Pursuing Peace in Present Pain (Psalm 4)

Amen, amen.

Children, at this time you are dismissed for Children's Church.

!

It's a tiring week.

I can speak for my children at least when they finally got home and settled down.

Now, they slept pretty well after a few hours straight of running and dancing and trying

their best to pay attention during lessons.

And some of you volunteers likely went home and some of you may have crashed due to physical

exhaustion from corralling them from place to place and trying to keep up with the motions

of the songs.

And it's just, it's a tiring week, right?

But some of you perhaps didn't sleep quite as easy.

There are times in our lives where we lay awake at night, unable to drift off into peaceful

slumber.

I know when I was young, many, many, many years ago, right?

When I was young, the excitement of leaving for a mission trip or a youth camp would often

keep me awake with some blissful anticipation of what was to come the following week.

Or maybe it was the nerves of starting a new grade in school with a new class, a new teacher.

New chapters of life seemed to add to the anxieties and worry would start to preoccupy

in my mind as life has developed over the years.

These anxieties that sometimes keep me awake have grown more complex.

Pervasive thoughts about ministry, just whether or not I'm doing my best.

Thoughts about my family, intrusive thoughts about parenting and marriage, replaying every

shortcoming I seem to have and the relationships I hold most important and that are the closest

to me.

Then there are the parasitic thoughts about life circumstances, finances, health, loss,

and what is to come, whether it's scrolling through bank statements or scrolling through

test results on my chart.

There just seems to be an ever-growing list of things that are there to keep me awake at

night.

Present pain that causes my mind to not rest well.

And that can seem a little uncomfortable to admit in a church setting, right?

We put on our Sunday best, we gather together, we say that we're blessed and highly favored,

and then we go home to our problems to deal with them ourselves.

And we're tempted to deal with them ourselves.

But I want to challenge myself and each of us today that when it comes to pursuing peace

in present pain, that's something we as a church are called to do together, to pursue

peace in present pain together.

If you have your Bibles, we'll be in Psalm chapter 4 this morning, the fourth Psalm.

Psalms 4 · chapter mention

Last week, Pastor Brett led us through Psalm 3, which was a personal Psalm of David to comfort

him during a time of just a fractured family dynamic.

Well, Psalm 4 is believed by some to be written in a very similar context, although that's not

known.

And it really doesn't change the meaning of the message, if you think about it, of what

David was going through, because it's very pertinent for us today.

Psalm 4 is a psalm to the choir master.

I mean, this is a psalm not meant to comfort David personally.

It's one for the nation of Israel to sing together in corporate worship.

Writing on a different yet similar psalm, there's a pastor named Ligon Duncan who gives a helpful

perspective for us to keep in mind as we navigate this text together.

He writes, friend, your life may be filled with far more suffering than my own, but Scripture

teaches that your troubles don't belong to you alone.

God placed psalms of lament like this one in Scripture so that we could all learn how to

cry out to the Lord in our sadness and our grief together.

Psalms like this one teach us to share in one another's suffering and to bear one another's

burdens.

So how does David teach us to pursue peace in present pain, and how do we do that together?

Well, let's turn our attention to Psalm 4.

To the choir master with stringed instruments, a psalm of David.

He writes in verse 1, 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 to shame?

How long will you love vain words and seek after lies?

Say, La.

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.

Say, La.

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.

I love this if you want to underline it.

You have put more joy in my heart than they have when their grain and wine abound.

In peace I will both lie down and sleep.

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

So when it comes to pursuing peace in present pain, one of the first things we see in this passage is that, David, it reminds us to pray with bold assurance.

To pray with bold assurance.

He writes, answer me when I call, O God of my righteousness.

The audacity that David expresses here in addressing the creator God in such a manner.

Who are we to think that an all-knowing, all-powerful, all-present, never-changing God would care about us?

Yet David addresses him and says, answer me, O God of my righteousness.

The reason he cares about us is because he's not just a God.

He's my God.

He's the God of my righteousness.

Charles Spurgeon explains David's use of this name.

He writes, it means, thou art the author, the witness, the maintainer, the judge, the rewarder of my righteousness.

To you I appeal from the calamities and harsh judgments of men.

Here in his wisdom let us imitate it and always take our suit not to the petty courts of human opinion,

but to the superior court, the king's bench of heaven.

