Summer in the Psalms | The Key to a Good Night's Sleep | Psalm 4 | Devin LaBay

Well, good morning.

It's good to see you all this morning.

Again, if you're visiting with us, we're so glad that you're here and look forward to meeting you when our services have concluded.

Please stick around and give us a chance to do that.

Ashton, I have to admit, I come to the garden alone.

I don't know that I've ever heard a service let off with that song.

But it's very appropriate for what we're going to be getting into with our new study.

We're going to begin a summer in the Psalms study this morning.

And we're just going to be looking at some different selected Psalms that I would like to take a closer look at.

And when you look at the song, and again, the song is very appropriate that Ashton selected, the Psalms are all about communing with God and having that one-on-one time with the Lord, many times in the joy of our life, but also at times when we're the we're troubled the most.

And as we take a look at these selected psalms over the summer, we're going to be able to get into the mind of the psalmist as he writes and he bears his heart to God.

And I think what we'll find is that as we uh study and as we take a closer look at the thoughts uh and the emotions that are shared, we're going to find commonality with what is written, and we're going to be able to relate very, very strongly to what we're going to be studying over the course of the summer.

It may come across more as a class, maybe, than than as a sermon.

But either way, however it comes across, I hope that it is an encouragement to all of us this morning.

This morning we're going to begin this study in Psalm 4.

Some of you may be uh maybe familiar with Psalm 4.

Um this may be something that you know well, maybe something that's brand new.

Now I haven't really ever taken a good close look at the fourth Psalm, but that's what we're going to do this morning as we begin this study.

But before we do, let's let's go to God and in prayer together.

Father God, we we thank you for the beauty of this earth.

And it's it's so evident today, this beautiful sunshine, uh, after the refreshing rain that you've given to us.

And Lord, it's just a reminder again of how you uh shower us with your bountiful blessings, and you give us uh the things that we need and you take care of us.

Uh and we're so thankful, Lord, for your provision uh for all of our needs, both our physical needs and our spiritual needs.

Spirit, I pray that that we're able to tap into uh what David is sharing in this psalm this morning, that that this message will be your message, that you will open uh our minds and our hearts to receive your message to us today from David's words.

Help us to draw closer uh to you and to one another uh through this study.

And uh, Lord, just thank you so much for your love for us and all that you do for us.

And Father, we we we thank you uh for so many things.

And we just ask, Lord, that you will help us to take what we uh gain today and to share it with others in the way that you uh would have us to.

Lord, we love you so much.

We thank you, we praise you.

In Jesus' name we pray and say together.

Amen.

As we begin uh this day, first of all, before we begin this day, I let me see your Bibles.

Do you have your Bibles?

I'm probably gonna see more phones than actual Bibles, but I want you to turn and in whatever your preferred uh translation is to Psalm 4.

We're gonna be in this text, very deep in this text this morning.

So I'd like to see your Bibles.

Uh and uh we're gonna be looking uh at this verse by verse.

We're gonna just just take a look at it and break it down this morning.

But as we begin this study of selected psalms, we need to understand something on the front end.

We need to understand that psalms are prayers that have been set to music.

And they were intended to be songs of worship and meditation.

And the fourth psalm is known as the evening psalm or the evening prayer.

And it's a psalm of David, and it is addressed to the choir director of stringed instruments.

You may see that uh in your text.

Your Bible may say on Negonith, which means stringed instruments or hand instruments.

And it's comprised of eight verses that were read just a moment ago.

And in the first verse, we see that David pleads with God for help.

In the second verse, he complains about his enemies through verse five.

And then in verses six through eight, he transitions and he contrasts uh his satisfaction and his contentment as a child of God with the true emptiness of the ungodly at what would seem to be the most fulfilling and contented times in their life.

So this morning I I'll primarily be referencing uh the NIV, but I will call upon the King James and the New American Standard Translations as well.

So in verse 1, David begins by saying, Answer me when I call you, O my righteous God, give me relief from my distress, be merciful to me and hear my prayer.

I mean, can we relate to that?

Have there been times in our life, maybe a time that you're going through right now, where you just, God, please hear my prayer.

I'm at a point in my life where I don't know what to do.

I need to vent.

Would you, can you please just just hear what I'm saying?

And what we see here both in the King James and the New American Standard, it says, God of my righteousness.

And what that indicates, family, is that David in and of himself is not righteous.

None of us are.

But that any and all righteousness that he has comes directly from God.

Church, when you think about it, at our very best, we're all just a reflection of the genuine and pure righteousness of God.

David continues by saying, Give me relief from my distress.

Be merciful to me and hear my prayer.

Namely, David clearly understands that relief and mercy are God's to give.

