Psalm 4
Prayer: Father, we are constantly tempted to forget Your grace. We are tempted to think that we are good religious people, and that we have done something good to make You like us. Please remind us today of Your great grace, so that we might walk in the confidence of Your goodness, and nothing else. We ask in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Introduction
In a world of sin and tragedy, evil men and corrupt leaders, it is easy for God’s people to be tempted to panic, to give in to anxiety or anger, to lash out in desperation. But Christians are to be marked by faith that knows God is righteous, and therefore God is for us – God is on our side, and therefore He always hears us. But how is it that a righteous God can be on the side of sinners? Why would God be for us, much less listen to us? We are filthy beggars. Why doesn’t God just ignore us?
The Text: “To the chief musician on Neginoth, a psalm of David: Hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness…” (Ps. 4:1-8)
Summary of the Text
This psalm is part of a collection for the “chief musician,” and this one is to be played on stringed instruments (“Neginoth”) and is a psalm of David. Psalm 4 has a number of similarities to the previous psalm and may come from the same time period (fleeing from Absalom) or may be from another time like when he was on the run from Saul.
David asks God to hear him, and he addresses God as “the God of my righteousness,” which is explained by the fact that God has often answered David’s prayers to deliver him into a wide open place from the narrowest troubles (Ps. 4:1, cf. 3:1). God is righteous, and God has proven it in the past. And David knows that this is pure mercy/grace (Ps. 4:1).
David addresses his enemies directly in this prayer, asking how long they will slander him with lies, and the psalm pauses to meditate on how empty it all is (Ps. 4:2). Worship is not a private religious gathering; it is in the presence of our enemies (Ps. 23:5). Worship is warfare, and one way we fight is by correcting and rebuking our enemies in worship. David insists that God has chosen him and will therefore answer him (Ps. 4:3). David’s confidence that God will hear him is grounded in the fact that God chose him. He says his enemies should stop their lying babble for a minute, tremble before God, stop their sinning, and meditate for a moment in silence (Ps. 4:4). If they did that honestly, it would drive them to repent and be cleansed by sacrifice and put their trust in God (Ps. 4:5). Notice that he calls the sacrifices, “the sacrifices of righteousness,” – this is our righteousness: blood and death.
Finally, David contrasts two different kinds of joy (which are really two different kinds of righteousness): many are carnal and worldly and look for happiness/righteousness entirely in material goods (wealth, houses, cars, wine) – these people determine whether they are doing well based on bank accounts and parties, but David says he has more joy in the smile of God than all of that (Ps. 4:6-7). David’s righteousness and goodness is found in the pleasure of God, the benediction of God. And like Psalm 3, David says this gives him a kind of peace that allows him to lay down and enjoy deep and restful sleep (Ps. 4:8).
God of My Righteousness
So David begins with this plea for help and addresses God as the God of His righteousness. What does this mean? The doctrine of justification by faith alone means that God is our righteousness, our justice, and our vindication for the sake of Christ by faith alone. But this really is remarkable, and we need to underline this point. Some of you looked at porn this week. Some of you lost your temper with your kids. Some of you said something ugly or biting or cruel to your husband, your wife, a co-worker. Some of you disobeyed your parents. Some of you curses someone in your heart, hated them, and murdered them in your heart. Some of you posted things on social media that you know were immodest, and you meant to get all the wrong sorts of attention. Some of you lied. Some of you refused to forgive someone. We are a room full of sinners; we are a room full of lepers. There has been adultery, homosexuality, molestation, and abortions. This is not a room full of decent religious people. This is a room full of sinners. If you were looking for the decent religious church, try the Mormons.
But here is the remarkable thing: you are righteous in the sight of God. God looks on this congregation and smiles. God looks on this congregation and is pleased. But how is this possible? How is that righteous? How is it righteous for a perfectly holy God, who knows all things, to look down on this congregation, knowing all our filth, all our crap – how is it possible for a righteous God to say that we are righteous, when we are not? You are not righteous, and as hard as you try you can’t stop sinning. So God the only Righteous One offers His righteousness to sinners. This is what it means for God to be your righteousness. God saves sinners by declaring them righteous for the sake of Jesus. Jesus is the only righteous man, and He came for sinners. He came to live the perfectly life that we cannot live, He died the death we deserve for our sins, and God raised Him from the dead, so that all who trust in Him may be united to Him and share His righteousness. This is what it means for God to be your righteousness. By faith, you are united to Christ, and His obedience becomes your obedience. His perfection becomes your perfection. His righteousness is your righteousness.
