Psalms for Sleep: A Night Prayer From the Compline Tradition

The psalms Christians have prayed before sleep for centuries are Psalms 4, 91 and 134, joined in the Roman tradition by the opening of Psalm 31. Psalms 121 and 63 fit the night as well. Western night prayer, called Compline, closes with the Song of Simeon in Luke 2:29-32.

You do not need a monastery or a prayer book to use them. What follows is where these psalms come from, why your Bible may number them differently from your neighbour's, what each one says about the night, and a routine you can pray in ten minutes with the lamp already low.

What is Compline?

Compline is the last prayer of the day in Western Christianity, said just before going to bed. The name comes from the Latin completorium, completion: it completes the day's round of prayer.

Its shape was fixed early. In the sixth century the Rule of St Benedict set three psalms for Compline, the same three every night, which in today's most common numbering are Psalms 4, 91 and 134. The Roman office later added the opening verses of Psalm 31, a short response built on one line of that psalm, and the Song of Simeon, as the 1908 Catholic Encyclopedia describes.

That core has lasted across traditions:

• Catholic. In the present Liturgy of the Hours, Night Prayer uses Psalms 4 and 134 on Saturday night and Psalm 91 on Sunday night; other nights have other psalms of trust. The General Instruction allows the Sunday psalms on any night, especially for people who want to pray from memory. It also recommends a brief examination of conscience at the start, and the hour ends with an antiphon to the Blessed Virgin Mary.
• Anglican and Episcopal. The Order for Compline in the 1979 Book of Common Prayer appoints Psalms 4, 31:1-5, 91 and 134, followed by the Song of Simeon.
• Other Protestants often pray the same psalms without the name, as a simple evening reading.

If you come from a tradition with no fixed night prayer, nothing here is foreign to you. It is the Psalter, prayed at the hour it describes.

Why are the Psalms numbered differently in Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant Bibles?

Benedict called his three psalms the 4th, the 90th and the 133rd. He meant the psalms most English Bibles call 4, 91 and 134. Nothing has been lost; the count is different.

There are two numbering systems. The Hebrew numbering is used by Protestant Bibles and by most modern Catholic translations. The Greek numbering comes from the Septuagint, the ancient Greek translation, and passed into the Latin Vulgate; Orthodox churches use it, and so do older Catholic books such as the Douay-Rheims Bible.

The two differ because the Greek tradition joins two pairs of psalms and divides two others:

Both systems reach 150. The practical rule: for most of the Psalter, the Greek number is one less than the Hebrew. The shepherd psalm is 23 in one and 22 in the other.

So when an Orthodox prayer book says Psalm 90, open an English Bible at Psalm 91. This site, like most English Bibles, uses the Hebrew numbering.

What do Orthodox Christians pray at night?

The Orthodox night service is Compline too; its Greek name, Apodeipnon, means the prayer after supper. On most nights of the year it takes the form called Small Compline.

Small Compline is built on three psalms: 50, 69 and 142 in the Septuagint numbering, which are Psalms 51, 70 and 143 in the Hebrew. The first asks for mercy, the second asks God to come quickly to help, and the third already looks toward morning (Psalm 143:8). A doxology and the Nicene Creed follow, then often a canon or an Akathist, and closing prayers. It is usually read at home before sleep.

In Great Lent a longer service, Great Compline, takes its place. Its first part includes Septuagint Psalms 4, 30 and 90, the same psalms the West prays at night as 4, 31 and 91. Two families of prayer, shaped far apart, chose the same words for the dark.

Which psalms are prayed before sleep, and why?

Psalm 4, for laying the day down

¹Answer me when I call, God of my righteousness.
Give me relief from my distress.
Have mercy on me, and hear my prayer. ²You sons of men, how long shall my glory be turned into dishonor?
Will you love vanity and seek after falsehood? Selah. ³But know that Yahweh has set apart for himself him who is godly;
Yahweh will hear when I call to him. ⁴Stand in awe, and don’t sin.
Search your own heart on your bed, and be still. Selah. ⁵Offer the sacrifices of righteousness.
Put your trust in Yahweh. ⁶Many say, “Who will show us any good?”
Yahweh, let the light of your face shine on us. ⁷You have put gladness in my heart,
more than when their grain and their new wine are increased. ⁸In peace I will both lay myself down and sleep,
for you alone, Yahweh, make me live in safety.

The psalm begins in distress and ends asleep. In between, it gives one piece of counsel for the bed itself: search your heart there, and be still. The last verse is the reason it has been a night psalm for so long. Safety comes from God alone, so the one praying can lie down in peace.

Psalm 91, for fear in the dark

¹He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High
will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. ²I will say of Yahweh, “He is my refuge and my fortress;
my God, in whom I trust.” ³For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler,
and from the deadly pestilence. ⁴He will cover you with his feathers.
Under his wings you will take refuge.
His faithfulness is your shield and rampart. ⁵You shall not be afraid of the terror by night,
nor of the arrow that flies by day, ⁶nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness,
nor of the destruction that wastes at noonday.

