Psalm 4 – In All Circumstances, God Alone Remains Trustworthy

Introduction

World War II is often considered the darkest period of our era, where our humanity showed what could be worst within it, with a multitude of horrors one could never have imagined. Yet, several documented testimonies have marked people's minds by the striking contrast between the violence of the circumstances and the unusual peace of certain individuals.

Among them is that of Betsie ten Boom, a Dutch Christian whose story is told in the book "The Hiding Place" ("La Cachette" in French). The city where she lived was regularly bombed by the German army, and it was during one of those nights of terror that her sister, waking up in a panic, took refuge in the kitchen and found her drinking herbal tea and reading her Bible.

Several similar stories were gathered with the London Blitz (heavy bombings of London by the German Luftwaffe in 1940-41), where newspapers of the time documented several cases of citizens who kept an inexplicable peace in the middle of the bombings; one of the best-known anecdotes is that of an elderly lady, a Christian, who had joined the underground shelter where everyone had taken refuge, bringing her pillow to try to sleep, even though she obviously had to sleep poorly (noise, uncomfortable), people were surprised at her unusual peace.

These people were human beings like everyone else, who suffered the same terrible circumstances as others, the same suffering, the same pain. But their faith in God influenced their attitude in a way that greatly surprised others.

How can one know such peace when everything seems to collapse around us? More precisely, what can we lean on when all human and earthly foundations are shaken?

This is the question that Psalm 4 raises.

In all circumstances, God alone remains trustworthy. That is today's message.

Context

Today we begin our summer series in the Psalms. Psalm 4 seems to form a pair with Psalm 3, they are quite similar and seem to tell of the same events, and they complement each other: Psalm 3 seemed to be a morning prayer for the Israelites (3:6), and Psalm 4 an evening prayer with verse 9.

There are good reasons to think, even if it remains a supposition, that this psalm refers to the same circumstances in David's life as those seen in Psalm 3: the one where his son Absalom attempted a coup d'état to seize power in his father's place, and where part of the people and the army betrayed David to rally to Absalom in Jerusalem, and where David had to flee with his men, reduced to having to sleep in a tent from place to place, uncertain of his future. You will find this story in 2 Samuel 15-18.

Whether proved true or not, difficult trials made up an integral part of David’s life, and we see in the Psalms how his faith in God comes to influence him in this kind of situation.

I. By Nature, Man Seeks Happiness in the Wrong Place

The tone is set right from verse 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!"

David is in distress and calls upon God for justice. The French translation loses the meaning of certain subtleties in the original Hebrew, because the Hebrew text says "when I was in narrowness (to refer to distress) you enlarged me," and a priori this would not be in the sense of "you removed my distress to rescue me," but rather to be understood in the sense of "within my very distress, during my distress, you helped me and you comforted me." And that rather makes sense with the rest of the psalm.

The problem is posed right from verse 3.

"O men, how long shall my honor be turned into shame? How long will you love vain words and seek after lies?"

The term "glory" [translated "honor" here] can also designate honor, dignity, the status occupied by someone. Since David indicates in verse 4 that God has established him, David is not speaking from an ego-whim, but reproaches them for despising what God has honored.

In other words, the problem is not only that David is rejected, but that these men reject what God has established.

And David adds:

"You love what is worthless and you seek after lies."

They pursue empty realities, cling to illusions, they run after something that cannot satisfy.

They are vulgarly opportunistic. Traitors. They seek their security elsewhere than in God, and if we make the link with verse 8, they seek it in material comfort, in favorable living conditions, economic prosperity. These things are good in themselves, but what is condemned here is the fact of having despised God, of having immediately pushed Him to the periphery of one's life as soon as, humanly, we have all that we need.

But David continues in verse 4:

"Know that the Lord has set apart the godly for himself; the Lord hears when I call to him."

Grand contrast.

Men love emptiness, pursue lies.

David leans on a solid reality, on the living God.

And above all, the emphasis is entirely placed on the action of God.

David does not say: "Look at how exceptional I am."

He says: "Look at what God has done."

It is God who sets apart, who chooses, who listens, who acts. David's security does not rest on his personal value, but on the faithfulness of God and on His action.

Then come verses 5 and 6: "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."

David does not call down judgment on his adversaries, but calls them to repentance.

The heart, in Hebraic thought, is not only the seat of emotions, but the center of the entire person, of reflection and decisions.

David says "if you are angry, if you are agitated, do not let all your impulses of sin explode, but examine yourselves, examine your life, consider honestly the things you are pursuing...". Note that the apostle Paul quotes this verse in Ephesians 4:26, always in a context of repentance and change of attitude. And "be silent" is not to be understood in the sense of "suck it up, internalize your pain, do not externalize it," on the contrary, and David speaks about this just after.

Then David adds: "Offer right sacrifices and trust in the Lord."

The fundamental problem of these men is not limited to their poor political choice (of having rejected David for Absalom), to their being materialistic and their needing to be a bit more outward-looking.

Their problem is spiritual. They seek happiness without God. They want good without the One who is the source of good.

And this appears clearly in verse 7:

"Many are saying, 'Who will show us some good?'" The great question of the psalm.

In Hebrew, the text literally speaks of "good": "Who will make us see the GOOD?".

It is the same word that is used in the creation story when God declares His creation "good," before the entry of sin into the world.

These men are in desperate search of lost paradise, of happiness.

