Distressed to Rest; Psalm 4

² O men,^[a] 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,^[b] 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.

Introduction

You will sometimes hear people talk about the emotional range of the Psalms as if they are a bipolar emotional roller coaster, or emo, or something like that. People will talk like David is a feminine man in touch with his emotions. Such characterizations fail to recall that David fought off bears, lions, and killed a giant in one on one battle as a young shepherd boy with a mere slingshot. Such characterizations fail to recall that David was a warrior-king. The fact that Psalms do indeed touch on the entire range of emotions in the Christian life, in no way indicates they were written by an emotionally unstable man. The fact that David was a poet who wrote songs does not indicate that he was an emotionally weak man. But rather it indicates to us that singing the Psalms is godly masculinity. The book of Psalms is God’s inspired hymn book. They are songs of battle and war. They are songs of mountaintops and deep valleys. They are God’s Word.

The Psalms are not songs of an emotionally unstable effeminate man. They are manly. They are masculine, godly, powerful, and unbreakable hammers against the strongholds of hell. Many Psalms are warrior songs, the pages splattered with blood, sweat, and tears. Many others are written before the presence of a holy God, before whom, no man will stand without a mediator. Still yet, others were wrought from the front lines of spiritual warfare against all the hounds of hell, yet the man of God prevails.

Psalm 4 is no exception to these things. It is most likely that this Psalm remains in the context of Psalm 3 – Absalom’s rebellion. Psalm 3 being the morning Psalm when David rises; Psalm 4 being the evening song, as it ends with him laying down to sleep. Thus these Psalms are meant to be taken together. This context being the case, this means that the enemies of David in this Psalm, as with Psalm 3, are the Israelites who joined Absalom’s rebellion.

So here we have David who has been turned on by his own son, his own flesh and blood. The hearts of the people were with Absalom; after all he was the young strong man, David was old news. And here David is, on the verge of being overthrown and losing his kingdom, being turned on by his own people, with just a few of his own men remaining loyal to him. Obviously David is in great distress. And yet, sneak preview, by the end of this Psalm David lays down and sleeps in peace. He goes from distressed to rest. 

Do you ever find yourself in such a situation of great distress, where you don’t know what is going to happen but you fear the worst, and it’s impossible to get some rest while in such distress? Wouldn’t you like to be able to experience one of the worst days of your life, like David, and be able to lie down and sleep in peace that night? Well, you can, and we will find out how.

Words to God, v. 1

The first thing to notice is the first thing David does in a distressing situation. The first thing he does is go to God in prayer. He cries out to God. He pleads to God for mercy and help. This is the king of Israel, a man of war, a man who has slain his tens of thousands, and his first response to this time of turmoil is to go to the Lord in prayer. He does not first take matters into his own hands, but he puts it into the Lord’s hands. He is not so prideful and foolish to think that prayer must not be of first importance. One of the mightiest warrior-kings in history, is nothing without prayer to the one true and living God of heaven and earth. And who do we think that we are, to not run to our prayer closets with twice the speed and desperation? I can be as guilty as the next man in not immediately taking our problems and our cares to God in prayer. We often waste so much time in energy worrying when we have free access to the throne of grace where we can cast our cares and not waste our days and lose our hair because we didn’t go to God in prayer. What a wonderful reminder this Psalm has been to me this week in reminding me to immediately go to God in prayer when troubles arise. We are weak and feeble, unable to bear our distress, even the strongest and bravest among us. Yet when we are weak, he is strong, and near to us.

Notice how David begins his prayer: “Answer me when I call, O God of my righteousness!” Notice that phrase, “God of my righteousness” – this is to say that God vindicates him despite the enemies’ accusations and condemnations of him. In other words, David is saying, “God who justifies,” or “God of my justification.” Now how could David make such a bold claim in prayer? After all, David was as terrible a sinner as the next man. How could such a sinner make such a plea to God to answer him? Oh, but David does not make this plea on the grounds of self-righteousness, but on the grounds of the God of his righteousness. David knows he is a sinner and unworthy; but he knows the God of his righteousness who forgives iniquity and who justifies sinners.

