I ask you to turn this evening to Psalm 4 and verse 6. The psalm we read, Psalm 4 and verse 6. There be many that say, who will show us any good? Lord, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us. Well, this verse encapsulates the cry of many, many who are far from the Lord, living a life in which they are disillusioned and pessimistic about the hope of future joy and fulfilment and peace and pleasure and at the same time it is a verse that speaks of the prayer of those who know that real good is from the Lord. And so I'd like us to look at this verse and the surrounding context in this psalm this evening by way of encouragement. Perhaps some of us here this evening we are disillusioned with life. We've experienced perhaps many knockbacks, many disappointments. We've had to go through a path of pain and and physical pain perhaps, and ill health and weakness, or perhaps pain in our circumstances, in our relationships, disappointments, the thwarting of our hopes. And we've reached that point sometimes where we say, I despair of life. I do not know where I shall find real good. Well, this verse hopefully will be both a challenge and an encouragement to you. Some of the verses in this psalm are a gentle, earnest remonstration or a pleading with those who are mildly antagonistic to the things of God and they are designed, they are spoken if you like with a desire to seek such people who are antagonistic to the Lord, perhaps cynical, and doubting of his claims and his promises to a better frame of mind. Well, let's look at the first part of this verse then. There be many that say, who will show us any good? There are firstly the poor, Many who live in poverty see little to live for. They crave goods, they crave a prosperous future but cannot see where it might come from. Theirs is a cry of despair from bitter disappointment. Then there are others and this is the cry of those who have now reached old age. almost the whole of their life is behind them. They have memories that they look back on with fondness but they despair of any future good. My faculties are weakening, my strength is ebbing away, the grave is imminent and I see no good that I shall experience from this point in. in the remainder of my life. Well this psalm says much to address you with encouragement, if that's you. And then there are those who have lived a life of recklessness. They've lived perhaps for sensual pleasures and sinful pleasures. They've sampled perhaps almost everything that this world has set before them by way of a promise of good and pleasure and satisfaction and enjoyment but they found these things to be vain. Well often this pessimism about life goes with a dismissal of the things of God. If you look back to verse 2 This is the first gentle pleading, if you like, with those who are antagonistic to the things of God. The psalmist says, O ye sons of men. And those who are experts in the original Hebrew in which this psalm was first written tell us that this title, the sons of men, is a very lofty title. It could be translated sirs. It communicates to those who are being addressed something of the dignity of their nature, something of the honour of their being. But this is not addressed just to men of might and position in society. It's a message to all of us. There is a sense in which all human beings are worthy of that lofty title, that place of dignity. You see, we live in a world now and it's been put like this. The perspective that our society has of the human race is the very opposite of the perspective that God's Word teaches. Our society, first of all, it puts you down. It declares that you are just an animal. You've evolved from some primeval soup. You're just an ape that happened to have extra genes that imparted intelligence, but really you're just an animal and you ought to have very low views, really, of who you are. But then this world, it picks you up and it raises you to a great height and it tells you that you're a very important individual and that you should have a very high self-esteem and you should assert your rights and you should live life to the full and you should lose every ounce of your energy and your capacities to draw attention to yourself and be successful and then the world ultimately it puts you down again and it says when you die that's the end. You'll have a star in the sky, people jest. But actually what they mean is your body will rot in the ground and you will just be forgotten. That's the end of you. The Word of God is the very opposite of those three notions. The Word of God starts by lifting us up. It tells us that we are made in the image of God. That rather than just being an evolved animal In the slightly higher form, we are completely different to all the other forms of God's created world. Yes, we may share certain DNA structure with other creatures, But when it comes to the real personality, the real person that we are, God made man in his own image. He gave us intellectual capacities and rational capacities to reason and to grasp complex things. He gave to man a moral awareness. We were made to know right and wrong. God has imprinted upon every human