Answer Me When I Call (Psalm 4)

Announcements

Sunday, September 5th, join us at Cold Stream Dam for worship in the park under Pavilion 2 at 10:30am. All are welcome, it’s a great time to come and visit and check us out in a casual, fun environment. There’s a church cookout following the service, we’d love for anyone and everyone to join us. September 5th at 10:30am.

Sunday, September 12th, at 5:30pm, we’ll be gathering at Alice and Neil Miller’s house in Houtzdale for baptisms. We have one baptism that is confirmed, we’re still waiting to hear from one other person who has expressed interest—if you would like to be baptized or you know of someone who would like to be baptized, please contact me as soon as possible. Please note, that we’ll still have worship that Sunday at 10:30am at the Moshannon Valley YMCA.

I spoke with the building manager of the storefront that we’re hoping to move into as a church—they’re waiting for the contractor to finish up some work on the building, but her hope is that we could get the keys for the building by September 1st, which means there will be several opportunities for everyone in the church to serve as we get the building ready for public services.

I’ll give more information as the time comes, but please spend time thinking and praying about different ways to help—some of that will simply be cleaning up the building, but you could also help with painting, with setting up the building, and a number of different ways. We’ll talk more about it as the time come

In the mean time, we’re just under 70% of our $10,000 goal. We’re still looking for at least $3,000 more in funding. So please be in pray that the LORD will provide for our needs as we seek to worship Jesus, equip believers, and make disciples.

As always, let me encourage you to continue worshiping through your giving. We have two digital ways for you to give: (1) you can give via text by texting the number 84321 with your $[amount] and by following the text prompts or (2) you can visit us online at graceandpeacepa.com and select giving in the menu bar. Everything you give goes to the building up of our local church and the spread of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Prayer of Repentance and Adoration

Sermon

Introduction

On Wednesday evenings, we’ve been working through a series in the book of Psalms. Each week, we’ve taken one psalm and we’ve essentially worked verse-by-verse and line-by-line through that psalm in order to understand it’s original purpose before applying it to our lives today. This evening, we’re looking at Psalm 4, which many people believe is connected to Psalm 3—as in they were both written in light of the same things occuring in David’s life, but I’ll explain that a little bit later.

In Psalm 4, David speaks of God’s character, he prays to the LORD with confidence in who God is and in God’s character. He also gives a warning to his enemies—that God knows who trusts in the LORD and that God knows that David trusts in the LORD—he essentially warns them that they need to repent and believe. The ending of the Psalm focuses in on joy and peace being found in God alone, but before I give away too much details, let’s take a moment to read Psalm 4:1-8.

Psalm 4 ESV

To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments. A Psalm of David. 1 Answer me when I call, O God of my righteousness! You have given me relief when I was in distress. Be gracious to me and hear my prayer! 2 O men, how long shall my honor be turned into shame? How long will you love vain words and seek after lies? Selah 3 But know that the Lord has set apart the godly for himself; the Lord hears when I call to him. 4 Be angry, and do not sin; ponder in your own hearts on your beds, and be silent. Selah 5 Offer right sacrifices, and put your trust in the Lord. 6 There are many who say, “Who will show us some good? Lift up the light of your face upon us, O Lord!” 7 You have put more joy in my heart than they have when their grain and wine abound. 8 In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.

As we study this passage, we’re going to take it in three parts: (1) Vs. 1, which I’m going to combine with some background information of the text, will start with a cry for God to hear the psalmist’s prayer, which is a prayer during distress in the Psalmist’s life. I’ve titled it call out to God in prayer when in distress; (2) Vs. 2-5, is a warning for his enemies and really this whole section is centered around the psalmist expressing his thoughts about his enemies and contrasts those thoughts with the LORD hearing his prayers and the LORD’s setting apart of the godly—a warning to turn from sin and trust in the LORD; (3) Vs. 6-8, expresses the psalmist experiencing peace and security in the LORD. There is joy, peace, and security in those who seek the LORD because Joyous peace is found in God alone.

Prayer for Illumination

Call out to God in prayer when in distress (1)

Starting in Vs. 1, the Psalmist directs this first part of the psalm to the LORD. The psalmist, who we know from the superscription is David, cries out with “Answer me when I call, O God of my righteousness!”

