Scripture reading today is John 11, verses 1 through 45. It's on page 897 in the Chair Bible. John 11, verses 1 through 45. Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. It was Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was ill. So the sister sent to him, saying, Lord, he whom you love is ill. But when Jesus heard it, he said, This illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it. Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. And when he heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was. Then after this, he said to the disciples, let us go to Judea again. The disciples said to him, Rabbi, the Jews were just now seeking to stone you. And are you going there again? Jesus answered, are there not 12 hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. But if anyone walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him. After saying these things, he said to them, Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I go to awaken him. The disciples said to him, Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover. Now Jesus had spoken of his death, but they thought that he meant taking rest and sleep. Then Jesus told them plainly, Lazarus has died, and for your sake I'm glad that I was not there, so that you may believe, but let us go to him. So Thomas called the twins, said to his fellow disciples, let us also go, that we may die with him. Now when Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles off, and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother. So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, But Mary remained seated in the house. Martha said to Jesus, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you. Jesus said to her, your brother will rise again. Martha said to him, I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day. Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live. And everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this? She said to him, Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world. When she had said this, she went and called her sister Mary, saying in private, The teacher is here and is calling for you. And when she heard it, she rose quickly and went to him. Now Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still in the place where Martha had met him. When the Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary rise quickly and go out, they followed her, supposing that she was going to the tomb to weep there. Now when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet, saying to him, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. When Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled. And he said, where have you laid him? They said to him, Lord, come and see. Jesus wept. So the Jews said, see how he loved him? But some of them said, could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying? Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. Jesus said, take away the stone. Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days. Jesus said to her, did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God? So they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me. But I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me. When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, Lazarus, come out. The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, unbind him and let him go. Many of the Jews, therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what he did, believed in him. And go ahead and open your Bibles with me to Psalm 4. Psalm 4. If you're using one of the Pew Bibles, there it's page 448. Psalm 4. We'll be reading verses one through eight of Psalm 4. Psalm 4. And this is the word of God. To the choir master, with stringed instruments, a Psalm of David. Answer me when I call, O God of my righteousness. You have given me relief when I was in distress. Be gracious to me and hear my prayer. O men, how long shall my honor be turned into shame? How long will you love vain words and seek after lies? But know that the Lord has set apart the godly for himself. The Lord hears when I call to him. Be angry and do not sin. Ponder in your own hearts on your beds and be silent. Offer right sacrifices and put your trust in the Lord. There are many who say, who will show us some good? Lift up the light of your face upon us, oh Lord. You have put more joy in my heart than they have when their grain and wine abound. In peace, I will both lie down and sleep. For you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety. May God give us ears to hear his word. If you're familiar at all with American history, the term Watergate should ring a bell. Any of you remember that? Watergate is the term we now apply to a major scandal involving US President Richard Nixon and a whole host of other politicians. where they engaged in illegal activities against their political opponents. These activities included things such as harassment, bugging telephones, bugging offices, secretly recording conversations, and maybe most famously breaking into the Watergate Hotel to spy on the Democratic