Bible Strands
Psalms 4:8
I will lie down and sleep in peace, for You alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The psalmist addresses the LORD in the final line of a prayer that has moved from distress (vv. 1–6) to declared joy (v. 7). The moment is the act of lying down itself, framed as a response to trust rather than a precondition for it.
The words — בְּשָׁלוֹם (bĕ/shālôm, "in peace") names the state; לְבָדָד (lĕ/vāḏāḏ, "alone") names the exclusive ground, so that peace is not ambient but sourced in one.
The thread — Psalms 3:5 pairs lying down and sleeping with the LORD's sustaining; Proverbs 3:24 ties sweet sleep to the absence of fear; Job 11:18 connects lying down in safety to the presence of hope.
Why it lands — The verse asks the reader to check whether their rest is self-produced or received, and to name the single source they actually rely on when the lights go out.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep: for thou, Lord, only makest me dwell in safety.
Cross-references
- Proverbs 3:24 When you lie down, you will not be afraid; when you rest, your sleep will be sweet.
- Psalms 3:5 I lie down and sleep; I wake again, for the LORD sustains me.
- Job 11:18 You will be secure, because there is hope, and you will look around and lie down in safety.
- Psalms 16:8 I have set the LORD always before me. Because He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.
- 1 Thessalonians 5:10 He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with Him.
- Deuteronomy 12:10 When you cross the Jordan and live in the land that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, and He gives you rest from all the enemies around you and you dwell securely,
- Leviticus 25:18 You are to keep My statutes and carefully observe My judgments, so that you may dwell securely in the land.
- Hosea 2:18 On that day I will make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field and the birds of the air and the creatures that crawl on the ground. And I will abolish bow and sword and battle in the land, and will make them lie down in safety.
- Revelation 14:13 And I heard a voice from heaven telling me to write, “Blessed are the dead—those who die in the Lord from this moment on.” “Yes,” says the Spirit, “they will rest from their labors, for their deeds will follow them.”
- Leviticus 26:5 Your threshing will continue until the grape harvest, and the grape harvest will continue until sowing time; you will have your fill of food to eat and will dwell securely in your land.