Psalms 4

1. 1 ANSWER me when I call, O God of my righteousness; Thou hast set me at large when I was in distress: Have mercy upon me, and hear my prayer. 2. 2 O ye sons of men, how long shall my glory be turned into dishonour? How long will ye love vanity, and seek after falsehood? [Selah] 3. 3 But know that the LORD hath set apart him that is godly for himself: The LORD will hear when I call unto him. 4. 4 Stand in awe [be ye angry], and sin not: Commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still. [Selah]

2. 5 Offer the sacrifices of righteousness, And put your trust in the LORD. 2. 6 Many there be that say, Who will shew us any good? LORD, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us. 3. 7 Thou hast put gladness in my heart, More than they have when their corn and their wine are increased. 4. 8 In peace will I both lay me down and sleep: For thou, LORD, alone makest me dwell in safety.

DAVID had said in the previous Psalm, “I laid me down and slept;” he says in this, “I will lay me down in peace, and sleep.” That was a morning, this is an evening, hymn. That was written with a deep sense of thankfulness for the undisturbed rest which had followed the most anxious, in some respects the dreariest, day of his life; this was written with a calm confidence, flowing directly from the previous experience. The interval between the two Psalms may only have been the interval between the morning and evening of the same day. The thoughts and turns of expression in the one are not unlike those in the other.

As in the former he heard many saying to his soul, “There is no help for him in God” (v. 2), so in this he hears many saying, “Who will show us any good?” (v. 6.) As in that he knew that, though at a distance from the tabernacle, he was not at a distance from God, but would receive an answer to his prayer from the “holy mountain” (v. 4), so in this, though the priests have returned with the ark to Jerusalem, he can look for “the light of Jehovah’s countenance,” which is better than the urim and thummim of the priestly ephod.

The Psalm opens with a short prayer, in which David’s faith stays itself on his experience of past mercies. Then his thoughts run upon his enemies, on the curses of Shimei, on the treachery of Ahithophel. “Oh, ye sons of men,"—thus he turns to address them, and the expression denotes persons of rank and importance—“how long will ye turn my glory into shame?” How long will ye trample my honor as a king in the dust, refusing me the allegiance which is my due? How long will ye love vanity (or emptiness), and seek after lies? How is it that ye are bent on this mad enterprise, and persist in using the weapons of falsehood and slander to my prejudice? He reminds them that, in assailing him, they are assailing not him, but God, who chose him and appointed him to his office (v. 3). “For them, if his words could reach them, as they were lying down to rest in the pride of their successful plots, his counsel would be, ‘Stand in awe, and sin not; commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still.’ Let the watches of the night be given to self-searching; let the voice of scorn and reviling be hushed in silence. Then, when that scrutiny and solemn awe have done their work, and repentance comes, ‘offer the sacrifices of righteousness, and put your trust in the Lord.’” (Plumptre.) Once more David, ere he lies down to rest, lifts his eyes to heaven. Many, in such circumstances, might be ready to despair; many, probably, among his own friends, were then saying, “Who will show us any good?” David knows where true good is to be found. There is a light which can “lighten his darkness,” whether it be the darkness of night or the darkness of sorrow. The light of God’s countenance lifted up upon him can fill his heart with greater joy than the joy of the threshing-floor or the vintage. And in that confidence he can lie down and take his rest, knowing that Jehovah Himself will keep him in the watches of the night. It is worthy of notice that David does not cry to God for vengeance on his enemies, but earnestly seeks to bring them to a better mind. The strong feeling of injured innocence prompts no thought of revenge, but only the noble desire to teach those who have done the wrong a more excellent way. P.

Everywhere, in the history of the human heart, these two things are found in the hours of our bitter pain: unfathomable desire and want of something more than earth or its love can give, and the consciousness of some one capable of filling the want. Out of these two things, consciousness of an infinite want and an infinite fulness and of the relation of one to the other, springs prayer, the paradox; and whatever some may say, it is undeniable that men have received an answer. In this Psalm we have the true amalgam of prayer; trust which boldly claims God; humility that owns the weakness of self. The answer comes at once to such a prayer as it came to David, not as yet in restoration to the kingdom, but in gladness of heart, in peace of heart. S. A. Brooke.

