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.] As knowing that God - thy keeper Psa 121:4-5 - doth wake and watch for thee. Psa 121:1 Wicked men's sleep is often troublesome, through the workings of their evil consciences; as our Richard III, after the murder of his own two innocent nephews, had fearful dreams, insomuch that he did often leap out of his bed in the dark, and catching his sword, which always lay naked stuck by his side, he would go distractedly about the chamber, everywhere seeking to find out the cause of his own occasioned disquiet. b So Charles IX of France, after the bloody massacre of Paris, was so inwardly terrified, that he was every night laid to sleep, and wakened again with a set of musicians. c
a Acts and Mon., fol. 1356.
b Daniel's Hist. of Eng.
c Thuan, lib. lvii.