Or, Putting the Best Light on Our Trouble
Scripture: Psalm 4:1-8
Date: November 3, 2013
Speaker: Sean Higgins
When you are in trouble, what do you want? Trouble comes in more varied colors than a neighborhood of trick-or-treaters, so in one sense, it’s easy to imagine as many different answers as there are troubles. Nevertheless we could probably generalize and say that when we are in trouble, what we want most is to be out of that trouble.
This is, I think, at least what men want. We might say that ladies aren’t against getting out of trouble, but they seem to have a sense of really wanting something else more, or at least something else first. Maybe it’s because their trouble tolerance is higher. What they want is to know that someone cares. They want to know that they are not alone in the trouble, that their man loves them no matter what the trouble.
What do you want to do when you’re in trouble is an altogether different question than what you want when you’re in trouble. Our problem solvers want to solve the problem. Our relation securers want to secure the relation. This causes conflicts, of course, when the problem solver thinks the relation securer isn’t helping and when the relation securer thinks the problem solver doesn’t care. Now a second stage of trouble has developed that has taken temporary priority.
Psalm 4 is a song for trouble. It assumes trouble and it does not pin down the cause. As such, it provides a helpful way to process all kinds of trouble. It provides both what we should want and it shows what we should do: sing!
The heading identifies the song as A PSALM OF DAVID , as most psalms in Book I are. Psalm 3 included historical details and, while some argue that Psalm 4 also belongs with Absalom’s rebellion, no historical situation is identified here. David encountered more than one rocky season, so we do not know for sure when he penned it.
At some point David passed this song on TO THE CHOIRMASTER . We meet this character for the first time of fifty-five. He is the chief officiant of the temple services. He is, as we might call him, the worship team leader or choir director or leader of the band, or maitre de la musique (Calvin, “master of music”). He had a supervising role to organize and lead the Israelites in worship in song.
This song was specifically noted to be WITH STRINGED INSTRUMENTS , as are a few others. David played the harp; maybe he regarded the strings especially soothing for an evening setting, as we read in about verse 8.
The Psalm moves through four themes. We’ll see a Call for Help (verses 1-3), a Command for Repentance (verses 4-5), a Cry for Blessing (verses 6-7), and a Confidence of Security (verse 8).
The song opens by addressing God. Here is where most of our songs go wrong from the start. We look to music to distract ourselves from trouble. David used music to look to God amidst his troubles.
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!
(Psalm 4:1, ESV)
Three imperatives pepper this first part of the prayer: “Answer me,” “be gracious to me,” and “hear my prayer.” Though it may sound demanding, it’s much more desperate dependence. Answer me when I call doesn’t require us to hear impatience, but rather we can hear it as an expression of reliance. This description of God confirms it: God of my righteousness . David doesn’t describe God’s character as righteous, though it is. He describes God’s work to make him righteous and defend it. David’s status is given to him by God, not something he grabbed for.
Next David remembers past help. You have given me relief when I was in distress . Distress refers to dire straits (like a tight channel of water, illustrating a difficult situation without much margin for maneuvering) and relief is a widening. When David was in a pinch, God released the pressure, broadening his narrow way.
Then David’s request, Be gracious to me and hear my prayer! There has been past help, but there are new troubles that need fresh grace and hearing and assistance. Hear is the same as in Deuteronomy 6:4, the shemah. Any song that is going to be of genuine help in trouble is going to need God’s attention.
Two questions and a series of seven imperatives sounds off to the ones giving David grief.
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.
(Psalm 4:2–5, ESV)
Though it may seem as if David stops praying, he lays out the general nature of his trouble. We’re not used to this in our worship songs, but maybe we should try it, a lyrical confrontation of haters.
O men, how long shall my honor be turned to shame? How long will you love vain words and seek after lies? The group singled out are not the ordinary citizens. The Hebrew word refers to a group of nobility, a group of leaders or landowners, maybe even government officials. In other words, these are direction setters with some measure of rule or influence. They cast shadows on David’s integrity.
For some time ( how long? ) they have enjoyed smearing David’s name, or at least not giving a rip about defending his reputation. For a while (another how long? ) they listened for vain words of flattery, likely about how wise they were compared to David. They seek after lies , looking for dirt on David. The truth didn’t matter as long as whatever reports they obtained were bad.
After a pause, or perhaps a fortissimo for effect (Selah), David reminds them that men can only do so much as the imperatives begin. But know that the LORD has set apart the godly for himself . The “LORD knows the way of the righteous” (Psalm 1:6). It doesn’t matter if this trouble hit David before or during his kingship. The set apart he glories in here is not in his office but in his salvation. God doesn’t save men to discard them.
God pays attention to them: the LORD hears when I call to him . This is lyrical theology. It’s good to have this bullet loaded in your memory to shoot at just such a discouraging time. Pray. Sing a prayer if you don’t know what to say. He cares and He hears, regardless of what “men” are up to.
