Psalm 4
This transcript was generated automatically and may contain errors.
Well, good morning. So good to see many of you all this morning. A lot of familiar faces and some couple few hundred new faces. As was already mentioned, my family and I were here from about two years, from 2017, late 2017 to 2019. And we count Third Avenue as family, brothers and sisters who love us deeply. And so on behalf of my wife, Stephanie, and my three kids, Cameron and Leah and Chloe and all the saints at Temple Hills Baptist Church whom you guys have prayed for and provided for in so many ways. Thank you.
We love you and I'm glad to be with you this morning. Let's go to the Lord in a brief word of prayer again and then we'll open up God's word. Lord, we pray that you would give us ears to hear and hearts to obey. Soften our hearts, we pray. Bless your word. Lord, we pray you would encourage us. Put courage in us through your word. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Are you going to a funeral?
Are you going to a funeral? That's the question that the well-known 16th century pastor and theologian and reformer, Martin Luther once asked his wife, Katharina, or Kate. It was during one of Luther's dark bouts with depression, and where seemingly nothing and no one's counsel could help, not even his wife's own encouragement. And so one day, Luther's wife, Kate, adorned herself in an all-black dress, black stockings, black shoes. When Luther noticed her appearance, he asked, are you going to a funeral? No, Kate replied. But since you act like God is dead, I thought I'd join you in your mourning.
Luther got the point and soon recovered. There's something in that, isn't it? Life is hard. Life is difficult, made even more difficult by our commitment to follow Jesus. And during trials, during attacks, during criticisms, when we are opposed by seemingly every front on every side, both externally and internally, we can tend to mourn.
That's true of all of us. But as Christians, we ought to look distinct in our mourning. We ought to mourn with a certain buoyancy and hope that pushes beyond life's current problems to know that there's something better that the Lord is doing in us and through us and is leading us towards. As Christians, we're not called to think that life is all good, but trust that God is all good.
As Christians, we're called to live as if we believe that God actually lives. As if we believe that God actually loves. As if we believe that God actually cares. The psalm we'll look at this morning helps us to do that. So if you have your Bibles, would you turn with me to Psalm chapter 4. Psalm chapter 4. If you're using one of the Bibles in the pews or under the chairs, you can find it on page 448.
Psalm chapter 4. To the choir master with stringed instruments. A psalm of David. 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. O men, how long shall my honor be turned into 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 own 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, O Lord. You have put more joy in my heart than they have when their grain and their wine abound. In peace, I will both lie down and sleep. For you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety. Psalm 4 that we just read falls in book 1 of the Psalms.
The group of psalms stretching from Psalm 1 all the way to Psalm 41. Most of those psalms are written by David. You see that here, even in the superscription that it tells us it's a psalm of David. The psalms in book 1 of the Psalter seem to tell the story of the rise of God's anointed king. And right along with his rise, the rise of many enemies against him. So notice even in Psalm 1, we're introduced to the man after God's own heart, what that man looks like. He delights in God's word.
And then in Psalm 2, that kind of godly man is met with much opposition. The nations rage against the Lord and against his anointed king. And here we see that even in Psalm 4 and the rest of the Psalms in Book 1 of the Psalter. While we don't know the exact background behind this psalm, as we study it, we'll see that there are many people, it seems, against the Lord's anointing even now. And yet David shows us something here of how we should live. I mean, there are real oppositions, real enemies, but if God is real, and he is, then we ought to live a certain way by trusting in him.
So here's what I think is the main idea of Psalm 4, the main idea of our passage this morning. In trials, trust that the living God listens to the pleas of his people and works to sustain and satisfy them. In trials, trust that the living God listens to the pleas, to the cries of his people and works to both sustain and satisfy them.
Though times are dark for David, he does not act like God is dead. He believes that God lives and God is active, and he shows what we should do if God is indeed real and active. And I think there's four actions that we're called to take from this psalm. So four points to the sermon. First, we should pray. We see that in verse one. Amen, John. Number two. Hey, people can join John in that kind of verbal feedback, too.