If we are to come to God and ask bold things of him in prayer, we must come on the grounds of the God of our righteousness. We must come confessing our sin and guilt, trusting in Christ to forgive, and to be our righteousness. We must come to prayer, clothed in the righteousness of Christ – the only way we can plead before the throne of grace. We must come knowing that Jesus is our righteousness. We must come knowing that “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” This is how we come rightly and confidently to God in prayer.

In his prayer, David then recalls God’s answers in the past when the Lord has been his help and relief. This is a mark of gratitude, remembering what God has done for you. It is also a mark of confidence and trust – believing God will answer again, and trusting yourself to the one who has done great things for you.

David does this many times throughout the Psalms and this is another instance of David’s habit of pleading past mercies as a ground for present favor. Oh, what a great habit this would be for us to acquire – remembering the Lord’s help in times past, as we ask for present help. Of many things, it would help us to put our problems in perspective. It would help us to remember how time and again, God has come through for us, even when we didn’t know how it could be possible, God did. What confidence that can give us for our present troubles when we see no possible way of survival, remember that God has come through for you in ways that you couldn’t see, until after he did. This of course is so that we learn to trust him.

Not only do we remember how God has given us relief in times of trouble in times past, but ultimately we can look back and remember what God has done in the past to give us confidence for the future – and that ultimate act of God on our behalf that we look back to, is the cross of Jesus Christ. Where God sent his Son into the world to save his people from their sins. When we were in the greatest distress of sin and in the bonds of Satan, Christ our redeemer and Lord came to pay for our sin and rescue us from the chains of death and hell. Christ has given us the greatest relief from the greatest distress, how shall he not also give us all things? We who were once enslaved to the evil taskmaster of sin and Satan and abiding in the wrath of a holy God, have been freed, forgiven, and made right with this holy God, through the blood of God’s Son. What relief! What burden lifted! What distress gone! Whatever other little problems come along the way, we can trust those to our Redeemer also. He can handle them.

So it is that the quicker we go to God in prayer when we are in distress, it likely shows the more we have learned to trust him.

After David calls upon God in verse 1, he then turns to speak to his enemies in verse 2 as he says, “O men…”

Note what Charles Spurgeon brings to our attention here, “Observe, that David speaks first to God and then to men. Surely we should all speak the more boldly to men if we had more constant converse with God. He who dares to face his maker, will not tremble before the sons of men.”

Boldness in prayer gives us bravery before men.

This is the example our Lord gives to us as well. Think of how often Jesus was found escaped to private prayer with the Father. He would rise early in the morning to meet with God in prayer before facing the crowds and those who would conspire against him. What a pure and perfect example we fall so short of. But even in the greatest moment of distress in our Lord’s life, while in the garden the night of his arrest before shortly being beaten and crucified, he was found with God in prayer, before facing his enemies, earthly and spiritual. He would experience betrayal from one of his very own, one of his closest twelve, much like David and Absalom. He would then go to the cross and face off with sin, death, and the dragon. But before these most distressing moments of his life, he communed so hard with the Father in prayer that he sweat great drops of blood.

Words to Enemies, v. 2-3

So David turns here to address his enemies.

Note what Spurgeon says here, “…we are led from the closet of prayer into the field of conflict. Remark the undaunted courage of the man of God. He allows that his enemies are great men, but still he believes them to be foolish men, and therefore chides them, as though they were but children.”

There are two aspects to the words that David speaks to his enemies that help us understand what Spurgeon means here. The first thing David does is pose questions to his enemies that reveal the folly of their sin and their position. The implied worldview of David’s questions to his enemies is one that knows his honor shall not forever be turned into shame. The shame his enemies cast upon him and the vanity and lies they indulge in have a shelf life. They will not forever abide. They will not win. His enemies are fighting a losing cause. So David poses these questions in such a way as to reveal the impending doom of his enemies.