Party. You remember that? I actually wasn't born yet, but apparently it was quite a big deal when it happened. As I imagine you know, the truth came out, the burglars were caught, the FBI initiated a massive investigation, politicians resigned, arrests were made, and then on August 9th, 1974, Richard Nixon became the first and only U.S. president to resign from office. And he resigned ashamed, disgraced, and discredited. Now, the Watergate scandal is simply a large-scale illustration of something that takes place all the time on the small scale. Every day, those we are supposed to trust prove untrustworthy. Every day, those with credibility misuse that credibility and disappoint us, am I right? And the question I wanna ask you this morning is what are you going to do when someone whom you have deeply trusted deeply disappoints you? What are you gonna do when your boss lies to you? Or when a coworker fails you? Or when your spouse deeply disappoints you? When a best friend isn't there for you? When your pastor even does something he shouldn't do? What are you gonna do in those instances? Are you gonna chuck your faith entirely? Are you gonna be deeply devastated? This same question should be asked from the flip side. What do you do when you're the one who's completely disappointed someone? What do you do when you're the one who's lost all credibility? Say you're the spouse, you're the boss, you're the pastor, you're the friend, and you've done something. Maybe even it was because of ignorance or just a simple mistake. But those who once trusted you no longer do. What are you going to do? You throw the towel in? Do you give up? Do you lose all hope? Well, it's this entire topic of credibility and losing credibility and reestablishing credibility which will be the focus of our study this morning in Psalm 4. If you're familiar at all with the life of King David, David deeply disappointed his people. This one who's supposed to be the Davidic king, the one to whom God's precious promises are made, he really made a mess of things, didn't he? He actually engaged in a scandal far, far worse than Watergate. But as we're gonna see from this morning in our study of Psalm 4, this scandal, as evil as it was, it did not prove to be the end of King David. Though there were certainly consequences to his sins, he confessed his sins and he experienced God's forgiveness. He went on to lead God's people for several more decades and maybe most shocking of all, to write several more Psalms, which are included in our book of Psalms. And I believe this is the big lesson Psalm 4 has to teach us. I'll bring it up on the board again. And like I said last week, your job is to ask yourself, is this actually what Psalm 4 is teaching? But here's the big point I believe from Psalm 4. When your faith in men falters, reaffirm your confidence in the Lord. It faltered pretty badly with David. But as we're gonna see, his point here in Psalm 4 is to look to the Lord, not to me and my failings. When your faith in men falters, reaffirm your confidence in the Lord. When those you trust disappoint you, when you disappoint those who trust you. I think this is the lesson we must learn. Now, to rightly understand Psalm 4, we've gotta spend a little bit of time putting this psalm in context. For this is one of those psalms where the context out of which it was written has an enormous impact on its interpretation. Now, most commentators view Psalm 4 as coming out of a context almost identical to Psalm 3. Now, if you were with us last week, we studied Psalm 3. And do you remember the context of Psalm 3? Well, just to remind you, David, the once great king of Israel, sinned with a woman named Bathsheba. And he sinned pretty badly. He took her to be his own wife. She was already married to a guy named Uriah. Then he engaged in this massive conspiracy to commit first degree murder and to try and cover it all up. It's a horrible thing. But the thing is, you can't really ever hide anything from the Lord. You know, like Numbers says, your sins will find you out. And that's exactly what happened to King David. God raised up Nathan who confronted him. David, thankfully, confessed his sins, was forgiven. And David continued on leading the people of Israel for several more decades, like I said. But that obviously created a big public relations problem. I mean, if you're the king and all of a sudden the whole world knows that you stole another man's wife and then killed him. What's your nation gonna think of you? I mean, just imagine if it would come out that President Nixon had done something like this. I mean, people would have thought he was an absolute lunatic, and yet that's what King David, the great psalm singer of Israel, did. So here we have God's man, at this time, ashamed, disgraced, discredited, and humiliated. God's forgiven him of his sins, but his people look at him like a scoundrel. Now, as if that weren't bad enough, a few years later, after his whole thing with Bathsheba, His own son, Absalom, tries to throw a coup. Remember this? Not a coup, a coup. He tried to overthrow the government