That's totally fine, okay? Number two, repent. We'll see that in verses two and three. Number three, worship. We see that in verses four and five. And lastly, we should rejoice. We see that in verses six through eight. So pray, repent, worship, rejoice. Number one, pray. Notice in this passage, there are four addresses, four kind of units of speech.
In verse 1, David talks to God. In verses 2 and 3, David turns and talks to his enemies, to his adversaries. In verses 4 and 5, David seems to talk to those in Israel who are friendly to him, who are for him, who are his advocates. Lastly, in verses 6 through 8, he again turns and talks to the Lord. where David starts off and where he ends in this psalm is most important he begins and he ends in communion with the Lord talking to God in prayer no matter what's going on in life or what other folks are doing our focus should first be on the Lord talk to him David shows us before you talk to men. That's a good reminder for us, isn't it? Because often in trials, as we process things, we have a lot to say. We share our thoughts with friends and family members. We seek counsel from
home group leaders and elders. I mean, God has made us to communicate, and he's given us good people to have as communication partners, as conversation partners. Those people are great to turn to and to talk to and to grieve with and to share with, but understand their place. Pastors and home group leaders and parents and family members and close friends are wonderful to talk to, but understand that they are all meant to be secondary sources.
Our primary focus, the person we should first go to with all our problems, is the Lord. So David cries out to him in verses 1 and 2. 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. Now we might be kind of appalled at David's approach here. I mean, he makes demands of God.
Answer me. Be gracious to me. Hear my prayer. He didn't even follow the acronym for prayer. Adoration, confession, thanksgiving, and then supplication. We, in our supposed piety, want to soften David's language some, don't we? Make it more passive, less demanding. Lord, may you please answer me.
If it be your will, would you be gracious to me? Isn't it interesting how we can often criticize other people's praying rather than be confronted by how we don't pray? There's an intimacy here with God that David has. An intimacy that doesn't feel the need to dance around with delightful language, to use every kind of honorific title in talking to God. most holy devoted excellent exalted lord of all the universe those things are true but like when are you actually pray to him david's not trying to impress others by how he prays he's not trying to get good marks at the service of you on tuesdays david isn't trying to make sure that the seminarians in the room know that he really knows his trinitarian theology well No, David realizes that he has direct access to the God of the universe, and so David simply prays to him.
He talks to God, the God who spoke the entire world into existence. David talks to that God like he actually knows him. And like that God who made all the universe actually knows him personally. It's the difference between a friend of yours who comes over occasionally and politely addresses your parents and the way you talk to your parents. Your friend comes over and he stands at the door waiting to kind of be let in.
Hi, Mr. and Mrs. Johnson, you know, using all this kind of scared language. He doesn't want to be too off-putting, make himself too comfortable. Meanwhile, you kind of burst in the house, you go straight to the fridge, you plop down on the couch. You know, there's a comfort level there. There's an intimacy. A familiarity, a closeness that just assumes the care of your parents. That acts upon that kind of common care. And that's what David does here.
This is the God of his righteousness. The God who declares him righteous in his sight, no matter what anybody else says about him. I mean, did you pay attention to some of the words and the songs we just sang? How they talked about the amazing status that we have with God, how we are righteous in God's sight. If God declares me righteous, if he has made me his own, who cares what anyone else thinks about me? I have a relationship with him.
This is the God of David's righteousness. It's the God who's committed himself to David and who has committed himself to care for his covenant people. David calls out to this God often. For him, prayer seems to be a constant practice, a steady discipline. David prays until he gets answers, and he expects God to answer. Answer me when I call, he demands.
Be gracious to me and hear my prayer. Well, what drives this expectation that God will hear, that God will answer? Well, it's the nature of God. David believes that God exists, that he lives, that he's active, that he's powerful, that he cares. It doesn't say that here in a kind of formal, articulated statement about God, right? There's no article about God like we find in many of our statements of faith.
But David shows us here that you show what you really believe about God by how you pray. And you can have the most exquisite, biblically referenced, theological sounding understanding of God, but the proof is in the prayer. Do you believe the God you talk about? If so, you would talk to him like this. God is not a distant deity or a dormant idea for David.