This is the idea of Proverbs 26:4-5 which says, “Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest you be like him yourself. Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own eyes.” So which is it? Do you answer the fool or not? Well, we answer not according to his folly, meaning we don’t assume his unbelieving worldview to try and reason him out of it; but rather we answer the fool according to his folly, meaning we show him the folly of his worldview without giving up ours. One of the best illustrations I have heard to explain this is this: imagine you are on a nice big battleship and you’re floating along in the ocean, and up rows this guy and a little row boat and he starts blaspheming your giant battleship. You don’t answer him according to his folly lest you become like him, by getting out of your battleship, and getting down into his rowboat that’s full of holes in order to reason with him. But rather, you answer him according to his folly, by remaining in your battleship and directing his attention to look at what he is standing on, the holes in his own rowboat that are quickly sinking his boat.

This is essentially what David is doing here with his enemies. The rebellious Israelites who have joined Absalom’s rebellion really think they can overthrow the Lord’s anointed one? “O men, how long shall my honor be turned into shame? How long will you love vain words and seek after lies?” Vain things by definition do not last or win out in the end. 

The second thing David does in his words to his enemies, spells out further what he is getting at. He says, “But know that the LORD has set apart the godly for himself…” David is telling his enemies where the world is going and what their end shall be. This is great confidence. Their worldview is vanity, it is passing in the wind, and God has set apart the godly for himself. The future is Christian. No matter how big and bad the enemy may think he is and no matter how hard he may huff and puff, the enemy is not the future. Their worldview – lies and sin – necessitate death; it necessarily leads to destruction. It is futile and vain by definition. The Lord has set apart the godly for himself. This is much like Jesus’ words in the sermon on the mount in Matthew 5:5, “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” The wicked do not inherit the earth and the enemies of God who work against Christ and his people do not inherit the earth. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. The Lord has set apart the godly for himself.

Ultimately, can you see the Lord uttering such words as verse 2, “how long shall my honor be turned into shame?” For it was on the cross where Christ’s honor was turned to shame. The King of glory, robed in light, robed in majesty, was stripped and exposed, nailed upon the cross. They beat him, spit upon him, and bore false witness against him. They put the sign on the cross that said, “King of the Jews,” mocking our Lord. What honor was turned to shame there on Golgotha, the place of the skull, so that our shame, might be turned to honor. Oh the shame of our sin, which caused our first parents to cover themselves with leaves, and necessitated the death of the glorious Son of God – oh that shame – turned to honor at the cross where the honor of Christ was turned into shame. For how long? Oh but a few hours. Just a short time.

Christians on this earth in various places are wrongly jailed and persecuted in various ways, mocked and scorned as their master, and it is asked “How long shall my honor be turned to shame?” Oh but a few hours. Just a short time. Romans 10:11, “For the Scripture says, ‘Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.’”

Words to Friends, v. 4-5

In verse 4 and 5 David now turns to speak to his own faithful men who are there with him in the cave. “Be angry and do not sin,” he says. What does that have to do with this Psalm? Think if you are one of David’s faithful men and you have been through all kinds of battle with him and seen his faithfulness to God and God’s blessing upon him, and now these young guns are trying to overthrow the king – think of how angry that could make you feel. In a war scenario such as this, it would be a likely temptation that their anger could tempt them to go to sinful excesses in battle, resorting to inhumane brutality, or seeking to wipe out and kill beyond which God would call for, things like that – take vengeance into their own hands, essentially.