And in one sense, this seems almost as if David is demanding that God answer him, but I would caution against making assumptions from our culture onto their culture. It might seem like it’s David demanding that God answer him, but in reality David is making a petition.

This calling out at the beginning of the psalm is very literally David petitioning God to answer his prayer—very much like when we pray to the LORD, we make petitions to the LORD.

It is right for us to petition the LORD—James 4:2-3 makes the statement, “You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your lusts.” There’s an element in James 4 that speaks of not only the ability to ask, but the necessity of asking the LORD.

John Newton wrote a hymn in the late 1700s that has since been re-released with more modern wording and what he has written is this, “Come, my soul, your plea prepare; Jesus loves to answer prayer; He himself has bid you pray, therefore will not turn away.” The second verse, “You are coming to a King; large petitions with you bring; For his grace and power are such, none can ever ask too much.”

It is appropriate to make petitions to the King, and that is literally what David is doing in Psalm 4:1. He is petitioning his king.

Some elements of David’s prayer that are of note, is (1) that he recognizes the position that he is in in comparison to God, (2) he speaks of previous times that the LORD has answered his prayers, and (3) he has faith in the LORD’s answering of prayer; and all three of these elements are visible to us within the first verse.

He recognizes who he is and who God is: “Answer me when I call, O God of my righteousness!”—the idea being that God is the one who provides for him salvation. As we know from Scripture, righteousness is found in God alone, we cannot be righteous spiritually without Jesus Christ—by implication, when David then calls God the God of his righteousness, he’s delineating who God is in his life. In a similar sense, we might call Jesus our Lord and Savior while we pray. The point being that we recognize who Jesus is and we recognize who we are in light of who Jesus is. David recognizes that his salvation or his righteousness comes from God and not himself.

He then speaks of previous times the LORD has answered his prayers: “You have given me relief when I was in distress.”—in one sense this is the concept of thanksgiving being played out before us, that David recognizes that God has worked in his life before; but in another sense, this statement shows us the confidence that David has in God’s answering of his prayers (which he continues in the last line of this verse. “Be gracious to me and hear my prayer!”) David by making the statement, “You have given me relief when I was in distress” essentially explains that he knows God will answer his prayers because God has answered his prayers in the past. And because God has answered his prayers in the past:

He has faith that the LORD will continue answering his prayers: “Be gracious to me and hear my prayer!” The Bible tells us often to stand firm on our belief in Jesus Christ and the Bible gives us a very specific reason for us standing firm on our belief in Jesus—is it because we feel something? Is it because it seems right? No! Hebrews 10:23 tells us to “Hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.” Why do we stand firm on our belief in Jesus Christ? Because Jesus is faithful to his promises. What David is saying in Psalm 4:1 is that he has confidence that God will answer David’s prayers because of who God is—that God is a God who answers prayer.

Now, you might be listening and you might be wondering what exactly is causing David to write this psalm and make these statements; and I mentioned in the break-down that I would spend some time with some background information in this section of the sermon.

We know (again from the superscription) that this psalm is a Psalm of David, but the text itself doesn’t give us too many details for us to discern when exactly it was written. However, we can make an educated suggestion based off of some of the issues that he describes within the text:

David is clearly in distress—we know that from vs. 1, when he points out that God has previously given him relief when he was in distress.

There is a situation in his life in which people are rebelling against him as the king and David accuses them of essentially spreading lies and tarnishing his reputation in Vs. 2-3.

David even tries to tell warn them that they need to repent in Vs. 4-5.

The educated suggestion that most commentators go with is that this psalm is connected with Psalm 3 because they both speak of the time in which David fled from Absalom his son.

Which is seen in 2 Samuel 15:14-17. I don’t want to spend a lot of time rehashing this because we spent a bit of time last week discussing this, but let me give you a brief synopsis.

Absalom is David’s son and Absalom has been going around Israel spreading lies about David and telling the people that if they decided to make him king, they would be treated better.

Most of the people believed Absalom and then rebelled against David.

David and his remaining family along with those who remained loyal to him decided to flee into the wilderness to prevent an attack on Jerusalem.

So keeping this in mind, what David is saying in Vs. 1 of Psalm 4, is that despite the great distress that he’s facing due to his son’s rebellion and his present position hiding in the wilderness, he knows that God will answer his prayer for relief because God has answered his prayers before.

