Psalm 4

Introduction

We are looking at how the Psalms are telling one big story

Book one that makes up Psalm 3-41 are a case study of how Psalm 1 and 2 give us the hope we long for when things aren’t how they are supposed to be

This isn’t a wish dream of wishful thinking

This is real life

I have to have something real

As I outlined Psalm 4 i sat in the cancer center in Anderson

A packed lobby of people living the reality that things aren’t how they are supposed to be

What hope is there in cancer

I got home and the boys wanted a horse back ride and I realized my baby boy first born Beau is too tall now to fit and I want to hold on to my little boy

As I began to write the next day I had to wait outside the coffee shop because i was crying at the news a dear friend is suffering because of his progressing cancer

In the coffee shop i met an anxious store owner wondering how they will make it

Young people meeting to talk needing friends in the anxiety of young adult life and moving

If this isn’t real we are wasting our time

David knew this and God knew no matter which one of those you are we need an anchor

We saw fear last week and Gospel Hope

This week we see the real confidence we long for in the human experience

At the end of a real day in real life in the real world David is taking inventory of his day and what the human experience is throwing at Him

This is called an evening prayer of confidence in God

When the night comes and you lay your head down and the day catches up

What will you anchor in to give you rest

We are going to see how David tells us to do it

How do we tune our heart to have confidence in whatever life throws at you

This is called an Evening Prayer of Confidence In God

We are going to see three things

Be Confident Because of Past Faithfulness, Be Confident Because God Is Acting For You, and Be Confident Because the Lord Cares For You

Be Confident Because of Past Faithfulness

Psalm 4:1–2 CSB

Answer me when I call, God, who vindicates me. You freed me from affliction; be gracious to me and hear my prayer. How long, exalted ones, will my honor be insulted? How long will you love what is worthless and pursue a lie? Selah

Lets have some english class fun because it gives us language for your own prayers

David starts with a barrage of imperative verbs at God

And imperative as none of us remember is a verb that requires immediate action

Desperate dire immediate need

Answer Me, Be Gracious to Me, Hear Me

This is desperate longing for help

That is prayer friends

Desperate imperatives that we need help

Paul Miller says this is the very criteria for a praying life

“Prayer is bringing your helplessness to Jesus… We forget that helplessness is how the Christian life works… The gospel, God’s free gift of grace in Jesus, only works when we realize we don’t have it all together. The same is true for prayer. The very thing we are allergic to – our helplessness – is what makes prayer work. It works because we are helpless. We can’t do life on our own.”

The Psalmist cries to God for help but quickly reminds himself (and others) that God is a God who hears our prayers.

From imperative for help he immediately remembers

Verse 1 : God, who vindicates me.,

You freed me from affliction

introduces a trusting recollection of past instances of such help (you gave me vindication and saved me)

What does that mean for us?

It means God isn’t like us with limited resources

The God who helps me be a better dad because I am raising boys that will be men is the same God who will be there when sickness hits and I know that because He is the same God that got me here from a life of addiction that should have killed me

Charles Spurgeon said: It is not to be imagined that he who has helped us in six troubles, will leave us in the seventh. God does nothing by halves, and he will never cease to help us until we cease to need. The manna shall fall every morning until we cross the Jordan.

This is David telling us to come to the God who saves and cry out Father do it again

The Key is that God Freed Him in the past so he has confidence today

Verse 2 introduces Davids trouble that specific day

The language of v. 2 suggests that the psalmist’s honor or reputation has been slandered in some way.

By addressing the Lord as the God of my righteousness, the psalmist establishes both the hope and the expectation that God will uphold the psalmist’s honor in the face of the slanderous assault.

Psalm 4:2 CSB

How long, exalted ones, will my honor be insulted? How long will you love what is worthless and pursue a lie? Selah

The Hebrew actually translates more like this: ‌O wealthy, how long will my honor suffer reproach, will you love emptiness, will you seek after falsehood?

David is saying God in this moment it looks like the bad guys are winning

Ever felt that way?

So what do you anchor in when it looks like this?

