40 Minutes In The Old Testament - Psalm 4 (Episode 382)

Episode Date: October 9, 2023

Chad and Daniel discuss Psalm 4. Have a listen! Show Notes: Support 1517 1517 Podcasts The 1517 Podcast Network on Apple Podcasts 1517 on Youtube What's New from 1517: 2023 HWSS Conference Livestream Signup Free 2023 Advent Resources 2024(May 3-4) NWA Tickets are Now Available! Join the 1517 Academy All Charges Dropped, Vol. 2 More from the hosts: Daniel Emery Price Chad Bird

Welcome to the psalm companion of 40 Minutes in the Old Testament. 40 Minutes in the Old Testament, of course, is a 1517 Podcast Network podcast, and you can go to 1517.org and check got all the other things that are living over there chad we are in psalm number four today so as i've said before it always feels weird to say chapter four when you're talking about psalms i don't like it uh it's psalm numero four uh this uh we got a psalm of david which of course so many psalms are this one is addressed of course to the the choir master with the stringed instruments okay so this one's meant to be played uh on some strings yeah you gotta have the strings for for psalm four so i i mentioned to you right before we started recording that i know this song well

because uh hardly a night goes by when my head hits the pillow and i don't pray psalm four it is the it is the nighttime prayer man this guy this is a righteous flex by chad on this song like let me tell you about how many how many years i've been alive how many days are in the year that's how many times i've prayed this song i prayed this song yeah so so full confession Sometimes I fall asleep halfway through it But that's alright That's the point You're trying to go to sleep here

Yeah, yeah It's a great song to fall asleep to Why would I pray this song? Every night Well, because The last line is this In peace I will both lie down and sleep

For you alone, O Lord Make me dwell in safety I mean, can you get a better Going to bed prayer than that? No, that's pretty good That's the best So I do urge people to pray a song for at night it's the uh it wasn't just for me i mean this has kind of been the traditional

evening going to bed prayer for a long time but it's only eight verses so let me just read through it real quick it's kind of hard i haven't memorized in the new american standard but this is the esv so here's how it goes answer me when i call oh god of my righteousness you have given me relief when i was in distress be gracious to me and hear my prayer oh men how long will my honor be turned to shame how long will you love vain words and seek after lies 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 hearts on your beds and be silent 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 oh 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 oh lord make me dwell in safety so it's a it's a using a lot of language that we find elsewhere in the psalms about uh first of all needing relief when when in distress distress in hebrew is this idea of a image of a tight place so i always imagine like the walls are closing in you're feeling trapped so what you want is relief which is the idea of like widen the narrow space i'm in that's how you could translate that more literally so to give me relief when i'm in distress widen this narrow place that i'm in so i'm feeling trapped i'm feeling caught so give me some relief

widen this out so that i have some room to breathe we might say yeah gracious to me hear my prayer Yeah, I mean, I like that David knows about his lack of righteousness. So when you're starting to pray to God, maybe at nighttime, and you've lived a whole day, right? So the day is now gone. You might want to pray to the God of your righteousness. In other words, so answer me when I call, O God of my righteousness. This is him saying that his righteousness belongs to God. So he is not the God of his own righteousness.

He is not the possessor of his own righteousness. He is not the creator of his own righteousness. This came from somewhere else. And where did this come from? It came from God. So he's asking this God who is his righteousness to widen this thing up, man. Give me some relief from this distress. It's a nice echo of what we talked about with Psalm 3.

Salvation belongs to the Lord. Yeah. That's right. It's the Lord's salvation. It's not yours. It's his. Righteousness belongs to the Lord. So he's the God of my righteousness.

It's always what we have, righteousness or holiness or anything like that. It's always alien. It's a gift. It belongs to God. He just happens to give it to us. Well, you know this is the case, too, because you're saying, you are the God of my righteousness. I'm asking you to do this thing for me. Give me relief.

You've given me relief when I was in distress. Not because I'm righteous. That's not why. Because you're pleading for grace here. That's why he says, be gracious to me and hear my prayer. You could say, have you checked out the righteous day I just lived? Deliver me from this distress. You owe this to me.

I've been so righteous. But no, if you know that this is the God of your righteousness, this is also a God who desires to be gracious to you as well, and to listen to you. I mean, this paints a pretty great picture of God, that he's the God of your righteousness, that he's gracious to you, and that he's willing to hear you. Yeah, and then he talks about why he needs to be heard and why he needs relief, because he, as it were, turns from speaking to God in prayer to talking about these other people, you know, kind of turning to face those who are causing the distress that he's in.

So, oh, man, or sons of men, how long shall my honor be turned to shame? How long will you love vain words and seek after lies? So this is a we see this over and over in the Psalms where David is surrounded by those who are trying to shame him. They're lying about him. They're pursuing, pursuing him, persecuting him, planning and plotting all kinds of evil against him. So he turns to the Lord and ask him for relief. And then he says this, he says, know that the Lord has set apart the chassid for himself. Now, that's translated here as godly. It's sometimes translated as pious.

Maybe you hear the chassidim in that word. Chassid is formed from our word chesed. So I like to translate this as something like, know that the Lord has set apart the recipient of chesed for himself. yeah the beloved ones the chesed one for himself which i think is a much better way to to view what is happening here so is he godly is he pious well yeah why because he's a recipient of the the chesed of the lord the loving kindness of the lord that's who the lord has set apart for himself and because he's beloved of god because this love of god is important to his hearts then into his heart. That's why God hears when He calls to Him. Yeah, and I love that He's like, hey, just so you

know, people that are doing this stuff, the Lord does hear when I call Him. Yeah, He's not silent. So all these plots and plannings that you're putting against me, know that I'm speaking to the Lord about those, and He's not the kind of God who's deaf to my cries. He goes on to say, be angry and do not sin. This is echoed by Paul. Paul is referring to this in Ephesians 4, 26, where he says, be angry and do not sin. Don't let the sun go down on your anger.