1. God of my righteousness.** Thou who maintainest my right and my cause, asserting my righteousness against the slanders of my enemies. But not to be confined to this; it also means who knowest the righteousness, the sincerity of my heart and life; and, moreover, art Thyself the ground and source of all righteousness in me. On these two things he builds his plea, God’s righteousness as pledged to himself, and God’s goodness, as experienced either in past times, or in the present emergency. P.—Jehovah is the possessor of righteousness, the author of righteousness, the vindicator of righteousness that is misjudged and persecuted. David believingly calls this God of righteousness his; for the righteousness that he has he has in Him, and the righteousness that he looks for he looks for from Him. His past experience assures him that he does not look in vain. He grounds his prayer upon two facts: upon his fellowship with God, the righteous One, and upon the justifying grace he has already experienced from Him. Already he has been many a time in straits, and God has set him at large. D.—The suppliant is conscious of his own integrity in the great question at issue between himself and his enemies; in this assurance of his heart he practically says: “I know God will vindicate my cause as His own, since really it is His own,” and therefore I can appeal to Him as my ever-righteous God—my Defender and Avenger.

2. Sons of men.** Chief men, princes, perhaps the head men of the tribes, who seem generally to have gone into this conspiracy with Absalom. The Hebrew has various words for man; one indicating man as of the earth, frail and weak; another, man as strong, gigantic; and again another, man as of noble rank. The latter is used here. Selah, meaning pause, invites to reflection upon the thought just presented, and here, very pertinently. Why should ye, men of noble rank, be so unmanly as to account my real glory to be only my disgrace? C.

3. Godly men are God’s separated, sealed ones; He knows them that are His, has set His image and superscription upon them; He distinguishes them with uncommon favors; They shall be Mine, saith the Lord, in that day when I make up My jewels. Know this; let godly people know it, and let them never alienate themselves from Him to whom they are thus appropriated; let wicked people know it, and take heed how they hurt those whom God protects. H.—We set apart things that are precious; the godly are set apart as God’s peculiar treasure (Psalm 135: 4); as His royal diadem (Isa. 43: 3); the godly are the excellent of the earth (Psalm 16: 3); comparable to fine gold (Lam. 4: 2). They are the glory of the creation (Isa. 46: 13). Origen compares the saints to sapphires and crystals: God calls them jewels (Mal. 3: 17). T. Watson.

The Lord will hear when I call unto Him. Let us remember that the experience of one of the saints concerning the verity of God’s promises and of the certainty of the written privileges of the Lord’s people is a sufficient proof of the right which all His children have to the same mercies, and a ground of hope that they also shall partake of them in their times of need. Dickson.

4. He passes on to wise and loving counsels. Tremble, i.e., before God, not before me, and sin not against Him. The verb expresses any sort of disquietude, or strong emotion, the agitation of anger as well as fear. Hence the rendering of the LXX, “Be ye angry and sin not,” i.e., “do not suffer yourselves to sin in your anger,” is certainly a possible rendering of the words. Paul (Eph. 4: 26) uses the words as they stand in the Greek version. P.

The men whose hearts never burn with indignation against cowardice, falsehood, and profligacy—the men whose eyes never flash, whose pulse never quickens, whose words move on in an unbroken flow, and never rush on tumultuously, like a cataract, either in praise or blame—never yet did any work worth doing either for God or man. R. W. Dale.—Surely, if we be not thus angry, we shall sin. If a man can be so cool, or without any inward commotion, to suffer God’s honor to be trod in the dust, he shall find God justly angry with him for his want of anger. I know not whether it were a praise that were given to Theodorius, that never any man saw him angry; so, as it may fall, an immunity from anger can be no other than a dull stupidity. Bishop Hall.—The indignation raised by cruelty and injustice, and the desire of having it punished, which persons unconcerned would feel, is by no means malice; no, it is resentment against vice and wickedness; it is one of the common bonds by which society is held together, a fellow-feeling which each individual has, in behalf of the whole species as well as of himself, and it does not appear that this, generally speaking, is at all too high among mankind. Bishop Butler.

It is as impossible for injustice to be done and resentment not to follow, as it is for the flesh not to quiver on the application of intense torture. Resentment is but the sense of injustice, made more vivid by its being brought home to ourselves; resentment is beyond our control so far. There is no sin in this. But let resentment pass into revenge; let it smoulder in vindictive feeling till it becomes retaliation, and then a natural feeling has grown into a transgression. You have the distinction between these two things clearly marked in Scripture. “Be ye angry”—here is the allowance for the human, “and sin not”—here is the point where resentment passes into retaliation. F. W. R.—It is possible, by the grace of God, to be angered with what a man does without being angered at the man. A true father loves his child through everything. God loves us through everything. “Thou wast a God,” said the Psalmist, “that forgavest them, though Thou tookest vengeance of their inventions.” “Christ commendeth His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.” This solves the difficulty of the command, “Be ye angry and sin not;” be angry without sinning; offended at the deed, but tender-hearted toward the doer. C. H. P.