The King James here says, Thou hast enlarged me when I was in distress.

Have mercy on me and hear my prayer.

And church, what we see is that David recalls what God has already done for him in the past when he says, Thou hast enlarged me when I was in distress.

So, what exactly does he mean by that when he says that?

Family, the idea of being communicated in the King James is actually from a military standpoint.

The enemy has backed him into a corner.

The enemy backs us into a corner and we're surrounded by the enemy, but God sets us in a larger territory.

God brings us freedom.

He gives us the room, the flexibility that we need.

He sets us free from those things when we petition him for that freedom.

In other words, whatever physical, whatever emotional situations that we're backed into, whether by our own actions or by the actions of others, when we call upon God, family, God enlarges our hearts to spiritually overcome.

To overcome any physical or emotional barriers imposed upon us by others, or probably more often than not by ourselves.

David continues in verse 2.

He says, How long, O men, will you turn my glory into shame?

How long will you love delusions and seek false gods?

Church, these words were conceived in the heart of David over 3,000 years ago, yet they're relevant, just as relevant to you and me today as they were to David then.

Family, our glory is our God.

Our glory is the Lord Jesus Christ.

Church, our glory is the church.

Our glory is the creation of God and the order and purpose for which all He has created?

David asks a question.

Look at the question he asks.

How long will the delusions of men seek to turn our glory and the glory of God to shame?

Now, what could that possibly mean for us today?

What does that look like?

How is what David says there expressed in the world that we live in today?

How long will men love their delusions of evolution?

How long will men love their delusion of life being a choice?

How long, family, will men love redefining God's institution of marriage and the way in which we've been created?

How long will men seek the false God of relative truth?

Church, how long will men seek the false God of humanism and selective morality?

You see, in my mind, this is what David's words would apply to today.

You'll notice after verse 2, David calls for a sila.

Do you see that in your translation?

It's kind of off to the side.

This is a moment of reflection.

This is a call for a moment of reflection and a pause in the music.

It's not intended to be read out loud.

This is a note to the choir.

This is a note to the musicians.

In David's time and in our time, family, the forces that seek to shame our God literally takes the wind from ourselves.

And David says this is a moment to take pause, to consider that, to reflect on how serious that is.

Church, we live in a world that has convinced most and many in the church that many things, even as recently as a generation ago, have moved from being biblically forbidden to morally optional to a guaranteed right.

For example, you can go to Los Angeles today and you can shoplift up to$949.

And although classified as a misdemeanor and punishable with six months in jail and up to a thousand dollar fine, it's typically not, if ever, prosecuted.

See, the state of California doesn't bother to prosecute due to limited jail space and an overcrowded court docket.

They just overlook it.

Let it go.

So where does it stop?

Here's a question, family, that needs to be asked and desperately needs to be answered.

And that question is this can mankind effectively legislate morality?

Church as a society, we've tried.

We get an A for effort in that one.

We have tried to legislate morality and look at where it's gotten us.

You pass a law and then you punish the violation of that law.

But here's the thing: you never influence the heart by doing so.

Family changing the world is as much, if not more, to do with the family room as it does the courtroom.

David continues in verse 3.

He says, Know that the Lord has set apart the godly for himself.

The Lord will hear when I call to him.

You see, David's encouragement here is clearly seen in that we have the assurance of God's grace, the surety of his presence, and the attention of his ear.

Do we have any idea how blessed we are as believers?

A New Testament equivalent, I believe, would be 1 John chapter 5, verse 13, where John in his old age says, I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.

1 John 5:13

Church as children of God, we need to know.

And we need to be reassured that we are special.

You are special.

There's only one of you.

I got two sons that look exactly alike, pretty much.

I can tell them apart.

But they're two totally different people.

And they're special.

We need to know that God reassures us that we are special.

That God has set us apart.

And that he hears us when we call to him.

Look again at verse 3 and what David says.

He says, the Lord will hear when I call to him.

Isn't that a blessing?

Isn't that reassuring?

The Lord will call, or the Lord will hear when I call to him, when you call to him.

Whereas those who trust in themselves are the other gods of our time, such as wealth and success, status, alcohol, drugs, they have silence.

David continues in verse 4.

He says, In your anger, do not sin when you're on your bed.

Search your heart and be silent.

The King James says in verse 4, Stand in awe and sin not.

Commune with your own heart upon your own bed and be still.

New American Standard puts it this way Tremble and do not sin.

Meditate in your heart upon your bed and be still.

Ephesians chapter 4, verse 26, Paul quotes Psalm 4:4.

Ephesians 4:26 Psalms 4:4

When he says, Do not sin in your anger, do not allow the sun to go down upon your anger and give the devil a foothold.