Yeah, I was thinking about that. When Paul says that, it's sort of, Paul knows this is an evening prayer because he quotes it and it says, hey, are you at the end of the day? Maybe a good time to not go to bed angry. Yeah, a good time to set aside that anger, whatever that bad thing is you've gone through the day,

whether it's against someone who's in the same bed with you or people who are on the other side of town or whatever it might be. Just put that aside and do some pondering in your own heart and be silent. Think about it. Think about the day. Think about the God of your righteousness, the God of your salvation. Offer right sacrifices and put your trust in the Lord. I don't think he's talking here about animal sacrifices.

I suspect this is a sacrifice of thanksgiving, a praise, the kind of thing that he's doing in this psalm. You have that frequently in the book of Psalms where they're not talking about what we think of as literal sacrifices, but instead what Hebrews talks about, the sacrifice of praise or thanksgiving. Yeah, David is a big—he doesn't use sacrifice language, but he uses acceptance language. So a sacrifice is something you would offer to God.

And he uses this kind of language to attach to a contrite heart or repentance, that kind of thing. So to be angry and sin not, or be angry and do not sin, this is a little bit tricky. This line is very easy to cross, and I think most of the time we do. Is it always a sin to be angry? Well, no. But is it very difficult to be angry and not sin? yes it is and so perhaps you have something that you could that you are that you are justified to be angry about but it seems that what david is saying is most of the time when this happens

you probably also like have crossed the line into sin so maybe you got to do some pondering in your heart uh maybe you gotta repent for the sin part of that and maybe part of being angry but not sinning—and Paul will say this kind of thing explicitly—is that you might be angry, but vengeance belongs to God. So this would be putting your trust in the Lord. Maybe you can say to God, this injustice has been done, this thing—and David is saying some of this stuff, I'm getting lies said about me and all this kind of stuff—but this is, you are now making this God's problem. This is how someone could be angry and not venture into sin, where you would say, i'm justifiably angry about this thing i'm giving it to god now if i plot my revenge i have certainly

crossed and crossed the line into sin right yeah yeah it's a it's a fine line for unrighteous people to have righteous anger yes i don't know that i've ever not crossed the line when it comes to to those things i'm not saying righteous anger doesn't exist but i'm saying that in the heart of of a sinner you're always going to have unrighteousness mixed in with that so yeah you you turn that over to the lord and then he quotes verse six the many now people are saying that's what we that's you could translate it that way you know people you know what people are saying well people are saying when is any good going to come along because it's going to show us any good lift up the light of your face upon us oh lord and i don't know because this is a

little bit tricky so that's two lines of verse six many are saying who will show us any good does the quote end there or does a quote from these people go on to the second half lift up the light of your face upon us oh lord esv has all of that in quotes i've always understood it the opposite i've always understood it to be many are saying who's going to show us any good in quote and then david says god lift up the light of your face upon us yeah that's that's kind of how i've read it to you there's this there's this hey there's a lot of people out here saying is any is you know will who will show us some good is there anyone gonna show us a good and uh and then david says show them god yeah shine your face yeah show them that good that

they're wondering is is it ever going to come along and number seven has uh frequently you have this in the prophets too where you have a request and it's almost like immediately fulfilled so you have put more joy in my heart than when they have their grain and wine abounding so i'm happier now than when i have plenty of plenty to eat and plenty to drink that's what that means yeah and this seems to like tie into that where it's saying hey who's going to show us some good and david says well god you should show them some good i know you can because you've put more joy in my heart than when i have all i need to eat and all i need to drink so there's a there is a joy that only god uh or a good that only god can provide and david says i know that you can because

you have next so maybe what you've done for me do for them yeah and then we we wrap it up he says in in peace and as you might have guessed that is shalom so in this in this holistic contentment in life that only comes from god in shalom and peace i'm going to be able to go to bed and having kind of set aside the anger to ponder in my heart turning everything over to god to not only just lay in bed but actually sleep in peace i can i'd lie down and sleep why because you alone oh lord make me dwell in safety i'm safe with you i'm content in you you've satisfied me you've let the light of your countenance shine upon me you put joy in my heart i know you're going to hear my prayers when i'm in distress because that's the kind of god you are good and

gracious, one who shares his righteousness with me. So on the basis of knowing that I'm good with you, and we would add in Christ, knowing that I'm good with you in Christ, because of all you've done for me, I can go to bed, I can close my eyes, and I can sleep, because I trust in you, knowing that in you I am dwelling in safety. Yeah, I mean, that's the big thing, I mean, tying verse 1 to verse 8, is that if you're lying down in the righteousness that God has provided, you are lying down in safety, I mean, this is the safest place to be. There is no other—because no matter what happens to you in the night, it doesn't matter.

You could even say this was—this is a good verse to— if you're conscious and know that you are at death's door, you could pray verse 8 of Psalm 4. In peace I will lie down, and now my body will sleep, because in you alone, O Lord, I dwell in safety. I am safe and secure in the resurrection of Christ. Yeah. Amen. All right. Well, that's it. There you go. There's Psalm 4. Next time we talk about a psalm,

we'll get to Psalm 5. Not going to need stringed instruments for that one. Going to need some flutes. So that's a different tone. Yeah. I think my wife has a flute in the closet. I'll bring that along. That's great. Chad will show us how to play this in the Hebrew. That'd be great. All right, Chad. I'll see you next week. All right. See you then. We'll see you next time.