The second command causes the most interpretive questions in the psalm. Paul quotes it in Ephesians 4:26 for Christians. But here in Psalm 4 David is not addressing the righteous but rather those who should know better.
The imperatives in verse 4 can’t be understood if removed from the rest of the imperatives, all of which work in this context as a rebuke. These influential whiners who spent their days criticizing David should get their heads on straight and start worshipping.
Be angry may be more mocking; “You’re angry about how things are going, and go ahead, be angry.” Many translations note that it could be “Be agitated” or “Tremble” but it doesn’t seem to say that they should be more upset than they are. Instead they should start to consider that their anger is out of line. If they see problems then they should not sin , not go against what they know is right.
Instead, they should ponder in your own hearts on your beds . In the middle of bustle thinking gets jostled. At the end of the day, in the stillness before going to sleep, the quiet should help them think straight. So they should be silent . Silence means no one else is there to flatter them.
Coming out on the other end they could offer right sacrifices . The right belongs with the state of the heart not the accuracy of the cut or the heat of the fire for sacrifice. And finally, put your trust in the LORD . This is precisely what they weren’t doing. Failure to believe the LORD led to failure to honor David.
Our application of this looks first to those who know better; especially those leaders and taste-makers in the church who have given up trusting Him for some reason. They may not explicitly state that they have wandered, but it is evidenced in their attitude and how they expect to fix all their troubles.
We get another taste of the trouble David endured and the desire he had amidst it.
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.
(Psalm 4:6-7, ESV)
They many are a mob. The anonymous “many” terrorize leaders and groups everywhere. They are the most powerful private virus in existence. We heard from them in Psalm 3:2 and, in this case, the many probably come from among the “men” (verse 2) and David has heard their complaint. “Who will show us some good?” Who is going to fix this problem? Who is going to get us out of this mess?
We may not criticize the content of the question but we can criticize the attitude behind it. The motive is wrong even though the words are okay because we see what they did with the question. They used it to attack; not to depend. It was ungrateful, not humble.
David’s desire is way more bold, but also more appropriate. Though the ESV appends the quotation marks at the end of verse 6, probably due to the plural voice (“lift up…upon us”), the second half of verse 6 belongs with David’s desire (the NASB interprets it this way). Lift up the light of your face upon us, O LORD! David takes the priestly benediction from Aaron, a benediction he himself had probably heard in worship a number of times, and makes it his own, on its way to going back to the nation as a song.
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.
(Numbers 6:24–26, ESV)
Here is what the righteous man wants most in trouble: to know that he is not abandoned by Yahweh, or even worse, given over to Yahweh’s judgment. When the LORD is turned away from us we are in more trouble than when we’re in trouble and the LORD’s face is toward us. When He lifts up the light of His face there is favor and grace, but when darkness puts a cloud over His face then the situation is grave. Light reveals His joy, darkness His anger.
The request is not disconnected from the question of the many. Who will show us some good? What is good is when God shows His face to us. That is a good showing. Consciousness of His favoring presence changes our attitude.
David continues, You have put more joy in my heart than they have when their grain and wine abound . Maybe this was part of their complaint. Maybe there was a draught that had affected the harvest. Maybe the people suspected sin on David’s part as a reason for the LORD to cause the nation’s crops to suffer. Maybe not. Regardless, abounding grain and wine are great until they become a replacement joy rather than part of our thankful joy to God.
The LORD loves to give good to His people, but He does not give us good so that He does not need to give us Himself. Times of trouble reveal our own hearts, what we think makes us happy. We can rejoice in trials (think James 1:2), we can greatly rejoice in heaviness (think 1 Peter 1:6) if what we want is God’s favor more than favorable circumstances. Will we worship God or will we turn abundance into a god?
Here is the PM to Psalm 3s AM, and probably more of the reason why Psalter arranges 4 after 3 than supposing Psalm 4’s connection to Absalom’s rebellion.
In peace I will both lie down and sleep;
for you alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety.
(Psalm 4:8, ESV)
David was more secure with God than if an army kept watch around him. Joy comes from God’s favor more than a Christmas bonus check. Security comes from God’s protection more than a solid dead-bolt. We can sleep peacefully only as we trust the God of peace, otherwise we will serve the god of distractions or the god of panic. The LORD alone makes us dwell in safety.
When you wake up in the morning and remember the many rising and pressing in, what do you do? Sing Psalm 3. When you lay down at night pressed by the doubts of many, what do you do? Sing something like Psalm 4. If the weather is dry and the water scarce, meditate day and night and you will be like a tree planted by streams of water (Psalm 1).
There is no fix for the trouble by the end of the song but there is faith and prayerful singing. The circumstances don’t change, but the soul of the singer does.
The LORD’s face is toward the righteous. He is the God of our righteousness and He knows our way. In trouble, in severe wind, we could ask for calm weather or we could ask for a solid mast. May He fill our sails with songs of joy. May He give us sleep even when the boat rocks. May He give us a good showing, putting the best light on our troubles, the light of His face.