God is the almighty creator and sustainer of the universe who is ever-present with his people. He can help in any kind of trouble and save from every kind of problem. And notice David's confidence in God and that he will answer his prayer is grounded upon God's past care. And look there in the middle of verse 1. David recounts a previous instance, maybe multiple previous instances where he was in distress.
He cried out to God and God answered. You have given me relief when I was in distress. And so now in present distress, David has confidence that God will act, that God will answer. Be gracious to me now and hear my prayer. God hears. God answers. Do you believe that? What tempts you away from such faith?
Maybe you think God hears, but don't believe that he answers. I mean, none of the things you pray for ever seem to happen. But I wonder, could it be that the Lord granted you the relief that you prayed for, yet you failed to acknowledge him for it? I mean, in the midst of many gloomy days, where the darkness of depression hovered over you like a heavy cloud, Or amid many frustrating encounters with bad bosses or fights with fussy children or discouragements and disagreements with difficult spouses, you've prayed daily, time and time again for some relief.
And if you were honest, there have been moments, maybe mere minutes, but there have been moments in the past week or the past month where things were just slightly better. but I wonder have you dismissed those moments dismissed those days in favor of holding on to a narrative that things are all bad all the time with no hope and no help do you pray and expect God to answer and then look for him to show up Are you able to have your faith strengthened by saying with David, Lord, you gave me relief then in distress, and I know you will now.
I think we could be helped in doing this by doing three things. All right, so if you are a note checker, I'm going to mess your notes up right here. It's going to be three sub points to the main point of number one, right? First, pray specifically. Pray specifically. it's fine to pray lord be with me today or lord help me today but those broad prayers are hard to track it's better to narrow them down some lord be with me today in this meeting with my co-worker you know his tendency to throw me under the bus to exalt himself by pulling me down be with my tongue that I wouldn't lash out in anger be with my heart that I wouldn't harbor bitterness be with my mind that I would think only true and good things about him that he like me is an image bearer made in the image of you
and worthy of dignity and respect be with him that you'd restrain him from finding his identity in work but point him to his need for more his need for you you can pray those things and then go to your meeting and then leave your meeting where you kept your calm where you didn't go frustrated where your co-worker acts actually acted like a decent human being for once you can leave that meeting not saying well today was a better day than usual you can leave that meeting saying rather the lord gave me relief. Pray specifically and look for God to answer specifically. Saints, you need to find some kind of system to track God's faithfulness. He is trustworthy and true, and he's answered far more many prayers than you've given him credit for. Pray specifically. Look for him to answer
specifically. Second, pray scripturally. Link those specific prayers to specific scriptures. And God loves his word and he intends to honor it. Right? Turn the Bible into a prayer book. Use the passages of scripture for fuel for prayer. Earlier we read from Ephesians chapter 6 that we do not wrestle against flesh and blood but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.
And Kyle helped us to know how to pray from this passage. You can pray from that specific verse, specific prayers for this church's unity. I pray that God would help you not to miscalculate who your real enemies are. Not other brothers and sisters in the faith. But the devil and his demons out to destroy your faith and demolish Third Avenue's witness to the gospel. Pray that God would keep you from fighting against one another and instead help you to fortify one another against the fight with the devil and all the evil spiritual forces that he's using to tear you apart.
Pray that even right now, silently. that you wouldn't fight against one another but fight with one another against your true enemy pray that even right now silently and at the end of the day maybe at the end of today thank god that some relationships are seemingly beginning to heal some of the coldness that is characterized encounters is beginning to fall last week you can look a brother or sister directly in the eye This week, you at least said hello.
There's progress. Your heart is even slightly warmer towards them. God gave relief. Third, pray steadily. Pray steadily. One of the things we see here is that prayer is meant to be persistent. Perhaps we've had two high hopes that a single prayer will deliver us from all life's distresses. And so when the next trial comes, we figure, I prayed before.
What's the use of continuing to pray if there's more stuff coming? But the Lord has never promised paradise in this life. If anything, he's promised problems. Thorns and thistles are part and parcel of life in a fallen world. And even more distinct, Even more direct attacks are ours when we join with Christ against the spiritual enemies of the world. But as problems persist, so should prayer in greater and greater volume.
