Psalm 4

Psalm 4 To the Chief Musician. With Stringed Instruments. A Psalm of David. Hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness! You have relieved me in my distress; Have mercy on me, and hear my prayer. How long, O you sons of men, Will you turn my glory to shame? How long will you love worthlessness And seek falsehood? Selah But know that the Lord has set apart for Himself him who is godly; The Lord will hear when I call to Him. Be angry, and do not sin. Meditate within your heart on your bed, and be still. Selah Offer the sacrifices of righteousness, And put your trust in the Lord. There are many who say, “Who will show us any good?” Lord, lift up the light of Your countenance upon us. You have put gladness in my heart, More than in the season that their grain and wine increased. I will both lie down in peace, and sleep; For You alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.

You want to know what we know about this psalm is that it was to be played specifically with stringed instruments. This was a guitar song. Well or harp or technically the piano is a stringed instrument isn’t it.

God, please hear my prayers.

Psalm 4:1 Hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness! You have relieved me in my distress; Have mercy on me, and hear my prayer.

David begs the God of HIS Righteousness to hear his prayer.

He acknowledges that God has relieved him when he was in distress.

David prays for mercy. Please have mercy on us.

Hear my prayer.

Have passion in prayer.

Isaiah 64:7 And there is no one who calls on Your name, Who stirs himself up to take hold of You; For You have hidden Your face from us, And have consumed us because of our iniquities.

In this passage Isaiah admits that God and the people are cold to each other, WHY? well two reasons.

Why is God hidden from you?

1 No one is praying intensely

2 Because of Sin

It isn’t people’s fault that God is far away from them, it is there own fault. I believe that people want God to be a genie in a bottle, to do whatever they want when they want. But that isn’t the day that God works. He is close to those who seek him out as a matter of fact Jesus came to seek and to save those who were lost. God is searching for those who are willing to have a real prayer life, those who stir themselves up and those who are trying to win the battle against sin God delivers us from sin

God of my Righteousness.

Jeremiah 23:6 In His days Judah will be saved, And Israel will dwell safely; Now this is His name by which He will be called: THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.

We do not have any help in the fact that we are good but that He is good. When we say God is good all the time. We love to say that right. But it is more than that. It is the fact that he is good that we can live forever. God is good is the only hope that we have.

On judgment day we will be clothed in His righteousness.

Isaiah 61:10 I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, My soul shall be joyful in my God; For He has clothed me with the garments of salvation, He has covered me with the robe of righteousness, As a bridegroom decks himself with ornaments, And as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.

Our righteousness is filthy rags. We stand in front of God clothed in Jesus righteousness. I will not stand on my own righteousness but God’s clothed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ

We have His righteousness because of the corss.

2 Corinthians 5:21 For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

He burned our filthy rags when he paid for them on the cross. He became sin for us. On judgment day the only hope that we have is Jesus standing up and saying, I paid for that. When God at us He doesn’t see our sins because of Jesus He doesn’t see any good thing we did, all He sees is Jesus!

You relieved me in my distress.

Esther 4:13–14 And Mordecai told them to answer Esther: “Do not think in your heart that you will escape in the king’s palace any more than all the other Jews. For if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?

Remember the story of Esther. She was terrified to go before the king if he didn’t accept her she was dead. Remember what happened to his first wife. The pressure was mounting, Haman was determined to destroy the Jews, He was building gallows out back and the fate of her people was in her hand. Do you think that there was relief when King Ahazeures agreed to go to her banquet. Quickly the distress turned to the enemy. Haman was quickly killed. His 10 sons faced the gallows just like the 10 Nazi responsible for the holocost of the jews in nuremberg on October 16, 1946. This fact was not missed on those who have watched history especially the jews saved from extermination. In both cases they are relief from distress

David reminds God of the times that He relieved Him in distress.

Remember the past to pray for the future.

Have mercy on me.

Lamentations 3:22 Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, Because His compassions fail not.

Mercy is God not giving us what we deserve.

Without mercy we all deserve death.

Mercy is paid for on the cross.

Ephesians 2:4–5 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),

Whenever I think of the word mercy I think of the mercy seat on the day of atonement