and make himself king of Israel. Now that coup was not successful, but what happened was it turned the hearts of the majority of the people of Israel against King David. So these are the circumstances in which David finds himself. His credibility is shot. He's been forgiven by God, but his people look at him with great suspicion. How does he move forward from that? How does he move the nation forward from that? I believe that's how we should interpret Psalm 4. And if you're looking for all the technical reasons why, that's the context I believe this psalm's written out of. Ask me afterwards. It's really kind of a technical sort of thing, but I'll be happy to discuss it further with you afterwards. But that context, I believe, makes the best sense of this psalm. Well, keeping that in mind, turn now to Psalm 4 with me. And the first thing I want you to notice with me is confidence in a gracious God. confidence in a gracious God. And look, begin with me in the title. In the title, we read this, to the choir master with stringed instruments, a psalm of David. Now, like we talked about last week, these psalm titles are actually part of inspired scripture. Okay, get that. These were not added by your translators at some later date in time. These are in the Hebrew text. The Jews have always considered them sacred scripture, and the New Testament sometimes makes significant points from them. Now, this little title here obviously doesn't tell us much, but there is something I want you to notice. Look again, it says, to the choir master with stringed instruments. Now, the only point I wanna draw from this is just a reminder that the Psalms are songs designed to be sung. They're songs designed to be sung. The choir master there, that's almost certainly a choir director of a massive choir that sang regularly in the temple. The stringed instruments here are probably instruments like harps and lyres. And taken together, these are similar to some of those musical notations at the beginning of the musical pieces we have today. Allegro and some of those words you learned in music class but can't remember what they actually mean. They indicate how this piece should be played. So also, that's what these are reminding us of, that these are songs designed to be sung. Never forget that God gave us a book of songs. I mean, that means something. What does that tell us about how God wants us to engage our emotions? More than that, these are for the entire people of God. Though David wrote about half of them, these are designed for the entire people of God to study, to meditate on, to enter into the emotions that are reflected in them. Don't forget that as we work our way through the Psalms. Well, moving on, look at verse 1. David says, "'Answer me when I call, O God of my righteousness. You have given me relief when I was in distress. Be gracious to me and hear my prayer.'" Now, obviously here in verse 1, David is asking for God to hear his prayer. He says this twice, "'Answer me when I call,' and then later on, "'Hear my prayer.'" So clearly David is petitioning the Lord to answer whatever he's about to ask. But look at verse one, if you would. Why is it that David thinks God will hear his prayer? On what basis does he ground this request? Do you see it? Look at verse one. You have given me relief when I was in distress. Look at what David is doing here. He's basing his request on God's previous grace. You see that? The fact that you did answer me in the past, the fact that you did show me grace previously, motivates me to ask you now of things. Now this sort of thing was obviously necessary in David's case because his recent behavior had been so bad. You think about it, he couldn't say answer my prayer because I'm a good guy because he hadn't been a good guy. He couldn't say answer my prayer because I'm a righteous man because truth be told he wasn't a righteous man. The only thing he can appeal to is God's previous grace. You ask, what might some of these previous expressions of grace be? Well, I mean, just think back over David's life. Think of all those occasions where God graciously gave him something he didn't deserve. This would include God's gracious choice of David back in the beginning, the youngest son of Jesse, to be the anointed king of Israel. This would be God's gracious enabling of David to defeat Goliath, that Philistine giant. This would include God's gracious rescuing of David from the spear of Saul so many times. This would include God's gracious covenant with David that David would have sons and an ultimate son who would eventually rule over the entire world forever. And this would include the forgiveness God gave to David after his sin with Bathsheba. All of these were expressions of grace, none of which David deserved, but they're the grounds for his future request. Answer me because of the grace you've shown me in the past. Writing on this verse, Charles Spurgeon's got to help a little comment. He says this, verse one is another instance of David's common habit of pleading past mercies as a ground for present favor. Here he reviews his memorials of