Showing that you believe that God is greater than your problems and God is bigger than all your enemies. God is able and willing to help you. why would God be willing to hear us to help us even when we've been so unrighteous what is because of what God has done for us in his son Jesus Christ God has loved us so much that he sent his only begotten son Jesus Christ to come to the world and to live the righteous life of obedience to God that you and I should have lived jesus kept every command of god jesus was faithful in every way that we've been unfaithful jesus lived for us but he loved us so much that he laid down that perfect life and picked up a cross and died the death that you and i deserve to die he died to reconcile us to our righteous father to bridge the gap that existed between us jesus christ became our righteousness he became
our justification. Jesus Christ did everything possibly needed for us to be right with God. Jesus Christ allowed us to be forgiven of all our sins. Can you imagine how many sins you've committed in your life? At two? At ten? At sixteen? At 46, how many sins have you committed this week?
The Lord Jesus Christ has forgiven you of all of them. All our sins are forgiven. He's forgiven us of all our sins, and he's allowed us to be adopted into God's very family, to have God as our heavenly father, so that we can have the kind of familial relationship with God, the God of the entire universe, as David has here, So that we can have access to approach God's throne boldly, not simply as the father of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, but as our father, close to us, committed to us.
David was God's king whom God committed himself to. But David pointed to the future king, Jesus Christ, who came and established his reign by living for us and dying for us and rising again for us, that we might be his and that he might be forever enthroned as king, reigning and ruling in our hearts forever. And we show that we believe that God has truly done something magnificent for us, that God is truly living for us.
we show that by praying. So pray. Pray like you believe that God is real. Secondly, repent. Number two, repent. If God is real and alive, what should we do? We should pray and we should repent. Notice David's address changes in verse two. No longer is he directly addressing God, but he turns to address those who are against him, his enemies. Look down at verse 2.
He says, O men, how long shall my honor be turned into shame? How long will you love vain words and seek after lies? There are many in Israel against the Lord's king, against God's anointed. God's king and God's people have always been raised against by the world. Jesus says, if they hated me, they will hate you too. David, as God's king, deserves honor. But many are seeking to shame him, to destroy him, to dethrone him.
Who are they? Well, the list of candidates runs deep. The list of enemies that are against David is long. I mean, if this psalm is connected in setting to the previous psalm, in Psalm 3, if you turn your eyes over to Psalm 3, you see the superscription there says that it was written by David at the time that Absalom, his son, was trying to run him off the throne and kill him. And Absalom was one of many enemies against David. Many rose up in opposition against him. Many spoke in contempt of David. But notice here how David frames their actions as more serious than merely personal affronts. In their attempts to shame him, they display a love for sin. They love vain or empty words. They love lies. They were thinking and saying untrue things about David, doing whatever it took to bring him down. And David here pulls back the layers
and exposes their actions for what they really are, sin. They have broken the ninth commandment not to bear false witness so David pulls back their actions and says well how long will you continue to rebel how long will you continue to love lying it's meant to serve as something of a spike in the road in their race to ruin God's king you know sometimes we need to let people know the deeper significance and the deeper danger of their actions in order to wake them up to slow them down on their path to destruction.
I mean, people might say, I'm just ambitious. That's why I work long hours. That's why I'm willing to do anything to get to the top. Or do you love money? People might say, I was just joking. Look, I'm just using my influence, my platform, my voice to tell it like it is about this person and their views. Or do you love lies? Do you love slander? We don't need to try to smooth out sin.
I mean, everybody in the world is already doing that anyway. That's what's natural to us. All of us want to call what we're doing something less than what it actually is. I'm just stretching the truth a bit. Just exaggerating some. I'm just being strategic. playing the game. No, you're lying, scheming, sinning. And whenever you love sin, you reveal a hatred of God.
