Bedtime Prayers: Now I Lay...Meh

Confession time.

For many more years than I can remember, I didn’t say any prayers at bedtime. Not that you have to, but it is a good idea.

I probably stopped while quite young. Six years old? Seven? Eight? Ten? Who knows? (Maybe you did too.)

Some time within the past couple of years, I thought about saying bedtime prayers again and started to say one in my head after lying down for the night.

Guess which prayer I chose.

Now I lay me down to sleep.
I pray the Lord my soul to keep.
If I should die before I wake,
I pray the Lord my soul to take,
And this I ask for Jesus sake.

Pretty much what you expected, right? It’s the prayer many of us were taught as children, so naturally it was the first one I thought of as an adult.

Now, I know there’s nothing wrong with that prayer. Pretty much anything you ask the Father in Jesus’ name turns out to be a good and proper prayer. It doesn’t even have to rhyme.

But after I had said it a few times (as an adult), I had a kind of unusual feeling that it really wasn’t all that great.

Look at it stylistically. The rhyme scheme is AABBB. That’s just wrong. AABB is a scheme that’s very common and makes sense. I can’t think (admittedly I haven’t tried all that hard) of another poem that goes AABBB.

I can still remember one time as a child saying this prayer with my dad in the room. The lights are out, and the door is open. I say the prayer and stop after the fourth line, because AABB made sense (even though I didn’t think of it in those terms back then).

My dad said that I forgot to add the last line. I musn’t have said the prayer in a while because I didn’t even remember what the line was. I even remember sort of arguing with him that that wasn’t part of the prayer. He assured me that it was. It just didn’t feel right though.

You shouldn’t need to put a tag like that on the end. In fact, I wonder if the original prayer didn’t have the tag, and someone added it on later.

Then consider how the prayer sounds to a child.

I remember thinking that “keep” and “take” meant the same thing in this context. No one ever told me that “keep” meant “keep it safe”. I thought it meant God would keep my soul with him in heaven. But that didn’t quite make sense, because I knew I had my soul and body right there in bed.

Then there are the thoughts about death.

Yes, a child is assured that, when he dies he’ll go to heaven to be with Jesus. But that’s a scary thing, even to some adults. Is that the last thing I (as a child) want to think about before turning off the light or closing the door?

I have a solution to all of this. Instead of teaching and saying the Now I Lay Me prayer, use this hymn.

Now the light has gone away;
Father, listen while I pray,
Asking you to watch and keep
And to send me quiet sleep.

Jesus, Savior, wash away
All that I’ve done wrong today.
Make me evermore like you,
Good and gentle, kind and true.

Let me near and dear ones be
Safe with you eternally.
Oh, bring me and all I love
To your happy home above.

Now my evening praise I give;
You once died that I might live.
All your precious gifts are free -
Oh, how good you are to me!

Ah, my best and kindest Friend,
You will love me to the end.
Let me love you more and more,
Always better than before.

That’s hymn number 593 in Christian Worship. It works perfectly as a bedtime prayer. We almost never get to sing it in church anyway. It rarely makes sense so to do.

Actually, I prefer (showing my age) the version from The Lutheran Hymnal (#653) with all the thee’s and thou’s.

Now the light has gone away;
Father, listen while I pray,
Asking Thee to watch and keep
And to send me quiet sleep.

Jesus, Savior, wash away
All that has been wrong today.
Help me every day to be
Good and gentle, more like Thee.

Let me near and dear ones be
Always near and dear to Thee;
Oh, bring me and all I love
To Thy happy home above.

Now my evening praise I give;
Thou didst die that I might live.
All my blessings come from Thee;
Oh, how good Thou art to me!

Thou, my best and kindest Friend,
Thou wilt love me to the end.
Let me love Thee more and more,
Always better than before.

And actually, I change the third line of that last verse just a little.

“Let me love-and-trust Thee more and more”

It fits if you use sixteenth notes. It also makes even more sense. Think about it.