You see, our status before God is not grounded in our own righteousness, our own ability to approach the throne of God.

Instead, it's grounded in the warm welcome of our God.

The God of our righteousness that has torn the veil and welcomed us in by the blood of his lamb.

And we see this welcome expressed in passages like Hebrews 4, 15 and 16 where the author of Hebrews writes,

for we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with us.

So Jesus understands our weaknesses.

He writes, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.

And based on that, he further writes in verse 16,

Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace,

that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

So when the pain and pressure of life starts to push our backs against the wall,

when it seems as though it's too much for us to handle,

God is reminding us through this passage here that we must first pray with bold assurance.

Prayer is important.

We pray bold prayers because God genuinely cares for us.

Now, we often fail to pray, right?

We often fail to pray for many reasons.

We fail to pray because we tend to think that our struggles are beneath God.

Or that they're our own doing, so there are problems to fix.

But friends, the whole point of the gospel is that we weren't able to fix the depths of our sorrows by our own.

We needed Jesus.

Prayer is not some last-ditch effort for when nothing else seems to work.

Prayer must be the very essence of our relationships with the Almighty God.

Prayer is necessary.

Looking here, David's anticipation for an answer, answer me, O God,

is dependent on the fact that he's already called.

He's already gone before him.

So the boldness of David's prayer life is grounded in the very character of God,

the attributes that he knows of him.

And God has consistently shown a care and compassion for his children.

And David isn't praying to some unknown God.

He's praying to the God of his righteousness.

And he further prays,

You have given me relief when I was in distress.

So be gracious to me and hear my prayer.

David is relying on God's prior faithfulness as the foundation for his request with his present pain.

God has been faithful, so I trust that he'll be faithful again.

And we see this reality all the more present in the rest of this psalm,

where David continually refers to him as Lord, capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D,

which means that he was calling out to Yahweh, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac,

the God of Jacob, the God of Joseph, the God of the Israelites.

The God who had consistently provided for his people and protected them from their enemies

and provided for their needs.

Now, this morning, I'm not all-knowing.

I don't pretend to know everything that's going on in each of your lives.

But I do know personally the reality of what many preachers before me have said.

And that is that you're either coming out of a storm,

presently in a storm,

or a storm's on its way.

So when the clouds start to get dark above us,

and the pain seems all the more present,

I've got to ask,

have you prayed about it?

Have you gone before your heavenly Father with a bold assurance that he cares,

and that he alone is able to provide an answer in his time?

So we pray with bold assurance,

but further, we also must ponder the condition of our hearts.

Look at this in verses 2 through 3.

O men, he's addressing some other people here.

O men, how long shall my honor be turned to shame?

How long will you love vain words and seek after lies?

Selah.

But know that the Lord has set apart the godly for himself.

The Lord hears when I call to him.

Here, David's addressing some of his enemies,

perhaps some of the same enemies from Psalm chapter 3.

Psalms 3 · chapter mention

These are some noble men who are using David's current circumstances

as an excuse to tarnish his reputation,

to attack him and his status before others,

to shame him.

His fear is no longer physical dangers,

it's his reputation that's at stake.

And it's in this that David responds to these men with a reminder probably for himself,

God has set me apart for himself.

He will answer my call.

He will answer when I call to him.

David's confidence of God's character and care is carrying over into,

give him a confidence before his enemies that are oppressing him.

And he then further writes in verse 4,

Be angry and do not sin.

Ponder in your own hearts on your beds and be silent.

Selah.

Now there are a couple of ways that be angry is translated from the Hebrew to the English.

And thinking about that kind of gives us a little bit of context

for what David's intentionally meaning here.

This phrase, be angry, can also be translated as to tremble.

Now think about the heavy emotions that we feel that cause us to tremble.

It's usually used in context of anger,

but it could just be any heavy emotions that we feel.

Think about this,

have you ever been so angry that you just started to shake?

That's what he means here, be angry.

That trembling emotion,

the uncontrollable emotions that are there.

And often, often,

we struggle in two ways primarily with our emotions, right?

First, often,

we fail to go before God with our actual real needs.

We pretty it up.

We clean it up in our prayers.

We start to hide the real emotions and the real issues,

and we fail to take our actual problems to the Lord.

But secondly,

our emotions often cause us to sin.

They cause us to sin.

We start to store up hatred in our hearts

that Jesus Christ says is the same as murder.

