on.

          Recently I was meditating on God’s love for hidden beauty. I spoke a bit about it last week. God loves beauty that only he can see. In this truth there are powerful implications for our world and for our lives. And as I mediated upon God’s love for hidden beauty, I felt a lightness in my heart, a joy. I was excited to share it with you last week.

          Mediate on the attributes of God, mediate on his promises, mediate on what he has done in Christ, mediate on his power at work in sinners’ hearts! You’ll never reach an end to what you can mediate upon, for there is no end to our awesome God. Meditation is thinking deeply on God, using his word to penetrate his mind, heart, and actions. If we do not go deep into the things of God, then our relationship with God is shallow indeed!

          It was David’s delight, in the middle of the night, to commune with God through prayerful mediation.

But [a blessed man’s] delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.                                                 -Psalm 1:2

          Day and night, David found blessed satisfaction meditating on God. Midnight meditation flooded him with rejoicing and praise.

At midnight I rise to praise you, because of your righteous rules.       

-Psalm 119:62

          David loved to meditate on God’s law. It seems he was eager for nighttime meditation and prayer. The spiritual giant that was Richard Baxter, a Puritan of the 17^th century, wrote, “Above all, be much in secret prayer and meditation. There you must fetch the holy fire that must kindle your sacrifices.”¹

          In the temple, the fire on the altar symbolized God’s presence: consuming the condemned and securing salvation for the worshipper. It was a purifying fire, and the fire of the altar was called “holy fire.”

Baxter writes what so many other saints through the ages have said: prayer, and prayerful meditation, transports us to the heavenly, holy fire, that we might retrieve its flame for the work God has given us on earth. In other words, prayer and meditation brings us into the presence of God, that our hearts might be set ablaze, and we would burn as white-hot lights of the world.

Critical to retrieving that holy fire, as Baxter says, is secret prayer and meditation – meaning prayer that no one else can hear, when no one is watching, just you and God. What better time for secret prayers than in the dark hours of the night?

          So let me encourage two categories of nighttime prayerfulness: intentional and incidental.

          Taking David as an example, there is tremendous benefit to intentionally waking up in the middle of the night for prayer and meditation. I have done this many times throughout the years: I’ve organized multiple 24-hour or 48-hour prayers, where people take shifts and prayers are raised for the whole time. I’ve met up with friends in the middle of the night, or hours before the sun rises, to pray. But I’ve yet to set intentional times of midnight prayer alone, for secret prayer and meditation (as Baxter says).

But the Lord provided this past week. For four days, for the sake of someone else, I’ve been waking up around 2 am. Since I’m up for about 1.5-2 hours, I’ve been using a fair amount of that time for intentional prayer and meditation. It started circumstantially, but I’ve turned it intentional.

Like David, let us intentionally rise to praise the Lord, in prayer and meditation. Jesus, too, spent many nights alone in prayer. Are we not his followers? Let’s wake with the watches of the night, and even if the flesh is weak, would that our spirits be willing!

          The second category of nighttime praying is incidental. I talked about how I wake up in the middle of the night for no reason at all. I am certainly not intentionally waking. But I’ve been trying to capture those hours in prayer and meditation. All of us could.

          When God spoke to Elijah on the mountain, it was not in the whirlwind, it was not in the earthquake, it was not in a wildfire. Only in the quiet did Elijah hear the still, small voice of God. Has my life become so busy, so full, so noisy, that the watches of the night are the only times of quiet? Is that the only time I can really hear his voice? Is he waking me so we can commune?

          When the prophet Samuel was just a boy he lived in the tabernacle with Eli. On this one particular night, three times God woke young Samuel by calling out, “Samuel!” It took a bit for the boy to realize God was waking him. But the third time Samuel responded, “Speak, for your servant hears.” (1 Samuel 3)

When I look at the time and see that it is 3 am again, I no longer see it as a burden or punishment or inconvenience (at least I try not to). In the dark I’ve been working to remember Elijah and Samuel and David. “Here I am Lord. Speak, for your servant hears.”

God is sovereign over day and night, and sovereign over my sleep. I am awake because he wants me awake, and I have found such sweetness in nighttime prayers. His presence seems immeasurably closer in the silent dark. And I know I’ve barely tapped into it, yet I’ve found myself worshipping on my bed.

By day the Lord commands his steadfast love, and at night his song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life.                                     -Psalm 42:8

I’ve felt the midnight song. And I feel I’ve only just begun, but I want more: intentional and incidental nighttime prayer and meditation.

Prayer is essential to burning brightly for God. It’s why we want to begin every year focusing on prayer. It’s why we want to be people of prayer. It’s why we place prayer at the forefront of our evangelism. For through prayer we fetch the holy fire which sets our sacrifices ablaze.

Day and night, let us be people of prayer! We will not be shaken!

I bless the Lord who gives me counsel; in the night also my heart instructs me. I have set the Lord always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.

                                                                             -Psalm 16:7-8

What should we know? Prayer and meditation bring us into the presence of God and allows us to retrieve the holy fire.

What should we believe? Through prayer and meditation, and perhaps especially at night, God sets hearts ablaze, that we would burn as white-hot lights of the world.

What should we do? The next time you wake in the middle of the night, remember David, and pray. Meditate on God, think deeply of his mind and heart. If you have to kneel, or stand, or pace, do it.

Perhaps set an alarm this week: 2 am. Get up and pray, meditate, seek the holy fire!

          Let the godly exult in glory; let them sing for joy on their beds.

-Psalm 149:5