Psalm 4

Good morning, everybody. Bedtime routine, I do brush my teeth just like Drew. Unfortunately for me, I thought of as I lay down in bed, actually, my bedtime routine is to either watch TV or doom scroll on my phone. Sometimes I am getting old. You can ask my kids this, but I'm getting old and I just forego the whole bedtime routine and just fall asleep right on the couch at like 7:30. Anyway, my name is Jared Severson. I am on the elder team here at Hope Heights. By way of introduction, I would like to just kind of be a proud dad for a moment. As a parent, you kind of mark life kind of as your kids grow up and the stages that they go through— rolling over, walking, talking, starting school, getting their driver's license, those sorts of events. And this summer, each of my kids transitioned through a new stage in life. It's been great to just kind of see the fruits of our labor, Natty, and my labor as a parent, just kind of just seeing the kids grow up and making good choices. Our hope and our prayer, at least for Natty and me, was always that our kids would grow up to follow Jesus, that they would make good choices, have healthy relationships, you know, that sort of thing. And so, this summer— Let me get here. I apologize, we had some technology issues this morning. But this summer, my daughter Hannah got married just a couple weeks ago, a few weeks ago. Married Lucas, who you see here. They're happy. This was their James Bond picture that we kind of looked at from their, from their wedding photos. But they love Jesus. They're excited to journey through the rest of their lives together. As parents, we're super excited for them. Amen. Our son Zach in May just graduated from college, started his new engineering career with Xcel Energy. He deeply loves Jesus. He's quickly learning that there's a lot to this adulting thing that involves schedules and budgets, but he's enjoying the relationships that he's forming both with his coworkers and with his, his new friends. And as parents, again, we're super excited to see him continue to grow in those areas. And then, as many of you know, I was blessed to become a grandpa 2 months ago. Edwin was born to Aaron and Angeline. He's in the back of the room. You can say hi after church. But he was born on May 31st. There's something super special about being a grandparent. Never understood it. None of you will understand it until you actually become a grandparent. I don't love my kids any less than Eddie, but there is a special and a different kind of connection between grandparent and grandchild probably comes out of like just this feeling of being so proud of your own kids that you just— that love just spills out to the grandbaby. And plus, as a grandparent, you know, we've already experienced raising our own kids. We are not suffering from a lack of sleep. And so you can give everything that you have to that baby. And so we're super proud of, again, how all of our kids have kind of grown up and dealt with all those recent changes in their life. This summer, we're looking at some different Psalms and kind of digging in to see how those words that were written down, you know, thousands of years ago can both inspire us and also direct us in our relationship to God and then ultimately point us to Jesus. And so I'm excited to be able to open up the Word and dig into it with you all this morning. One of the things that I didn't mention before about being a grandparent is that one of the best things is taking a nap with your grandson. We were on— and this is me being old again, falling asleep just early— but we were on a family vacation a couple weeks ago, and I got really good at falling asleep with Eddie through these naps. Apparently, people were taking pictures of us, but I was reminded of Psalm 4, as that's actually sometimes called an evening prayer. And so that's the psalm that we're going to look into today. And so, if you do have a Bible or on your phone and you want to open it to Psalm 4, please go ahead and do that now. And so, this is Psalm 4. We're going to read through it and then we're going to go back to it and just kind of dig into it. So, if you want to read along or read as I listen, follow along as I read. Psalm 4. 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 wine abound. In peace I will lie down and sleep, for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety. A couple of weeks ago we celebrate— celebrated baptisms here at Hope, and here at Hope we believe that baptism is our opportunity to recognize everything that God has done in our lives and then publicly declare that we want to follow him out of an overflow of love and thanks just for the saving work and grace that he's already given us. Cal Weiss and Ellie Anderson made that declaration. It's always an amazing thing when we have baptisms to just see and hear about the, the good things and the great works that God is doing in the lives of others. Both of them got up here on stage and shared stories of how God had worked in their lives. It was inspiring to hear both of them just kind of share, but one thing that Cal shared specifically kind of about how he had been having trouble sleeping and then he was drawn to reading his