Psalms 4

Psalms 4:1-8

Confidence in Jehovah’s distinguishing care. For the chief musician; on stringed instruments. A psalm of David. We have for the first time here a musical inscription, “To the Chief Musician; on stringed instruments,” as psaltery and harp. A gentler, quieter strain is indicated than in the psalm that follows, with its accompaniment of flutes. The themes certainly correspond to this difference, though we may not be able to define it more closely. And who is meant by “the chief musician”? Is it indeed a note of relation to Him who has led in these experiences, “the Leader and Finisher of faith,” as Scripture declares Him, and who at the end, “in the midst of the congregation,” leads the praises of His people with the gladdest heart among them all? It is surely natural to think so, even though we can give no account why this is found in some of these psalms and not in others. The spiritual sense has had perhaps too little training with us for this. The psalm corresponds perfectly with its place as second in this series, being so far like the second psalm itself, a contrasted picture of the righteous and the wicked. God has set apart the godly for Himself, and the effects of this are seen, not in outward deliverances, but in the joy of an inward experience beyond telling: the first pleads with the sons of men to make proof of it for themselves. This is an advance evidently upon the last psalm, while it leads on to new ground which by and by may give room for question and experiences of another kind. At present all is confidence.

1. The psalm has two main divisions; the first giving the theme, the second the confirmation of the doctrine of the first. The first declares the righteous One to be for the righteous. The key-note here is righteousness. The “God of my righteousness” is the God to whom all my righteousness has respect, as it must have, to be righteousness. God apprehended by the soul is alone the basis of all right, and ensures it. Apart from this, all virtues are but ciphers, which with a preceding figure only become valuable. Men are themselves, apart from God, such ciphers, and what is duty to them, if He is not regarded in it? This God of righteousness is a living God, actively interposing in behalf of His own, the godly ones, whom He distinguishes as such. When they call, He hears. Faith is exercised, but answered, and strengthened by the exercise. In the consciousness of this experience of the divine favor, the psalmist turns to plead with the sons of men, who, while ignorant of this, are yet not ignorant of an opposite experience in the paths that they have chosen. He can appeal to them as even consciously loving vanity, and seeking after a lie, -after that which never fulfills the promise that it gives. Surely this is knowledge enough to prevent men mocking at and insulting the believer’s glory, which is founded upon experiences of which they can know nothing.
2. The second part of the psalm confirms this on both sides with facts of experience. He bids them only to shut out the vain thoughts that allure them, to retire into themselves, and consult only their own hearts upon their bed in the night. Pursuit of pleasure only manifests that there is not the enjoyment of happiness. It may kill time and keep from reflection; whereas, did they reflect, they would find that the weariness and emptiness experienced were but the necessary fruit of departing from God, of sin which had ruined all. This secret their own hearts held, and would reveal, if they would only take them for their counsellors. Conscience would then convince them of the reality of sin which no forms of ritual service could ever meet: they must offer the sacrifices of righteousness, and put their trust in Jehovah, -two things which are very much the lesson of the first two psalms. The language seems to intimate that while practical ungodliness abounds in Israel, and the righteous are the subjects of reproach and persecution, the apostasy of the mass is not yet consummated, -the “sinners” are not yet full-length “scoffers.” The forms of Judaism are yet going on; there are sacrifices, but not “sacrifices of righteousness,” nor conjoined with any practical faith in Jehovah. The next step may be into open apostasy; but it is not yet taken. Thus there is still room for the appeal in the psalm. There is hope that they may be yet touched with the need of a condition in which the wearying question of good that is not found ends surely in the discovery of the vanity of what they have set their hearts upon, -a need which no increase of corn and wine can meet. On the other hand, God is the satisfying portion of His people; not merely a “shield about” one, but a “light,” a glory within the soul, true gladness, not the product of the soul itself, nor of man’s labor. Yet this gladness how impossible for a soul out of God’s presence to imagine! Men have dropped so far away from God as to have lost even the sense of good in Him to be sought after or enjoyed. God’s salvation is only for them the sad alternative of hell; God’s presence, alas, almost hell itself! So the appeal to the sons of men turns perforce into a prayer: “Lord, lift up the light of Thy countenance upon us” the light in which alone we see light. “Thou hast put gladness into my heart more than in the time that their corn and their wine increased.” For us, blessed with all spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus, accepted in the Beloved, known to and knowing God in Him, that light has indeed fully shone. Children of the day, no more of night, nor of darkness, “God has shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” We are His living witnesses that in His presence is fullness of joy. And this joy is power for walk, for holiness, for service, as nought else is. The joy of the Lord is your strength. How well may we enjoy a possession secured to us as is ours, without one disturbing care! “I will both lay me down in peace and sleep.” This psalm, then, is in evident advance of the previous one, as has been said. There it is God a shield; here it is God a portion. There what He does for me; here what He is to me. Yet we may easily perceive how the ground taken here may permit an after-question in the soul. “Jehovah has set apart the godly for Himself.” If that be the root of confidence, will it always be held so certain that “Jehovah will hear when I call upon Him”? At present there may be no doubt, and rightly none; yet will it be as plain through the cloudy and dark day as in the sunshine now? Who that has known what it is to be upon this ground but has felt its instability? When the storm brings up the depths of the heart, will all that is brought up be “godliness”? Yet the principle is true, quite true. Grace does not set aside righteousness, but confirms and reigns through it. But for this grace must be known as that which secures all; and ere this be apprehended some bitter experience may yet be gone through. Bitter assuredly will theirs be whom these psalms prophetically contemplate; yet shall they return, after all the questioning is over, with only fuller assurance to the blessed reality that the light of His countenance, with all the gladness that it pours into the soul, is theirs forever.