WEBVTT 00:00:08.000 --> 00:00:10.640 Let me invite you to open your Bibles to Psalm 4. 00:00:10.800 --> 00:00:13.519 Psalm 4 is our text for this morning. 00:00:17.120 --> 00:00:28.719 Jesse's been walking us through the Sermon on the Mount on Sermon on Sunday mornings, and so since we are for one day together kind of pulling the car over, I thought it'd be appropriate not to pull the car over too far. 00:00:29.039 --> 00:00:36.399 Since we've been learning to pray from the greater David, it seems appropriate to spend one Sunday looking at the original David and his prayer life. 00:00:36.719 --> 00:00:38.719 That's what Psalm 4 is. 00:00:39.280 --> 00:00:41.920 So let's begin our time by reading from God's Word together. 00:00:42.000 --> 00:00:46.560 Would you look down at your Bibles at Psalm 4 and let's read the Psalm together before we study it? 00:00:46.799 --> 00:00:49.119 Psalm 4, beginning in verse 1. 00:00:52.320 --> 00:00:56.560 To the choir master with stringed instruments, a Psalm of David. 00:00:58.000 --> 00:01:01.280 Answer me when I call, O God of my righteousness. 00:01:01.600 --> 00:01:04.159 You've given me relief when I was in distress. 00:01:04.480 --> 00:01:07.040 Be gracious to me and hear my prayer. 00:01:07.840 --> 00:01:11.040 O men, how long shall my honor be turned into shame? 00:01:11.200 --> 00:01:14.239 How long will you love vain words and seek after lies? 00:01:14.560 --> 00:01:15.519 Say lah. 00:01:16.079 --> 00:01:19.120 But know that the Lord has set apart the godly for himself. 00:01:19.599 --> 00:01:21.599 The Lord hears when I call to him. 00:01:22.560 --> 00:01:24.239 Be angry and do not sin. 00:01:24.480 --> 00:01:28.239 Ponder in your own hearts on your beds and be silent, Selah. 00:01:28.959 --> 00:01:32.640 Offer right sacrifices and put your trust in the Lord. 00:01:33.439 --> 00:01:36.480 There are many who say, Who will show us some good? 00:01:37.359 --> 00:01:40.400 Lift up the light of your face upon us, O Lord. 00:01:41.040 --> 00:01:45.760 You have put more joy in my heart than they have when their grain and wine abound. 00:01:45.920 --> 00:01:52.079 In peace I will both lie down and sleep, for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety. 00:01:52.319 --> 00:01:53.920 This is the word of God. 00:01:56.319 --> 00:02:01.359 Sometimes in life things look very differently on the outside than they do on the inside. 00:02:02.560 --> 00:02:07.840 Just a basic reality that we all become accustomed with, even trivial matters. 00:02:08.479 --> 00:02:13.840 You might have found a book that looked spectacular on the outside until you began to read it and discovered that it was garbage. 00:02:14.000 --> 00:02:16.479 And so we have an expression for these kinds of experiences. 00:02:16.639 --> 00:02:22.479 Don't judge a book by its cover, because sometimes things are different on the outside than they are on the inside. 00:02:22.560 --> 00:02:26.159 That's true not just in trivial matters, but it's true in important matters as well. 00:02:26.639 --> 00:02:35.280 Many of us have had the experience, or maybe are the experience, of knowing somebody who on the outside it seems like they present themselves very well. 00:02:35.439 --> 00:02:42.159 Their life is put together, things are going very well, but as you get to know them, you discover that on the inside their life is falling apart. 00:02:43.599 --> 00:02:45.039 That's the thing that happens in life. 00:02:45.199 --> 00:02:49.199 Sometimes things look very differently on the outside than they do on the inside. 00:02:49.360 --> 00:02:52.719 Psalm 4 is a psalm that teaches us how to deal with that reality. 00:02:52.879 --> 00:02:54.400 And it does it in a couple different ways. 00:02:54.560 --> 00:02:58.719 One of the ways that it does that is through the order, the placement in the book of Psalms. 00:02:58.960 --> 00:03:01.439 Psalms are the Psalter is 150 Psalms. 00:03:01.680 --> 00:03:03.840 We believe that the Psalter is the very word of God. 00:03:04.000 --> 00:03:07.759 Every time that you read the Psalms aloud, God's speaking aloud to you. 00:03:08.000 --> 00:03:13.439 But the Psalms just aren't just inspired on the individual verbal level, they're also inspired in their order. 00:03:13.599 --> 00:03:18.080 We believe that the Psalms and the order they've been placed in is part of the inspiration of the scriptures. 00:03:18.319 --> 00:03:20.719 And you can see that if you look closely. 00:03:21.120 --> 00:03:34.159 When you open the Psalter, this Psalter is a book that's given to us to teach us how to live a life of worship, how to bring all of your emotions and all of your circumstances in life before God and live your entire life as a life of worship before God. 00:03:34.319 --> 00:03:38.479 And the first two Psalms are placed at the beginning of this book very intentionally. 00:03:38.879 --> 00:03:43.919 They serve as kind of the double-gated door, the entranceway into a life of worship. 00:03:44.080 --> 00:03:47.599 They orient you around how to live a life of worship before the living God. 00:03:47.759 --> 00:03:51.039 So Psalm 1 begins by telling us that there's two ways to live. 00:03:51.199 --> 00:04:00.560 And the way of the righteous is a way that is a life that delights in the law of the Lord and on his law meditates day and night, and the Lord knows the way of the righteous. 