Bible. Remembering God before bed actually helped to kind of calm Cal's mind and relieve some of the anxiety that was keeping him awake. And through Cal, I was really convicted of that about what we consume kind of right before we might go to sleep can have an effect on our minds and our bodies, both as we sleep but then, you know, going up throughout each day as well. I'm sure many of us have had similar experiences to Cal. We lay down in bed, our minds, our thoughts are kind of going this way, going that way, and we just have trouble kind of calming ourselves down and we can't calm down. And I think that's exactly what this psalm is for. I think King David was experiencing, who's the author of this psalm, was experiencing the same thing. And so he wrote these words. In your Bibles, if you look at it, the title for this psalm is actually To the Chief Musician with Stringed Instruments. A Psalm of David. And so, this was written as a song. You know how you get that certain song in your head that you just can't get rid of it? This summer, mine has been the Puerto Rico song. Thanks to Angeline. She's got the shirt on today, I see. If you haven't heard this, the Puerto Rico song, ask your kids, ask somebody who's on Instagram or whatever. They should be able to know it. But I kind of believe that's what King David was going for here. He wrote a song. that he'd remember as he went throughout his day and eventually as he laid down to sleep, just to kind of help ease and calm his mind. And so today, we're going to look at Psalm 4 twice now going through here. I want to first view these words from kind of David's perspective as the author. What was he going through? Why would he have maybe written these words? And then I want to go back and reflect on how we can apply these verses in light of the gospel. And apply them to ourselves. So that's what we're going to do here. So, as I look deeper into this psalm, it seems like scholars don't always agree on what the necessary context of Psalm 4 was. Some people think that it could have been a famine or maybe some other distressing time in Israel for David. Others think it could have been when King David was actually running and hiding from his son Absalom, who was conspiring to take over his throne. As I looked into it, I think I leaned towards that scenario. It makes a little bit more sense to me considering the other Psalms that were maybe written around that. Just got done mentioning all my proud parent moments. Can't fathom having to like run and hide from your, from your child. That would be heartbreaking. Either way, whether it was him running and hiding from his son or just responding to some other distressing events that were happening in his life. David's responding to those. And so as we listen to this psalm, I can imagine, and I hope we can imagine, how David was having trouble calming his mind as he was just trying to understand why everything was happening. So verse 1 says, 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. So David starts this song by reaching out and calling out to God. Answer me when I call. David needed help that was not going to come in the form of the people around him. It wasn't that David was demanding an answer in his terms. David simply just wanted to get God's attention. He also knew that we see here is that God was the source of everything that was right and good, where he says, O God of my righteousness. So David calls on the God who imparts righteousness upon himself. David is a sinner. David made mistakes. But it's God himself that makes David right and therefore has then given him the ability to approach the most holy God and say, answer me. So David then affirms and remembers all the good that God has done for him in the past and then pleads with God, be gracious to me. in this current situation. So then as we get to verse 2 and 3, it says, 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. So in these verses, David is kind of pausing to address others. Maybe it's like one of those situations where you're praying. I know I do this where I'm praying and I kind of lose focus and my mind goes elsewhere. Maybe it's like that. Maybe it's just David kind of voicing his kind of issues and voicing what's going on. But he's addressing others, most likely those that were pursuing him and trying to overthrow him. And so, I think David asks 3 valid questions here. He's asking, how long is my honor going to be turned to shame? How long are you going to— these other people— are you going to love vain words? And how long are you going to seek after lies? I actually, if I listen to this, hear compassion in David's voice as he asks, how long? So there are people that had been rejecting David's rule because his son Absalom had deceived them. And the story, that story takes place in 2 Samuel. Absalom is stated to be a very handsome and flattering man. And so he'd stolen the hearts of the people and many of them were then slandering and spreading lies about David. And so I can hear David's voice just kind of breaking and pleading for others in these verses because he cares for them. He's like, seriously guys, how long is this going to keep going on? His heart wants to see them change