But they seek it in the wrong place, by seeking "their own truth," what the psalm simply calls "lies."

"Many say: Who will show us happiness?". David's response is unequivocal: "Lift up the light of your face upon us, O Lord!" It is the presence of God. Not that God is the means by which we can attain happiness, but happiness is indeed GOD HIMSELF.

II. The Rest of the One Who Trusts in God Alone

Men ask: "Who will show us happiness?"

David answers: "Lift up the light of your face upon us, O Lord!" This is a current expression in the Old Testament, it signifies that the person benefits from the favor of God, His presence, His benevolent attention.

David does not say "happiness will come when I recover Jerusalem, or when my problem is solved," he does not look first for a solution, but he seeks God. He does not seek the gifts or blessings of God, but God Himself as the supreme Good.

Which does not stop him from having explicitly requested God's help in his situation, we saw it in verse 2, but David's cry is not limited to asking for the solution to the problem, but to being with God, in His presence.

David understood that when God is present, he already possesses the greatest Good.

Then comes this extraordinary verse: "You have put more joy in my heart than they have when their grain and wine abound."

David does not say:

"I am adopting a positive attitude; I try to look on the bright side of things; I try to remember the good memories I have" - in all these expressions I listed I used "I." But in this verse, there is no "I," it is God who gives joy. God who acts, who gives, who transforms.

Because once again, the word "heart" does not simply designate emotions, but all the inner being (thought, will, desires, intelligence). God renews David from the inside, for a result and a rendering much better than that of his men who enjoy material comfort. These men possess all that many consider necessary for happiness.

And yet David affirms:

"The joy that God puts in my heart is superior to all that."

What a paradox!

If the context of Absalom is indeed that of the psalm, or if it is another unknown episode of David's life, we can still imagine the scene.

On one side these men, who have all that is necessary humanly speaking, with provisions and reserves for many months, with the high walls of Jerusalem for support, with flourishing businesses, but finally all these things turn out just to be camouflage of what they really are: empty creatures, unhappy, deprived of ultimate Good, wandering. And when they find themselves in the evening, on their king size mattress, alone with their conscience, it is only void, agitation, lies and illusion.

On the other side David, rejected, in flight, with his men in tents, wandering from place to place, in uncertainty about his future, but who knows however more and more that his life is in the hands of God, that it is in Him that he has all that he needs, that he belongs to Him, and that God hears him when he cries to Him.

On the earthly and human level, which of the two seem outwardly the happiest? On the level of eternity, which one really is?

The happiest man of this psalm is not the one everyone envies, the one whose lifestyle makes the front page of social media and Instagram, or even more modestly the man who is the embodiment of the model of stable and serene success of the middle class. No, the happiest man is the man who knows God, and whom God knows.

Then the psalm reaches its summit in verse 9: "In peace I will both lie down and sleep."

Let us dig a little, David does not simply say: "I feel a little better."

The Hebrew text literally says:

"In shalom I will lie down."

Biblical "shalom" is much more than the absence of conflict. It is wholeness. Integrity. Harmony. Deep peace that flows from being in the hands of God.

David looks at his situation. And humanly, he has many reasons to be worried.

But he knows a reality greater than his circumstances. He knows that God reigns, He has not lost control, He is faithful, and that is why he can sleep.

Then he concludes:

"For you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety."

David is not really speaking of a house here (a priori he sleeps in a tent), but the original meaning seems to be "you make me dwell in a state of security, of peace."

Conclusion and Application

Like David we can call on God when we face, whether individually or collectively, terrible injustices that we may suffer in this world, I think of all those cases we hear of harassment at school or at work, of physical or sexual assault, those people who undergo scams (in real estate, or cars, or other) and who lose their savings yet hard-earned, think of the persecuted church and of our brothers and sisters in the world who are imprisoned or killed for their faith. Faced with this evil, these dramas and injustices that we may experience and that poison our lives, that sometimes seem to destroy us little by little, we have human resources we can use and thank the Lord for that (to be able to ask for help, refer to authorities, file a complaint, launch a judicial procedure) but what to do when these initiatives (which are necessary and useful, which we must use and do all that is in our power humanly to fix these situations), but that despite all the human energy we have deployed to act, these initiatives reveal themselves despite all insufficient and disappointing in providing us the peace, security and comfort of which we have so much need in these situations of distress?

Let us be encouraged to cry out to our God, the "God of my righteousness." And let us be all the more encouraged to do it because our God understands our distress, God will not answer us coldly like an administrative email "I take note of your distress, I will answer you soon," but God understands our distress simply because He Himself directly lived it. God became man in Jesus Christ, He is the faithful man par excellence of whom verse 4 speaks, and despite His innocence He was betrayed by those close to Him and nailed on a cross. These men of verse 3, it is us, all of us, who are sinners by nature and who have this natural tendency by nature to reject God and despise Him, or else to follow Him in appearance as long as He seems to give us what we want to have, but to reject Him out of opportunism immediately. For us who were lost and without hope, He died, carrying on Himself the punishment that we deserved. But henceforth risen from the dead, we know that it is in Him, by faith in Him, that we are forgiven of our faults and reconciled with God.

I read Romans 5:1-5: "Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us."

Faith in Christ is not just an administrative formality that allows us to be saved, to have a "visa for heaven," but it is the lifebuoy that we cling to daily, which renders us capable of finding peace and comfort in God in the middle of all daily trials.