previous grace and takes comfort from them. It is not to be imagined that he who has helped us in six troubles will leave us in the seventh. God does nothing by halves and he will never cease to help us until we cease to need. The manna shall fall every morning until we cross Jordan. Now, I believe this side of the cross, we must learn to do the exact same thing. I mean, how do we know God will hear my prayers tomorrow? How do we know that God will be gracious to me if I make a real mess of things? Can't be because I'm a good guy, because truth be told, oftentimes we're not very good guys. Now it must be on the basis of God's previous grace. And you ask yourself, has God shown me grace in the past? If so, what's to make me think that anything has changed about him now? Ultimately, this does point us back to the cross. It points us back to the cross because where is the ultimate demonstration of God's past grace? Is that that cross of wood 2,000 years ago where Jesus died for our sins? And the reasoning goes this way, if God took care of my greatest need back then on the cross, if he got rid of my sin, can't I trust him to provide the thousands of little things I need every day? Romans 8.32 actually reasons this way explicitly. It says, he who did not spare his own son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? When you're worrying and fretting about the future, when you're not quite sure, you know, is God gonna take care of me tomorrow, today? Look to the cross and ask yourself, did God take care of my greatest need there? Answer, yes. And if He took care of my greatest need at the cross, why can't I trust Him to take care of my little needs as I go through our life? Well, moving on through this psalm, notice with me next, counsel for a skeptical people. This is in verse 2 through 6a. Counsel for a skeptical people. And what I think David is doing here, he's actually turning from addressing God to addressing his skeptical people. The people of Israel who are suspicious of him, who think he's a scoundrel, now he's speaking to them. We're going to get to the prayer eventually. That'll be the last part. But for the time being, he talks to his people. And he gives them several steps for interpreting what's taken place in a God-centered way. Notice these with me. The first comes in verse two. David says, how long, O men, shall my honor be turned into shame? How long will you love vain words and seek after lies? Now here David pictures people dishonoring him, slandering him, gossiping about him. Though he's God's king on the throne over Israel, people look at him as a joke. I mean, this makes sense. If you've got a leader who did the things David did, how would people look at him? I mean, for those of you who remember, how did our world look at Nixon after he was found out? I mean, he became the brunt of jokes, laughing stock of the nation. And it's easy to imagine that exact same thing taking place to David once the world found out what he did. They're turning his honor into shame. They're saying, David, he's washed up. He's a has-been. He's just a dirty old man. More than that, it also seems as if they think the Lord has turned against the entire nation. So the people view David as kind of a sign of God's displeasure on the whole nation. You see this if you jump down to verse 6. Verse 6a says, there are many who say, who will show us any good? They're basically saying, God's done with us. He's abandoned us. We got that bum David on the throne. So long as he's there, God's finished with us as a nation. So that's how they look at their king. But notice how David responds to this. He says in verse three, but know, know this, but know that the Lord has set apart the godly for himself. The Lord hears when I call to him. Now a bit of explanation is necessary here for what David is doing here is very unique. Realize he's talking about himself in this verse. When he says, the Lord has said about the godly, he's talking about himself. I'm the godly one. God has uniquely chosen me for himself, and that's why, though I've done some lousy things, God's not done with me or us. Now maybe you're wondering how did God know, or how did David know that he was God's uniquely chosen one? I mean, in one sense, that would seem a little arrogant. Just keeping along with this Nixon illustration, say after it was found out that Nixon did what he did, if he just said, you know, I'm God's chosen president for this nation and you can't get rid of me. I mean, we would look at him as crazy, but that's basically what David's saying. No, that God has chosen me. So what's the difference? Why can David do this? Well, it has everything to do with something called the Davidic covenant. The Davidic covenant, we talked about this quite a bit last week. And like I said, the Davidic covenant is one of the most important promises in the entire Bible. And if you're not familiar with it, you really should familiarize yourself with it. But let me read 2 Samuel 7, 11 and following. This is a special promise God gave to David. The Lord declares to you, David, that the Lord will make you a