You find yourself ultimately opposing him and his will. And David wants his enemies to know this. When you look at verse 3, David says, know that the Lord has set apart the godly for himself. know that the Lord hears when I call to him while they set themselves against David speaking lies against him they should know that they cannot win it's God who set David apart it's God who's installed him as king God is on my side and God will listen to me when I call to him when I ask him for relief from my distress he will answer which is good news for me but bad news for you because in rescuing his king, God will wreck his enemies.
This is a warning. This is a warning not to keep warring against God. Not to keep warring against God's people. A warning that should lead the wicked to stop their evil ways. I mean, that's what all the warnings in Scripture are meant to do. To lead us to repentance. to turn from our sins and to turn instead to the Lord. Friends, have you done that?
If you're here this morning and you're not a Christian, have you considered the impact of your actions? Have you considered the magnitude of all that you do? I mean, worse than speaking against the earthly king like David here, you've spoken against and believe lies against the king of heaven, Jesus Christ. You believe what the History Channel has told you about Jesus. Or what your college professors have told you about Jesus. What the blog posts have told you about Jesus, instead of believing what the Bible says about Jesus.
Instead of believing the reality of what Jesus said about himself, that he is the very son of God who has come to take away your sins. You love lies by not believing God. And God as a just judge will judge you. He will punish you for your lying, for your denying, for your unbelief, for your rebellion. But he gives you warnings like the ones you see this morning in this passage so that you might turn from your sins and trust in him.
Would you repent today and turn to the Lord for forgiveness? You know, repentance is not simply a one-time act, though. it's a constant need so perhaps you are a christian you're a member of third avenue baptist church but there's some sin in your life even now that you need to repent of something that you've been calling something other than sin something less than what it really is would you see how the lord is exposing your actions your words your attitudes today as what they really are, rebellions against a good and holy God.
Maybe it's a grumbling heart that you've been harboring, or critical spirits, or some open conflict. But if God sets apart the godly for himself, and the godly include all those who trust in God's son, then what is that grumbling heart? What is that critical spirit? What is that open conflict that you have against another member but God but sin against God himself sin that needs to be repented of today what sins do you have that you need to turn away from this morning and give over to the Lord repentance is the only right response of sinful beings before a holy and righteous God repentance is the only right response of sinful beings before a holy and a righteous God there's a third response that should mark the lives of believers as we live before a living God
point number three worship worship now you can scan this entire psalm you can kind of look it up up and down and not see the word worship there at all. You might even have a hard time seeing the concept of worship. I mean, maybe you see how I might get worship from verse 5, where David instructs the people to offer right sacrifices. That's certainly a form of worship. But I think we need to consider the idea of worship more broadly.
Too often we can find worship to the Sunday morning service or even a specific segment in the Sunday morning service where worship songs are sang in the worship sets. But biblically, worship is an all-of-life activity. As one author says, worship is our service to God. It is acting and thinking and speaking as if he really is who he says he is and we really are who he says we are.
In verses 4 and 5, David seems to be addressing yet another group. Those in Israel who are his advocates, his supporters. They are pro-David. And so as they see how their king is treated, how others are speaking lies and seeking to shame and discredit him, seeking to dethrone him, they are angry. They're upset. They're ready to go on the defensive and fight back. That probably was David's natural reaction as well.
But David calls them not to war, but to worship. Worship the Lord. Yes, offer right sacrifices to him in verse 5. And verse 4, be angry and do not sin. You see, worship is not merely what you do one day a week when you walk into this building. Worship is also what you refrain from doing every other day of the week when you're not in this building. I mean, you can come here on Sundays with mouths full of praising.
Maybe you sang all the songs we just sang loudly and boisterously. But you're not worshiping God if all week your mouth has been full of cursing and lying and gossiping. In James 3, he says that the mouth cannot be full of both blessing and cursing. These things cannot be. You might come here with a heart full of joy. But you're not worshiping God if all week you wreak havoc on people in your home or at your job or online.
I mean, that was one of the main things that God criticized the people of Israel for. It was one of the main things that Jesus kept criticizing the Pharisees for. they kept all the religious rituals they had all the kind of formality of worship but their lives were rotten and full of sin their hearts were far from the Lord well here David instructs the people of God look you might be angry what's going on around you you might be angry with the situation at hand that people are trying to tear me down I'm angry too but you have a far greater obligation than to defend my honor.