Church, the general message of verse 4 is clearly an encouragement of communication between us and God.

Again, the King James says, commune with your own heart upon your bed and be still.

Be still and know that I am God is what he's saying.

Be still and know that I hear your prayers, as David said in verse 3.

Family, part of what I think David is saying is that God wants us to share our anger with him.

God wants us to share our frustration with him.

God wants you, and he wants me to share our concerns with him, our hopes, our desires, our needs with him.

And we do that by venting through prayer and allowing him to bear that burden with us.

Again, you'll see that David concludes verses 3 and 4 with the Sila.

That cause and that call for a moment of silence, for a moment of pause, to consider the promises that God makes to us.

I mean, when you stop and think about all the promises that God not only has made to us, but God has fulfilled to us through Jesus Christ, man, how can you not stop and take pause and think about that and try to wrap your head around that and be thankful for what God has done for all of us.

David transitions in verse 5.

And he calls himself and us to action by issuing this challenge.

Offer right sacrifices and trust in the Lord.

The New American Standard says, offer the sacrifices of righteousness and trust in the Lord.

Do I have any folks here that you write in your Bible?

That you make notes?

Okay.

If you're someone who writes and makes notes in your Bible, write the word because in parentheses between verses five and six.

We'll come back to that.

Verse 5, we see David calls us to righteousness.

Not a righteousness of the lips, not a righteousness of perfect attendance, not a righteousness of scripture memorization, but to sacrifices of righteousness.

Family, to sacrifice means to give up something.

To sacrifice means it's gonna hurt.

One way or the other.

Church to sacrifice means to give of time, to give of self, to give of resources, to give of talent to a painful extent.

Otherwise, it's not a sacrifice.

Church as believers, we all have to ask ourselves a very relevant question this morning.

What am I sacrificing for the Lord?

And if our answer is, well, I make a contribution every week, then we've completely missed it.

Because that's just one aspect of sacrifice as a believer.

If Christians were sacrificing as we've been called to, no congregation would ever run a negative budget.

If we as believers were sacrificing as we've been called to, Bible classes would never be short of teachers.

Right, Heather?

If believers were sacrificing as they should, worship services would never be short of men to serve.

We should have a surplus.

Let me give you an example.

Every church struggles with filling slots for worship.

And I was a youth minister in Dallas years ago.

And I think we ran about 800 on a Sunday morning.

We had 12 men that we needed to serve communion.

And we just couldn't fill the slots, couldn't get people to make commitments.

And so finally the decision was made.

Whoever is doing the communion devotional, the first thing they would do when they went up, they would say, I need 12 brothers to assist me with communion.

And then he would go into his communion devotional.

And what would happen is you would see men from all over the place in the auditorium getting up and heading for a table.

And finally it came to a point where you'd have three or four, maybe five guys, they're looking around and there's no slots to fill.

Because they've all been filled on the spot.

You see, they they figured something out.

We're not going to be able to take communion unless somebody steps up to the plate.

Not one time did we ever have a shortage because the call was sent out and the call was answered.

They realized their commitment and they stepped up to the plate.

As believers, that's what we're called to do.

So let me ask you again, family, are we sacrificing for the Lord as we should?

Is your life, is my life the living sacrifice that Paul speaks of in Romans chapter 12, verse 1?

Romans 12:1

You know, a moment ago I asked you if you if you make notes in your Bibles to write the word because in parentheses between verses 5 and 6.

Now let's read that.

Offer right sacrifices and trust in the Lord, because many are asking, who can show us any good?

Let the light of your face shine upon us, O Lord.

There is a beautiful song that goes along with that.

You may know it, you may not know it.

The first line goes like this, and please forgive me for my voice.

But it starts out like this.

Lord, let the light, light of your face, shine on us.

Anybody know that song?

Nobody?

You do.

Alright, Chase is my hero.

Alright.

We'll sing a duet next time.

All right, cool.

It's a beautiful song, and I hope that we learn it.

Because there's so much power in those words.

The light of God's face shining upon us so that we can reflect the light of God to the world around us.

Family, this is why living the Christian life is so important.

Because in David's time and in our time, people are asking, is there anything good in this world?

And who can show it to us?

Our sacrifices of our witness, our sacrifices of praise of God, and our testimony of what God has done for us has a purpose.

When was the last time you shared your testimony with someone?

When was the last time you shared your story of how Jesus saved you and what he saved you from?

It has a purpose.

Why?

Because people are asking, maybe not verbally, but spiritually, emotionally, within themselves, who can show us any good?

Is there anything good in this city?

Church, the answer to that question in this community must be the central church family.

We are called to be that light.

That's what God has called us as believers and as the central church family to be and to do.