house. When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you and he shall come from your body and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. We think that's ultimately talking about Jesus. I will be to him a father and he shall be to me a son. Your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever. So you see, this is why David could say, I am God's uniquely chosen one. God hears my prayers. Why? Because God made special covenant promises to me. And those are promises, and no matter how badly I mess things up, God's gonna do what he promised. It's interesting, if you compare this Psalm with Psalm 3, what we looked at last week, there's so many parallels here in language and in concepts. But in Psalm 3, last week, David pointed himself to the Davidic covenant. How do I know God's going to take care of me? Davidic covenant. Here in Psalm 4, he points the entire nation to the Davidic covenant. God's going to take care of us, God's going to move us forward because of his promises, and none of God's promises ever fail. Now there's a very important lesson for us to learn here. And I want us to notice what David is doing. How does he overcome the suspicion of his people? How does he fight their slander? He thinks of himself the way God thinks of him. Okay, you see that? This is his weapon in fighting slander. He thinks of himself the way God thinks of him. Yes, I'm a bum, and yes, my people think I'm a dirty old man, and yet God has chosen me, God has forgiven me, and God has made me special promises, and at the end of the day, those are really all that matter. This might sound odd to you, but in one sense, it doesn't matter what the world thinks of you. In one sense, it doesn't matter what you think of you. Ultimately, all that matters is what God thinks of you. And we've got to train ourselves to think of ourselves the way God thinks of us. Pastor Dale Ralph Davis points this out in his very helpful little book on the Psalms. He writes this, David was a covenant one in a premier sense as the covenant king. We could say he stands a cut above Joe Schmoe Christian. But this should prove no discouragement, for in principle we still stand in David's sandals. He shows us here that the weapon against slander is to remember how God regards you, to hold on to what He has said about you. And we may not be covenant kings, but if we are uncondemned, chosen, prayed for, and loved, which is true of all Christians, It doesn't sound too second class. If Jehovah has said to us, don't be afraid for I have redeemed you, I have called you by name, you are mine, why should we listen to the blabberings of our enemies or even of the accusations of an overly sensitive conscience? This is something we need to do again and again and again and again and to keep doing all throughout our Christian lives. We train ourselves to think of ourselves the way God thinks of us. Let me say that again if you're taking notes. We train ourselves to think of ourselves the way God thinks of us. And again, though the world's opinion can hurt sometimes, at the end of the day, it doesn't matter. And though my heart sometimes condemns me unnecessarily, again, if our hearts condemn us, God's greater than our hearts. It's only what God thinks of us that matters. I wanna give you a bullet point list here of several ways in which God looks at all Christians. Okay, what I'm about to show you, this is true for every believer in Christ, whether you've been a Christian for five minutes or for 75 years. These things are true of you, and this is how God thinks of you. But everybody in Christ, completely forgiven of all of your sins. Bring those up. Completely forgiven of all sins, past, present, and future. Colossians 1.14, that's true of everybody if you're in Christ. In Christ, we are cleansed, we are declared righteous, we're justified as a gift through the redemption that's in Christ Jesus, Romans 3.24. In Christ, we're no longer slaves of sin, death, and the devil, Romans 6.17. In Christ, we've been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, Ephesians 1.3. In Christ, we have been adopted as sons and daughters and given all the rights and privileges pertaining thereunto. Ephesians 1.4, in Christ we're full members of the body of Christ, endowed with gifts to edify the body of Christ, joint heirs with all Christians everywhere. 1 Corinthians 12.27, and in Christ we have a secure home in heaven and a priceless inheritance awaiting us there. 