Pastor
Ed's Series of Psalms
Psalm
1 | Psalm 2 | Psalm
3 | Psalm 4 | Psalm 5 | Psalm
6 | Psalm 7 | Psalm
8
Psalm 9-10 | Psalm
11 | Psalm 12 | Psalm
13 | Psalm 14 | Psalm
15
Psalm 16 | Psalm
17 | Psalm 18 | Psalm
19 | Psalm 22 | Psalm
23
Psalm 27 | Psalms
28-30 | Psalms 31-32 | Psalm
33 | Psalm 34
Psalm 35 | Psalm
36-37 | Psalm 38 | Psalm
39 | Psalm 40 |
Psalm 41 | Psalm 42-43
Psalm 4
11/27/09
"Come
boldly before the Throne”
Psalm 4 has
been called an evening hymn, because as it ends, David says that
he will lie down and sleep in peace. Wouldn't that be great, to
lie down and sleep with peace?
How much would
you pay for a good night's sleep, if you could buy it?
Joe Paterno,
the famous football coach, recalled in his latest book:
"I remember
the day I was forced to decide who I am. All night I lay awake
wrestling with my past, trying to make sense of my future. It
was December 1972. I had been the head football coach at Penn
State for 7 years, and I thought I was content. Then, I got an
unexpected phone call had come with an offer to make me a rich
man if I left the school I loved. The man on the phone was Bill
Sullivan, former president of the New England Patriots. He offered
me a package worth $1.4 million, plus part ownership of the franchise.
At Penn State my pay was a grand total of $35,000. The money had
always satisfied my family, but Sullivan's offer made me dizzy.
In the end, I told my wife Sue: "I have to take the job."
"Joe, whatever you want to do will be fine with me,"
she replied. I called Sullivan, and told him we had a deal. When
Sue and I went to bed that night, I said, "OK kid, tonight
you get to sleep with a millionaire."
At 2:00 AM,
Sue was sitting in her rocking chair nursing our baby. I'm sure
she thought I was asleep. Tears were slipping down her face. I
lay there thinking about the life I was leaving. I saw the school
where I had met my wife, the only home our 5 kids had ever known.
I saw the students, and the thick necked fragile hearted football
players. Suddenly I knew what it was I had to do, what it was
I wanted to do.
In the morning,
I told Sue, "You went to bed with a Millionaire, but you
woke up with me. I'm not going. "Her first thought she later
told me, was Oh, thank God.
Paterno eventually
found the answer he sought, but he was conflicted as he lay down
to sleep.
We don't like
to go to bed feeling conflicted! We don't like to lay in bed and
wrestle with a problem! We would sleep a lot better if we already
knew the answer. I know that when I am nervous or unsure about
something, I can tell if I wake up in the middle of the night.
I don't sleep soundly. As Psalm 4 begins, David is seeking the
answer that he can lie down in peace.
We were made
for rest – God gave us His example.
How can we
have this peace? I'm going to suggest 2 ways that we can take
from this Psalm:
The first
way is relationship
Psalm 4 seems
to build on the ideas from Psalm 3 - David is confident the Lord
will deliver him and bless him. He has already reminded himself
of the covenant he has with the Lord as he thought about the battle
he face with Absalom.
But now he
seems to get a little more personal with the Lord -
Vs 1-2: Answer
me when I call to you, O my righteous God. Give me relief from
my distress; be merciful to me and hear my prayer.
David's personal
relationship with the Lord is the key to this entire Psalm. It
is WHY he can approach with Him boldly. He knows Him. The purpose
statement of Calvary Worship Center in Colorado Springs is “To
know Him and to make Him known.”
The very first
phrase “answer me” tells me that David does have a personal
relationship with Jehovah, the living God. He knows the Lord.
He knows that God has answered him many times in the past, and
this time will be no exception.
He has faith
and trust that God when he asks him to answer him. He expecting
a solution that will be best for him. Don't we all want that?
Not just an answer, but the right answer that is best for us.
The solution to our problems. But he is BOLD! Answer me Lord!
The Lord is giving us permission to call on Him. Cast it all on
His shoulders. So often we try to solve things ourselves.
Give it over
to Him today!
God is waiting
on you to call on him for answers. We need to be bold when we
come to the throne of grace. I just saw the movie the Blind Side,
the story about the couple in Memphis who took the young boy into
their home because he had just started school and he was homeless.
They approached the throne of grace with boldness and God's answer
to them literally saved a young man's life.
Mrs Lea Ann
Tuohey said that she believed it was the Holy Spirit who caused
them to see the man on a cold rainy night on the road. And I'm
sure she spent many nights in prayer, saying “OK Lord, what
do I do now?” Tell me what to do Father!
We spend a
lot of time acquiring knowledge about things of this world. But
we also spending time listening for that soft whisper from the
Lord. How does he want to answer us? Listen to Kings 1:19 beginning
at verse 11:
The Lord said
to the prophet Elijah, Go out and stand on the mountain in the
presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by. Then a
great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered
the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After
the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the
earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was
not in the fire. And after the fire, came a gentle whisper.
Are you spending
time alone with the Lord to hear his gentle whisper? Are you hearing
his voice today? Wouldn't it be incredible to have a book that
just contains answers to you personally from the Lord? That you
can share with others.
Jeremiah 33:3:
Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable
things you do not know.
Luke 11:9:
Jesus said: so I say to you, Ask and it will be given to you.
Seek and you shall find. Knock and the door shall be opened to
You.