Commune with your own heart. To converse with self we must be alone, our sole companion our own thoughts, our sole witness God and nature. When Isaac would meditate he walked at eventide into the fields where, in the free air and the calm face of nature and the music of creation, he could find what tends to elevate the mind to God. When the Psalmist exhorts men to commune with their own hearts, his counsel to them is to do it by night upon their bed, when all is still around them, and when no flaring lights and no distracting shows will be present to interrupt the current of their thoughts. The din and the daylight of society are hostile to quiet, concentrated, self-searching thought. The man that would truly meditate must bear to be alone. W. L. A.

No man will ever attain to high excellence in what an old divine calls “the life of God in the soul of man” without cultivating stated periods of solitude, and using that solitude for the important purpose of self-knowledge. Blackie.—“Quiet thinking seems quite out of fashion, and many know more of what is passing on the other side of the globe than of the working of their own souls.” The weariness so many feel in being alone, the hours often called so “interminable” by young persons and even those in mature life, when by chance they have had no friend to chat with through the afternoon or evening, the long hour and the weariness of the Sabbath to so many if detained from the public services of religion, evince a deep want somewhere, a want of inward resources, and of an independent spiritual life, that augurs but ill for the true well-being and growth of the individual. To live spiritually, to make the unseen real, to feel the constraining influence of spiritual motives and affections, the “still hour,” the hour of daily communion with God, is absolutely needed; for if faith without works is dead, faith without prayer and communion is an absolute nonentity.

Phelps.

Our Lord did not contemplate wildernesses for people of the towns, but He did speak to them about praying in their own rooms with closed doors. Original thought is the only power which rules others. Use yourselves therefore not to live always in a din, not always in a turmoil; let not your character be made up of endless patchwork fragments of the thoughts, the opinions, the feelings, which you have caught from others. Archbishop Benson.—A man hath need of a well-set mind when he speaks to himself; for otherwise, he may be worse company to himself than if he were with others. But he ought to endeavor to have a better with him, to call in God to his heart to dwell with him. If thus we did, we should find how sweet this were to speak to ourselves, by now and then intermixing our speech with discourses unto God. For want of this, the most part not only lose their time in vanity in their converse abroad with others, but do carry in heaps of that vanity to the stock which is in their own hearts, and do converse with that in secret which is the greatest and deepest folly in the world. Leighton.

When the tumult of his day was over David lay down in his bed, and then God was and David was; there was nothing else for the time. That is the fountain of life to which we have to go to draw life, just to be at peace and let God let us know that He is there; it is just to let all the rest go away, all the troubles and anxieties of life, and let God say to our hearts, “Here I am, and here you are; you are in my charge, and nothing can hurt you; everything is well.” Something like that it is between God and the man who knows how to be still. Let God speak to him. And this is what He wants to bring us to even by means of the tumult of life. G. Macdonald.—Be still or quiet, and then commune with your hearts; and if you will commune with your hearts, God will come and commune with your hearts too, His Spirit will give you a loving visit and visions of His love. Caryl.—It is the reserve that saves us in all final tests—the strength that lies back of what we need in ordinary experiences. Those who daily commune with God, breathing His life into their souls, become strong with that secret, hidden strength which preserves them from falling in the day of trial. They have a “vessel” from which to refill the lamp when its little cup of oil is exhausted. J. R. M.

It is by looking up beyond the actual, not by looking down into it, by seeking God within, not by consulting men without, that you will truly measure the Divine claims upon you, and find your duty clear and calm and sacred. Commune with Him, the All Holy, and it will become a secret understanding between His spirit and your own—a trust from Him, answered by assent and love from you. A soul that goes apart with this Divine vision of goodness has that to feed on which others think not of. Martineau.—No large growth in holiness was ever gained by one who did not take time to be alone with God. No otherwise can the great central idea of God enter into a man’s life, and dwell there supreme. “Holiness,” says Dr. Cudworth, “is something of God, wherever it is. It is an efflux from Him, and lives in Him; as the sunbeams, although they gild this lower world, and spread their golden wings over us, yet they are not so much here where they shine, as in the sun from whence they flow.” Such a possession of the idea of God we never gain but from still hours. For such holy joy in God, we must have much of the spirit of Him who rose up a great while before day, and departed into a solitary place and prayed, and who continued all night in prayer; “the morning star finding Him where the evening star had left Him.” Phelps.

