Psalm Four "Past Faithfulness, Future Hope" 2.0

Noah Toney

Summer in the Psalms 2022 / Psalm 4:1–8

Scripture Reading Numbers 6:22-27

The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, Thus you shall bless the people of Israel: you shall say to them, The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. “So shall they put my name upon the people of Israel, and I will bless them.”

Introduction

Good morning, Redemption Church. My name is Noah Toney; I am the pastor here. If this is your first-time, welcome; if you are watching on the live stream, I am glad you are here with us this morning. Here at Redemption Church, We Exist to proclaim the gospel and make disciples for the glory of God. If you have a copy of God’s word, please turn to Psalm 4. I want to intentionally show you how the Psalms tell a unified story. To recap what we have learned already:

Psalm One teaches us about the blessed man who is the perfect citizen of God’s kingdom, who walks in the way of the righteous and turns from the way of the wicked.

Psalm Two teaches us about God’s Messiah-King, who will reign forever in spite of the raging nations.

Psalm Three teaches us about God’s chosen king, David, who, when the nations are raging against him, responds in faith and trust in God.

Psalm Four teaches us that when God’s people are in distress, we should reflect on God’s past faithfulness to find future hope.

Scripture Reading Psalms 4:1-8

""To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments. A Psalm of David. 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! O men, how long shall my honor be turned into shame? How long will you love vain words and seek after lies? Selah But know that the Lord has set apart the godly for himself; the Lord hears when I call to him. 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. There are many who say, “Who will show us some good? 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. In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.

Pastoral Prayer:

Jump In

If you have been with us from the beginning of our Psalms series, then you might remember that Psalms one and two are written together. They most likely were at one psalm when they were written; if they were not one, they were meant to be read together because there are many linking words, rhyming words, and similar themes. For example, in Psalm One, you have the wicked scoffing at the righteous; in Psalm two, you have the Lord scoffing back at the wicked. In Psalm one, the righteous meditate upon God’s word; in Psalm two, the nations meditate upon how to destroy God’s king. Psalm one starts with the “blessed man,” Psalm two ends with “blessed are all who take refuge in him.”

In the same way that Psalm One and two are linked, so are Psalm three and four. If we are sticking with the illustration of the Palms as a photo album, then Psalms three and four are on the same page and in the same stage of life. In Psalm three, we know that the circumstances are David fleeing from his son Absalom who is trying to kill him. Though Psalms four does not tell us that it is written at the same time as Psalm three, there are many linking words. We can assume that Psalm four is an evening prayer of David from the same time period.

Let's start with the superscription. Look down at your bibles.

“To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments. A Psalm of David.”

This is an interesting superscription because it does not list a specific event in the life of David. Look at where it says to the “Choirmaster,” this word “choirmaster,” is a little misleading. The most literal translation is to the “preeminent one.” Hebrew word is Preeminent one, or leader or director. The point is the one who is in charge. The reason it is translated as “choirmaster” is because of the mention of musical instruments; this is one of the places where translators choose an interpretive choice in the translation. It probably does mean “choirmaster,” but let’s consider some biblical history. When David becomes king, who takes over the writing of the songs and arranges the musicians to come from each tribe and sing in front of the Lord? It is a trick question. In the 1Chronicles, 6 David calls upon the Levites, and he assigns them to gather and sing in the presence of God. Then later in chapter 15, David calls upon the Levites to lead the Ark of the Covenant to the tabernacle in the city. 1 Chronicles 15 gives us this small detail that David is with the musicians, and they are wearing the same dress and David goes before them singing and dancing, and it says that all of Israel joined them in the song and shouts of praise. David writes the songs, David organizes the worship of the Levites, David wears there same dress and goes with them singing and dancing, and he leads the whole nation of Israel in songs of praise to God.