00:04:00.800 --> 00:04:05.919 And secondly, Psalm 2 tells us that God has placed his son on his throne and he's in control of this world. 00:04:06.080 --> 00:04:09.520 And those two realities orient you as you enter into a life of worship. 00:04:09.599 --> 00:04:15.280 And as you walk through the Psalms, the Psalms begin to work in your life and teach you how to live a life that glorifies God. 00:04:15.360 --> 00:04:23.360 And by the time you get to the end, Psalm 150 concludes with this crescendo that declares, Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. 00:04:23.600 --> 00:04:25.680 That life looks really good, doesn't it? 00:04:26.000 --> 00:04:27.759 The Lord knows the righteous. 00:04:31.279 --> 00:04:36.399 So on the exterior, on the bookends of the Psalter, the life of worship looks really nice. 00:04:37.120 --> 00:04:55.279 But then when you walk through the double-gated entrance into this life of worship, you land in Psalm 3, and the very first thing you encounter, Psalm 3, verse 1, is this O Lord, how many are my foes, many are rising against me and saying, There's no salvation for him and God. 00:04:55.839 --> 00:04:57.120 And then it goes on. 00:04:57.279 --> 00:05:04.800 In Psalm 4, our text for this morning, Psalm 4, verse 2, O men, how long shall my honor be turned into shame? 00:05:06.399 --> 00:05:12.399 What you discover when you enter this life of worship is that it's not as easy as it might have seemed on the outside. 00:05:12.639 --> 00:05:18.319 The life of worship is a life that plops you right into the mucky reality of living in a fallen world. 00:05:19.360 --> 00:05:24.879 But this Psalter is given to us to teach you how to glorify God in that kind of a life. 00:05:25.120 --> 00:05:31.279 And so it's not just the placement of Psalm 4 that teaches us how to live in this reality that things aren't always the way they appear on the outside. 00:05:31.360 --> 00:05:33.199 It's the content of the Psalm 2. 00:05:33.439 --> 00:05:36.879 You look closely at Psalm 4 at the beginning and end of this Psalm in verse 1. 00:05:37.040 --> 00:05:38.079 Look at verse 1. 00:05:38.399 --> 00:05:41.439 David says, You have given me relief when I was in distress. 00:05:41.600 --> 00:05:45.040 That's the kind of circumstance David finds himself in, a state of distress. 00:05:45.199 --> 00:05:48.800 That word in the Hebrew literally means a pressing, a tight place. 00:05:48.959 --> 00:05:51.360 Have you ever felt like you were in a tight place in life? 00:05:51.600 --> 00:05:55.600 The circumstances around you were such that it's not the way you would want your life to be. 00:05:55.680 --> 00:05:57.120 It's distressing, it's pressing in. 00:05:57.199 --> 00:06:01.600 You're hemmed in, you feel emotionally, etc., like you are pressed in in a tight place. 00:06:01.680 --> 00:06:03.279 That's where David finds himself. 00:06:03.439 --> 00:06:06.959 But by the time he gets to the end of the Psalm, look at verse 7. 00:06:07.279 --> 00:06:11.199 You have put more joy in my heart than they have when their grain and wine abound. 00:06:11.360 --> 00:06:16.879 In peace I will both lie down and sleep, for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety. 00:06:17.439 --> 00:06:30.480 Psalm 4 is a psalm that teaches you how you can experience the divine joy and peace that is available to God's people when around you you are in a very tight space. 00:06:30.720 --> 00:06:38.000 Psalm 4 is a psalm that teaches you how to live in a reality where things on the outside look really bad, but on the inside they're really good. 00:06:38.240 --> 00:06:40.319 That's what Psalm 4 is given to us. 00:06:40.399 --> 00:06:45.120 It it for it's given to us to teach us how to pray in tight places. 00:06:45.360 --> 00:06:49.600 Psalm 4 is a psalm that teaches us how to pray in tight places. 00:06:49.759 --> 00:06:53.279 But there's one more introductory matter that I want to mention before we plunge into the Psalm. 00:06:53.439 --> 00:06:57.519 I mentioned this Psalm 3 a moment ago, and that's because Psalm 3 and 4 are connected. 00:06:57.759 --> 00:07:07.199 Notice Psalm 3, right in the middle of it in verse 5 in your Bibles, it says, I lie down and slept, and I woke again, for the Lord sustained me. 00:07:07.360 --> 00:07:09.839 Psalm 3 is typically called a morning psalm. 00:07:10.000 --> 00:07:16.160 And then Psalm 4, if you look at the end of it in verse 8 that I just read, in peace I will both lie down and sleep. 00:07:16.399 --> 00:07:18.560 Psalm 4 is typically called an evening psalm. 00:07:18.720 --> 00:07:35.279 So you enter into this double-gated life of worship, and the first thing you encounter is in the muck of life, when you wake up and when you lie down, there's a kind of communion that you can have with God in this crazy, distressing world that results in divine joy and peace internally. 00:07:36.399 --> 00:07:46.879 In other words, Psalm 3 and 4 are given to us to model the way that you do what Psalm 1 told us we needed to do: meditate on the law of the Lord day and night. 