Psalm 4
"1. Hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness: thou hast enlarged me when I was in distress; have mercy upon me, and hear my prayer. 2. O ye sons of men, how long will ye turn my glory into shame? how long will ye love vanity, and seek after leasing? Selah. 3. But know that the LORD hath set apart him that is godly for himself: the LORD will hear when I call unto him. 4. Stand in awe, and sin not: commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still. Selah. 5. Offer the sacrifices of righteousness, and put your trust in the LORD. 6. There be many that say, Who will shew us any good? LORD, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us. 7. Thou hast put gladness in my heart, more than in the time that their corn and their wine increased. 8. I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep: for thou, LORD, only makes me dwell in safety."
In this psalm it sounds to me like David is in bed praying to God before he goes to sleep. He first of all asks for the ear of God, that God will hear his prayer. Something each and everyone of us desire. He goes on to talk about us going after futile things and seeking falsehood. Then he says that God has set apart him that is godly. We should "offer the sacrifices of righteousness," and put our trust in God. We may ask, "who will show us good?" The Lord will lift up the light of His countenance and show us good. God put gladness in David's heart and gave him peace and security. David then lays down to rest.
This psalm has so many lessons that we can take from it. The first thing I thought of when I read this chapter was, do we have the ear of God? Now of course God listens to everyone. Just because we may do something wrong does not mean He turns from us till we make it right. God is not human and we need to stop thinking of Him in that way. When we do wrong is when we need Him the most, but when we think God is angry, we tend to hide from Him instead of going boldly to His throne of grace. We can be bold because it is a throne of grace NOT a throne of judgement. We need to have the ear of God.
My second thought on this chapter was, what are the things in our lives that we are going after that are futile? We may not see them as futile but does God? What things in our lives give us pleasure to replace the pleasure of God? That is a false pleasure. We are replacing God with something, but God is irreplaceable. Why do we go after a substitute? Why not go for the real thing?!?
Thirdly my thought was, are we set apart for God? Are we willing to sacrifice our own wants and desires for His righteousness. We may wonder, "how can this be a good thing? To give up my dreams?" But God will lift up His countenance and show you good. Let me put a little side note here. Bro. James Woosley, the principle of Hammond Baptist, preached in HAC chapel the other day. He talked about our reward for seeking God. If we sacrifice our dreams and desires to seek God, but then expect Him to reward us with the selfish desires of our heart, then we are wrong. In Psalm 37:4 it says, "Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart." We all tend to take this verse and think that if we delight ourselves in God, He will give us our desires. But this is all wrong! How do I know that? Because I'm guilty of it myself. If we delight ourselves in God then He will give us the desires of our heart...HIM!!! Think about it this way...think of something you delight in...is it work, food, sports...whatever it is...don't you think if you delight in something that when you get a reward, that something you delight in will be the reward? Then why do we thnk if we delight ourselves in God and seek after Him, that we are going to get a different reward. If we are seeking Him, then our reward will be what we seek. If God was our reward for seeking Him...would we still seek Him? Are we giving things up and seeking Christ so that He can give us blessings? If so, then we are wrong! God may find it pleasurable to give us blessings, but our reward for seeking God is finding HIM!!
Fourthly we can learn that God is the One who gives us peace and quiet. He is our protector who makes us dwell in safety. The One who never leaves us and calms all our fears. He will bring us through the storms but give us restful peace afterwards. He is the One who can give us peace to lay our heads down at night in peace...and sleep:)
I am back!!!:) Sorry for being gone for so long but I had some things to focus on before I started blogging again. It's good to be back!!:)
