Peace in the Presence of The Lord

While preparing for this week’s sermon, I read the fictional story about a man who was candidating to be a pastor a church. He preached a marvelous sermon that everyone in the church loved. As a result, he was voted in to be their new pastor. To the surprise of everyone, in his first Sunday as their pastor, he preached the same sermon. Those in the congregation were even more surprised when he preached the same sermon for a third time.

After the service, the leaders of the church met with him to find out why he had preached the same sermon three times. He said, "When you start living out this sermon, I'll go on to my next one."

Well, this morning, I feel a bit like that preacher. I feel like this morning, I'm preaching the same sermon as I did last week. I'm preaching the “When life falls apart, we can experience God’s peace whenever we place our faith in Him and believe in His promises.” sermon again. This was the message of Psalm 3 last week. This is the message of Psalm 4 this week.

Many scholars believe that Psalm 4 is closely connected to the issues David faced in Psalm 3. In other words, it is possible the two Psalms were written while David was running from Absalom. The reason for this belief is due to how the two Psalms closely resemble one another in tone and structure.

As we come to this morning’s Psalm, I want to do something a little different and jump for a moment to the final verse. In verse 8, David summarizes the Psalm, by writing that “In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for you alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety.” As we study Psalm 4 this morning, I want you to notice the personal relationship that existed between God and David. The only way for David to be able to lie down and sleep is because of their intimate relationship. Everything written in this Psalm hinges on the depth of their relationship Psalm 4.

The best way to understand the message of the song, though, is to break it down into three sections, which is what we’ll do this morning.

I. Confidence: The Lord Hears His Children (4:1-3)

In 1752, 17-year-old, Robert Robinson attended an evangelical meeting to heckle the believers and make fun of the proceedings. Instead, he listened in awe to the words of the great preacher George Whitefield, and in 1755, at the age of twenty, Robinson responded to the call he felt three years earlier and became a Christian. Another three years later, when preparing a sermon for his church in Norfolk, England, he penned the words that have become one of the church’s most-loved hymns: “Come, thou fount of every blessing, tune my heart to sing thy grace.”

Recall, as we sang the hymn earlier this morning, the opening of the second stanza says, “Here I raise mine Ebenezer.” That line is a reference to an event in 1 Samuel 7:12 in which Samuel sets up a stone and names it Ebenezer meaning “Thus far the LORD has helped us.” Through Samuel, God calls Israel out of rebellion and into repentance. As a sign of their repentance, the people of Israel put away their false idols and worship only God. In turn, God allows Israel to defeat the Philistine army. Afterwards, Samuel raises the stone and names it Ebenezer. Whenever an Israelite passed by the stone, it was to remind them how God acted on their behalf. It was a reminder of the confidence they could have in the Lord.

In Psalm 4:1, David is raising his Ebenezer because he is recalling the fact that until now, the LORD has helped him every step of the way. The result of which is David’s confidence that God is going to hear him, and help him once again.

After calling on the Lord to “Be gracious to me and hear my prayer!” David moves to the reason He is calling on God once again.

READ Vs. 2: “O men, how long shall my honor be turned into shame? How long will you love vain words and seek after lies?”

In verse two David’s attention turns from addressing God, to addressing the men who are mocking and ridiculing him. Remember in our Psalm from last week when David said that not only were Absalom’s followers trying to kill him, but they were also taunting him with the idea that God had forsaken him. When we come to Psalm 4:2, David is questioning how much longer these men are going to continue mocking and chastising him with their “vain words and…lies?”

Notice, though, the warning David gives these men. He tells them, “But know that the LORD has set apart the godly for himself; the LORD hears when I call to him.”

You would figure that those who are mocking David would understand by now that God’s hand was continually upon him, despite David’s faults and failures. The Lord was going to remain true to the promises He’d made David that we read earlier and nothing was going to stop that from happening. They could continue spewing their insults and their lies, but David had all the confidence he needed that God was going to hear his prayer and act on his behalf, just as He’d done so many times before.