In the same way, I believe this is a hat tip from David to the future “preeminent one” who will come and lead all of God’s people in song as we stream into God’s city. If you think that what I am telling you is a stretch, read 1 Chronicle 15-16. In Hebrews 2:11-12 “For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers, saying, “I will tell of your name to my brothers; in the midst of the congregation I will sing your praise.” In other words, the writer of Hebrews sees Jesus as the one who like David, will be a brother to all of his people and will stand in the middle of God’s people and sing and lead us in worship. We should also note that this is a song. Psalm four is a song meant to be sung, but what I find fascinating is that when I listen to Christian radio stations, all of the songs are so joyous. Which I am not downing on because what Jesus has done for us should make us sing songs of praise, but the bible is a real book for real life. We all know times in our lives when we do not feel like singing songs of joy, which is okay. The bible is meant to be applied to every part of our lives; when we are joyful, we can sing songs of praise, but when we are in distress or have anxiety, we can go to God in honest humility and cry out to him.

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!

Verse one starts with David calling out to God. He says, “Answer me when I call.” This word for “call” is better translated as “Cry out.” David is not just in his own heart speaking to God; no when he is in distress, David cries out to God, pleading with God to answer him. Look at Psalm 3:4 “I cried aloud to the Lord, and he answered me from his holy hill. Selah.” This sounds like what we are reading in Psalm 4:1. I think that Psalm 4 is the prayer that David prayed when in Psalm 3. So, where does he turn when David is in trouble when he is in distress and his enemies are all around him? He turns to God. David says, “Answer me when I call, O God of my righteousness.” David approaches God with boldness, and he invokes God saying you are the God of my righteousness. Remember last week we looked at how in Psalm three, David said “you oh Lord are a shield about me, my glory and the lifter of my head.” Here we have the same thing: David is reflecting upon how God alone has given him his righteousness. David knows that he has no righteousness on his own; he could not live the righteous life unless it was God who strengthened him and instructed him on how to live. This is true for us. The only way that we can be righteous or live a righteous life is by faith in Christ alone. Paul writes in 1 Cor 1:30-31, “And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” In other words, David is calling out to God, remembering that it is God who has made him righteous and has been his righteousness from the beginning. If you are in Christ, then you can pray this same prayer, O God of my righteousness.” God has made you righteous through the work of Jesus Christ.

“You have given me relief when I was in distress. Be gracious to me and hear my prayer!” David starts his prayer by remembering the times God gave him relief when he was in distress. This is how faith works. Faith is not blind. Sometimes I hear Christians say just believe. I need to be honest, that is not very helpful; we need a reason to believe, and God has given it to us through His word and our own lives. If you need examples of God’s faithfulness, the bible is just one big story about God’s faithfulness. Here is how this works, when my faith is waning, and I need encouragement, I open my bible and look at times when God was faithful to his people. I see God’s faithfulness then and place my trust that he will be faithful to me because of Christ. If you need faith, Go to God and ask him for grace, he is the fountain of grace that can never be exhausted, his grace is deeper than the oceans; it is higher than the mountains. Our God is good and gracious; if you need grace, ask for his grace, and mercy abound. No matter what situation you are in, there is no place where God cannot shower you with His grace, and rest assured that if you are in Christ, then he hears your prayer, and he is interceding to the father on your behalf.

O men, how long shall my honor be turned into shame? How long will you love vain words and seek after lies? Selah But know that the Lord has set apart the godly for himself; the Lord hears when I call to him.

We have come to verses two and three. David does something strange here. In verse one, David talks directly to God, but in verse two, there is a shift in the prayer, and David is now addressing his enemies. “O Men, how long shall my honor be turned into shame?” David, trusting God’s past faithfulness and trusting in YHWH’s promises, looks to the men who surround him and are trying to hunt him down and asks them a rhetorical question. Those who struggle to go against God’s way of living, God’s people, and God’s promises are treating Israel's honor as shameful. Remember last week, in chapter three, when David says, “but you oh Lord are a shield about me, my Glory and the lifter of my head.”