1 Peter 1.3 and 4. That is how God looks at you, brother, sister. No matter what you've done, no matter what you failed to do. This is how God looks at you, and again, it doesn't matter how the world looks at you. What matters is how God looks at you, and we've got to train ourselves to look at ourselves that way. In a way, we could apply Jesus' baptism to ourselves. What happened at the baptism? God said, with you, my beloved son, I'm well pleased. If we're in Christ, that's what God is saying of us. With you, son, with you, daughter, I am well pleased. Think of yourself that way. Old Martin Luther understood this well. He got this idea better than a lot of Christians did. But listen to what he said. It's a wonderful quote. When the devil throws up our sins to us and declares that we deserve death and hell, we ought to speak thus. I admit that I deserve death and hell. What of it? Does this mean that I should be sentenced to eternal damnation? By no means. For I know one who suffered and made satisfaction in my behalf. His name is Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Where he is there I shall be also." That's what you love about Martin Luther. He's got some moxie about him. In addition to this, I also believe this is how we need to train ourselves to look at others in our congregation. We've got to treat others, look at others the way God looks at them and treats them. Why do I say this? I say this because sometimes it's a lot easier to hate the sins of others than to hate our own sins, truth be told, especially if those are sins we don't particularly struggle with. We can look at a person sitting in the chair next to us and think, how on earth could they do that? That is so evil. Everything I just said here, you've got to apply to that person, that brother, that sister sitting next to you in the pew. If they're in Christ, you've got to train yourself to look at them the way God looks at them. So do they deserve punishment for their sins? Absolutely. But it happened at the cross. Did what they do, was it evil? Certainly, and we shouldn't excuse that. Might there be consequences for their actions? Yes, like happened with David here. And yet in Christ they are forgiven, they are cleansed, they are justified. God views them as a son or daughter, and we as the people of God need to treat them the same way. Well, coming back here to our psalm, David gives another word of counsel to his suspicious people in verse four. He says in verse four, be angry and do not sin, ponder in your own hearts on your beds and be silent. Now this verse is very interesting and it's actually a tough one to translate. If you compare different English translations, you'll see that the translators aren't actually entirely sure what this verse is even saying. But if we assume that the ESV is correct, what does it mean when he says be angry and do not sin, ponder in your own hearts on your beds and be silent? Well, here's my best educated guess, and I emphasize that. What I think David is saying is that due to my sin, anger is appropriate. I mean, people of Israel, what I did was shameful, and a degree of anger is appropriate to commit adultery, to commit first-degree murder, and yet, keep that anger under control. Be angry and do not sin. If you find that anger flaring up and you're about ready to explode, go get alone. Maybe calm down, get on your bed, and think through what's going on, but don't let that righteous indignation blow up. And this is a challenge, isn't it? I mean, to be angry and not sin? When somebody betrays you, when somebody lies to you, when somebody takes advantage of you, there is a sense in which a bit of righteous indignation is appropriate. And yet you've got to be very, very careful. You've got to keep that under control lest it leads you into sin. Like David is counseling here, maybe get alone, maybe process this, think about it, maybe even lie down. But don't let your anger lead you into sin. That is my best educated guess on this verse. If you want to talk about it more, come talk to me afterwards. It's a tough verse to understand. But anyway, in verse 5, David gives another word of counsel. He says in verse 5, offer right sacrifices and put your trust in the Lord. I think what David is saying is essentially this, don't let what I did destroy your relationship with God. Yeah, I messed up, and yeah, I sinned, and there's no excuse for it, but don't let that kill your faith in God, kill your trust in the Lord. Continue to engage in all the regular religious activities you always did. Continue to go to temple, offer sacrifices, pray, so forth. Though I'm a knucklehead and I know it, don't direct that toward the Lord. And again, this is a temptation for us, isn't it? I mean, when somebody you've really trusted disappoints you or betrays you, the temptation is to direct that toward God. How could you let this happen, God? Don't you love me? And we can let what some knucklehead did drive us away from God. And what David's saying is don't let that happen. Continue to engage in all the ordinary religious activities, continue to go to church, read your Bible, pray, fellowship with Christians. You recognize what I did is evil, but that's not a reflection on God's character. Now we do need to be careful in how we interpret the first half of verse five. When he says, offer right sacrifices, how does that apply to those of us today living after the cross? And this is true not only of Psalm 4 here, but of all the Psalms which refer to offering sacrifices. There are several of those. As New Testament Christians, how are we to understand that? Well, something I want to emphasize is that living in our age after the cross, there is nothing we do which is an atoning sacrifice. Okay, I want