6. A picture of the disquiet and unsatisfied desire arising from the want of faith and righteousness described in the foregoing verse. Of all who do not trust in God it may be said that they are continually asking, who will show us good, who will show us wherein happiness consists, and how we may obtain it? A.—It is but too apparent that multitudes of men do still exhibit the same temper. They have no relish for spiritual and Divine enjoyments; their only care is “what they shall eat, and what they shall drink, and wherewithal they shall be clothed.” “They labor abundantly for the meat which periseth, but not at all for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life.” And though they meet with repeated disappointments in every new experiment; yet instead of seeking after happiness where it is alone to be found, they still renew the fruitless search among the creatures around them, and cry out with as much keenness as ever, “Who will show us any worldly good?” R. Walker.

Either in the pauses of business, or as their whole employment, great numbers of persons spend their time in seeking amusement, recreation, the satisfying of curiosity, appetite or passion. This host includes most who are in youth, but many also who tread on the confines of age. They are living as though they had no souls. They are lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God. It is common to speak of such as amiable and good natured, or as injuring none but themselves. But no persons are more intensely selfish than the confirmed devotees of pleasure. Their motto is, Who will show us any good? What shall we eat, and what shall we drink, and wherewithal shall we be clothed? There are none more bound to the earth. There is no temper more incompatible with religion, or with the serious pursuit of it. Hence the reiterated injunctions of our Lord to those who would follow Him, to leave all, to deny themselves, and to take up the cross daily. J. W. A.

But David has learned a better lore. Though far from “the holy mountain,” there still dwells in his heart the blessings wherewith the priests of Jehovah had there blessed His people. “Jehovah make His face shine upon thee, . . . Jehovah lift up His countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.” To that remembered blessing his heart now gives the echo in the prayer, “Jehovah, lift Thou up the light of Thy countenance upon us.” P.—In the whole of the Old Testament Scriptures there is no other such echo of the second and third sentences of the Aaronic blessing. In David’s mouth it is a petition of assured faith; for notwithstanding the hopelessness of the outlook at present, he is even now already at peace in his God. D.

Full of beauty and force is this thought of God lifting the sunlight of His face upon a soul otherwise in the gloom of darkness. David means to say that other men, e.g., those treacherous enemies of his, may seek their good elsewhere and anywhere else they please; but for himself it is an all-sufficient joy if only he may have peace in God and the sunlight of His favor. C.—They in their worldly-mindedness look for their happiness in the abundance of their earthly things. Hence when adversity threatens they begin to despond. David, on the other hand, has a source of joy deeper and more unfailing, because it flows from above. P.

The temper of a child of God is here beautifully described by the Psalmist. While others say, “Who will show us any good?” the language of his heart is, “Lord, lift Thou upon me the light of Thy countenance.” He, too, seeks what is good; for the desire of happiness is common to all. But he knows where that good is to be found. He knows that the favor of God and the sense of His loving kindness are the only sources of true happiness. Here therefore he fixeth his choice. Here all his desires centre, and here he hath treasured up all the wishes of his heart. R. Walker.—When once the soul is rightly opened toward God, and draws its life from His Spirit, it does not need to go hunting the world for happiness—seeking it in nature, in science, in art, in money, in pleasure, in fashion, in changes, in crying, “Who will show me any good?” but it has its blessedness within, and is so full of the spirit of good that it sees good in everything, gets good from everything, and does good to all. This is the fountain within that never fails. J. P. T.

7. Thou hast put gladness in my heart.** The very faculty of joy is the gift of the Holy Ghost. There is a canker in the heart of man which hinders happiness even when the materials are most abundant; and it is mournful to observe how little gladness is felt even when corn and wine most abound. In the midst of affluence still anxious, the munificence of the Creator cannot give contentment to worldlings and worldly professors; but while the green pastures re-echo their grumblings, they may see their peevish faces reflected in those quiet waters to which their kind Shepherd has led them. It needs more than good and perfect gifts to awaken melody and praise: and unless the Spirit of God make it a thankful heart, the providence of God cannot make it a happy existence. Hamilton.