Oh what a common temptation for us in various, mostly lesser ways. How often do we act with self-indignation in our anger and end up doing things we regret and sin? How often do we want to take vengeance into our own hands or seek to accomplish our own vigilante justice? Maybe with your children or your spouse you are angered, and then say or do things that are not right, sinning in your anger. Boys and girls, maybe you are tempted to sin when you are angry with your parents or your siblings. I like Proverbs 29:11 in the NASB, “A fool always loses his temper, but a wise man holds it back.” Instead of giving full vent to your anger, sit in silence and ponder. You see if Jesus is our righteousness and God is the God of our righteousness, the God who justifies, we don’t have to feel the need to take justice into our own hands and justify ourselves, or enact our own righteousness. That’s God’s job, not ours. And you see, because the Lord has set apart the godly for himself in verse 3, we can be angry and not sin in verse 4, no matter what the enemy has done to us.

David tells his men to offer right sacrifices and trust in the Lord. In verse 4 and 5 David is telling his men not to fall into sin because you have been sinned against. Isn’t that such a great temptation – to justify and feel righteous in sinning as retaliation for being sinned against. But what folly and sin that that is. Be angry and do not sin, offer right sacrifices, and trust the Lord to do what is right. It is God who you have to fear, make sure you are right with him. He will take care of “them.” 

Of course today we do not offer continual sacrifices for sin. This verse has a blessed fulfillment in the Lord Jesus Christ our Redeemer. As Hebrews 10 tell us that the priests offered continual sacrifices but could not atone for sin, and Jesus has come offering himself once and for all for sin, then sat down at the right hand of God until all his enemies have been made a footstool for his feet. You see, the sacrifice Christ has made once for all for sin is the guarantee of victory over the enemies, as they will be made a footstool for his feet. Christ’s once for all sacrifice in the past, in time and history, and his seat upon the throne presently, gives us present confidence, patience, and peace in our conflicts and tribulations.

Words to God, v. 6-8

David then turns to close the Psalm by speaking with God again. “Lift up the light of your face upon us!” This is a plea for God to show favor upon them; to look kindly upon them and grant victory. No matter how the darkness feels to be raging today, we live in the era in which the light of God’s face has shone upon us in the face of Christ. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it. 2 Corinthians 4:6, “For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” 

This ultimate favor from God in the face of Jesus Christ can cause us to say with the Psalmist, “You have put more joy in my heart than they have when their grain and wine abound.” This is a contrast between the ungodly and the godly. Though the godly may prosper for a time, even then, the godly have more joy because the light of God’s face in Jesus Christ has looked favorably upon us with forgiveness of sin and eternal life. The ungodly, in their sin, cannot experience this real joy, even though they may prosper for a while, they will not prosper with joy in the heart, or the favorable face of God in Christ shedding light upon them. It will be a frustrating success. But for the Christian, even though he may be brought to humble means for a time, he can have the choicest joy of heaven abounding in his heart. It’s generally something we don’t comprehend the possibility of until we are in that moment and receive grace for the hour with a divine joy in our hearts, though there be enemies without.

I love how Charles Spurgeon puts it, “Christ in the heart is better than corn in the barn, or wine in the vat.”

In concluding the Psalm, the result is that David lies down and sleeps in peace. Despite having all his enemies around him, on the verge of taking his kingdom from him, his own son leading the rebellion, the man of faith, lays down and sleeps in peace. Some of you would so long to have such a peace and a rest at night with all the stress and worries of life that keep you awake throughout the night. And I know they are real worries and stresses and not mere trifles; and yet I say confidently you can sleep like David. You have everything that David has. You have the God who justifies looking favorably upon you with the light of the face of Jesus Christ and all the joy and promises that come with that. Your God is David’s God. He is no weaker or unwilling to help his children now, than he was then.

Maybe you’re an unbeliever and this peace is foreign to you. You too can have this peace through the Prince of Peace. Turn from the folly and vanity of your sin and rebellion and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ and his sacrifice for sin, that he will forgive you and put joy in your heart, that you may be right with God and sleep at night. The future of the ungodly is futile, fleeting, and vanity. The future is godly, for know that the LORD has set apart the godly for himself. “In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for you alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety.”