as we gather for our midweek meeting for prayer and also for a bit of Bible study tonight. If you have your Bibles there please turn to the book of Psalm, book of Psalm chapter 4. A couple of months ago we started a new series called Heaven's Hymnbook, singing through the Psalms and basically we're just putting these studies together as the Lord allows time and opportunity to do so. And I trust that it'll be a bit of a blessing to you tonight as we look into what God's word has for us here. So Psalm 4, as we look at the theme of faith in the face of foes. Faith in the face of foes. If you have your Bible open there, why don't we read together on the count of three, please. We'll read the psalm together, okay? So one, thank you, two, and three. Hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness. Thou hast enlarged me when I was in distress. Have mercy upon me and hear my prayer. O ye sons of men, how long will you turn my glory into shame? How long will you love vanity and seek after leasing? Selah. But know that the Lord hath set apart him that is godly for himself. The Lord will hear when I call unto him. Stand in awe and sin not. Commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still, Selah. Offer the sacrifices of righteousness, and put your trust in the Lord. There be many that say, who will show us any good? Lord, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us. Thou hast put gladness in my heart, more than in the time that their corn and their wine increased. I will both lay me down in peace and sleep, for thou, Lord, only makest me dwell in safety. Let's pray, shall we, Lord? We thank you for the opportunity to assemble here together tonight in the middle of the week for prayer and just for some meditation now upon these precious verses of scripture before us. Lord, we pray for the help of the Holy Spirit that we would understand, Lord, these wonderful truths. We thank you, Lord, that the Psalms give us such a window into the character of our God, and we pray as we go through these Psalms we would learn much of these. So bless us now in these moments together. In Jesus' name, Amen. Okay, faith in the face of foes. I'm just going to work through the notes here and so we get finished in a timely manner. We look under the introduction at the title of the psalm and we have a couple of details in the heading. You'll notice it says to the chief musician on Neganoth, a psalm of David. So we have the chief musician address there. He was essentially the master or the director of the sacred music in the temple and so It is addressed to him for his oversight that he would administer that in the temple. Then we have the word neginoth, which simply means stringed instrument. So obviously, the psalm here, Psalm 4, was to be accompanied by the instruments there, stringed instruments. And then we notice, of course, the author. It is called A Psalm of David. So that's some details in the title. Then the time. There's a bit of a sense of time in the psalm. If you remember Psalm 3 is kind of like a morning psalm. He talks about the fact that he would awake and knowing the Lord sustained him, verse 5 of Psalm 3. But Psalm 4 has been called an evening psalm. Let me quote Spurgeon for you here. Spurgeon says, this psalm is apparently intended to accompany the third and make a pair with it. He says, if the last may be entitled the Morning Psalm, that is Psalm 3, this could be called the Evening Hymn. All right, so in verse 8 he says, I will both lay me down in peace and sleep, for thou, Lord, only makest me dwell in safety. Now, what is the theme of the psalm? Well, the theme is a plea to the Lord for help in the face of slander and opposition. But what we note in the psalm is despite the difficulties and the trials that David is facing, the dominant tone of the psalm is one of confidence in God in spite of the problems being faced. So David is facing opposition, he's facing difficulties, but the dominant theme is one of trust and one of confidence in the Lord. The Bible commentator Alan Ross suggests that this is the expository idea for the passage. The righteous can rejoice in God's protecting grace that brings them peace and security in the face of distressing attempts to disgrace them. The righteous can rejoice in God's protecting grace that brings them peace and security in the face of distressing attempts to disgrace them. Now I've divided the psalm into three for our brief study tonight. Notice firstly in Psalm 1 what I would call the psalmist's supplication. The psalmist's supplication. Hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness. Thou hast enlarged me when I was in distress. Have mercy upon me and hear my prayer. So this is a plea, a prayer from David to the Lord. And we notice that David bases his plea on two very important truths. Number one, his relationship with God. David pleads with the Lord on the basis of his relationship with God. Notice he refers to God there as the God of my righteousness. Now this is a unique title that is only found in Psalm 4. We have in Jeremiah, the Lord our righteousness, but this particular phrase or this particular title of God is only found here in Psalm 4. And what it shows is that God was the source of David's righteousness. Okay, so we get the picture there. David could approach the Lord, not because of his own righteousness, but he could approach the Lord because God was his righteousness. And in like manner, that is the basis, isn't it, for our approach to the Lord. We do not approach the Lord because of our own righteousness, but because God himself is our righteousness and we have been given God's righteousness through salvation, the imputed righteousness of Christ, therefore we, like David, can plead with the Lord on that basis. So his relationship with God, there was the foundation of his prayer. Okay, so the psalmist supplication, the foundation of his prayer was number one, his relationship with God, and number two, his remembrance of God. Thou hast enlarged me when I was in distress. And here David is calling to remembrance God's faithful dealings with him in the past, And as David contemplated God's faithful dealings with him in the past, that gave David faith to seek the Lord in the present. And that is a very powerful basis for prayer, isn't it? By looking back on what God has done for us in the past, that inspires us and encourages us to seek God afresh for present mercy. So past mercies form a basis