Whether we are facing difficult times or not, we must remember the amount of ways that God has acted on our behalf and allow those times to strengthen our confidence in Him. Charles Spurgeon put it like this, “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.”

Know this, when you commit your life to Jesus Christ as your Savior, God immediately begins working the plan and purpose He has for you. Therefore, we can have confidence in knowing that no matter what we’ve done in our past, and no matter how many people Satan attempts to use to trip us up, as long as we remain in an intimate relationship with God, we can have great confidence in Him being our Ebenezer.

II. Calling: The Godly Trust The Lord (4:4-5)

David, continuing to speak to the men who are mocking him, urges them to do four things.

A. “Be Angry, and do not sin;...”

In this first encouragement, I believe David is recognizing the fact that his enemies are angry with him for the things he’s done. Remember, the sins of adultery and murder played out directly in front of the people. You’d have to believe that many of them were angry with him because he’d let them down. Some of them were angry with him because they were friends with the man he had killed, Uriah. Some of them were angry with him because of the way he treated Bathsheba. But whether their anger is justified or not, David urges them not to sin.

Human emotions are tricky and unreliable. How many times have we as Christians sinned out of anger? We can never allow our emotions to get the best of us and cause us to sin.

It’s important to note this fact, It’s okay to get angry! The Bible often speaks of God’s righteous anger against immoral behaviors. Speaking to the Israelites, Moses says “When you father children and children’s children, and have grown old in the land, if you act corruptly by making a carved image in the form of anything, and by doing what is evil in the sight of the LORD your God, so as to provoke him to anger, I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that you will soon utterly perish from the land...” Deut. 4:25-26

We also know that Jesus got angry at times. John 2:13-22 records the account of Jesus cleaning out the Temple because he was angry at those who were turning His “Father’s house into a market!”

In both cases, God the Father and God the Son were angry at the immoral behavior of the people, but they did no sin in their anger. They did not allow their anger to over come them.

It’s okay to become angry with immoral behaviors that we see going on around us. What’s not okay is when we allow our emotions to get the better of us and we do things that go against God’s Word.

For example, it’s okay to get angry at abortion organizations like Planned Parenthood who thrive off of murdering babies. It’s not okay to murder Planned Parenthood’s director or blow up one of their clinics.

It’s okay to get angry with people who slander our names and make up lies about us. What’s not okay is doing something in return that harms them or even slanders their name. As Christians we are called to act completely different than those who don’t know the Lord. Instead of acting out in rage or anger, we should heed David’s second encouragement and...

B. “ponder in your own hearts on your beds, and be silent.”

Some of your translations may use the word “meditate” instead of “ponder.” They both mean the same thing when taken in proper context. In their original form they mean “to consider, to reflect.” So, instead of lashing out in anger, David is encouraging these men who are against him to quietly lie in their beds and “meditate in [their] hearts” regarding their anger towards him.

I believe David is telling them to settle down and consider what they know about God’s character, especially when it comes to God’s forgiveness, mercy, and grace. But as long as they are fueled by their anger, they won’t stop, they won’t be silent, and they won’t listen for the voice of the Lord.

C. “Offer right sacrifices”

The Hebrew word for “offer” as it is used here, literally means to slaughter an animal. That was the proper way for atoning for sins in their culture. They would follow the instructions handed down from God through Moses by sacrificing the best animal they owned. While this is the literal meaning of the word, it would be difficult for these men that David is speaking with to sacrifice and animal while they are quietly lying in their beds meditating on God. Most likely then, David is calling on these men to offer “sacrifices of joy” to the Lord. This idea comes from David’s words in Psalm 27:6 when he writes, “And now my head shall be lifted up above my enemies all around me, and I will offer in his tent sacrifices with shouts of joy; I will sing and make melody to the Lord.”

Whenever we are quietly waiting on the Lord to speak to us, and He does, don’t you believe that is going to move you to worship Him? It would me! I get excited whenever I hear the voice of the Lord!