Which is important for us to remember and learn from—why? because typically when we’re in distressing times of our lives, our tendency is to be pessimistic and think that if God truly cared about us, this wouldn’t be happening; and if God truly was in control, I wouldn’t have to suffer through this.

But look at the example of David in Psalm 4, he reminds himself that God has answered his prayers before.

And he reminds himself of who God is—the God of his righteousness or as we might say today; the God of our salvation.

And he simply asks God to listen to his prayer.

Which is precisely how we should respond in distressing times, we are to run to God, remind ourselves of who he truly is, and simply ask God to listen to our prayers.

And we can rely on God and his response to our prayers because he is faithful to us through his covenants.

So, as David writes this psalm, he starts with his focus toward the LORD as he reminds himself of who God is, and he finds encouragement in God’s previous answers to his prayer; and starting in Vs. 2, he then shifts his focus towards those who we would consider his enemies. He shifts from talking about his relationship with God to essentially talking about his present relationship to those who are opposed to him. Let’s read Vs. 2-5.

Turn from sin and trust in the LORD (2-5)

Psalm 4:2–5 ESV

2 O men, how long shall my honor be turned into shame? How long will you love vain words and seek after lies? Selah 3 But know that the Lord has set apart the godly for himself; the Lord hears when I call to him. 4 Be angry, and do not sin; ponder in your own hearts on your beds, and be silent. Selah 5 Offer right sacrifices, and put your trust in the Lord.

David confronts the sins that they’ve committed against him in Vs. 2, “O men, how long shall my honor be turned into shame? How long will you love vain words and seek after lies? Selah.” He accuses them of spreading lies about him and loving lies rather than the truth about him.

The first accusation concerns “[his] honor [being] turned into shame” If this psalm was written at the time of Absalom’s rebellion against David, then this refers to Absalom’s attempt to tarnish David’s reputation in 2 Samuel 15:3.

This is when Absalom was going around Israel and telling the people to essentially not have faith in David as their king because David doesn’t really care for them; rather, they should want him for their king.

But because the psalm itself doesn’t exactly give us a precise date, this could really refer to any time in David’s life in which the enemies around him projected lies and slander against him.

The point regardless of time is simple, that those opposed him are slandering him

And he’s asking them “how long will they believe lies about him instead of listening to the truth?”

How long will they listen to the slander instead of listening to what they know to be truth?

How long will they listen to Absalom, who doesn’t have their best interest in heart and isn’t seeking to worship the LORD?

If we were to contrast Vs. 1 and Vs. 2, Vs. 1 speaks of the righteous God; Vs. 2 speaks of the unrighteous rebellion. Unlike God, these were mere men and whereas these mere men were lying and believing lies about David.

Vs. 3, shows David’s confidence in God’s knowledge of the truth. “But know that the LORD has set apart the godly for himself; the LORD hears when I call to him.”

Whereas mere men are willing to believe lies, God knows the truth about David. Because David is God’s own, God has set him apart and the LORD hears him when he calls to him.

I find it interesting that David has no qualm in calling himself “the godly”—often we refuse to make statements like this possibly due to an overdeveloped worry of what other people think, but the reality is if you are part of God’s people, you can claim that as part of your identity. You are his and he is yours if you have repented from your sins and believed in him. And that’s precisely what David does by stating that the LORD knows the godly and sets the godly apart for himself.

There is a confidence seen in David that despite the issues that he faces with those who oppose him, he knows that God knows him, that God hears him, and later we’ll see him speak of great peace and joy that he knows comes from God.

The last two verses of this section continues David’s statements towards the men. Vs. 4, “Be angry, and do not sin; ponder in your own hearts on your beds, and be silent. Selah. Offer right sacrifices, and put your trust in the LORD.”

And we can consider this essentially practical advice from David to those who are his enemies. This practical advice stems from the same place that David finds his confidence in—both the practical advice and David’s confidence finds their roots in who God is.

Because of who God is, David provides this advice; because of who God is and how God has set apart the godly and how God hears the godly, David provides this advice.

And the advice is this, “Be angry, and do not sin; ponder in your own hearts on your beds, and be silent. Offer right sacrifices, and put your trust in the LORD.”