You have a far greater duty than to let your anger just vent. You are required to worship the Lord and part of worshiping him, part of honoring him with all of your life is to live before him and refrain from sin. Be angry, but don't sin. Friends, not all anger is sinful. There is a justified anger. And anger, for instance, against injustice, against something that is improper, against something that is ungodly.
And anger against something like what the people of Israel would have been witnessing here. Foes trying to dethrone God's king and defy God's plans. It is right to be angry at wrong. It is altogether right to be angry at wrong. But friends, even righteous anger can take a wrong turn. When you lash out in your anger at others. When you decide, I'm mad and I'm going to do something about it.
I'm going to give somebody a piece of my mind. Somebody about to catch my wrath. And you feel justified in doing so. I mean, over the last couple of years, we've seen people rioting on city streets, rioting even at the U.S. Capitol, because they were ticked off, fed up, and thought that their anger excused their actions of assaulting police officers and destroying property.
How different is that from the warning, the instruction that David gives us here? There are genuine reasons to be angry, but never, ever a genuine reason to sin. The former never validates the latter. So then, how is it possible to be legitimately angry and to refrain from sinning? Well, keep on reading. That's generally how all the answers that we have, questions we have are answered.
We keep reading the next passage. The end of verse 4 and end of verse 5 shows us what we are to do with our anger. Even our justified anger, we are to commit it to the Lord. David says, ponder in your own beds and keep silence. Don't feel the need to lash out at your enemies. Do what David has already modeled in verse 1. Pray to God for relief. And keep your lips closed to those enemies around you.
And keep fulfilling your covenant responsibilities. For the people of God then, it was to offer right sacrifices to the people of God now. Come to church. Pray. Evangelize. Encourage other Christians. In other words, don't worry about taking care of all the wrong, all the evil, avenging the godly, avenging yourself against attackers. Put your trust in the Lord to take care of what's wrong. You worship him and let him work for you.
Saints, God will hold others responsible for their rebellion against him and his people. But God will also hold us responsible for how we respond. Some Christians allow their anger at some wrong to derail their walk with the Lord. They are so mad, so upset that they leave the church, perhaps because of some resentment of others in the church who they feel have hurt them beyond repair, or those who've made some decision that they're strongly against.
Maybe they stick around, but they make it their mission to fight back against anyone who's wronged them. They kind of take out a personal vendetta to punish any perceived slights. friends understand that ultimately destroys you more than it destroys them it crushes the fruit of the spirit of love of peace of patience of kindness of gentleness that the lord is meaning to cultivate in you through trials don't set your heart on warring against other brothers and sisters don't set your heart against warring with others worship the lord with all your heart with all your being and trust in him.
Now, very practically, what might this look like? Well, you might type that angry email to an elder or to a church member or to a family member or a friend letting them know how incredibly upset you are over what they said or what they did. You might type that angry email that's like five pages long but never send it. rather you delete it. And then you go in your trash bin and you permanently delete it.
You know, some of us put stuff in the trash and we know we got 30 days before it kind of goes permanently to no man's land. You're like, if this person messes up again in 30 days, though, it's getting restored, right? You take it away. You don't send it. You don't act upon your anger in the moment, not because you merely need to suppress your anger, but because you need to express it to the right person.
Not to him or her, but to the Lord. That he might deal with it in the right way. You trust that he knows better than you what to do when you've been wronged. You give everything over to him, Even your anger. Friends, that is worship. Fourth and lastly, what action should be ours in any circumstance as we live before the Lord? Number four, rejoice.
Number four, rejoice. That can be hard sometimes, can't it? To rejoice. Circumstances can sour our outlook on life. To the point that we grow despondent and despairing. Maybe you're here this morning and that's where you are. Stuck in a seeming pit of despondency and discouragement. That's where the last few weeks have gotten you to the point of.
Stormy day after stormy day. You wake up but you can't get yourself out of the fog. That's what some in Israel were, discouraged, despondent, as they looked on the plight of David, their king. I mean, the welfare of a nation is often tied to the security and the success of its leader. And as they saw King David's life on the run, his life in shambles, it didn't garner much encouragement for them.