Look again at David's response.

Lord, let the light of your face shine upon us.

In other words, let the hurting, let the needy, let those who are searching for peace see the light of God's face upon us.

The idea communicated here reminds me of Moses, if you remember, when he came down off of the mountain of the Lord.

And his face was so radiant because it was reflecting the glory of God.

Family, we're like mirrors that reflect God's glory.

And the cleaner the mirror, the more light it reflects.

So what is our equivalent of Moses' mountain?

What can we see in this psalm that communicates that idea?

It's that evening mountain of prayer that we climb every night.

So on that bed that we sleep on, where we commune personally with God, as David says in verse 4.

The 1901 American Standard Version, which is literally the most literal English translation, says this commune with your own heart upon your bed and be still.

Again, that's followed by the salah.

A pause in the music.

Church, this is where our spiritual mirror is cleaned.

This is where our heart is refreshed.

This is where our conscience is stilled.

And David says, Be still and know that the Lord is God.

David continues in verse 7.

He says, You filled my heart with greater joy than when their grain and new wine abound.

You see, the gods of his enemies were limited, limited to crops, limited to the sun, limited to rain, or limited to wine.

And the happiest times for them were when their crops came in, when the wine was flowing, indicating that their gods favored them.

That's how they understood that.

But what David realizes here in verse 7 is that when their grain is gone and when the wine runs out, his Almighty God remains.

Whereas the sons of men have nowhere to turn other than to their faith in their lifeless gods.

David knows that he can depend on his ever-present God who hears him when he calls and answers his prayers.

Family, it's no different today.

It's no different.

When the money, when the wine, when the fame, when the drugs run out, where do people turn?

Rather than turning to the Lord, many people look for the same things in the same old places.

Places and things that can't fill the void of their heart that only God can.

And so as we move on into verse 8, we see that David, as is his character, affirms his complete confidence in the providence of God.

I prefer the New American Standard here, where it says, In peace I will both lie down and sleep, for thou alone, O Lord, dost make me to dwell in safety.

Now notice what David says there.

Don't miss it.

He says, In peace I will both lie down and sleep.

How many of us have laid down to sleep in our bed at night, only to stare at the ceiling for hours?

It's happened to all of us.

May have been your experience last night.

It was all you could do to get ready to come into worship service this morning.

It happens to all of us.

We go to bed, we lay down, and we just stare at the ceiling all night.

We lay there with thoughts running through our mind without ever opening a dialogue with God.

Don't miss what I'm about to say.

Peace is never made without communication.

Whether it's between nations, whether it's between couples, whether it's between brothers and sisters in Christ, or between ourselves and the Lord, peace is never made without communication.

Family, there's no possible way to communicate the importance of prayer in our life.

David goes on to say, For thou alone, O Lord, dost make me to dwell in safety.

Take a good look at what he says.

David recognizes that it is God alone who can calm his soul.

He understands that it is God alone who preserves his life.

And ultimately, when David lies down to sleep, it's God alone with whom his soul sleeps.

And he has discovered that this is the key to a good night's sleep.

So how are you sleeping?

You sleeping well?

Or are you worried about something?

Are you stressed about things that you've tried to find a solution to and you just ain't found it yet?

God's promises have been made to you so you don't have to worry.

Prayer offers us that opportunity, church, to share those things with God.

He can handle it.

He can handle our venting.

He can handle our anger.

He can handle our frustration.

And part of that, when we do that, is recognizing that we're not on our schedule.

We're on his schedule.

We're on his time.

And so God gives us that opportunity to share with him in prayer as we lie upon our beds at night after a long, hard day at work, laying there, looking at the ceiling, trying to solve problems that we still hadn't figured out to solve.

God says, David says in this psalm, be still.

Be still and know that God is the Lord.

Give it to him.

Climb that mountain of relationship with him.

Get that spiritual mirror cleaned so that you can reflect the light of God.

Commune with him upon your bed.

And know that he is God.

The Lord loves you.

Loves you so much that he sent his son to die for you.

What does that mean to you this morning?

If you haven't committed your life to Christ, this is a great time to do it.

Because God has made promises to you that we could never live a good enough life to pay back.

But the grace of God will cover you.

If you're a believer today, if you're a Christian brother or sister and you've just been stressed out about stuff and you need us to pray with you, pray for you.

That's what the church is for.

We're here to bear one another's burdens.

We're a family.

Give us that opportunity.

If you're visiting today, we're so glad that you're here.

And we hope that you've been encouraged and that you'll stay and let us meet you and get to know you, join us in Bible class.

But if you're looking for a church home today, I sincerely hope that you found it here at Central.

If we can assist you in any way, do as the Spirit guides you while we stand and sing.