What Does Psalm 4:8 Mean in the King James?
I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep: for thou, LORD, only makest me dwell in safety.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The LORD keeps the speaker secure even when sleep makes self-protection impossible.
THE MEANING
You can lie down in shalom, wholeness and well-being, and sleep because the LORD makes you dwell securely. Your safety rests in the LORD’s keeping even while you cannot watch over yourself.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that you must stay awake and guard yourself to remain safe: the verse locates your security in the LORD’s keeping.
THE ROOT
לָבֶטַח
labetach
GROWS FROM
בטח
b-ṭ-ḥ
Trust, feel secure, be confident.
The word translated “safety” belongs to the same root as the verb for trusting or being confident. The verse presents security as the settled assurance in which you can lie down, not merely as the absence of danger.
ALSO GROWS
batach: Trust, rely on, be confident.
בָּטַח
This verbal branch links the security named in the verse with trust and confidence.
mivtach: Confidence, refuge, a source of security.
מִבְטָח
This branch shows the root can name both the state of security and what one relies on for it.
בְּשָׁלוֹם
beshalom
GROWS FROM
שלם
sh-l-m
Be whole, complete, or sound; make whole.
The root of shalom also appears in words for what is whole or complete. Here, lying down “in peace” carries a sense of well-being that holds through sleep, when the speaker is least able to maintain it.
ALSO GROWS
shalem: Whole, complete, sound.
שָׁלֵם
This branch brings out the wholeness beneath the peace in which the speaker lies down.
shillem: Repay, make restitution.
שִׁלֵּם
This related form carries the sense of making complete what is due; it reflects the root’s reach beyond quiet toward things being made whole.
THE PATTERN
Rest becomes possible when security is received as God’s keeping rather than maintained by constant self-guarding.
It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows: for so he giveth his beloved sleep.When thou liest down, thou shalt not be afraid: yea, thou shalt lie down, and thy sleep shall be sweet.Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.THE THREAD
When thou liest down, thou shalt not be afraid: yea, thou shalt lie down, and thy sleep shall be sweet.Psalm’s אִישָׁן (ʾîšān, “I sleep”) and Proverbs’ שְׁנָתְךָ (shenatkha, “your sleep”) come from the root יָשֵׁן (yāshēn, “sleep”). Psalm locates that sleep in the LORD’s security; Proverbs describes the same rest as free from fear and sweet.
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