I mean, if this is God's man, what should we think of ourselves? Didn't garner much encouragement to keep going on. He didn't encourage much faith to keep trusting in the Lord. That's where David was tempted to be, to stay in a pit of despondency, in a pit of discouragement. That's where we all are tempted to be when troubles come. We take hit after hit after hit with seeming no let up. Maybe that's where you are when you read the news headlines and see murder after murder, theft after theft, bad story after bad story.
Maybe the headlines and the events of your own life over the past five years or three years or few months or few weeks have gotten you to the mindset that many have in verse 6. Maybe you are saying with the people in verse 6, who will show us some good? I mean, all we see is bad. All we see is death and disease and danger and debt. All we see is conflict. All we see is hurt. All we see is ruined relationships. Who will show us some good?
Where can possibly some good come from in the midst of all this? Our hearts are tempted to ask such questions amid despair and to go looking for the answer in the wrong places. We try to find some good in other people. Life will be good, life will be better with a spouse who will cure my loneliness. He'll satisfy my unfulfilled sexual desires. Or the doctor will show me some good.
We'll give good news that the treatment finally works. And the disease is permanently gone. Or the procedure finally works. And after all these years, we can have children now. We play the lottery thinking, if I hit that jackpot, life will be sweet. No more worries about bills or mortgages or college. I can get the new Tesla. But notice where David points miserable people to, to find some good.
To God. David says there's only one source if you're looking for true happiness, for true good, and it's only found in God. David says, Lord, people are looking for some hope. They're looking for some happiness. They're looking for some good. So the end of verse 6, lift up the light of your face and shine on us. Lord, show us more of you, more of your character. Show us more of your glory. Show us more of your goodness. I mean, you remember what God told Moses?
What Moses said, please show me your glory. Back in Exodus chapter 33 and 34, the Lord said, I will pass by you and show you all my goodness. The sum total of good is only found in one person. And so David says, Lord, you show us some goodness. Show your favor and satisfy your people. Now, maybe your heart just sank a little bit or balled up like a hard fist.
Because this just seems like another tired old Bible answer from some tired old Bible preacher who always hold out God as some kind of magic bullet for all of life's problems. I mean, I don't know the uniqueness of your problems. I don't know the severity of the hardships you faced in life. How can I just randomly throw out this answer, this idea that God is the person that will give me some good? Friends, it's true that sometimes pastors can be unloving and unlistening.
It's true that sometimes we can throw out God as the answer for all of life's problems. It's kind of willy-nilly. We're imperfect people. Pray for us. Be patient with us. But you know what's probably more true? It's all of our tendencies to totally dismiss God as the answer to all of life's problems. It's probably more our tendency to say, yeah, I know life is hard and I know I need some good. I know God is God, but really, he can't satisfy everything I need.
I need God plus something. I mean, we balk at that idea when it comes to justification, don't we? We're saved by faith alone, through grace alone, and Christ alone. It's Christ plus nothing for justification. But in this journey of sanctification, many of us want to do Jesus plus something else. I need Jesus plus this to make me happy. Jesus plus this to make me full. Jesus plus this to make me content. you won't say that to nobody but if we keep it at 100 if Cameron would say he'd love that keeping it real that's how we all feel isn't it often David says what you really need all that you really need is God he will show you some good i mean don't just take my word for this is what god himself actually says david yes is speaking
but it's god the holy spirit who was giving david the words to write david prays that god would show his people some good and for david this man david this is not kind of throw away bible talk this is not something you just say in a kind of armchair on a Sunday morning with no life experience. No, for David, this is a lived reality of what God can and what God will do. I mean, if you want to talk about people with problems, people who've gone through some mess, look no further than David.
He is the poster child for trials. I mean, he was constantly stalked and harassed by a psychomaniac. Saul, who tried to kill him time and time again, And this madman was after his life all the way until he died. He committed horrible sin by sleeping with another man's wife, impregnating Bathsheba, and then having her husband Uriah killed. God judged him for those sins by taking away his child from that affair.