The only response that is left for the wicked men who were rebelling against David and ultimately rebelling against God is this, they should abandon their rebellion.

Vs. 4, tells them to “be angry, and do not sin; ponder in your own hearts on your beds, and be silent.”

The idea being that if they are angry, which it is clear that they are, they shouldn’t sin. This statement to “be angry, and do not sin” is found in Ephesians 4:26. Paul tells the Ephesians the same thing, except Paul takes it a step further than David by telling the Ephesians not to allow the sun to go down on their anger.

Sometimes, we hear that Christians should never be angry, but that’s simply untrue. The Bible never says that anger itself is a sin. If anger was a sin, then when Jesus goes into the temple and overturns the money changers tables, he would’ve sinned; which would introduce all sorts of theological problems.

Anger isn’t a sin, the issue is that often when we’re angry, we commit sin—we get angry because someone offends us, or someone cuts us off and we get angry, make an obscene gesture at them, and swear under our breath. But anger itself isn’t the problem, it’s how we respond and act because of that anger.

In fact, there are right times to be angry—when we see true injustice occuring, when someone sins against someone else, when someone is manipulated or hurt, we should be angry. But that anger doesn’t give license for sin.

And in the case of Psalm 4, if this is referring to Absalom’s rebellion against David, the people can be angry, but it is the moment that they allow their anger to be a license for sin that’s the problem.

And David tells them they can be angry, but don’t sin. Rather, what they need to do is “ponder in your own hearts on your beds, and be silent.”

In other words, before you act in anger, take time to think it through. “Ponder in your heart” is a common Hebrews expression, which simply means “think about it.”

Instead of acting in blind rage or fury, take time to consider your anger, your actions, and your reactions; and simply be silent.

When anger overtakes us our tendency is to act and react out of that anger—we allow our anger to cause us to fly off the handle and we justify it by saying that we have a right to be angry.

The problem is that even if we’re right in our anger, which more often than not (we actually aren’t right in our anger), we allow our response in anger to lead us to sin.

So stop acting or reacting, think about it, and be silent.

And then David gives them one more piece of advice, “Offer right sacrifices, and put your trust in the LORD.” So those who are rebelling against David and rebelling against God should consider their anger, ponder their hearts, be silent, and they are to offer right sacrifices and trust in the LORD.

If this is referring to those who are working with Absalom and rebelling against David in 2 Samuel then this would be referencing the vain sacrifices that Absalom and his people would offer to God in order to obtain victory. 2 Samuel 15:12 speaks of Absalom offering up sacrifices to God in order to further his own goals.

Rather than offering sacrifices in order to obtain something, David advises that he offers proper sacrifices to the LORD. Proper sacrifices would refer to the sacrifice itself, but also the attitude behind the offering.

Through Deuteronomy and Leviticus, we see various laws concerning the sacrifices necessary for the Israelites to give—most of those laws are concerning the types of animals that they were to offer and the reasoning behind those particular animals being necessary.

The Israelites were told specifically what they were to offer, but not only that, they were told that these sacrifices were to be offered in a specific way—in the right frame of mind, with the right spirit; and that’s seen in David’s repentance after his sin with Bathsheba. Psalm 51, “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleans me from my sin! For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight. . . Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.”

David writes in Psalm 51 of recognizing that he had sinned against God and that God was right in judging him for that sin. David acknowledges that God is merciful and acts in steadfast love. And in that last verse, he makes a point that’s profoundly simple, but important. “Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being.”

God is concerned with the heart. In Isaiah 1, God indicts the nation of Judah by comparing them to Sodom and Gomorrah. In that indictment, God says, “‘What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? . . . I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed beasts; I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of goats. . . Bring no more vain offerings. . . Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause. ‘Come now, let us reason together,’ says the LORD: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool. If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land; but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be eaten by the sword; for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.”

Do you see what matters to the LORD? It isn’t the rituals that delight the LORD, it is the change of heart that delights the LORD. Thus, right sacrifices are more than just offering the right animals—it’s giving those sacrifices with the right heart.

Absalom was giving sacrifices to the LORD, but he was only offering sacrifices in the hopes that the LORD would bless his conquest against David, but David writes in Psalm 4:5, that they should repent of their fallacious idea of what the LORD wanted and actually offer what the LORD wants.