being that divine stamp of his own perfect law. Yes, it's been soiled and muddied. Our consciences do not function as perfectly as they would without the effect of the fall, but we are made in the image of God. We are made to know the Lord. Made with a glorious capacity to love him and to seek him. and to know from him the chief and the deepest good. That's what the Bible says. It's such a radical contrast to everything that this world impresses upon us. But then whereas the world lifts us up and says make the best of your life, you're an important individual, in a sense the Word of God brings us right down and says although you were made in the image of God, you are a fallen creature. The human race has sinned and broken God's law and ridden roughshod over the conscience and the standards of conscience that God has given. And the human race has brought upon itself great misery and great calamity on account of that wickedness and that rebellion and the human race lives in rebellion against God prejudiced against his claims and it yields to great misery but then the Word of God lifts us up at the end and says you have an eternal soul you have a glorious future before you A solemn judgment awaits, yes, but there is that prospect for every human being that calls upon the Lord and seeks Him, not only to know Him now, but to experience an eternity in His presence in that world unsoiled and unspoilt by sin. That's the message of the Word of God. Oh ye sons of men, says verse 2, you're made. There is a dignity about you. Do you think of yourself in those terms? The pleading of this psalmist is such that he wants you to see yourself as God sees you. Having that dignity and that never dying soul and that capacity to know and enjoy the chief good that God has laid up for such. O ye sons of men, he says, how long will ye turn my glory into shame? Glory here, he's not speaking about his own glory by way of self-conceit. This word glory here, it literally means those things that are most honourable. Here the psalmist speaks as a man of God, one who loves the Lord and has trusted his soul to the Lord and the thing that he glories in is God's goodness to him and God's mercy and yet those around him, many would despise his Christian principles if you like, his faith his desire to live a life that was right and good and perhaps that's you this evening. You look at Christian people and inwardly you are slightly cynical and hostile. You feel challenged by their convictions and their commitment to the Lord but at the same time you are slightly embarrassed about it. You turn it into shame. How long, says the psalmist, Do you look and despise holy things and the things that true believers have come to love?" And he goes on, how long will you love vanity? I heard recently and I wish I could remember the details of this little comment that I heard but I can't. It was someone who had been cheated by a con man and he said, you know what it's like It's like when you lose your credit card or your wallet and your feet and your legs drain away from under you. I remember reading of some women who had been cheated on the internet by they were first groomed and then drawn into relationship and these men stole their money and they felt as a result of it that they were physically drained, emotionally drained. Friends, there are many who are being conned by the vanities of this world. The world cheats them into thinking if you pursue a life of pleasure and you indulge all your sensual urges to the full, then you will be happy, then you will be fulfilled. The Sami says, how long will you follow vanity? The things of this world that promise you good and fulfillment, ultimately you will discover that they are vain promises. They are hollow things. And he goes on to say, how long will you seek after leasing? That's an old word that means falsehood, lies, things that are merely an illusion. That's what our society follows today. It follows the falsehoods. about origins, about destiny, about what is really good and important in life. And all it does is contribute to this pessimism and this disillusionment that the Psalmist speaks of in verse 6. There are many, many who follow those things, who've despised the things of God, who've pursued with all their energy the famed promises of this world. And yet now they come to this point where they say, what is good? Where will we find anything that truly gives lasting peace and satisfaction? We are not, you know, drifting clouds, floating away to melt into nothingness. And yet that's how our society would see us. The Word of God says that man is so different. We are not facing a future ex nihilo, nothingness. We face the living God. But we may know that God now and He is the source of real good and human destiny may be so glorious. Look at the second part of this verse, friends. Lord, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us from the many The psalmist then speaks for himself and those who like him have come to value the blessing of God. Oh, he says, this is the source of good. It is to know God's countenance lifted up upon me. Many people seek good, you know, but they don't