Say a Psalm at the Pillow

This week's practice is simple enough to start tonight. Before you turn out the light, say one short psalm or one verse of a psalm out loud. Not read silently on a phone, which tends to lead somewhere else, but spoken, with the device face down or in another room.

Psalm 4:8 is a good place to begin. In it David says that he will lie down and sleep in peace, because the LORD alone makes him dwell in safety. Psalm 3:5 works as well, and so does the whole of Psalm 23, which most of us half know already. Choose one and stay with it for the seven nights of this week rather than switching each evening. Repetition is the point. By Thursday you will find the words rising on their own.

Why out loud? Because the mind at bedtime is full of unfinished sentences from the day, and a spoken sentence has a way of quieting them. Because the ear hears what the eye skims. And because, in the psalms, God's people have always sung and said their trust rather than merely thought it.

If you share a bed, you might say it together. If you have children, it is a habit worth handing down. Either way, keep it short, keep it nightly, and let the last voice you hear before sleep be Scripture.