Here the word for honor in chapter 4 is the same. God’s people who have faith and trust in God and His promises look to God as their glory; God is the only thing that brings us honor, and everything good we have and do is because of God who blesses us. But those who struggle and strive to undermine us and God’s way of life are rejecting the God of the bible. The next question evidences this, “how long will you love vain words and seek after lies?” David’s love and trust are in the Lord, but his enemies' love and trust are in lies and pointless meditations. God’s people love truth, justice, and kindness, they love God’s perfect word, and we arrange our lives in such a way that it brings honor and glory to God. But the wicked, they trust in their own strength, they trust in lies, they trust in pointless idols that cannot save. Notice David’s tone; it is almost like he is urging these enemies of his to stop, give up their worthless idols, stop believing in lies, and embrace God and all of his perfect ways. This is not judgment, a Psalm. David is not just reigning down judgment upon his enemies; he is urging them and pleading with them to abandon their ways and to place their trust in YHWH and God’s King. This is what we do as Christians. We can cry this same prayer just as David; we can look to those around us who follow idols, love lies and deception, choose evil over good, and call out to them, “how long will you strive against God? Do not trust in idols? Do not trust in your strength? Believe in God’s chosen King, Jesus. This is a call to repentance; David calls those around him to repent and consider the consequences of their actions.

Verse three “But know that the Lord has set apart the godly for himself; the Lord hears when I call to him.” The most significant difference between God’s people and those who oppose us is that we have been set apart by God, and when we call upon him, he is alive, and he answers us. You might not think this is cool like I do because I am a geek for words, but have you ever heard of God’s “Hesed” love? That is God’s steadfast loving kindness that God reveals to Moses when he lets Moses see the back of His Glory. It is a major word in the Old Testament that means covenant faithful love. It is not just general, generic love, but it is covenant faithfulness. It is like the love found in a marriage covenant; it is unique and distinct. The word for “godly” here is “Hayseed,” better translated as loving, kind ones or steadfast, faithful ones. If you have faith in God, then you are in covenant with him through the person of Jesus Christ, and when you call to God, he will hear you and answer you when you call. But those who trust in idols when they call out to them have no mouth to answer, no ears to hear, no arms to help in their day of distress.

“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.”

In verses four and five, David is still talking to those who are challenging him as God’s king and challenging God’s promises and God’s way of life. David tells them to “Be angry and do not sin.” David is talking to his enemies, saying, “Be angry, be irritated, have your questions that you need to be answered by God, but go and work those out in His Word and do not sin.” The Hebrew word “רַָגַז” can mean anger, but it mostly means a dispute or shaking from emotions.” I believe this works like so, David is telling his pursuers, “listen, if you do not like what God is doing, or what God has said, that's ok, if you have a problem with God take it to Him.” “Ponder, and speak in your own hearts until you get this worked out, but do not sin, do not rise up against me and try to kill me because you do not like what God has said.” If God says something that you do not like, that is ok. You are only human, but go and wrestle with God’s word until you come to a place where you have peace and silence. Do not take your first passionate impulse against God and lash out at others. No, you need to take your bible and wrestle with the hard but true questions and reality of scripture, and when you wrestle, when you seek God, you will find truth and peace.

Paul says the same thing. He quotes Psalm Four in the same way, Eph 4:25-29 “Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger and give no opportunity to the devil. Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.” Paul takes the same logic that David is using, and he is applying it to the church, if you have a problem with a brother or sister in Christ, be angry, but do not sin, wrestle in your own heart, putting away falsehood and evil desires. Come to a place of contentment and put the issue to bed quickly, do not let it fester. Do not slander each other, only let your speech be gracious and good for building each other up.

When you do this, when you wrestle with God and come to a place of submission and peace, look at what happens “Offer right sacrifices, and put your trust in the Lord.” When we wrestle with God in faith, submit to his word, and submit to his plans, it always leads to proper worship. This is the same with us. God does not want our worship to be cold and dead, only from a place of disengaged obedience. No, God wants us to offer right sacrifices With trust in the Lord.” This is transformative, we can do all of the right things and follow all of the correct commands, but if our faith is not in God and His Son Jesus, then we do not trust the Lord. Christian, maybe you need to wrestle through some things; that's okay. The Christian walk is not easy; God does not promise the easy way or the easy road. It is the opposite. God’s word is full of the sweetest passages; it is like honey, beautiful and incredible, but it also has a lot of difficult things that we need to wrestle with. There are many passages that the World hates, like what a man and what a woman is? Or what the meaning of marriage is? Or what sexual purity looks like? Or what it means to be a Godly man and a Godly woman. To those who are new to Christianity, these can be hard things to read and believe. But I challenge you like David does to take the Word of God and ponder it in your hearts, hear out God in his word, and wrestle with it until you come to a place of peace and submission, ending with faith in Christ.