their ways. Ultimately, then David remembers that he was set apart. He was different. He was special. So God had chosen him to be king. And as someone who was Godly because of, again, the righteousness that God had imparted on him. And he was set apart. He had a direct line through prayer to the Most Holy God. He knew that God would always hear him when he called. God had heard him in the past. And he will continue to hear his— answer his prayers now. Why? Because the Lord did the work of setting David apart. There was a purpose behind it. He chose David for his purposes and he made him a man after God's own heart. Amen. So therefore, he could approach God with confidence. So then we get to verse 4. And David says, be angry and do not sin; ponder in your hearts on your beds and be silent. There's some debate here about, again, about who David may be addressing with these next 2 verses. Some people think that he might continue to be addressing, you know, Absalom or those that were following him. like he did in the previous 2 verses. It could be. However, I fall into the camp of kind of believing or thinking that in this prayer, David's now actually kind of talking to himself and reminding himself about his— what his response might be to what's happening. So David starts off in verse 1, and he calls out to God. He was heartbroken for others in verse 2 and 3. And now he's reflecting on how he might respond. So he says, be angry and do not sin. It's all the sin that was going on around him. David, I think, had every right to be angry. As we think back to the feelings and emotions that, you know, we experienced when we saw things going on around us with our brothers and sisters at Primera Iglesia and our kind of larger Columbia Heights community this winter and spring, I think many of us had broken hearts for our neighbors. We maybe were even angry about what's going on. I think anger is an okay emotion to have. We should be bothered and even angry about some things that happen around us. However, David's reminding himself not to sin as a result of that anger. So the Hebrew word again, or the Hebrew word for this is ragaz, which actually means trembling, shaking, or agitation. And so obviously David is agitated by things that are going on around him. However, it's not an out-of-control anger rage. And I think that's why David's suggesting that he ponders his actions so that it doesn't become a sinful result. And in verse 5, we hear, offer right sacrifices and put your trust in the Lord. So David acknowledges that he's not perfect. He needs to honor God with his heart and his actions. So back then, offering sacrifices was a standard way to atone for sin. While those religious rituals do have value and did have real value, David is pointing out that the ritual itself wasn't enough. It was about how it's offered. By saying, to offer right sacrifices and trust in the Lord, David reminds himself here that true sacrifice is rooted in faith. In confidence and reliance on the most holy God. Verses 6 and 7. 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 wine abound. So in these verses, despite David's circumstances, he looks for the good in it all. When circumstances are tough, when people— when circumstances are tough, you and I probably, we plead for good, right? Why is this happening? When is something good happening? I think grueling and stressful situations can bring cynicism with it. And I have to imagine that there were many doubts flowing through David's mind about how all of this was going to work out. Despite that, we immediately hear the trust that David has in the Lord. David remembers that God is going to show him goodness. I think here David was actually recalling a blessing that Aaron gave to Israel back in Numbers 6, which was, the Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord look up his countenance upon you and give you peace. So David trusted that God was going to continue shining his light upon him. And so when God shined his light and his face and his favor on David, it filled his heart with joy. So even when everything was crumbling around David, his joy was still intact. David saw here what it seems like what others were putting their hope in. He saw others putting their hope in abundance of possessions. But David doesn't place his hope in grain and wine. David's reminded that those things aren't going to satisfy him. He had been king of Israel. He had experienced plenty. He had experienced victory. He also then experienced all of this kind of being taken away as he fled from his son Absalom. But despite those blessings being taken away, David still had joy. So rather than asking God for prosperity and return him to the throne or, you know, have something happen to Absalom. He instead seeks to have God just shine on him. And that joy only comes from the presence of God. So David's joy isn't going to come and go with the harvest, with the weather, with whatever the changing circumstance might be that's going on. David's joy comes from the light of the Lord and his close relationship with God. And that was a source that doesn't end and never changes. could anchor David even in those hardest moments. And then lastly, we get to verse 