We remember last week God has been a shield around us and it only works when we press forward

If we turn and run it exposes us

The bad guys don’t win …that is the anchor of Psalm 2

We remember we have seen it before in our life

A world that isn’t how its supposed to be seems tenacious doesn’t it?

The bad guys look like they are winning wether its cancer or anxiety or when i can’t defeat the thief of time with my little boys

But we saw something more tenacious on the cross

Let this anchor you from Cornelius Plantinga: A life that isn’t how its supposed to be is stubborn, but not as stubborn as the grace of God and not half so persistent, not half so ready to suffer to win its way

Where did we see a more tenacious grace?

We saw it when God sent His one and only son

Our warrior King to kill the dragon and get us home

The God that did that is now actively working to get you home across the Jordan

Be Confident Because God Is Acting For You

Psalm 4:3–4 CSB

Know that the Lord has set apart the faithful for himself; the Lord will hear when I call to him. Be angry and do not sin; reflect in your heart while on your bed and be silent. Selah

The good shepherd is not asleep under a tree when the wolves attack

He is the Good shepherd active for his children

Psalm 4:3 CSB

Know that the Lord has set apart the faithful for himself; the Lord will hear when I call to him.

What is he doing

2 Places take up and draw out what David is saying here

the first is Psalm 23

Psalm 23 says our Good shepherd is actively seeking a place where the sheep will flourish

If the Lord is your shepherd He seeks out where the sheep can flourish

He is a tenacious shepherd who will not be stopped in getting His Sheep back to wholeness

Your shepherd is a warrior ready for a fight

Picture the hero you long for

Your shepherd has a rod and that is what we long for

J. L. Porter met shepherds in the same part of the world that david wrote this Psalm from

Here’s Porter’s description:

The shepherds themselves had none of that peaceful and placid aspect which is generally associated with pastoral life and habits. They looked like warriors marching to the battlefield—a long gun slung from the shoulder, a dagger and heavy pistols in the belt, a light battle-axe or iron-headed club in the hand. Such were the equipments; and their fierce flashing eyes and scowling countenances showed but too plainly that they were prepared to use their weapons at any moment.

Another author shakes our view of the shepherd of the familiar Psalm

Jesus Christ, our Shepherd, is no weakling. Our Shepherd is a warrior, as shepherds had to be. No one can snatch his sheep out of his hand . The muscles of his arm are flexed to defend his flock; he doesn’t carry a club for nothing. He is obviously enough for whatever the valley throws at us.

He is not weak

He is not in a war with an equal

He has no match and will use his Rod to fight off the greatest fears we face

Our shepherd is heavily armed. This is why we need not fear the darkest of valleys.

Who is this Shepherd?

His name is Jesus and the good shepherd is the title he gives himself in John 10

Jesus himself takes up the language of this very verse

John 10:11–18 CSB

“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand, since he is not the shepherd and doesn’t own the sheep, leaves them and runs away when he sees a wolf coming. The wolf then snatches and scatters them. This happens because he is a hired hand and doesn’t care about the sheep. “I am the good shepherd. I know my own, and my own know me, just as the Father knows me, and I know the Father. I lay down my life for the sheep. But I have other sheep that are not from this sheep pen; I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. Then there will be one flock, one shepherd. This is why the Father loves me, because I lay down my life so that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own. I have the right to lay it down, and I have the right to take it up again. I have received this command from my Father.”

His warning against trusting other voices telling you how to be whole is the very language of verse 4

Psalm 4:4 CSB

Be angry and do not sin; reflect in your heart while on your bed and be silent. Selah

When life isn’t how its supposed to be we all feel a sense of exile and wandering how to get back to being happy and whole

And there are a million competing voices telling you how to end the exile

Even Taylor Swift when she released the song titled Exile in 2020

Voices that tell you how to be whole that don’t lead you to the Gospel are thieves

A million voices say they know the true way to what we long for

But here is the reality

Christine Hoover said “We must not forget that competing ideas are not equal competitors. There is truth and then there are many iterations of counterfeits to the truth.”

We all have a shepherd the question is - is yours the true shepherd or a counterfeit

The question is who is that voice to you?