to make that very clear. There's nothing we do which is an atoning sacrifice which covers our sins, pays for our sins. Animal sacrifices, obviously, are not appropriate in this age. But more than that, something like attending church, or giving to the poor, or taking the Lord's Supper, or reading our Bibles, or praying, none of those things are sacrifices whereby we make up for our sins, whereby we earn God's favor. Instead, in our age, what's the one sacrifice we embrace? It's the cross of Jesus. where Jesus hung on that bloody cross 2,000 years ago, that's the sacrifice for our sins. Hebrews, actually the whole book of Hebrews makes this point repeatedly, but listen to Hebrews 10.4 and following. The author says, it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God. waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified." You see, all those animal sacrifices that the priests performed in the temple, they were previews. They were like movie trailers of the ultimate sacrifice Jesus would make on the cross. And in reality, this is how David's sins could be forgiven, as evil as they were. How in the world does God forgive adultery, first degree murder, conspiracy, deception? We did this in Bible study last Wednesday night. We went through David's sins and tried to identify the 10 commandments that he broke, and he broke a good number of them. How in the world does God remain a holy, good God and just overlook that? It's because God knew that 1,000 years after David, Jesus would die on the cross for his sins and pay for them all, and that's why God could say, you're forgiven, because I know Jesus is going to die for your sins. It was on that bloody cross that Jesus bore the judgment of God in our place, for David and for sinners just like you and me. As Galatians 3 tells us, he became a curse for us. He took in his body, in his soul, the wrath of God we deserve. And then it's through faith in him, through embracing his right sacrifice that we're forgiven, that we're made right with God. And before we go any further, I ask you, have you put your hope in this one right sacrifice, this ultimate sacrifice, the bloody cross of Jesus? Has there ever come a time in your life when you realize that you are a helpless sinner, that really even your best works are filthy rags, that all you've ever done is rebel against God and earn his judgment, and that God would be perfectly righteous to condemn you for what you've done? Has that ever occurred in your life? But then have you cried out for mercy? Have you looked to Jesus' cross as the only sacrifice where your sins can be forgiven? Have you embraced that cross and cried out, Lord Jesus, save me, I'm a sinner? Has that happened in your life? If not, I would say today is the day. Today is the day to embrace this one sacrifice, the great sacrifice, the sacrifice to which all the other animal sacrifices pointed, the cross of Jesus. However you've sinned, even if you've been as bad as David or worse, there is cleansing, there is forgiveness at the cross. So come to Jesus today. Come to Jesus today. And as always, if any of you want to discuss this further, like clarification, would like someone to pray with you or pray for you, please come see me right after the service this morning. I'll be here down front. But trust Christ today. Well, this then is David's counsel to his skeptical, suspicious people. What do you do when you've disgraced yourself and you've shamed yourself? Well, you point them to God and not to yourself. You don't say, I'm gonna do better, because actually you don't know if you're gonna do better. You remind them of God's promises and that God will fulfill his promises no matter how big of a mess we make. You counsel them to control their anger. You counsel them to continue to engage in all the normal activities of worship. That's what you do really, that's all you can do when your credibility is gone. Well this brings us to one final point this morning. Notice with me finally, calmness and a protecting Lord. Verses 6B-8, calmness and a protecting Lord. Look at verse 6B. David says, lift up the light of your face upon us, O Lord. Now, just to explain what's going on, I believe the quotation marks in your ESV are misplaced. Talk to me more about that afterwards. The quotation marks are not in the original. They're the translator's decision. And I think verse seven, or pardon me, 6b, is David's prayer request. Back in verse one, he begins his prayer request. He turns to addressing men for quite a while. Well, here he finally gets to asking what he intended to ask. Lift up the light of your face upon us. And it's interesting that he's all of a sudden praying for the entire nation. Up to this point, he was focused mostly on himself, his own sin, his own lack of credibility. But here he turns to addressing the entire nation. Lord, have mercy on this nation. Restore your blessing to this people. And he's using the same language, that priestly language from Numbers 6, if you know what I'm talking about. And then he says in verse 7, you have put more joy in my heart than they have when their grain