These verses name the fears of night and of day and set them under a larger shelter. They are words of trust, not a charm. In the Gospel, the tempter quotes a later line of this same psalm to Jesus, who refuses to use it as a guarantee (Matthew 4:5-7). Pray it as someone taking refuge, not as someone buying insurance.

Psalm 134, when you are too tired for more

¹Look! Praise Yahweh, all you servants of Yahweh,
who stand by night in Yahweh’s house! ²Lift up your hands in the sanctuary.
Praise Yahweh! ³May Yahweh bless you from Zion,
even he who made heaven and earth.

Three verses, addressed to those who stand in the house of God by night. It is a blessing handed across the dark: you bless, and you are blessed. On nights when you can manage nothing else, this is a whole prayer.

Psalm 31:5, the line of surrender

⁵Into your hand I commend my spirit.
You redeem me, Yahweh, God of truth.

This single verse sits at the centre of Western night prayer, repeated as a response. According to Luke, Jesus prays its first line from the cross as he dies (Luke 23:46). To say it before sleep is to practise, in a small way, the trust of handing yourself over.

Psalm 121, the keeper who does not sleep

¹I will lift up my eyes to the hills.
Where does my help come from? ²My help comes from Yahweh,
who made heaven and earth. ³He will not allow your foot to be moved.
He who keeps you will not slumber. ⁴Behold, he who keeps Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep. ⁵Yahweh is your keeper.
Yahweh is your shade on your right hand. ⁶The sun will not harm you by day,
nor the moon by night. ⁷Yahweh will keep you from all evil.
He will keep your soul. ⁸Yahweh will keep your going out and your coming in,
from this time forward, and forever more.

Psalm 121 is not one of the fixed Compline psalms, but it may be the best argument for going to sleep at all. The one who keeps you neither slumbers nor sleeps, which means you are free to. It is a good psalm to pray for someone else: a child, a traveller, someone in hospital.

Psalm 63:6-7, for the hours you lie awake

⁶when I remember you on my bed,
and think about you in the night watches. ⁷For you have been my help.
I will rejoice in the shadow of your wings.

The psalmist is awake on his bed in the watches of the night and does not treat it as wasted time. He remembers. If you wake at three, you can borrow that: turn the wakefulness into remembering help already given.

What is the Song of Simeon?

The Song of Simeon is the prayer in Luke 2:29-32, known by its Latin opening words as the Nunc Dimittis. Simeon, who had been promised that he would not die before he had seen the Messiah, prays it in the temple with the infant Jesus in his arms (Luke 2:25-28).

²⁹“Now you are releasing your servant, Master,
according to your word, in peace; ³⁰for my eyes have seen your salvation, ³¹which you have prepared before the face of all peoples; ³²a light for revelation to the nations,
and the glory of your people Israel.”

It is a prayer of release. Simeon has seen what he was waiting for, and he can go in peace. Western churches place it at the end of Compline; Orthodox churches read it near the end of Vespers. Either way it is said as light fades: the day is over, salvation has been seen, the servant may rest.

In the Order for Compline of the 1979 Book of Common Prayer it is framed by a short antiphon that sums up the whole hour:

Guide us waking, O Lord, and guard us sleeping; that awake we may watch with Christ, and asleep we may rest in peace.

A ten-minute night prayer you can begin tonight

This is a simple order drawn from the tradition above. Adjust it to your own church's practice.

1. Stop. Put the phone out of reach. Dim the light. Sit on the edge of the bed or kneel beside it.
2. Look back over the day. Two minutes. One thing you are thankful for, one thing you regret, one thing you hand over. For a fuller form, see the evening Examen.
3. Pray one psalm aloud, slowly. Psalm 4 on ordinary nights; the table below for others.
4. Say the line of surrender from Psalm 31:5, once or three times.
5. Pray the Song of Simeon.
6. Finish with the Lord's Prayer, then be silent. Lights out. Let the last words of the day be the ones you just prayed.

Keeping the same psalm for a week or longer is part of the design. Benedict gave his monks the same three every night, and a psalm you know by heart can be prayed with your eyes closed. If you would like to learn one, see how to memorize Bible verses. Emmaus+ includes a set of Night Psalms for this hour, and the full text of every psalm is free in the app.

What if you still cannot sleep?

Night prayer is not a technique for falling asleep, and this article is not medical advice. Sometimes you will pray and still lie awake. That is not a failed prayer. Psalm 63 was written by someone who was awake.

If the wakefulness comes with worry, the verses in Bible verses for anxiety are arranged for exactly that. If you have had trouble sleeping for several weeks, or tiredness is affecting your days, talk to a doctor. Asking for help is good sense, and it takes nothing away from your prayer.

If you are in danger or thinking about ending your life, call your local emergency number. In the US, call or text 988 (Suicide & Crisis Lifeline).

Then tomorrow night, begin again with Psalm 4.