8, which says, in peace I will lie down and sleep, for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety. So finally, in light of all these mercies, David could finally go to sleep and sleep peacefully. So despite the anxiety, despite his enemies, despite the dangers and troubles of everything again going around him in the world, He sleeps well because he had safety in the Lord. So instead of restlessly tossing and turning, he then tosses his burdens and turns his troubles over to God. G. Campbell Morgan, which is kind of a cool, very cool quote that I found, said, this is a glorious conception of sleep. Jehovah gathers the trusting soul into a place of safety by taking it away from all the things which trouble her or harass. The tried and tired child of his love, his pavilion in his peace. That's beautiful imagery. I go back to being a grandpa. Something so peaceful about watching Eddie sleep. Just imagine being in that kind of sleep where just everything, how hungry you are, how, you know, tired you are, just kind of goes away and you just have a deep sleep. David had such a deep relationship with God that he could get a good night's rest Because even though he was tried and tired, he trusted the pavilion of protection that God had around him. So God covered David with his incredible love. And so David wrote this bedtime song, this psalm, to remember everything that God had done and everything that God would continue to do so in order to have true rest and peace during those troubled times. So, That's the background. That's our psalm. Question now is, how do we apply David's words to our lives in light of the Gospel, which was written, or which the psalm was written over 1,000 years before Jesus, and now we're living 1,000 years after Jesus? So how do we apply this to our lives in light of— the light of Jesus? So I'd like to pull out kind of one theme from each of these verses that I think apply to us. Okay. And so first, if we look at the first verse here again, which says, 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. I think we can approach God in our desperation, but we should never lose hope. Why? Because God has solved our biggest problem, sin. I think that's a quote from Tim Keller, but God has solved our biggest problem, which is sin. Amen. David calls out to God to answer him, knowing that God had made him righteous. I'm a sinner. We are all sinners, and we need to be made right by the most holy God in order to have true communion with him. We can't be in the presence of a holy God as sinners, but through Jesus we have a righteousness, a righteousness that is not our own making. God has made us right. And all things right through Jesus' death and resurrection. Some verses that just kind of reiterate that theme. 2 Corinthians says, for our sake he, who is God, made him, Jesus, who knew no sin to be sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. Philippians, we see, be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness of God that depends on faith. And then in 1 Peter, it says, for Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God. So that's the gospel. David, 1,000 years before Jesus, preached the gospel. Because Jesus led a perfect, sinless life and died on the cross for us, paying the penalty for our sins, when we place our hope and trust in Jesus as our Savior, like Cal and Ellie did a couple weeks ago, God views us as righteous. Our Lord Jesus' perfection was imparted on us, the unrighteous. We are the unrighteous, and it makes us right with God, not through our efforts of our own. And that allows us then that personal access to the Most High. So when so much in the world seems to be going wrong, We can anchor our minds in the God who's completely right. I read a quote this week, but I couldn't find a source to give them credit. But I do think it sits well. It says, when we start complaining and whining against the situations in our lives, we're treating them as if they are God and we don't have any control. They control us. They are what run the world. They are what make our lives miserable. And if they're removed, then we'll be blessed. But David saw through that fallacy because that's an illusion. God runs the world. And if he allows stress and pressure into our lives, somehow it's for our good because he is God. He is right. And so, David prayed for God to be gracious to him. He called out to the God who's in control. When sin and shame keep us up at night, Maybe it's from our own personal sin and shame. Maybe it's sin and shame that we see from things going on around us. We need to first go to the God who's above all those problems. So our prayers have incredible power when they're directed toward the true God who wants a relationship with us and has made us right with him. Then that becomes he becomes our source of hope. Verse two. Again, says, O men, how long shall my honor be turned into shame? How long will you love vain words and seek after lies? I believe sin should break our hearts and cause our hearts to break. Hear this in David's words as he asks, how long is this going to happen? It's okay for our hearts to break when we see sin's effects on our lives and lives of others around us in the