He watched as his newborn son died. He lived to see the horror of another one of his sons, Amnon, rape his daughter, Tamar. And he saw another son, Absalom, who we talked about earlier, plot against him to take his throne and to kill him. I mean, talk about someone who should be constantly despairing. Talk about someone who should be constantly discouraged. Talk about someone who should have deconstructed their faith, who should have stopped coming to church on Sundays.
Talk about someone who should have left the Lord a long time ago, and it's David. Yet it's this same David, with all his problems, with all his pains, saying in verse 7, you have put more joy in my heart. What? How in the world can you have joy? Yet David says, you have put more joy in my heart than all my enemies, all my pursuers, than they accumulated have when their wine and their grain abound.
When everyone else is living life lavishly, getting whatever they want, living life with no worries and no problems, when they seemingly have joy, David says, I have more. Because the Lord gives more. I mean, David kind of talks, usually comparison is the thief of joy. But this time, David uses comparison to build up his joy. Look at them. Their bank accounts have everything they need. They have everything they ever want and desire.
Look at all they have and compare their lives to mine and how I'm in trouble, but I have more joy than they have. Because David has a God that they don't have. You have a God whom others don't have. A God who is happy. The Bible calls him the blessed God. He's a happy God and that happy God lives in you by his spirits to make you happy no matter what's happening out there.
No matter what's happened this past week or this past month or this past year, you have something and someone inside you who has not changed. It was building up in you the kind of happiness that you and I need. David's joy is more, is better, because it's not based on external factors. It's not built upon the economy being better. It's not built upon your spouse acting right. It's built upon something internally that the Lord is doing.
There's an ever-present, ever-springing up joy by the Holy Spirit that causes David and all of God's people to be happy in the Lord. It's the joy of knowing God, of being in fellowship with him. The joy we all have as Christians knowing that the Lord is for us and not against us. That he lives in us and is doing in us good things for his glory and for our good. David knew that joy. The king that David pointed to, Jesus Christ, knew that joy.
Even on the cross, as everyone mocked him, as everyone left him, as people attacked him, as his body was badly beaten and he was inches from death, there was joy in Jesus' heart, Hebrews tells us. There was a joy that was set before him, and so he endured the cross and he despised the shame. That's the real joy you and I have today. Knowing that the same reality that was before Jesus on the cross is before us now in our daily crosses.
There's a joy set before us. There's a happiness set before us where we will be welcomed by God himself and greeted with a well-done, good and faithful servant. Enter into the eternal joys of your master. That's the joy that will be consummated when King Jesus returns. when he calls us home. Friends, has it been a hard week? A hard month?
A hard year? Perhaps the Lord is meaning to wake us all up to the futility of all this life has to offer. Perhaps the Lord is kicking out every single crutch that we depended on for our joy that was kind of external, and the Lord is meaning to show us the true and real and lasting joy that's found in an intimate connection with him. Consider how much the Lord loves you through that. To send you through some fiery trials.
We don't pray, Lord, give me some more trials. But we do often pray, Lord, give me more joy. What if the Bible is all true and when James says that the Lord is using trials as servants for our joy then even the deepest, darkest, hardest trials that you are presently facing are not signs that God is against you but oh how the Lord must love us that he would give us even this so that we can be even more happy in him have a far stretching outlook on what's happening in your present life it's more than meets the eye the lord is using trials to build up your joy so that you can look at other things other circumstances and grieve and mourn and yet still have a deep joy because you know the lord is doing something in you he's drawing you closer
and closer to his son jesus christ he's sanctifying you conforming you to the image of his son through fiery trials of every kind. He loves you that much. It's the kind of joy that brings peace in the midst of all life's problems. So that David can say in verse 8, in peace I lie down and sleep. For you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety. Since when you're happy in the Lord, All the kind of havoc in the world and in your home can still be going on, and yet you still have rest.
You still have peace. Because God lives for you. And God lives in you. Amid every kind of trial, trust that he will listen to the pleas of his people. And trust that he is working to sustain and to satisfy you. Let's pray. Lord take your word and apply it to our hearts pray this in Jesus name Amen