Who is defining the good life to you....and how do they say to get there

There is only one voice that knows

It is as if this question is answered by God’s people in verse 1

Who is your shepherd?

Be angry he says

Be angry things aren’t how they are supposed to be

Be angry there is a waiting room full of cancer

Jesus was angry at a world that isn’t how its supposed to be

John 11 says at the death of his friend Lazarus Jesus was deeply moved

the language means he looked at what sin brought and it says he was like an enraged horse biting at a bridle

Be angry that things aren’t how they are supposed to be

But don’t run to competing voices that tell you there are other ways to be whole again

Don’t run to competing voices that tell you they can make things how they are supposed to be again

To turn and run from God is the sin David talks about in verse 4

It is in a rejection of Davids counsel of verse 4 we are led away to listen to competing shepherds that can never get you home

the end of verse 4- reflect in your heart while on your bed and be silent

No one talks you more then you do

David knew this

Can you challenge your own heart and ask? Who is my shepherd

What voices am I listening too to tell me there is a way home?

And can we do the hardest thing of all….be still and know that he is God and we are not

Psalm 46:10 ESV

“Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!”

Be still and know that I am the hero you long for

Be still and know he will come back and rule over all of it forever

Be still that war was won and we will see every thing sad come untrue and be better for having once been broken

That is the God who has acted on the cross, is active as your shield today and infinitely cares for you

Be Confident Because the Lord Cares For You

Psalm 4:5–8 (CSB)

Offer sacrifices in righteousness

and trust in the Lord.

Many are asking, “Who can show us anything good?”

Let the light of your face shine on us, Lord.

You have put more joy in my heart

than they have when their grain and new wine abound.

I will both lie down and sleep in peace,

for you alone, Lord, make me live in safety.

Verse 5 simply tells us more of verse 4…how do we respond when we rest in the Gospel

Spurgeon says - O sinners, flee you to the sacrifice of Calvary, and there put your whole confidence and trust, for he who died for men is the LORD JEHOVAH

What is cool is David has shifted from his personal imperatives for help to addressing all of God’s people in how to be a light to the broken world

He is not writing as some observer but as a willing participant in a Gospel centered life

He has an emotional response to the greatness of God.

Instead of becoming emotional and embittered he becomes emotional and explosive in praise to God!

Erik Raymond said here: His heart is fully fermented with praise and happiness in God so that there is no room for self-consuming bitterness to dwell. His delight in God has swallowed up self-pity and bitterness. That is, his delight in God has eclipsed his delight in self.

the world is longing for that verse

Psalm 4:6 CSB

Many are asking, “Who can show us anything good?” Let the light of your face shine on us, Lord.

How many in that cancer center are begging the quesiton what hope is there for good?

David says tell them where you found it

Let your goodness shine on us so we are light to a world searching for the good things we long for

Tell them of the tenacity to defeat what sin has stolen

Tell them He won and there is hope

Tell them the competing voices you ran to just like them that led them to more emptiness

Tell them of the God who saves and has a righteous rage at cancer

Raymond again says: This is how to hit the sack like a believer:

Psalm 4:8 CSB

I will both lie down and sleep in peace, for you alone, Lord, make me live in safety.

as believers we know this is not some fantasy wish dream

Christ lived the brutality of this

Raymond here: After all, it was Christ who gave himself up for us. He endured the ultimate separation, abandonment and wrath so that we might know and experience the peace, closeness, and security. Therefore, we go to sleep in grace. Even though there is tumult outside there is the calm inside.

This subjective peace we can know when we lay down is a reality because of the objective peace

Romans 5:1 CSB

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

The objective unchangeable reality for us is what Paul said to the Roman believers who were living in a world that looked like the bad guys were winning

The true and greater David, our Lord Jesus earned this rest for his people.

The true and greater David is the good shepherd who is actively seeking the place where we will flourish

He is heavily armed so we don’t have to fear the darkest valley

Psalm 4:8 CSB

I will both lie down and sleep in peace, for you alone, Lord, make me live in safety.

Lets Pray