00:07:47.600 --> 00:07:54.800 Psalm 3 and 4 are given to us as a picture for what a life in communion with God in the mucky world looks like. 00:07:55.199 --> 00:08:00.959 You want to live a life that results in experiencing God's joy and peace in your life, no matter what's going on around you. 00:08:01.120 --> 00:08:11.680 You need to be a person who's characterized by having open communion with God, in which you are praying the kinds of Psalms, the kinds of prayers that David patterns for us in Psalms 3 and 4. 00:08:12.000 --> 00:08:14.639 This is the way to pray in tight spaces. 00:08:14.879 --> 00:08:16.560 So let's walk through the text together. 00:08:16.639 --> 00:08:20.480 And what David models for us is three ways to pray in tight places. 00:08:20.720 --> 00:08:23.759 The first thing he shows us is that we need to pray personally. 00:08:24.000 --> 00:08:24.959 We need to pray personally. 00:08:25.120 --> 00:08:27.040 Look down to your Bibles at verse 1. 00:08:27.279 --> 00:08:29.199 This is the way David begins the Psalm. 00:08:29.279 --> 00:08:32.159 He says, Answer me when I call, O God of my righteousness. 00:08:32.320 --> 00:08:34.399 You've given me relief when I was in distress. 00:08:34.559 --> 00:08:36.879 Be gracious to me and hear my prayer. 00:08:37.039 --> 00:08:40.240 So there's three pleas and one memory here. 00:08:40.399 --> 00:08:43.600 And notice the basis upon which David approaches God. 00:08:43.759 --> 00:08:49.519 Verse 1 Answer me, O God of my righteousness. 00:08:49.759 --> 00:08:52.240 Now some of your translations will render that. 00:08:52.480 --> 00:08:55.120 Answer me, O my righteous God. 00:08:55.759 --> 00:08:57.679 So the question becomes, so which one is it? 00:08:57.840 --> 00:09:00.879 Is it the God of my righteousness, or is it my righteous God? 00:09:00.960 --> 00:09:02.000 And does it even matter? 00:09:02.080 --> 00:09:03.919 And the answer is yes to all of that. 00:09:04.000 --> 00:09:05.759 It matters, and both are right. 00:09:06.399 --> 00:09:10.000 In this sense, God is a righteous God. 00:09:10.159 --> 00:09:12.080 God's righteousness is impeccable. 00:09:12.240 --> 00:09:14.559 God's entirely and absolutely righteous. 00:09:14.720 --> 00:09:19.279 But the translation that I'm reading from says that this is also the God of my righteousness. 00:09:19.360 --> 00:09:21.759 That is, that God's righteousness is imputed. 00:09:22.159 --> 00:09:24.399 He's the one who has given me righteousness. 00:09:24.559 --> 00:09:27.360 And David's grounding his prayer in this reality. 00:09:27.679 --> 00:09:32.159 That when I go to God, I don't go to God in a position of being able to barter with him. 00:09:32.480 --> 00:09:34.320 Look at what he says at the end of verse 1. 00:09:34.559 --> 00:09:35.840 Be gracious to me. 00:09:36.080 --> 00:09:40.879 He's confessing that I have nothing, I am nothing, you are everything, and you're what I need. 00:09:41.039 --> 00:09:49.039 And the reason I can approach you in confidence is because I know that through my faith in you, you have declared me righteous and you've accepted me. 00:09:49.600 --> 00:09:52.960 In other words, David is a person who knew the beatitudes. 00:09:53.279 --> 00:10:06.320 And he grounded his prayer, not based on some kind of transactional relationship, but based on a personal relationship with the living God, grounded in the righteousness that God had reckoned to him through faith. 00:10:07.919 --> 00:10:12.799 He approached God personally, and that's the question that we ought to ask ourselves. 00:10:12.879 --> 00:10:19.120 If we're going to diagnose what kind of a prayer life we have, one of the first questions that we could ask is, how do we approach God? 00:10:20.080 --> 00:10:28.720 Do we approach God on the basis of something that we can offer him, something that we can pledge to him, that would produce something that we could get from him? 00:10:29.840 --> 00:10:34.080 Or do we approach God on the basis, I have nothing, I am nothing, and you're everything. 00:10:35.200 --> 00:10:40.000 We could also ask the question, what is it that we want to get from God when we go to Him? 00:10:40.960 --> 00:10:48.080 I mentioned a moment ago that this psalm is a psalm that teaches us how we can have access to God's joy and peace in our life. 00:10:48.960 --> 00:10:56.480 But there is a way to approach God in which you want the blessings that God can give kind of devoid from God Himself. 00:10:57.360 --> 00:11:07.360 There is a way of conceiving God, conceiving of God as kind of a glorified vending machine in which I get something from God and then I walk away and it's mine now. 00:11:08.159 --> 00:11:11.120 But that's not the approach that David has before God. 00:11:11.200 --> 00:11:12.799 Look at what he wants in verse 6. 00:11:12.960 --> 00:11:19.519 Before we get to verse 7 and 8, where he's talking about the joy and peace that God's put in his heart, look at where it comes from, verse 6. 