world. I definitely do ponder the question about honor being turned to shame a lot in my own mind. It's easy to see how kind of sins affect as we look at the news, at politics, at social media, kind of in our current culture to live a righteous life, choose right over wrong, to embrace biblical principles. I think that's oftentimes looked down upon. So you ask that question, how long is this honor going to be put to shame? We all hope for a day when sin no longer is endorsed and righteousness ridiculed. Like, we hope for a day when evil's not called good, good's not called evil. We see things and it should break our hearts for our friends, our families, our neighbors. We ask questions like this also. Oh Lord, how long is this going to happen? Jesus experienced this as well. People tried to turn almost every aspect of Jesus' ministry into shame. Before we began looking back in the Psalms over the summer here, we were in the study of the book of the Gospel of Mark. If you recall with me, we read lots of accounts about how people and other religious leaders just tried to discredit what Jesus was doing. Healing the leper, healing the man with the withered hand in the synagogue on the Sabbath. Sending the legion of demons into the pigs, restoring sight to the beggar. Those are just kind of a few that I thought of that, you know, we talked about in Mark. Each of those miracles was met with doubt, distrust, attempts to discredit. There are also accounts of Jesus weeping over sin and death. Jesus' heart broke as well when his friend Lazarus died. Before he entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, and then praying in the Garden of Gethsemane before he was arrested. Sin breaks Jesus' heart. But we have a God who we can turn to that has experienced it as well. So sin should break our hearts. We can have confidence. But know that the Lord has set apart the godly for himself. The Lord hears when I call to him. So despite the sin and everything going on around us that seems like it's It's wrong. We can have confidence. We know that this sinful world is a temporary situation. So we can be reminded of the confidence that we have in Christ who first set us apart or who was first set apart for us. So when John the Baptist first saw Jesus coming toward him, he said, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Jesus was set apart as the perfect sacrifice to fulfill everything that the law demanded. Colossians, it says, and he is the head of the body, of the church. He is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. Jesus was the firstborn, ushering in resurrection and eternal life for all of us. He sets us apart as his children and makes us in this world, but not of this world. God's got us. We can have confidence in that. We know that when we call, God is going to hear us. That should give us strength knowing that God is always working because we've seen it before. David preached this truth to himself saying, God's given me relief before. The Lord set me apart for himself. So the Lord I know is going to answer when I call. That confidence comes only because of the relationship that David had with God. We can have that same confidence through Jesus. Through his death and resurrection, he's taken away our sin. He's made us right with God. Therefore, we do have access to the true God and can have complete confidence in him and kind of in his promises that he's made to us. For be angry and do not sin. Ponder in your own hearts and on your beds and be silent. So we need to work on our own hearts. We can't control the hearts of others. With all that's going around us, there's temptation to blame. There's a desire to vindicate ourselves, to put down other people. There's a need for conflict. If you just read social media comments, you'll see the need for conflict that people seem to have. We can easily let our anger get out of control and our actions get out of control as we think about somebody who's wronged us in some way, or maybe wronged someone else or something, someone, something else that we care about. Maybe we've heard the term righteous anger. I would say that Jesus had righteous anger when he flipped the tables over in the temple. Another story in Mark that we just looked at not too long ago. Even if we feel like we have this righteous anger, it's not meant to lead us towards sin. Instead of risking sin or giving in to it, the advice here that David gives us is to ponder and ponder our ways, not the ways of others, and do this kind of to help give us calm. So I think bedtime is a good time to search our hearts and confess the sins of the day, as here David says, on your beds as you lay down and think about, reflect on your day. Our meditation, however, should not focus on the trials we face or the mistakes we've made. If we do, then that becomes the object of our time and the object of our worship. I think they become our idols. Meditation isn't to kind of empty our lives and get rid of everything that's wrong. I think meditation is to be focused on filling us up with God and his Word. And so ponder, as we think about our day and ponder sin and ponder maybe the emotions that we're feeling, Think about Jesus taking away our sin and the