We start to store up bitterness,

anxiety,

grief.

And each of these things,

we store up these emotions,

and our grief gets to the point

where our hearts

are no longer set on the purposes

to which God has already set us apart.

In this,

our emotions sometimes lead us

to sin.

And so David instructs his enemies,

and I believe he instructs the people of God

that would be singing this together.

He writes,

Ponder,

think on,

dwell on,

search your own heart

on your beds,

and be silent.

So have you prayed about it?

But what's the condition of your heart this morning?

What's the condition of your heart

and the pain that is present for you?

When it looks at this,

like,

God says it's okay to feel emotion.

It's okay to be angry even,

but don't let it infect you

to the point

where your anger

and your emotions

calls you to sinful disobedience

to the God of your righteousness.

We often do everything we can

to avoid this task, right?

We try to fill the silence.

When we got married,

my wife,

she was used to sleeping with a box fan.

So,

nearly wed couple,

my first task

was to get used to sleeping

with a big old box fan

that would be a sound machine

and keep us freezing all night long.

We couldn't sit in silence

had to have a big old box fan.

Well,

we do that

in every aspect of our life, right?

We drown out the noise.

We distract ourselves

with entertainment.

We distract ourselves

with sinful pursuits.

I was talking with Josh Lorenz,

our youth pastor,

just the other day

about the genuine need

that students have

to retreat

and get away

from their distractions

and even technology sometimes

because it's only sometimes

when we separate ourselves

from the noise

and the distractions

that we can genuinely feel

our need for God.

And that's a problem

not just for students,

that's a problem

for many of us.

We don't let ourselves

sit and think on it.

We distract ourselves

to numb the present pain.

It said 89.2%,

almost 90% of people

scroll on their phones

before going to sleep.

We don't want to be left alone

with our thoughts.

We don't want to sit there

and dwell on things.

So we scroll,

we try to distract ourselves

and often we drown out

all the noise

to the point where we drown out

the very voice of God

that we're hoping

and praying for.

Ponder in your hearts,

on your beds

and be silent.

It may just be

in the quiet contemplation

of the condition

of our hearts

that you begin to hear

the answer from God

that you've been desperately

wanting to hear.

Pray with bold assurance.

Ponder the condition

of your heart.

Further,

put your trust

in the Lord.

Verses 5-7,

he writes this.

Offer the right sacrifices

and put your trust

in the Lord.

There are many who say

who will show us some good.

Lift up your face

upon us, O Lord.

You have put more joy

in my heart

than they have

when their grain

and wine abound.

Looking at this passage here,

he says,

offer right sacrifices,

put your trust

in the Lord.

You see,

the trembling emotions

of verse 4

also bear the context

of trembling

and standing in awe

of the presence of God.

Which carries over

into verse 5 here,

offer right sacrifices

in the presence

of God himself.

How we live,

how we move forward

in our pain

matters.

How we live

and how we move forward

in our pain matters.

It's one thing

to take our request

to God.

It's another thing

entirely to trust him

with it.

Put your trust

in the Lord.

These enemies

that David is addressing,

if in the ponderings

of their heart,

come to the conclusion

that they either

do not know God

or are distant from God,

David instructs them

of how to get back

to God

or to him

in the first place.

Offer right sacrifices,

put your trust

in the Lord.

And that's always

been the way.

Throughout all

the scripture,

that's always been the way.

In the Old Testament,

under the Old Covenant,

certain sacrifices

were necessary

for sin to be covered

and for God's people

to be right with him.

And while those sacrifices

were absolutely necessary

and they were strict guidelines

for those to be done reverently

and appropriately

and correctly,

the heart behind the sacrifice

was always important.

The heart behind the sacrifice

was always to be one

of trusting in the Lord.

Consider Abraham

a pillar of a figure

in the book of Genesis.

It wasn't his grand use

of sacrifices

that brought him

into the good pleasures

of God.

It was that he believed.

It was that he trusted.

It was that he had confidence

in God Almighty.

Notice this in Genesis 15, 6.

It writes,

And he, Abram,

believed the Lord.

And he, God,

counted it to him

as righteousness.

He believed.

He didn't just know

facts about God.

He knew God's character

and he had confidence

in his faithfulness.

He trusted in the Lord

and he was counted

as righteous.

He was brought into

the family of God.