00:11:19.759 --> 00:11:22.799 Lift up the light of your face, O Lord. 00:11:22.879 --> 00:11:24.240 That's what David's praying for. 00:11:24.399 --> 00:11:27.039 He's not praying for things that he can just get from God. 00:11:27.200 --> 00:11:28.559 He's praying for God. 00:11:28.799 --> 00:11:29.840 I want more of you. 00:11:30.000 --> 00:11:40.320 I'm in a tight place, but I know that you declared me righteous, you accepted me, you've become my father, and you said, I'll never leave you or forsake you, and I want more of you. 00:11:40.559 --> 00:11:41.840 I want you to be with me. 00:11:42.080 --> 00:11:46.480 I want your face to be upon me because if I'm with you, you are joy, you are peace. 00:11:46.639 --> 00:11:48.480 I'll have everything that you are. 00:11:49.200 --> 00:11:57.039 So the question we can ask ourselves is when I'm praying, is it something from God or is it God? 00:11:57.840 --> 00:12:03.759 I don't know if you notice in the song that we just sang, we just confessed that my heart has found the treasure. 00:12:03.919 --> 00:12:04.639 It's God. 00:12:04.960 --> 00:12:05.759 That's what I want. 00:12:05.840 --> 00:12:12.080 I want to see the face of God, which of course we know in the new covenant is revealed to us in the face of Jesus Christ. 00:12:13.440 --> 00:12:14.960 This is the basis of David's prayer. 00:12:15.039 --> 00:12:22.080 It's a personal prayer in which he knows that God has forgiven his sins, has accepted him, and he goes before him saying, I want more of you. 00:12:23.360 --> 00:12:24.799 And look where he turns next. 00:12:25.200 --> 00:12:27.279 First, he's told us we need to pray personally. 00:12:27.440 --> 00:12:29.840 Secondly, we need to pray truthfully. 00:12:30.399 --> 00:12:31.039 Truthfully. 00:12:31.120 --> 00:12:33.120 That's in verses two down through verse five. 00:12:33.279 --> 00:12:42.159 I want to read verses two through five just consecutively, and ask yourself as I'm reading them, who is David addressing and why? 00:12:42.320 --> 00:12:44.399 Who is he talking to and why is he doing that? 00:12:44.559 --> 00:12:45.840 Look at verse 2. 00:12:46.480 --> 00:12:49.039 O men, how long shall my honor be turned into shame? 00:12:49.200 --> 00:12:52.000 How long will you love vain words and seek after lies? 00:12:52.240 --> 00:12:55.759 But know that the Lord has set apart the godly for himself. 00:12:55.919 --> 00:12:57.600 The Lord hears when I call to him. 00:12:57.840 --> 00:12:59.279 Be angry and do not sin. 00:12:59.519 --> 00:13:02.000 Ponder in your own hearts on your beds and be silent. 00:13:02.159 --> 00:13:06.399 Offer right sacrifices and put your trust in the Lord. 00:13:07.039 --> 00:13:08.639 Who's he talking to? 00:13:10.080 --> 00:13:12.240 It sounds like he's talking to his enemies, isn't it? 00:13:12.480 --> 00:13:14.000 I thought he was praying. 00:13:15.519 --> 00:13:21.360 Well, this prayer was recorded, and then it became incorporated in the Psalter and was using corporate worship, and that's what it's doing right now. 00:13:21.440 --> 00:13:28.480 It's being used in our corporate worship and it's being used to instruct us, but it originated in a personal prayer, and David is talking to his enemies. 00:13:28.559 --> 00:13:29.759 Why is he doing that? 00:13:32.080 --> 00:13:35.039 As far as we can tell, his enemies weren't present, they weren't listening to him. 00:13:35.919 --> 00:13:39.200 The only person who's listening to him is God, so why is he doing this? 00:13:40.240 --> 00:13:41.440 You know what he's doing? 00:13:41.919 --> 00:13:44.240 He's reminding himself what is true. 00:13:44.559 --> 00:13:50.399 He's speaking to his enemies, but as he's doing that, he is reminding himself of what is true. 00:13:50.639 --> 00:13:58.399 He's going over truth in the presence of God and allowing the truth of God to wash over him and reorient his mind in this tight place. 00:13:58.639 --> 00:14:01.360 I just want to walk through what he's doing here and I want to show it to you. 00:14:01.440 --> 00:14:06.799 If you look at verse 1, verse 2 rather, he says, Oh men, how long shall my honor be turned into shame? 00:14:06.879 --> 00:14:10.879 How long will you love vain words and seek after lies? 00:14:11.279 --> 00:14:18.639 He's reminding himself that the people who are oppressing him, ultimately their plans will fail. 00:14:18.720 --> 00:14:21.039 Because what they're seeking after is lies. 00:14:22.559 --> 00:14:24.799 I think that we experience this in a various ways. 00:14:24.879 --> 00:14:37.120 Sometimes there are people genuinely after us, but most of the time we're not in the same position as David or even analogous positions, but there certainly are times in our life in which there are people around us that just seem like their lives are so much better than ours, aren't they? 00:14:37.360 --> 00:14:42.080 And our life could be so much happier if we could just do whatever we wanted. 00:14:42.639 --> 00:14:46.639 And what David is doing is the same thing that the psalmist in Psalm 73 does. 00:14:46.720 --> 00:14:51.279 He's reminding himself that the people around him that he's looking at, they're living for lies. 00:14:51.440 --> 00:14:53.279 He's reminding himself of what is true. 00:14:53.360 --> 00:14:56.720 And that's what he does in the next verse, where he transitions verse 3. 00:14:57.039 --> 00:15:01.120 But know that the Lord has set apart the godly for himself. 00:15:01.519 --> 00:15:04.799 The Lord hears when I call to him. 00:15:05.600 --> 00:15:09.039 He's reminding himself of what he knows to be true. 00:15:09.279 --> 00:15:11.759 He is in a situation in which he's in a tight place. 