forgiveness that we've received. Ponder his grace and his mercy towards us. Ponder how our hearts and actions can then overflow differently the next day, knowing that Jesus loves us no matter what. Be like Cal, reflecting on Jesus at your beds rather than like me and doom scrolling. Reflect on Jesus and enjoy a peaceful night instead of a restless night of anger and worry. And verse 5, offer right sacrifices, put your trust in the Lord. We're called to worship here. Worship is a response to all that God has done for us. We're reminded here by David that putting our trust in the Lord is our primary act of worship and sacrifice. It's what God wants from us probably more than anything else. We don't offer animal sacrifices anymore. But we can show our sacrifice as worship in other ways. Romans, it says, I appeal to you, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Just like Cal and Ellie promised when they were baptized a couple weeks ago, as his followers, we desire to keep Jesus as the Lord of our lives. That means we show trust in the Lord by offering the sacrifice of our submission, placing our lives under His authority and His control, like it says here in Romans. I have received full payment and more. I am well supplied, having received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent, a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God. We can be sacrificial and trusting through our generous giving. Like it says in Philippians. We can give of our time, our talents, our treasures, our tickers. It's a phrase that we've heard here many times at Hope. Through him, let us then continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. And we can worship to show our trust in Jesus by lifting up a sacrifice of praise, like it says here in Hebrews. We're going to do that in just a few minutes as we sing songs of praise to our God. We are going to use our lips to acknowledge his name and all that he's done. We're reminded, again, David reminds us that we're always to worship God, to show our complete trust in him because he deserves it. Verse 6, There are many who say, who will show us some good? Lift up the light of your face upon us, O Lord. Don't lose heart. I think this is an encouragement to us that discouragement will always find a way into our lives. I think trials and persecutions can begin to take their toll on our faith. In Romans, we're promised that everything works together for the good of those who love God according to his purposes. I think we live in a scientific society. We want to see evidence of how things are going to work out. We don't always know. And that's where our faith comes in and our trust comes in. We're told in Luke to always pray and not lose heart. And in Galatians, we're advised to persevere in doing good, promising that in due season we will reap if we do not give up. So we aren't God. We don't know his timeline. We've seen the evidence in the past. We have the Bible. We have his word. Amen. And therefore, we can trust his character. So our good news is that Jesus is described as the very light of God's face. He shines his brightness and goodness and blessing on us as his followers. So for God who said, let light shine out of darkness, he has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the light of God. And in Hebrews, in the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways. But in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he has made the universe. The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. When things are troubling, when things aren't going our way. Jesus is the only one who proves himself as truly God. He's not a golden calf. He's not a man-made idol. Jesus is God, is the exact image of God. Jesus proves this by going through the worst-case scenario imaginable. He endured the ultimate separation, abandonment, and wrath of God. He took on the punishment of all humanity's sin for all time. That was a death that we deserve, that I deserve. Ultimately, however, when Jesus lay down to sleep in the tomb, God made him dwell in safety by raising him from the dead. In the person of Jesus, we get our ultimate hope and our ultimate peace. And we look forward to the day that's coming when God's will will be completely finished. Here on earth as it is in heaven. We don't need to lose hope because there is a time coming where, as it says in Revelation 21, Then I saw a new heaven and new earth, for the first heaven and first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eye. Death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away. We hope in the eternal and in a time where there's no more sin, there's no more crying, there's no more pain, because those things are gone. And that's because Jesus has set us apart as his children when we believe in him. Hopefully, again, that goes back to that confidence thing. Hopefully, that inspires confidence. Then verse 7, you've put more joy in my heart than they have when their grain and wine abound. I mean, God brings us ultimate joy. Okay, David here chooses the opposite of discouragement. So when he's discouraged, He chooses the opposite of that. He chooses joy. He seeks joy and sees God as his source. Despite those