David then gives one last piece of advice to his enemies, “put your trust in the LORD.”

The idea of putting your trust in the LORD is the concept of salvation—to repent of their former way of living and to follow God.

I’ve utilized the concept of stepping out on a bridge to describe what it’s like to actually have faith in something or someone. The same analogy works when discussing what it means to trust in something.

You can know all the facts about a bridge, and you can know the name of a bridge, and you can even see the bridge in-person, but you don’t actually have faith in the bridge’s ability to safely get you across the water until you step out on the bridge.

In a similar way, you can know about God and you can see the effects of God, but until you rely on God, you don’t actually have faith in him.

Until you put your trust in the LORD, you aren’t actually saved—and in the case of Absalom and his men, they clearly knew enough about God to know that sacrifices were necessary, but they didn’t trust in the LORD, otherwise they would’ve known that the sacrifices alone weren’t enough for the LORD to be on their side.

David’s advice to his enemies is essentially really simple—If you’re angry, that’s fine, but think your actions through before you do anything; and repent from your sinful behavior and trust in God. His advice is essentially to repent and believe, which he then goes on to say that only in repentance and belief in the LORD is where true joy and peace is. Read with me Vs. 6-8:

Joyous peace is found in God alone (6-8)

Psalm 4:6–8 ESV

6 There are many who say, “Who will show us some good? Lift up the light of your face upon us, O Lord!” 7 You have put more joy in my heart than they have when their grain and wine abound. 8 In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.

This final section of Psalm 4 points to people who want to see the blessings of God without actually experiencing God himself. “There are many who say, ‘who will show us some good? Lift up the light of your face upon us, O LORD!’” The idea being that they want some good, but not the source of the good itself.

In other words, they want the blessings but they don’t necessarily want God.

There are many people alive today that are just the same, which is why the prosperity gospel is such a prolific false teaching within the church today—there are plenty of people who want health, wealth, and success that don’t necessarily want God himself; and the issue then is that people are worshiping health, wealth, and prosperity rather than worshiping God himself.

They desire good things above God, which means they worship good things above God. There’s a reason as to why Paul says that the love of money is the root of all evil.

Matthew Henry makes this statement, “[Worldly] people inquire for good, not for the chief good: all they want is outward good, present good, partial good, good meat, good drink, a good trade, and a good estate; but what are all these worth? Any good will serve the turn of most men, but a gracious soul will not be put off so.”

But David knows that true goodness and true blessings come from the source of all good, who is the LORD himself. He reflects this knowledge in Vs. 7, “You have put more joy in my heart than they have when their grain and wine abound.”

Even when those that have success, wealth, and health seem to prosper, David essentially says that God provides more joy.

When they have an abundance of grain and wine, God provides joy in his heart.

This idea is common throughout Scripture that even when those who are professing unbelievers have great success, true joy is found in the LORD.

I find the definition of joy from the Lexham Bible Dictionary particularly helpful, joy is “closely related to gladness and happiness, although joy is more a state of being than an emotion; a result of choice. One of the fruits of the spirit. Having joy is part of the experience of being a Christian.”

Consider the fruits of the Spirit themselves in Galatians 5:22-23. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.”

One of the defining attributes of the fruits of the Spirit is that while they can be experienced to some extent outside of the Spirit, experiencing them completely can only happen in the Spirit. True joy is something that can be experienced only within the Spirit of God.

Whereas these people want to experience good things, true joy is found only in God himself.

But not only is true joy found only in God, true peace is found only in God. Vs. 8, “In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for you alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety.”

David closes this psalm by expressing the peace that he experiences in trusting in the LORD. Because he trusts in the LORD, he knows that he is safe.

Remember that at this time in his life, David is experiencing great distress as his son steals his throne and home. David is very much on the run in the wilderness with none of the comforts of his home, and yet, he says that he can lie down and sleep because of what the LORD provides for him. The LORD, makes him dwell in safety.

Much like Psalm 3’s statement in Vs. 5-6, “I lay down and slept; I woke again, for the LORD sustained me. I will not be afraid of many thousands of people who have set themselves against me,” this vs. in Psalm 4, places complete confidence in the LORD’s protection.

This verse puts complete confidence that the LORD has all control over all that is happening to him.

And because David has complete confidence in the LORD’s protection and in the LORD’s sovereignty, he can experience peace.