know what the good is that they seek. If you said, well, what do you mean by good? They say, well, I want my passions to be gratified. I want my physical senses to be satiated. I want to have some possession that feasts my eyes. I want to have some experience that gives me a trip in all my passions and emotions. That's what they mean by good. But the Word of God says to us what our real good is, what will really do us good. is to know the blessing of God upon our souls and upon our lives. Think of this little expression here. Lift up the light of thy countenance upon us. God's countenance, his face upon us. not his frown, not his disapproval, that's not what's in mind here. We could say God's countenance lifted up upon us is God's special delight in and favour. Just go back to verse 3 for a moment. No, says the psalmist to these who are cynical about the things of God, know that the Lord has set apart him that is godly for himself. That's another way of putting it, surely. For God to look upon me as a lost sinner, one who is guilty and worthy of his judgement, for God to look upon me with special delight and favour. God's countenance lifted up upon me. That's what he means. And of course, it's full of significance and meaning. This is not an empty expression. What did he mean by God's smile, by God's favour and delight? Well certainly it includes reconciliation. For God to look upon me as a God now reconciled to me, though I am worthy of his wrath, though I have lived as an alien to him, as an enemy, ignoring his claims, riding roughshod over my conscience, Yet now I want God to look upon me with His smile. Reconciliation is included. To know that, what joy, what good it brings friends. When a person can say, I know that despite the life I have lived up until this point, God is now at peace with me. He's pardoned all my sin. He's laid all my guilt upon His Son. and it's been borne away and it will be forgotten forever and even the sins that I have yet to commit, they're forgiven because Christ has died for me. That's what it means to have the countenance of the Lord lifted up upon us. God's favour, God's smile, God's care, God's protection, God's personal interest in me as an individual living in 2014 what a blessing that's real good friends but there's a little bit more here I want to look at Lord lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us not just look upon me in favour and blessing but look upon me such that it sheds light, joy, peace upon my soul. That's the idea here. It's not just God having favour in me, but me having a consciousness that God looks upon me favourably. Me being aware of it. It's apparent in my heart, in my consciousness. What a blessing! The conscious enjoyment of God's presence and God's favour and God's eternal purposes of kindness toward me. If we have that, then that's real good. That surpasses all the so-called good experiences that we may have in this earthly life to know God in such a way. You know, when you go to buy a house there's a degree of uncertainty. Perhaps you've been to the look round, you've said to the estate agent I want to buy that house and I agree to pay the asking price. This happened to our daughter Hannah. It was weeks, months before they were ready to sign the title deeds and in that time there was a high degree of uncertainty. What if the person selling pulls out? What if they change the goalposts? What if they say they want more money? Although it's promised to me, I'm not sure yet. One of the great blessings of the Christian gospel is that those promises of God have been secured to every true Christian, everyone who has come to the Lord because Christ has signed the title deed. When we come to Him, And when we rest our souls upon Him, we know that the Lord won't change His mind. All the blessings are ours. It gives such peace, such assurance. When you say, I want this good, would you have this good in your life to know that I'm pardoned and forgiven? To know that the Lord is my keeper, my guide, that he looks upon me personally and takes an interest in me, that he will give to me his grace and help all through life in every difficulty, in every situation, that he will teach me and give me a new heart. All these are the blessings I seek, but where do I find them? Well, in the few moments we have left, I want to just work through verses 4 and 5 because they suggest to us things that must be done. Verse 4 begins, stand in awe. Stand in awe. If you would know this good, the good of this gracious smile of God, of his countenance upon you, then you must get a reverence for God. If you have not ever stood with a sense of awe at the majesty and the glory and the power and the authority of your Creator, who knows your life through and through. That's where you must begin. Do you have that awe, that reverence for the mighty God who has inspired the penmen of scripture, who sent his own Son in mighty love, that through his death at Calvary an atonement could be made for your sin. Stand in awe of these things, friends. It's where you must begin. Stand in awe, says this. Contemplate God and cease from all rebellious thoughts. Sin