These verses
are in the context that there is relationship there. And as our
relationship gets stronger then we have the right to ask more
boldly. He's asking us to! He's giving us permission to.
The second
point is righteousness.
If you look
at different translations of verse 1, they are answer me when
I call, O God of my righteousness. It's not a righteous God, but
he is declaring that God has acknowledged that he has done everything
he can to seek and pursue righteousness. Quite a different meaning
from what it looks like at first glance.
Righteousness
is critical on whether or not are prayers will be answered. There
are occasions in Scripture where it is clear that God will not
answer when we call.
For example,
David explains this later in Psalm 66 verse 18:
If I had cherished
sin in my heart the Lord would not have listened.
King Saul
had an idea that he was living outside of God's will or righteousness,
when he was trying to make a battle decision – he asked the
Lord in 1 Samuel 14:37: Shall I go down after the Philistines?
Will you give them into Israel's hand? But the Lord did not answer
him that day.
Later we have
the account when the Lord told Samuel: I am grieved that I have
made Saul king, because he has turned away from me and has not
carried out my instructions.
We have the
righteousness because of the work of Jesus that makes it possible
for us to approach the Lord with our righteousness. But we also
have eliminate any sin from our lives.
Dick Eastman,
the president of Every Home for Christ, and how teaches on prayer,
puts it this way: This is the crux of prayer – destroy sin
and God works. When sin is gone, the heavens kiss the earth as
people pray. It works. Remove sin and God listens. Defeat the
enemy and God responds. It has to work – God says it will.
Sin blocks
are communication with the Lord. It distracts us. We know we're
being distracted when we lose our daily desire to pray and spend
time in the Word. When we don't come to church, or let other things
get in the way.
To know that
if we don't get answered prayer, then it could be that we should
look at ourselves to see if there is anything that is causing
a barrier to our relationship with our heavenly Father.
And if we
confess these things, we have assurances like those described
in 2 Chronicles 7:14:
If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves
and pray and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from
heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.
Let's pick
up verse 2:
How long,
O men, will you turn my glory into shame? How long will you love
delusions and seek false gods? Selah
We have accounts
in 2 Samuel that David was having trouble with members of his
own army. Joab and his brother Abishai were leaders David's army
– they had an incident with Abner, who was one of the leaders
of Saul's army. After Saul was killed, Abner killed Joab's brother
on the battlefield in self defense. But later, Abner had helped
negotiate a truce between the David and the house of Saul –
David had thanked him for this and sent him away in peace.
But Joab and
Abashai tracked down Abner and killed him. David denounced this
killing and pronounced a curse on Joab's household. This is one
example that David could have been referring to as members of
his own household who brought him shame.
Verse 3-5:
Know that the Lord has set apart the godly for himself; the Lord
will hear when I call to him. In your anger do not sin; when you
are on your beds, search your heart and be silent. Offer right
sacrifices and trust in the Lord. Selah
The teaching
of righteousness is driven home in these verses.– if you
are a godly person, the Lord will hear you when you pray. So we
need to be careful about how we're living if we expect answers
from God. The reference to right sacrifices refers to spiritual
sacrifice.
Psalm 51 contains
one of my favorite verses – verse 17:
The sacrifices
of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God
you will not despise.
Finally, we
have rest:
Vs 6-7 Many
are asking, who can show us any good? Let the light of your face
shine upon us O Lord. You have filled my heart with greater joy
than when their grain and new wine abound.
This is addressed
to the nonbeliever who trusts in his material wealth. David's
spiritual joy, in his own mind, surpasses any material possession
that a nonbeliever has.
Finally vs
8: I will lie down and sleep in peace, for you alone, O Lord,
make me dwell in safety.
During the
course of this Psalm, the Lord did answer him and filled him with
spiritual peace.
Just like the clear answer came to Joe Paterno, when he was seeking
after God's will for his life.
This Psalm
represents this equation: Relationship + Righteouseness = Peace
and answered prayer. If we seek a personal relationship with God
- and we know that we can do this by believing that Jesus is the
Son of God and that He died for us, and if we pursue righteousness
through him, then we have the promise that he will answer us when
we call,and that we will find rest in Him.
Zechariah,
father of John the Baptist, proclaimed the mercy of the Lord,
which “shines on those living in darkness and in the shadow
of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace.”
And the angels
when they appeared to the shepherds about the birth of Jesus said:
Glory to God
in the highest, and on peace to men on whom his favor rests.
Does God's
favor rest with you tonight? Do you have rest? Do you have peace?
Isaiah 26:3
says that You will keep in perfect peace Him whose mind is steadfast,
because he trusts in you.
This does
not mean that we won't have problems or difficulties. David was
facing a battle for the throne with his son and he knew it would
be difficult. Yet he was able to find peace and rest in the midst
of the storm.
There is a
hymn called It's me again Lord that describes what David was going
through, and it's what we are going through too.
It goes:
Troubles come
and I can't find an answer
Lonely nights I spend in agony
I have no other friend that I can turn to
So here I am Lord back on my knees
It's me again
Lord – I've got a prayer that needs an answer
It's me again Lord – I've got a problem I can't solve
Well I don't mean to worry you but here I am facing something
new
And I need help that comes only from You
It's me again Lord
Well I know
you're mighty busy in heaven
Forming worlds and hanging stars to shine
But you promised if I'd ask I'd receive it
So here I am Lord asking one more time
Psalm 55:28
says, Cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you; he
will never let the righteous fall.