00:15:11.919 --> 00:15:16.159 He doesn't know why God has put him here, but he does know this. 00:15:16.559 --> 00:15:20.159 The Lord has set apart the godly for himself, and he hears when I call. 00:15:20.480 --> 00:15:22.080 What does that word godly mean? 00:15:22.320 --> 00:15:29.360 We just said a moment ago that David grounded his prayer in verse 1, be gracious to me, O God of my righteousness. 00:15:29.519 --> 00:15:35.519 So David is not all of a sudden going back on that and saying, Look how godly I am! Do what I say, God. 00:15:37.039 --> 00:15:41.360 The word godly is uh it's the adjectival form of this Hebrew word, chesed. 00:15:41.600 --> 00:15:42.399 Do you know the word chesed? 00:15:42.879 --> 00:15:46.879 If you know any Hebrew word, the first word you typically would learn is the word chesed. 00:15:47.120 --> 00:15:52.559 It occurs over and over in the Bible, and it's translated a number of ways in our English translations. 00:15:52.799 --> 00:16:00.000 It's translated as loving kindness, steadfast love, because it's a big concept the way it's used in the Hebrew scriptures. 00:16:00.080 --> 00:16:05.039 It's a word that speaks of God's covenant, loyal love upon his people. 00:16:05.360 --> 00:16:13.679 When God entered a covenant with his people, he pledged himself that he would be loyal to them, he'd protect them, provide for them, and he would love them. 00:16:13.840 --> 00:16:20.559 And the people with whom he enters this covenant, he changes so that they love him back, and they're loyal to him back. 00:16:20.720 --> 00:16:22.480 And that's what David is speaking of here. 00:16:22.559 --> 00:16:23.519 He's using that word. 00:16:23.679 --> 00:16:32.480 He's saying, God elected me, God set me apart, God made a covenant with me, God's loyal to me, and I'm loyal to him, and so I know that I belong to him. 00:16:33.360 --> 00:16:38.399 And because I know that I belong to him, I know that the Lord will hear me when I pray to him. 00:16:38.720 --> 00:16:46.320 He's grounding his prayer in what he knows to be true, not what he doesn't know to be true. 00:16:48.799 --> 00:16:52.240 Do you know that is what a lot of life consists of? 00:16:53.759 --> 00:17:00.559 We live pretty close to a metro station, and when we moved in, my son naturally thought, trains? 00:17:00.720 --> 00:17:01.200 Sweet. 00:17:01.360 --> 00:17:02.639 I want to go on the train, Dad. 00:17:02.720 --> 00:17:04.079 You gotta take me on the train. 00:17:04.319 --> 00:17:09.279 And I think in his mind he had like Polar Express going on, you know, Tom Hanks and hot chocolate. 00:17:09.440 --> 00:17:12.799 So we went and got on the metro and he was a little bit disappointed. 00:17:13.839 --> 00:17:20.240 But I said, alright, we'll get on the train, we'll go, we'll go a couple stops down, there's a McDonald's right there, and we'll get some french fries, and it'll be great. 00:17:20.559 --> 00:17:24.799 Well, as we're on the train, my son naturally is asking every question the little boy would have. 00:17:25.039 --> 00:17:25.839 How does it work? 00:17:26.000 --> 00:17:26.640 Where are we going? 00:17:26.799 --> 00:17:27.759 Who's the conductor? 00:17:27.839 --> 00:17:36.640 There's the map right by the seat that we're on with all of the different yellow and blue and red lines, and he's asking about which train goes where, and et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. 00:17:36.720 --> 00:17:39.359 And finally I said, Mijo, I I don't know. 00:17:39.519 --> 00:17:45.279 There's a lot of these questions that I don't know, but I do know that in two stops, there's a McDonald's. 00:17:47.279 --> 00:17:49.279 That's what we're gonna live on. 00:17:51.680 --> 00:17:56.799 What David is doing right now is he's saying, I don't know why the Lord is allowing this to happen to me. 00:17:56.960 --> 00:18:00.319 It's entirely unjust and unfair, and I don't like it in its heart. 00:18:00.559 --> 00:18:04.480 But I do know that he pledged himself and covenant loyalty to me. 00:18:04.559 --> 00:18:06.559 He set me apart and he's gonna provide. 00:18:08.720 --> 00:18:11.599 And I do know that when I pray to him, he hears me. 00:18:12.079 --> 00:18:18.880 Now, if you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, then God has proven that he set you aside because he gave his own son. 00:18:19.359 --> 00:18:21.599 There's nothing more that he could give. 00:18:21.839 --> 00:18:31.599 So surely, if he delivered up his own son, he'll also freely give you all things, and he'll keep every promise to you, and he'll preserve you, and he'll keep you and he'll welcome you into his presence. 00:18:31.759 --> 00:18:39.119 And right now, there are a lot of things around you that you don't know and you don't understand, but you do know this. 00:18:39.200 --> 00:18:42.400 And when you pray before God, you fix your mind on that. 00:18:42.640 --> 00:18:46.079 I know that the Lord has set me apart, and I know that he loves me. 00:18:46.240 --> 00:19:04.480 And I know that when I pray, my prayer goes past my ceiling, past the clouds, beyond the stars, it goes straight into heaven, and there's no bouncer in heaven that can stop my prayers from getting right to the throne of grace, and Jesus will hear me, and my compassionate high priest will answer me, and I know that. 00:19:06.880 --> 00:19:08.960 Do you see what David is doing? 