not. Come to that point where you are so conscious of the reality and the might and the holiness of God that you say, Lord I lay down all those weapons of hostility. I no longer want to think or speak or do anything that is displeasing to such a God. Stand in awe and sin not. Then look at the next phrase. Commune with your own heart upon your bed. Let's start at the end of that phrase. Why upon your bed? Well, it's obvious, isn't it? When you are alone, when you are undistracted by all the cares and the pleasures of life, then stop, think. When you are apart from all the agitating influences of a militant world that says, hate God, ignore God, live without God, Put all those things away, says this verse, and when you are alone on your bed, start to think. Commune with your own heart. Reflect upon your life. Ask yourself, do my ways please the living God? Ask yourself, why was I made? Why was I given health and strength? Why was I not aborted as a fetus or stillborn? Why has the Lord brought me to Baldock Baptist Church this evening? Ask yourself about the love of God in Christ, His kindness. Have you abused that love and that kindness and ignored all that He has done for your soul? Ask yourself. Think about the time that you have wasted the way you have followed this world so blindly. Think about the principles of your life. What are they? What are the things, what are the most important pleasures that stir your heart? Have you been looking in the wrong place? Commune with your own heart upon your bed. Surely the implication is and when you realize that your life is not pleasing to the Lord, when there is so much that is defective, then turn to him, confess your sin, call upon him, then look at verse 5, offer the sacrifices of righteousness. Now remember this verse was written to Old Testament people and in the Old Testament they had to bring a sacrifice up to the temple, the house of God, if they were going to seek God. But we can put that into New Testament terms. Those Old Testament sacrifices were simply to visual aid, to teach the people the need for an offering for sin. One must bear the guilt and the penalty of sin. That's what those sacrifices were teaching. They pointed forward to Jesus Christ. And what this verse is saying to us is you must come to God in His appointed way. If you would come to God and know the good that He has promised to them that seek Him, you come in His way. That means you come confessing your sin, laying your hand upon the head of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, the one sacrifice for sin, saying, I trust Jesus Christ. to be my sin-bearer, to take all my guilt and all the blot of my shameful life. That's what it means to offer the sacrifices of righteousness and put your trust in the Lord. You do not trust yourselves to be worthy of anything from the Lord. You trust His Son, the Saviour, You call upon the Lord, you trust His promises and you come in that way. Well, we must draw to a conclusion. Look at verses 7 and 8 as we close. Thou hast put gladness in my heart more than in the time that their corn and their wine increased. This is the joy, this is the good that many people seek. You think if it was an agricultural economy like theirs, Oh, if we have a good harvest, lots of corn, if we have a lot of wine, lots of pleasure and luxury and merriment, this is the picture. Those who have all their earthly needs met, those who have access to all the luxuries of life, the wine, that this psalmist says, but I've got more gladness in my heart. because the Lord has lifted up his countenance upon me and I know his blessing and his love and his pardon and his care there's more gladness in my heart this is good friends this is the good of which the psalm speaks and then look at verse 8 I will both lay me down in peace and sleep David had lots of enemies those who threatened him and conspired against him and schemed his death and his removal, but he could lay down in peace and sleep. Why? Because he knew the Lord was his keeper. The Lord would watch over him all through his life. Nothing could harm him without the will of God. Nothing could deprive him of those spiritual and those eternal blessings that God had promised to those that call upon him. This is the good, friends. Where are you looking for good this evening? Are you looking to this vain world, with its broken promises, with its short-term offer of gain and the satisfaction of your physical desires? Or are you looking to the Lord, knowing that to know peace with him, the forgiveness of your sin, a place in heaven, His glorious presence through your life, that's real good. Well, may we each be moved to seek it above everything else. Let's pray together. Lord, we thank Thee for this psalm. We confess that so often we seek good in this world. We want the fulfillment of our desires here. Help us to realise that the deep needs of our soul can never be met with possessions and pleasures, but only through a conscience that is at peace with God and with that assurance of heaven to come. Help us to seek these things in the appointed way through Jesus Christ, the Saviour of sinners, alone. Amen.