and wine abound. And again, don't forget the context out of which David is saying this. His people are suspicious of him. His credibility is shot. His best friend, Jonathan, is dead. And yet he's able to say, you have given me more joy than when their grain and wine abound. This is something the Bible frequently teaches. The Bible frequently teaches that there is greater joy in God than that which comes from anything temporal or eternal, or temporal, which is not eternal. Greater joy in God than anything. And you got to ask yourself, do I really believe this? Do I really believe there's greater joy in God than TV? Do I really believe there's greater joy in walking with the Lord than from Facebook, video games, candy, books? Do I really believe that? The Bible clearly teaches that, as I'm going to hopefully show you. But do I believe that? Listen to Habakkuk 3, 17 and 18. Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit beyond the vine, the produce of the oil fail and the fields yield no food. The flocks be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stall, yet I will rejoice in the Lord. I will take joy in the God of my salvation. John 15, 10, Jesus said this. These things I have spoken to you that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full. First Peter 1.8, though you have not seen him, you love him, though you do not see him now, you believe in him and rejoice with a joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory. I ask you, have you tasted that? I hope, my brothers and sisters, that you have, but have you tasted this deep, profound, transcendent joy that's far greater than anything you'll ever get in a bottle, far greater than anything on TV or through some electronic device or through a girlfriend, a boyfriend? Do you know this deep, God-centered joy? And I'll tell you, it's available to you. It's available to you when, like David, you've been forgiven of your sins. When, like David, you're walking closely with the Lord, you're far from perfect, but when you fall, you get back up, you repent, and you claim the blood of Christ. If that characterizes your life, you can then know by experience what David says in verse seven, you have put more joy in my heart than they have when their grain and wine abound. One more thing to notice, we're almost done, but look at verse eight. In peace, I will both lie down and sleep. For you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety." Just imagine the context here. Your whole nation's suspicious of you. Your trusted counselors are either dead or gone, and yet he's able to say, you know, I can sleep sweetly because I know the Lord's going to take care of me. Now, just put yourself emotionally in David's shoes. What if the world had turned against you or me? I doubt I could sleep sweetly. And yet David, because of his confidence in the Lord, which is the result of years of walking with the Lord, is able to say, you know what? I know everybody's against me, but I'm going to go take a nap. I'm going to go sleep, and I'm going to sleep sweetly because I know God's going to take care of me. This is simply one more fruit of walking with the Lord. When you've walked with the Lord long-term, through thick and thin, when you've sinned and made a complete mess of things, but you repent and believe that God's forgiven you, when you've walked through life like that, like David, you'll be able to sleep sweetly. You'll know that no matter what comes, God will never leave me or forsake me. God will take care of all of my needs, and that's okay. John Calvin said on this verse. In verse 8, David boasts that the protection of God alone was sufficient and that under it he sleeps securely, although he was without any human guardians, as if he had many to keep watch and protect him continually. Let us, therefore, learn from this example to give up this honor to God, to believe that although there may appear no help for us from men, yet under His hand alone we are kept in peace and safety, as if we were defended by a great army." Well, to conclude our time this morning, I believe this is the big point God wants us to get from Psalm 4. When your faith in men falters, reaffirm your confidence in the Lord. When people disappoint you, when those who trust you betray you, view that as simply another opportunity to recommit yourself to God. Though all men fail me, God will never fail me. And in conclusion, this is all I'll ask you. Sooner or later somebody's going to deeply disappoint you. You just live long enough and that'll happen. In one sense, sooner or later, everyone will disappoint you. They'll fail to live up to your expectations. If I haven't, as your pastor, I imagine I will sometime deeply disappoint you. And in those times, what are you going to do? Will you become cynical, hard, cold, maybe forsake Christianity, turn away from the Lord? Or will you reaffirm your commitment to God? Will you build your life on God's promises? Will you say like David, though everybody fall away, the Lord won't abandon me. When your faith in men crumbles, what will you do then? Let's pray together.