D. “and put your trust in the LORD.”

In the Jewish tradition, whenever a sacrificial offer was made to God their sins were atoned for and they drew closer to the Lord. In these days, this type of sacrifice was the temporary solution to man’s sin problem. When Jesus became the ultimate sacrifice for our sins, His death and resurrection became the permanent solution. If these men who are chasing David and dishonoring God will stop, reflect on what their doing, remember God’s grace and mercy, and offer proper sacrifices to Him, then they can trust that God is going to forgive them for their past sins.

No one understood God’s forgiveness better than David. God showed David forgiveness, mercy, and grace despite his sins simply because David offered the proper sacrifices, repented and asked God to forgive him. David’s intimate relationship with the Lord taught him that he could trust that God had forgiven him.

Think for a moment about the stories we read in the Bible where God shows grace, mercy, and forgiveness. Abraham was a liar, but God forgave him. Jacob was a liar, but God forgave him. Moses was a murderer, but God forgave him. David was an adulterer and murderer, but God forgave him. Paul murdered Christians, but God forgave him. Ryan Holtzclaw is the greatest of sinner, but God forgives me! ___________ your name here, and understand that if God hasn’t forgiven you yet, you can trust that He will simply by asking Him to do so and turning away from your sins and committing your life to Him. It is that simple!

1 John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

Micah 7:18-19 says, “Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of his inheritance? He does not retain his anger forever, because he delights in steadfast love. He will again have compassion on us; he will tread our iniquities underfoot. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.”

Whenever we willingly give ourselves over to the Almighty, and allow Him to be Lord of our lives by believing and accepting Jesus Christ, we can trust that He is going to show us mercy and grace, and forgive our sins.

III. Confession: Safe in the Lord Alone (4:6-8)

In this final stanza, David (who has found peace with God) compares what it’s like for those who have not found peace with God. The analogy that David makes is to the harvest. Whenever the harvest had concluded and the grain had been brought in, there would be a great party where they would enjoy the fruits of their labor.

One of my favorite meals is a good Low Country Boil. I love the combination of shrimp, corn, sausage, potatoes, and of course, crab legs! I love it. It brings me joy. It makes me happy. But according to David, being in the presence of God provides him with the type of joy that only God can give.

People who don’t know God, who do not have a relationship with God do not understand the type of joy that David is talking about. These are the kinds of people who look to the things of this world to bring them happiness.

That is why David prays on behalf of these people by saying, “‘Lift up the light of your face upon us, O Lord!’ You have put more joy in my heart than they have when their grain and wine abound.” The lifting of God’s face and His light upon us symbolizes God’s presence. What David is saying in this verse is this, “Just being in your presence, Lord, is more than anything this world can ever offer me. And that puts joy in my heart!” Nothing that has ever been or will ever be created by human hands and mortal knowledge can take the place of being in the presence of the Lord. When we place our faith and our trust in the fleeing things of this earth, then we are doing so at our own peril. Doing this leads us to miss out on the joy we can experience when we are resting in the arms of the Lord.

David, understood that being in the presence of the Lord allowed him to rest and provided him with safety.

There is nothing, this side of Heaven or beyond that can satisfy our souls more than being in the presence of our Lord. Power, possessions, and prosperity will never take the place of being in God’s presence. In reality, these things typically bring us more heartache than happiness.

The kind of joy that David is expressing in this Psalm is the kind of joy that only comes when we are in the presence of the Lord. One pastor puts it like this, “The source comes from the LORD. This isn’t a manufactured joy. This isn’t a joy through mental techniques of thought. This is God-given joy.”

The only way for anyone to experience the type of joy that David is talking about is when they are in the presence of the Lord. And the only way to every be in the presence of the Lord is to be in an intimate relationship with Him. The only way to be in an intimate relationship with Him is by trusting in Him as your Lord and Savior. True peace, true safety are only found in a relationship with Jesus Christ.

Yes, life will still be difficult at times. But when those moments come, we can have peace and rest because we’ll know that our God is greater than the ruler of this earth.

It doesn’t matter what difficulties and trials we face. We can rest in the presence of the Lord and trust the many promises He’s made to us through His Word.