Under the new covenant,

in the New Testament,

however,

what we see in the New Testament

is that the ultimate sacrifice

has already been given.

It's already been done.

The blood that has been shed

by Jesus Christ

has already taken place

so that by his stripes

we may be healed.

By his blood,

we may be forgiven.

Through his death,

we might have life.

Romans 10, 9,

that if you confess

with your mouth

that Jesus is Lord

and believe in your heart

that God raised him

from the dead,

you will be saved.

There's no further sacrifice

necessary to bring us

into salvation.

Christ's work on the cross

is finished work.

But all too often,

we attempt to sacrifice

the wrong thing

to fix our pain.

Friends, it doesn't work.

We sacrifice

and spend more hours

at work

to put more money

in the bank

and give us comfort,

but friends,

that doesn't fix our pain.

We sacrifice our morals

to gain status with others

and favor with others,

but that doesn't fix our pain.

There are many

who will abandon

their responsibilities,

abandon their families even,

trying to seek some peace,

but that doesn't fix our pain.

unless we turn our eyes

upon Jesus

and look full

in his wonderful face,

we'll find no other substitute

that can fix our pain.

Offer right sacrifices

and put your trust

in the Lord.

The Apostle Paul shows us

what this practically looks like

in Romans 12, 1 and 2

where he writes,

I appeal to you,

therefore,

I beg of you,

I ask of 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.

So as we trust

in the right sacrifice,

Jesus,

by the mercies of God,

we further live our lives

as a living sacrifice,

set apart,

holy and acceptable to God

in spiritual worship.

Now, I'm gonna be honest,

worship in the midst

of our pain

seems a bit counterintuitive.

It's hard.

I'm reminded by the story

of Robertson McQuilkin.

He was the president

of Columbia Bible College

and Seminary for 22 years.

He'd served alongside

his wife, Muriel,

for 12 years in Japan

as missionaries.

Well, long story short,

Muriel, his wife,

began to show signs

of Alzheimer's

and he eventually left

the role of president

at a seminary

to care for his wife

full time.

That's a story he writes

about in his book,

A Promise Kept,

which I strongly encourage

anyone who's married

or looking to be married

or is responsible

for the long-term care

of a loved one.

It's an incredible book.

But as he's writing

about the love

that he has

for his wife, Muriel,

he also reminds

the readers consistently

of God's love

for each of us.

And he uses this phrase

in one part.

He writes,

the heavy heart

lifts on the wings

of praise.

You see,

worship in the midst

of our pain

seems like the last thing

that's easy to do,

but it's often

in putting our trust

in the Lord

and worshiping him

in the midst of our pain.

Often that's the only way

for our heavy hearts

to be lifted once again.

Put your trust

in the Lord.

The goodness of God's presence

and the joy found

in the Lord

are unlike anything else

this world can provide

or offer.

You see,

even in our deepest

and darkest moments,

God gives us a joy

that surpasses

the temporary

fleeting relief

that we could find

through any earthly measure.

Verse seven,

I love this.

You have put more joy

in my heart

than they have

when their grain

and wine abound.

So David reminds us

to pray

with bold assurance.

Ponder the condition

of our hearts.

Put your trust

in the Lord.

And finally,

at the end of it all,

he tells us

to peacefully

lie down

and sleep.

Verse eight,

in peace.

I will

both

lie down

and sleep.

For you alone,

oh Lord,

make me dwell in safety.

Now it's one thing

to lie down, right?

But it's another thing

to lie down

and go to sleep.

And he's saying

that he can do both of those

because God

is his great comforter.

Charles Spurgeon

comments on this truth

writing that

a good conscience

is a good bedfellow.

How many of our

sleepless hours

might be traced

to our untrusting

and disordered minds?

They slumber sweetly

whom faith

rocks to sleep.

No pillow

so soft as a promise,

no coverlet

as warm

as an assured

interest

in Christ.

David tells his enemies,

look,

you guys need to sit

in your bed

and think about your life

for a little bit.

But he tells himself,

in peace,

I will lie down

and sleep.

I will rest

in the consistent

and faithful care

of the God

of my righteousness.

This calm assurance

of our position

with God

in Christ

can comfort

even the most

broken aspect

of our lives.

Now this does not

discount our distress.

This does not treat

lightly our pain.