But that means you must be a sinner to qualify. Christ did not come for the righteous but for sinners. He did not come for the healthy but the sick. The righteous do not need God’s righteousness. Do you need God’s righteousness?
But when you have God’s righteousness, it is full and complete. God’s righteousness is solid, confident, and unshakeable: “Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifies” (Rom. 8:33). God declares sinners righteous for the sake of Christ, and there is no charge, no accusation that can be brought against them. There may be true accusations, but they have been fully paid for. And while it is painful to be falsely accused, it is not fatal for Christians because we stand before God and the world in the righteousness of Christ (Rom. 3:22, Phil. 3:9). He is our judge, our witness, and our jury, and Christ is stood in our place.
But if the attacks and opinions of men constantly shake you, are you justified before God? If a stranger insults you, it might annoying, but it doesn’t usually hurt, but the closer someone is to you, the more the accusation or slander can hurt. But to be a Christian is to consider God’s opinion the one that trumps all others. To be justified is to be assured that nothing can separate you from God because you have the righteousness of God (Rom. 8:33-39). If God has given you His own righteousness, He will not turn away from you. He cannot turn away from you. “If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” (Rom. 8:31-32). Faith is the gift that rests in that strong tower.
Set Apart
David is once again appealing to God’s promise to him and his house, that his throne will be established forever (cf. 2 Sam. 7). This was a particular promise to David, fulfilled in Jesus Christ, but if you are in Christ, if you are united to Christ by faith, it therefore has a specific application to you, to all those who are in Christ: “According as He hath chosen us in Him [Christ] before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love: having predestined us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will” (Eph. 1:4-5). Not only does God offer His righteousness to filthy sinners by faith alone, the Bible teaches that He chose you before the foundation of the world. He chose filthy sinners to be adopted as his children, to become holy and blameless before Him because of His great love. This is the doctrine of election. And if God chose you, knowing all your filth, and if God has declared you righteous in His own Son, then He will always hear you when you pray.
The doctrine of election means all Christians can pray Psalm 4 with the same confidence: “The Lord hath set [me] apart for Himself: the Lord will hear when I call.” Charles Spurgeon said, “Since He chose to love us he cannot but choose to hear us.” Faith knows that God hears.
Better Than Wine
We can consider the next couple of sections together: When the godly tremble before God and quiet their hearts on their beds, they have great peace and joy in the pleasure of God – more than all earthly comforts (Ps. 4:4, 6-7). God has not only chose you and offered you His righteousness, He rejoices in His chosen people. He beams over them. They are in His Son. He is well-pleased with them. When God’s people stop and meditate on these things, they can see their sin and they repent through the final sacrifice of Christ, and the joy and peace of salvation flood their hearts (Ps. 4:5, 7). God receives you gladly. God forgives freely. So God’s smile is better than anything.
But those who do not know God cannot stand silence. They refuse to tremble before God and stop their sinning. They cannot sleep unless they have done some mischief, unless they have caused someone to fall (Prov. 4:16). Their only happiness is the temporary buzz of paychecks and wine (Ps. 4:7). But the light of God’s countenance on His chosen people (in spite of our sin) – His favor, His love, His smile – lightens every moment. Thomas Watson says, “There is as much difference between heavenly comforts and earthly, as between a banquet that is eaten, and one that is painted on the wall.”
Conclusion: The Christian’s Goodnight
God justifies the ungodly. God justifies sinners. God is our righteousness. God is perfectly righteous, and by the sacrifice of Christ, the ungodly are made righteous. When you tremble before God and are silent before Him, you know your sin and your failures, but God is the One who hears those who cry out for His righteousness. And His righteousness becomes ourrighteousness.
There are only two kinds of people in this world: those who trust in their own righteousness and those who trust in the righteousness of Christ. Those who trust in their own righteousness are trying to justify themselves. They must constantly try to protect themselves, defend themselves, and prove themselves, and so they’re constantly exhausted and miserable and they have no peace or quiet. But faith in Christ knows that God if our righteoueness, and therefore God always hears and so it sleeps soundly in the face of every accusation, in the face of every trouble.
Prayer: Father, please give everyone in this room this kind of peace. And wherever there is religious pride and arrogance, wherever anyone is clinging to their own righteousness, please strip it away. Do whatever it takes to give us Your peace. And we ask for it Jesus’ name, who taught us to pray…
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