00:19:09.359 --> 00:19:12.559 Reorienting his mind around truth. 00:19:13.599 --> 00:19:15.359 That's why he's talking to his enemies. 00:19:15.440 --> 00:19:27.359 He's talking out the situation in the presence of God, and as he's talking out the situation, he's remembering what he knows to be true in the presence of God, and the truth of God is beginning to reshape his perspective on what's happening in his life. 00:19:27.680 --> 00:19:31.920 His emotions are slowly coming under the control of divine truth. 00:19:32.160 --> 00:19:35.359 You know, in student ministry we call this elephant training. 00:19:35.920 --> 00:19:39.440 Elephants are magnificent animals. 00:19:39.839 --> 00:19:42.720 They're powerful, they demonstrate the glory of God. 00:19:42.960 --> 00:19:44.799 And you can train an elephant. 00:19:45.039 --> 00:19:48.319 It takes a lot of time and patience and effort. 00:19:48.480 --> 00:19:55.920 You have to be intentional, but over time, you can train an elephant, you can get on that elephant's back and you can control it and get a lot done. 00:19:56.480 --> 00:20:01.519 But untrained, if you plop an elephant in your house right now, it's not gonna go well. 00:20:01.839 --> 00:20:05.680 It's gonna naturally do what an elephant wants to do, and it's gonna be ugly. 00:20:06.559 --> 00:20:09.680 Your emotions are powerful. 00:20:09.920 --> 00:20:11.440 They demonstrate the glory of God. 00:20:11.599 --> 00:20:17.359 They demonstrate that he made you in his own image, the range and depth of emotional capacities that you have. 00:20:17.519 --> 00:20:21.200 Some of you are thinking, I know some people who, I don't know, I don't know about all that. 00:20:24.079 --> 00:20:31.119 But left to their natural tendencies, your emotions unchecked, like an elephant rampaging through your life. 00:20:31.519 --> 00:20:36.079 What is powerful enough to control, to tame your emotions? 00:20:36.400 --> 00:20:37.599 The spirit of God. 00:20:37.759 --> 00:20:39.839 Because the fruit of the spirit is self-control. 00:20:40.000 --> 00:20:47.119 And what is the means by which the Holy Spirit begins to change our emotions and direct them towards God-glorifying expressions? 00:20:47.920 --> 00:20:50.240 The Spirit of God is a spirit of truth. 00:20:50.480 --> 00:20:59.599 The means by which God curbs our emotions and directs them in a way that leads to the glory of God and our own joy and well-being is his truth, and that's what David's doing. 00:20:59.839 --> 00:21:05.599 In his prayer, he's speaking with God, he's speaking about his circumstances, and he's allowing the truth of God. 00:21:05.759 --> 00:21:09.839 He's allowing verse 3, but what I know to be true to take control. 00:21:10.000 --> 00:21:18.640 And slowly the truth of God is climbing back on top of his emotions and beginning to direct him towards joy and peace, which is where he's going. 00:21:18.799 --> 00:21:21.440 But before he gets there, there's one last thing he needs to say to us. 00:21:21.599 --> 00:21:22.799 It's in verses four and five. 00:21:22.880 --> 00:21:24.000 Look down to your Bibles. 00:21:24.480 --> 00:21:26.960 David says, Be angry and do not sin. 00:21:27.440 --> 00:21:34.160 Ponder in your own hearts on your beds, and be silent, offer right sacrifices, and put your trust in the Lord. 00:21:34.319 --> 00:21:36.880 Now there is a lot going on in that text. 00:21:37.759 --> 00:21:45.519 Paul, you may have heard verse 4 before because Paul picks that up in Ephesians, and in Ephesians chapter 4, verse 26, he says, Be angry and do not sin. 00:21:45.680 --> 00:21:54.720 There's a lot happening here, but because Jesse preached Ephesians 4 and he turned the Ephesians 4 26 sermon into a Psalm 4.4 sermon, I don't feel compelled to say anymore. 00:21:54.799 --> 00:21:56.000 You can listen to that online. 00:21:56.799 --> 00:22:00.880 But there is a lesson here in the way that verse 4 and Connect. 00:22:00.960 --> 00:22:05.200 And that is David speaking about his enemies and he's telling them, offer right sacrifices. 00:22:05.359 --> 00:22:10.319 In other words, he's saying, You have been acting against God, but there's opportunity to repent. 00:22:11.279 --> 00:22:18.799 Isn't it good news that the God that we pray to is a God who is ready and willing and eager to receive sinners? 00:22:19.200 --> 00:22:22.160 And he's reminding himself of that reality. 00:22:22.480 --> 00:22:24.480 That has so many implications. 00:22:24.799 --> 00:22:30.319 If you let that truth work into your heart, it's going to change the way that you are disposed towards other people. 00:22:30.799 --> 00:22:33.440 It's also going to change the way that you approach God. 00:22:40.799 --> 00:22:43.759 You are supposed to, Psalm 1, you want to live a life of worship? 00:22:44.000 --> 00:22:46.319 Meditate on the law of the Lord day and night. 00:22:46.559 --> 00:22:53.279 Just always in there, always communing with God, transforming the way you think and feel and behave and speak. 00:22:53.519 --> 00:22:55.440 That's characteristic of a life of worship. 