Instead,

it just uplifts

and reminds us

of the great love

that God has demonstrated

through the ultimate sacrifice

for our sin

and pain.

Enduring that very pain

upon himself

on a sinner's cross

so that peace

may be possible

for us

in the presence

of pain.

Russell Moore

comments on his book

The Storm Tossed Family.

He writes,

you can grieve

over your past

but you cannot change it.

You can also,

though,

know

that while you

may be shaped

by your past,

you are not

defined by it.

Whoever has hurt you

has really hurt you

but they have not

defeated you.

You have survived.

Your life

is hidden in Christ.

Your future

is not that

of a victim

but as a joint heir

with Christ.

So this morning

if you are a son

or a daughter

of the Most High God,

you can both

lie down

and sleep

knowing that

he will answer

in due time

and that whatever

evils or shame

this world

may throw your way,

you can find

peaceful slumber.

Why?

Because you alone,

O Lord,

make me dwell

in safety.

See,

my trust,

my confidence,

my peace,

my joy,

my rest,

even my sleep

is found

in God alone

and when we turn

our face to him,

it makes all the difference.

This past week,

as Miss Savannah mentioned,

our theme verse

for VBS

was Psalm 16,

8.

It said,

I keep my eyes

always on the Lord.

With him at my right hand

I will not be shaken.

So this morning,

I may not know

what may keep you up

at night

but in every situation

of our life,

in every pursuit

of our being,

the pursuit of peace

looks the same.

I love how a pastor

posted it the other day.

He wrote,

Dear Christians,

in times of peace,

Christ.

In times of trouble,

Christ.

In every storm,

Christ.

When days are long,

Christ.

When nights are longer,

Christ.

In all of life,

Christ.

In final breath,

Christ.

For all eternity,

Christ.

Keep your eyes

on Jesus Christ.

It may be a little more

familiar for some of you.

Turn your eyes

upon Jesus.

Look full

in his wonderful face

and the things of earth

will grow strangely dim

in the light of his glory.

and his grace.

Friends,

this morning,

perhaps you're tired.

Tired of being anxious,

tired of feeling stress,

tired of present pain.

Psalm 4 is a psalm of the meant,

meant to be sung by the church

so that we can join together,

lift one another up,

fix our gaze together on God,

and by the death, burial,

and resurrection of Jesus Christ,

find peace in him alone.

We're going to sing a verse

of invitation

as we close this morning.

And if you've never placed

your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ,

then that's where we start.

That's your only application

if that's where you're at.

All week long

at Vacation Bible School,

I encourage students

to respond to the gospel

with the ABCs.

Admit that you're a sinner,

believe in Jesus Christ,

and confess him as Lord,

committing your life to him.

So this morning,

if you've never placed

your trust in Christ,

that's where we start.

But for the rest of us,

if you have placed

your trust in the Lord,

you can pursue peace

in present pain

because the God

of our righteousness,

the God of our righteousness

gives us everlasting joy

and peace,

even rest in him.

Let's pray.

Father, we love you so much.

Thank you for this day

that you've given us.

Lord, I pray that

as we think on these things,

Lord, may we just come

before you as ourselves.

May you help us

to bring our problems,

our distress to you

because, Lord,

you're the only hope we have.

Lord, may you protect us

and guide us,

and Lord, may we repent

of the ways in which

we've sought things

that only you can provide

through other means.

So, Lord, today,

as we respond,

as we close,

Lord, I pray that

if there's anyone

that needs to give

their life to you,

they may do so

during this time.

But, Lord, also,

for each of us,

may you help us

to put our faith,

our confidence,

our ultimate trust

in you alone.

And may we rest

each and every day

because you, O Lord,

are the God

of our righteousness.

We have nothing else

apart from you.

Lord, we love you.

Bless this time of response.

In your name we pray.

Amen.

At this time,

I'm gonna stand here

at the front

as Clay sings

and leads us in a song.

If you will stand with us today

as we sing,

if there's any need

on your heart,

if you wanna speak to me

or I'm here now

and also after the service,

if you wanna give your life

to Christ,

if you wanna join the church,

now's the time to respond.

But let's sing together

and worship.

Let's sing together

Let's sing together

Let's sing together

Let's sing together

Let's sing together

Let's sing together

and worship.

Let's sing together

Let's sing together

and worship.

Let's sing together

and worship together

and worship together