“There are many who say, “Who will show us some good? 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.”

David is no fool? Thus far, he has been talking to his enemies, and now the prayer switches back to God. David is repeating the words of his enemies. “Who will show us some good?” Remember what we learned last week, Absalom stood at the gate, and as the people of Israel would come to see David, he would grab them and say, “where are you from?” “what do you need? Oh, your claims are good. If only the king would hear you, I would give you what you want when you want it, but the king won't. So, Absalom stole the hearts of the people. Here we have David, and he is reflecting on Absalom, repeating the words of his enemies. David's pursuers believe that “Absalom will show them some good?” He will be the good king. Absalom will show us some good! Then David cries to God, “Lift up the light of your face upon us, O YHWH!” David knows that the only one who will bring good things to Israel is God. Only God can satisfy all the needs of the people. David is just a man; he is temporary, limited in his time and power, but God is inexhaustible. Why do we turn to other people to provide for us when we have a God who loves to bless his people and is all-knowing, all-powerful, and everywhere all at once! God is the better king!

Look at the words that he is praying. “Lift up the light of your face upon us, O LORD.” David is reflecting upon the priestly blessing in Numbers 6:22-26 “The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, Thus you shall bless the people of Israel: you shall say to them, The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. “So shall they put my name upon the people of Israel, and I will bless them.” Remember how at the beginning of Psalm four, I mentioned that David is reflecting upon God’s past faithfulness and finding his future hope? In verse one, David reflects upon how God had given him relief when he was in distress in the past, and David says, “Be gracious to me and hear my prayer.” David is taking this blessing from God over the people of Israel and holding onto it while he is in the middle of the storm of life. Hear all of the word repetitions. Psalm 4:1 “be gracious to me and hear my prayer,” Numbers 6 “the Lord be gracious to you.” Psalm 4:6 “lift up the light of your face upon us,” Numbers 6, “may the Lord make his face shine upon you.”

This is how we are to get through the struggles of our lives, by reflecting and pondering and meditating upon God’s promises to us. For those who know God, God has “put more joy in my heart than they have when their grain and wine abound.” Wine and grain are symbols of God’s blessing upon the land given to Israel. They were promised to drink wine from vineyards that they did not plant and would always have an abundance of bread in their bowl. David is saying that the joy God has given me outweighs any physical blessing I could receive. This reminds us that we do not worship Jesus because of the physical stuff he gives us; no, we worship Jesus because he gives us life and joy! Let us never confuse the stuff that God gives us and God. I love David’s heart, God has put more joy in my heart than any physical thing, and even when he is in the wilderness running from his enemies, he still has more joy than they do. That is the Christian walk.

“In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for you alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety.”

David concludes this prayer by confessing the peace that God has given him. A minute ago, we read the blessing from Numbers 6. The priestly blessing ends with “the Lord lift up his countenance on you and give you peace.” David, once more, when he is looking for hope and assurance and peace, is looking back upon God’s promises. David ultimately finds the peace that his enemies are looking for only in God. Trust in YHWH leads to peace, which is beyond understanding. When the world is raging around us, when we are being tossed to and fro throughout life, when we have problems in our marriages, problems with our children, and problems at work, it is the peace of Christ Jesus that makes us lie down and sleep because it is God alone who makes us dwell in safety.

I conclude with a challenge: if you are not sure about Jesus and are struggling with this whole Christianity thing and are wrestling with God’s way of life, I challenge you to seek the Lord and take your questions, fears, and disbelief to him and his word. If you need help or resources on how to do that, please come up and talk to me or grab any of our members, and I know they would be glad to help you. And if you do know Christ, and you are struggling with life, or with a storm or a valley, reflect upon God’s promises and rest in the fact that he is with you.

I leave you with this “The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.