Often when we think of peace, we think of the absence of distress, but clearly that’s not what peace is because David is still in the midst of great distress.

This Hebrew word is shalom and it’s more than just an absence of distress—it’s harmonious relations, it’s blessings or favor from God, it’s safety, it’s wellbeing, it’s goodness, or the state of being complete—it’s “the contentment one feels when one has fulfilled a desire, need, or expectation.

True peace is found only in God alone because God is the provider of true peace. Without him there is no ability to experience complete shalom.

True peace and true joy is experienced only in the LORD. In light of the psalmist distress and his warning to those who are his enemies, I think we can make the argument that what he’s saying is that if those who are rebelling against him and rebelling against the LORD simply repent and put their trust in the LORD, they will experience the peace and joy that they’re seeking by following Absalom.

As we start to wrap up this evening’s message, let’s take the last few minutes to discuss practical ways that we can apply this passage to our lives:

Application

Call out to God in prayer when in distress (1)—in the first section we took a look at David’s prayer to the LORD. That as David prayed to God, he acknowledges who God is, what God has done for him, and he shows confidence in knowing that the LORD will answer his prayer because he has answered his previous sins. I have one application points for this:

And it stems around this phrase, In times of distress, call out to God

We have a tendency to think that when life is difficult that God has abandoned us—and that allows us to wallow in self-pity and depression, which is not what David did in times of distress and it isn’t what we should do in times of distress

When life is difficult, what we need to do is call out to God. And David models for us what it looks like to cry out to God when we’re distressed.

David calls out to God and he:

Reminds himself of who God is and who he is in light of God—God is the one who provides his righteousness

Recalls previous times in which the LORD had answered prayer

Asks God to hear his prayer again.

When life is distressing, call out to God and:

Remind yourself of who God is and who your are in light of God—God is the one who loves you and has provided you with salvation

Recall previous times in which the LORD has answered your prayer

Ask God to hear your prayer again.

What this looks like is this:

Father God, you are a good and gracious God and I’m so thankful for the salvation that you’ve provided for me.

You have answered my prayers, you have sought for my good, you have provided guidance and safety in my life

Please hear my prayer again—and if it is your will, please respond favorably to my request.

When life is difficult, call out to God

Turn from sin and trust in the LORD (2-5)—in the second section David warns his enemies that despite them believing lies about him, the LORD knows who he truly is; and he warns them to not sin, but ponder their anger, repent from their sins, and believe in the LORD. Our application is almost identical:

Turn away from your sins and trust in the LORD.

We live in a society that not only tolerates sin, but condones it. The Bible is very clear that we cannot tolerate sin because God does not tolerate sin

God does not tolerate sin, he hates sin

Which means that we ought to hate sin as well.

John Owens once said, “be killing sin or sin will be killing you” and that’s the mindset that we should have towards our own sinful conduct

We should hate it, we shouldn’t tolerate it—we should completely turn away from sin

And then we should trust in the LORD.

David points to trusting in the LORD as their only hope, which is precisely what it is for us as well. Trusting in the LORD is our only hope.

So turn away from your sins and trust in the LORD.

Find joy and peace in God alone (6-8)—the last few verses speaks of God being the ultimate source of all that is good. This includes the very concept or idea of joy and peace, which means that for us to experience joy and peace, we have to go to the ultimate source

Our modern-day world tries to find joy and peace in everything other than God. If you’re not happy—drink, be more active, take medication, indulge your sinful desires

In reality, true joy and true peace comes through knowing God and seeking him—2 Peter 1:2, which should be familiar to you because it’s printed on every single worship guide that we make says, “May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.”

It is through the knowledge of God that grace and peace is experienced—part of grace includes joy.

While you might experience a modicum of these things outside of God, you will never experience the full extent of joy and peace apart from God.

So don’t expect to find joy and peace outside of God, find joy and peace in your knowledge of God through Jesus Christ.

And learn to do exactly what David does

Praise God for the joy in your heart that God has put there

And lie down in peace because God makes you to dwell in safety.

Put simply, Psalm 4 teaches us to: (1) call out to God whenever we face difficulties in life, (2) turn away from all your sins and trust in the LORD, and (3) find joy and peace in God alone.

Pastoral Prayer