00:22:55.519 --> 00:22:56.960 That's worship 101. 00:22:57.119 --> 00:22:59.039 Meditating on the law of the Lord day and night. 00:22:59.200 --> 00:23:04.720 Psalm 3 and 4, these morning and evening prayers are models of the way your whole life is oriented around the truth of God. 00:23:04.799 --> 00:23:08.960 And you're always reorienting your heart and speaking with God and letting his truth shape you. 00:23:09.119 --> 00:23:15.279 And if you're honest with yourself, if you're a new covenant believer, you're doing that, but not as much as you should. 00:23:15.680 --> 00:23:26.720 And if we had a recording of what's going on in your head day by day, there'd be a lot of things in there that well you wouldn't be proud of. 00:23:29.279 --> 00:23:36.079 Isn't it good to know that the God who you worship is a God who loves to receive sinners? 00:23:36.319 --> 00:23:41.920 And when you try to direct your heart to him, his response is not, where were you at 7 a.m.? 00:23:42.799 --> 00:23:45.200 But his response is, Come home, child. 00:23:45.519 --> 00:23:46.480 Come home. 00:23:47.039 --> 00:23:51.200 You serve a God who loves to receive sinners, and that's what we are. 00:23:51.440 --> 00:24:02.160 This psalm is inviting us to reorient our hearts by fleeing to the God who forgives our sins, crowns us with righteousness, and has sworn himself as our loyal covenant God. 00:24:02.319 --> 00:24:03.920 You can bank your life on him. 00:24:04.240 --> 00:24:08.480 That's verse David is directing us when he says that we need to pray truthfully. 00:24:08.640 --> 00:24:16.960 And if we're doing that, if we're pouring our heart before God, letting his truth reshape us, then it's going to produce, number three, joyful prayer. 00:24:17.039 --> 00:24:17.680 That's number three. 00:24:17.759 --> 00:24:20.400 When you're in a tight place, pray joyfully. 00:24:20.640 --> 00:24:22.400 That's in verses six, seven, and eight. 00:24:22.480 --> 00:24:27.279 We already looked at verse six briefly, that the Lord Himself is the giver and the source. 00:24:27.440 --> 00:24:29.680 He is himself our joy and our peace. 00:24:29.839 --> 00:24:35.759 But you look at verse seven and eight and look at what the result of living in communion of God looks like for the believer. 00:24:35.839 --> 00:24:43.759 In verse seven, David says, You have put more joy in my heart than they have when their grain and wine abound. 00:24:44.240 --> 00:24:47.759 The two little words, grain and wine, are indicative of harvest time. 00:24:47.920 --> 00:24:56.640 When all of the labor that your community and your family have put into the harvest, when it finally comes in, the celebration is the kind of thing that you would have looked forward to all year long. 00:24:56.799 --> 00:24:58.240 The revelry and the joy. 00:24:58.400 --> 00:25:02.720 And David is saying here, I'm the king. 00:25:03.200 --> 00:25:05.119 I've had the best grain and the best wine. 00:25:05.200 --> 00:25:06.319 I've had it all. 00:25:06.880 --> 00:25:12.160 But I have access to something that you do not have access to through your physical senses. 00:25:12.720 --> 00:25:16.640 I have something deeper, I have something higher, I have something wider. 00:25:17.279 --> 00:25:21.359 I have the very joy of God because God's face is upon me. 00:25:22.640 --> 00:25:25.119 You know what this looks like for the New Covenant believer? 00:25:25.359 --> 00:25:26.480 Peter knew something about this. 00:25:26.640 --> 00:25:31.680 Peter, a person who had been distressed, Peter, a person who lived much of his life in tight places. 00:25:32.160 --> 00:25:39.039 In 1 Peter chapter 1, verses 8 and 9, writing to New Covenant believers, he says, Though you haven't seen Jesus bodily, you love him. 00:25:39.680 --> 00:25:48.559 Though you've not yet seen him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory. 00:25:49.200 --> 00:25:56.319 Peter's saying that if you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, you have access to God Himself by faith in the gospel. 00:25:56.400 --> 00:26:07.519 And the Spirit of God is able to give you access to a joy deeper and wider than anything that anything in created world would offer you. 00:26:08.240 --> 00:26:09.759 That's what David is saying. 00:26:09.920 --> 00:26:24.400 We should be directing our prayers towards, towards personal relationship with God, who is Himself the fullness of joy, allowing His truth to orient our minds around what is real, and that will produce what Peter calls foretaste. 00:26:24.799 --> 00:26:27.920 Four taste of joy inexpressible and full of glory. 00:26:29.359 --> 00:26:31.519 Finally, verse eight. 00:26:32.000 --> 00:26:34.079 Look where David concludes. 00:26:34.640 --> 00:26:40.640 He's in a tight place, and he says in verse 8, In peace I will both lie down and sleep. 00:26:40.799 --> 00:26:45.200 For you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety. 00:26:45.440 --> 00:26:48.720 That's where he puts his head down and says, Lord, you're gonna be up all night. 00:26:48.799 --> 00:26:50.559 There's no point in both of us being. 00:26:52.319 --> 00:26:54.960 Now I just want to ask the question to finish. 