Reason is either obscured, or not obeyed, when the world is the object of our choice. Now what are these appearances of beauty and pleasure compared with a blessedness that is truly infinite? Earthly joy smiles in the countenance, flatters the fancy, touches the sense, but cannot fill the heart; but the favor of God satisfies the soul: “Thou hast put gladness into my heart, more than when their corn and wine increased.” Carnal joy, in its highest elevation, in the time of the harvest and vintage, is incomparably less than spiritual joy, that springs from the light of God’s countenance. The world cannot fill the narrow capacity of our senses, but Divine joys exceed our most enlarged comprehensive faculties: “The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear with hearing; but the peace of God passes all understanding.” The things of the world are of a limited goodness; wisdom is not strength, nor learning riches, nor beauty fruitfulness; but God is a universal good, in whom are all attractives to raise and satisfy our desires. If men did consider, they would distinguish and despise, in comparison, all that is named felicity here, with the favor of God. Bates.

Though the heart once gone from God turns continually further away from Him, and moves not toward Him till it be renewed, yet, even in that wandering, it retains that natural relation to God, as its centre, that it hath no true rest elsewhere, nor can by any means find it. It is made for Him, and is therefore still restless till it meet with Him. Leighton.—So surely is it the infinite itself that attracts and charms us, that its highest manifestations do not satisfy us until we have referred them to their immortal source. The heart is insatiable, because it aspires after the Infinite. Cousin.—All lower natures find their highest good in semblances and seekings of that which is higher and better. All things strive to ascend, and ascend in their striving. And shall man alone stoop? Shall his pursuits and desires, the reflections of his inward life, be like the reflected image of a tree on the edge of a pool, that grows downward, and seeks a mock heaven in the unstable element beneath it? No! it must be a higher good to make you happy. Coleridge.

The true disciples of Christ are such as feel their spiritual wants—such as thirst for what they have tasted indeed, but merely tasted; they have tasted the streams, and they long to drink at the fountain; they are always pressing on through all difficulties and trials to their heavenly home; they are often ready to sink, often crying out, “Hold Thou me up;” they have to fight against a combination of powers, they want aid for their weakness; and pray with all prayer as the grand weapon of their warfare. Others may be rejoicing in their corn and wine, but the good things of this life will not satisfy their spiritualized desires; and with groanings that cannot be uttered the Spirit is often breathing in their hearts the desire,

“Lord, lift Thou up the light of Thy countenance upon us!” R. Hall.

8. It was probably about the time of the Feast of Tabernacles. The grain harvest and the vintage were over. A rich harvest of corn and new wine had been gathered in. In these rich stores, which were at their disposal, the rebel troops of Absalom had a reserve of the greatest importance. But what David has in his heart is a better treasure than what they have in their barns and cellars. So he lays himself down to sleep serenely and peacefully. D.—Nothing could better express the sweet and perfect repose of faith than this. No matter for the danger to my throne or the peril to my life; my soul shall still rest in God, my Refuge—rest so completely that I shall lay me down and sleep in peace, for with God for my Helper, and all the universe besides against me, I shall dwell in safety. God alone, God with no other refuge or friend, is simply sufficient to ensure my salvation. And this experience is for me, let each reader say, as truly as for David. It stands here of set Divine purpose for the people of God in every age to read and to sing; to meditate upon and to transfer to their own case and appropriate each to his own soul in the midst of whatever trials, persecutions, dangers. The heart that is consciously upright before God, honestly and humbly seeking His favor above all things else, may trust in His protection and in His love forever. C.

Many a believer lies down, but it is not to sleep. Perhaps he feels safe enough so far as his body is concerned, but cares and anxieties invade the privacy of his chamber; they come to try his faith and trust. There is a trial in stillness; and oftentimes the still chamber makes a larger demand upon loving trust than the battle-field. O that we could trust God more and more with personal things! O that He were the God of our chamber, as well as of our temples and houses! O that we could bring Him more and more into the minutiae of daily life! P. B. Power.

Deep indeed and mysterious, far beyond what we can understand, are our own ordinary sleeping and waking; we know not how it is that the soothing quietness which we call sleep steals over the soul and body, nor how the two wake together and begin to act as before. Our sleeping and our waking are beyond our own knowledge and our own power; God keep both in His own hand. Koble.—They slumber sweetly whom faith rocks to sleep. No pillow so soft as a promise; no coverlet so warm as an assured interest in Christ. O Lord,

give us this calm repose on Thee, that like David we may lie down in peace, and sleep each night while we live; and joyfully may we lie down in the appointed season, to sleep in death, to rest in God! S.