Psalms 4

Psalms 4:1

Psalm 4: God’s Secret Tranquilizer4:1 As David enters the Lord’s presence, he addresses Him as God of my righteousness. This conveys the thought that the God of justice could be depended on to judge David righteously. Men may defame and blackball but God knows the true facts and will see that justice triumphs! Then David adds, “You have relieved me in my distress.” In Darby’s New Translation this reads, “In pressure thou hast enlarged me.” Ordinarily we think of pressure as reducing the compass or volume of its object, but God uses pressure to produce spiritual enlargement! Prosperity does little for us, but adversity produces growth and maturity. Spurgeon once said: I am afraid that all the grace I have got out of my comfortable and easy times and happy hours might almost lie on a penny. But the good that I have received from my sorrows and pains and griefs is altogether incalculable. What do I not owe to the hammer and the anvil, the fire and the file! Affliction is the best bit of furniture in my house. Remembering how God had answered his prayers in the past when he was under pressure, David feels free to ask God to hear him again. 4:2, 3 The immediate occasion for David’s appeal can be deduced from verses 2-5. He was being maligned and slandered by unprincipled men. These carping critics were dragging his name in the mud, assassinating his character, and besmirching his reputation with baseless accusations and downright falsehood. David asks them how long their mindless rage against him will continue, then reminds them that their efforts to overthrow him are futile because God Himself is on his side: “The LORD has set apart for Himself him who is godly.” Those who trust in the Lord are as “the apple of His eye” (Zec_2:8). Their names are engraved on the palms of His hands (Isa_49:16). He hears them when they call and hastens to their assistance. David is thus anticipating Paul’s argument in Rom_8:31 : If God is for us, who can be successfully against us? 4:4 David’s enemies should let their passions cool. If they must be angry, it should be in a righteous cause. The clause “Be angry and do not sin” is quoted in Eph_4:26, but there it is addressed to believers, reminding them that it is right to be angry in God’s cause but never in one’s own. Here in Psalms 4, of course, the words are spoken to wicked men to warn them against the overflow of anger into violent action. As they lie awake in the quietness of the night hours, they should search their own hearts and consider the stupidity of fighting against God. Such sober reflections would silence their slanderings and terminate their wicked plans. 4:5 In a bold evangelistic thrust, David counsels the wicked to combine practical righteousness with faith in the LORD. “Make justice your sacrifice” (Gelineau). But this can only be done by those who have put their trust in the LORD. 4:6 There are many who want prosperity and happiness. They are continually yearning to see some good. But the trouble is that they want blessing without the Blesser, and good without God. They want all the benefits of a Christ-filled life but they don’t want the Benefactor. In contrast to them, David goes straight to the Fountainhead of all good with the words, “LORD, lift up the light of Your countenance upon us.“4:7 His gladness in the Lord far exceeds the joy of the ungodly when their silos bulge with grain and their casks overflow with wine. “Never did rich harvests of corn and wine bring gladness like the gladness Thou puttest into my heart” (Knox). 4:8 Reassured of the Lord’s all-sufficiency, the psalmist’s inner agitation subsides. He can now lie down in peace and sleep, knowing that it is the LORD who makes him dwell in safety. What a change prayer has produced in only eight short verses!