circumstances, joy overflows out of our obedience to Jesus' commandments and our practice of worshiping him. Our joy, like David's, shouldn't be diminished by our circumstance. Maybe we're less happy. Our happiness might be. But our joy shouldn't. Our joy isn't horizontal. It's not looking to— other things, certain circumstances here. Our joy should not be— it shouldn't change with our paycheck or our relationships because our joy should be vertical. Okay, our joy will be unchanging. And David reminds us that our source of joy is God. And if our hearts are so full of praise and joy in God, there's not room for that resentment. So our delight in the Lord will swallow up all that shame, all that self-pity, the bitterness, and swallow up those circumstances. And lastly, we get to verse 8. And for this one, I didn't actually put up an application because I think it's the culmination of all these other things, all these other verses that David was getting at and reminding us. Verse 8 says again, in peace I will lie down and sleep, For you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety. This is the result. This final verse is actually kind of near and dear to my heart. Every night since my kids were little, Natty would pray this verse with them. I would sometimes, but usually this was Natty's thing. She would lay down with each of the kids and she would pray. We claim Psalm 4:8 for our brothers and sisters around the world and our family at Hope. that we would lie down and sleep in peace. For you alone, O Lord, make us dwell in safety. So that was a prayer that my kids probably still remember today and a verse that my kids still remember today. Remembering, and I think this is what kind of Natty was getting at too here, remembering God's goodness and Jesus' sacrifice right before bed kind of helps to calm those storms of the day. David's hope and our hope is rooted Not in what's going on around us. And not on things of this world. But it's rooted in the character of God and the person of Jesus. There's a story in Acts chapter 12, which I'd encourage you to maybe go back sometime this week and look at. But it talks about the Apostle Peter getting arrested. So King Herod actually had this plan to kill Peter the following morning. Peter knew this. So what did Peter do that night? Well, he paced around restlessly, tried to pick the lock on his chains. He pleaded with the guards to let him go since he was innocent. Well, that's not what Peter did. That's probably what I would have done. But Peter, in this story, slept soundly while he was chained to 2 guards and there were other guards right outside his cell. Peter was so committed to the Lord that his faith, and his faith was so strong, so, so strong that he enjoyed a deep sleep that even when the angel that was sent to rescue him came, the angel had to strike Peter on the side to get him to wake up. That's a deep sleep. That's a peaceful sleep. We've been promised that when we cast our anxieties and our worries and our cares on Jesus, the peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard our hearts and minds. In Christ Jesus. We are at peace with God because we have been made right with God because of Jesus. And this allows us then to experience peace, experience closeness, and experience security. And therefore, we can go to sleep in grace and in peace. I'm going to invite our worship team up. As we prepare to sing and offer a sacrifice of praise to our great God, a couple of questions to ponder. Is Jesus the source of your righteousness? Jesus has made us right with God, not because of anything that we did, but because he loves us and he loves us deeply. We just need to put our faith in him. Is your joy vertical or horizontal? Are you looking horizontally to To bring you satisfaction? Are you looking at things in this world to bring you that joy and that satisfaction? Or do you look to God as the only one who can bring us eternal joy despite our circumstances? And that last question was supposed to be different, but is there somebody that needs to know that they can have confidence and trust in Jesus? Just think about that if there's others that you can kind of share that, that peace with this week. As we worship here, we have 4 ways that we typically kind of show our acts of worship. We've got communion that'll be available outside each of those sets of doors. We take communion to remember Jesus' death and resurrection, to remember how we were made right with him. We just ask that you're a follower of Jesus. There will be a couple people out or inside each of those doors with yellow lanyards that would love to pray for you. If you would like prayer about anything, just ask them. We're going to sing 3 songs of praise, and you're always welcome to give online or in the black box out on that communion table out there. If you would pray with me, please pray. Jesus, we thank you for giving us a calming peace and rest despite despite rough circumstances we might be going through. Let us always remember all that you've done for us. May we not lose hope because we follow the one who has overcome everything out of such a great love for us. We love you, Lord. Amen. Amen.

Psalms 4:8 Acts 12 · chapter mention