00:26:55.519 --> 00:26:57.440 Was he actually safe? 00:27:00.000 --> 00:27:04.799 Was David really safe when he says this, puts his head on his pillow, and goes to sleep? 00:27:05.279 --> 00:27:10.160 Well, if we're reading Psalm 3 and 4 together, look at the way that Psalm 3 is introduced. 00:27:10.240 --> 00:27:14.799 In the top of Psalm 3, it says the Psalm of David when he fled from Absalom, his son. 00:27:14.960 --> 00:27:24.480 That speaks of a time in David's life when his own son mounted a military coup, telling lies about David, gathered enough of a resistance force that drove David out of the capital. 00:27:24.880 --> 00:27:40.400 David had to flee into the wilderness with a few ragtag friends and a little tiny supply of bread and water, and he's sleeping on a rock in the middle of the Judean wilderness, and he doesn't know if there's an assassin in the camp, and yet he's willing to say, I'm safe. 00:27:40.640 --> 00:27:41.839 But is he really? 00:27:44.720 --> 00:27:48.480 As far as David's concerned, the answer to that is resolutely yes. 00:27:50.000 --> 00:27:53.599 Because David says, verse 3, I know that I am the godly one. 00:27:53.759 --> 00:27:56.240 I know that the Lord has set me aside for himself. 00:27:56.480 --> 00:28:00.960 I don't care what is happening around me, I'm safe because I'm in the hands of God. 00:28:03.039 --> 00:28:07.759 That's the place he lands his plane when he's living in this kind of prayer. 00:28:08.079 --> 00:28:10.160 You know, there's an example of this in the New Testament. 00:28:10.480 --> 00:28:14.240 The example par excellence, you could say, is the greater David, Jesus. 00:28:14.400 --> 00:28:24.079 It's a story in Mark chapter 4 where his friends, the twelve apostles, get a good idea in their head that they're gonna jump in their boat and go across the Lake of Galilee, and suddenly a storm whips up. 00:28:24.319 --> 00:28:30.960 And the text says that the waves are so high that they're crashing into the boat and the boat is beginning to break, and these are seasoned fishermen, they know how this story ends. 00:28:31.039 --> 00:28:34.400 They've watched this movie before, and they cry out, We're dying. 00:28:35.519 --> 00:28:37.759 But there's one person who's not in a panic. 00:28:38.640 --> 00:28:43.599 Jesus, the text says, is got his head on a pillow, sound asleep. 00:28:44.880 --> 00:28:49.519 Because Jesus knew that the Lord had set him apart for himself. 00:28:50.400 --> 00:28:54.799 He knew that the Lord God made him safe and made him dwell in safety. 00:28:55.680 --> 00:29:02.640 You know, if you put your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, God forgives your sins on the basis of Jesus' death and resurrection. 00:29:02.799 --> 00:29:05.839 He counts the perfect life of Jesus as though it belonged to you. 00:29:06.079 --> 00:29:09.119 He looks at you as belonging to his beloved son. 00:29:09.519 --> 00:29:14.319 He looks at you and says, You are my beloved son, and you I am well pleased. 00:29:14.640 --> 00:29:30.559 And no matter what is going on around in your life, if you are a believer in the new covenant, you have the right, the privilege, in fact, you have the requirement that you turn to God in prayer and you believe that the Lord has set me apart for himself and he'll hear when I call. 00:29:30.799 --> 00:29:36.240 So I can set my head on my pillow because the Lord does indeed make me dwell in safety. 00:29:36.720 --> 00:29:38.799 Let's turn to the Lord even now in prayer. 00:29:40.799 --> 00:29:53.039 God, we do worship you because of who you are and what you've done this morning, and we ask that as we have just read from your word, Lord, that you would send your spirit and that you would conform our affections to the truths of your word. 00:29:54.720 --> 00:30:07.039 Or we confess that too often we are driven by the whims of our emotions, or too often our emotions are unconform to your image, unconform to your will. 00:30:07.680 --> 00:30:15.759 Lord, we ask that you would take control of us and that you would enable us to put our minds on divine realities. 00:30:18.960 --> 00:30:24.160 For our lives have been hidden with you, and when you appear, we will also appear with you in glory. 00:30:24.400 --> 00:30:29.119 So help us look beyond the perishable to the imperishable, beyond the transient to the eternal. 00:30:29.359 --> 00:30:31.519 And as we do, help us to see your face. 00:30:32.640 --> 00:30:36.400 We pray these things in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ, amen. 00:30:37.200 --> 00:30:40.160 And now, for a parting word for Pastor Jesse Johnson. 00:30:40.400 --> 00:30:41.599 Thanks for joining us. 00:30:41.759 --> 00:30:43.119 If you're in the Washington, D.C. 00:30:43.279 --> 00:30:45.839 area, I would love to see you at Emanuel Bible Church. 00:30:46.000 --> 00:30:51.039 For more information on our church or our current service times, go to IBC.church. 00:30:51.200 --> 00:30:54.319 For more information about the Master Seminary and their Washington, D.C. 00:30:54.480 --> 00:30:57.359 location, go to TMS.edu. 00:30:57.599 --> 00:31:05.200 I hope this resource has been a blessing to you and it helps you seek the Lord daily, serve others around you, and share the gospel with boldness.