for pleading for present mercy. So the word enlarged here means to broaden or to make room. The word distress has the idea of a tight or narrow place, okay, and that's a fitting description isn't it, of distresses and trials in our lives. We feel ourselves in a tight place, surrounded on all sides we could say. And do you notice that this ministry of God when we are in such a situation is in our distress, note the word in there. David said it's like the Lord made space for me. I was in this tight place. I was hemmed in from every side by these distresses, but as I look back, as David says, into my life, I can see where the Lord provided some relief for me in the midst of that tight place, in the midst of that difficulty. The Lord gave me some mercy and some grace there to endure. Now this could mean that God had removed the trial from David and we know that God does that in his perfect timing, but it probably more has to do with the fact that God had ministered to David in that trial and that's how God works, doesn't he? He makes space for us, he gives us the balm of his of his grace, as it were, to be able to bear the heat and the difficulties that we find ourselves in. And so both of these truths formed a basis for David, that quickened faith in him to pray and to seek the Lord. His relationship with the Lord and then his remembrance of what God had done in the past, both those things helped him in the place of prayer. and he had experienced God's comforting ministry in his life. And 2 Corinthians 1, 3 and 4 remind us of God's ministry of comfort to us in trials. Blessed be God, even the Father, of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort, who comforted us in all our tribulation. that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. And so David had known God's ministry of comfort in the past. God had enlarged him in that tight place, that difficult place. God had brought relief into his heart and life. And because of that, David knew he could trust the Lord for the present challenge he was facing. So that was the foundation of his prayer. Then notice the focus of David's prayer. What was the focus of his prayer? What was he asking God for? Well, he was asking, number one, for mercy from God. Have mercy upon me. and hear my prayer. David is not here asking for mercy so far as salvation is concerned, he already knows the Lord, but he's asking God for mercy that he might be able to face the challenges that he is facing and we need that don't we, we need the Lord's mercy every day to walk with him and to glorify him. Spurgeon writes, the best of men need mercy as truly as the worst of them. Okay, we all need God's mercy in our lives, even as saved people in those difficult times, those distresses. So David is praying for mercy from God, he's praying for an answer from God. Notice the emphasis there on asking God to hear his prayer. Hear me when I call, hear my prayer. Now, it's important we understand that this is not a cry of hopelessness on the part of David, like the heathen calling out with little hope that their God will hear them, that is not the sense that David is approaching this in. Because we find in verse 3, he says, So this is a confident, this cry for God to hear him, and therefore to answer him comes out of a heart of faith, knowing that God delights to hear the prayers of his people. Psalm 34 verse 15 says, So that's the psalmist's supplication. Now look, secondly, at the psalmist's admonition, verse 2 through 5. David now turns his attention to his enemies or his detractors, those who are opposing him. I think his order is important, David talks to the Lord first, then his enemies, that's a good order to follow, talk to God about your problems first. So David now issues this warning really and this admonition to his detractors, his enemies. And there are three parts to this. There's firstly some searching questions in verse two. He asks two searching questions of those who would oppose him. Number one, how long will you turn my glory into shame? So we get a clear sense here that David is under attack, David's character is under attack. The glory here probably refers to his position of honour as king in the nation of Israel and there were those who were trying to tear down David as a godly leader. And then the second question, how long will you love vanity and seek after leasing? The word vanity means emptiness, okay, and the word leasing is an old English word that simply means lies or falsehood. Okay, so David is here issuing a challenge to those who are attacking him trying to discredit him as a man of God and he puts this challenge to them that in actual fact they were loving vanity, emptiness and seeking after lies, seeking after leasing, meaning lies, fabrications and falsehood. It's amazing isn't it how people can pursue, actively pursue error instead of truth in relation to someone else's character. And that is what they're doing. They are actively seeking lies that they can use as weapons against David. So he asked these two searching questions. So quite clearly David, like in the previous psalm, was going through some form of difficulty, some form of trial here, where there were those who were hurling accusations against his character. And it was out of that affliction that David wrote this psalm and we see that, don't we, a number of times where these sweet psalms come out of those sour experiences, we could say those difficulties, that the men of God faced. Then we have some sure affirmations in verse 3. David is not at all in a sense disheartened, in the sense of being unbelieving or losing faith in God. He puts these questions to his enemies and then he affirms his confidence in God. And this all forms a part of that warning to those who are opposing the truth, but know that the Lord, verse 3, hath set apart him that is godly for himself, the Lord will hear when I call unto him. So David is challenging these detractors. He starts with those questions which form a basis then for these affirmations of faith that David knew that something of the character of God and that God would ultimately deal with his enemies. So there's two things that David affirms in verse 3 here. Number one, the righteous are God's special treasure. The righteous are God's special treasure. This should warn the wicked of their attempts against the righteous. David says here in verse 3 that the Lord hath set apart him that is godly for himself. Now the phrase there, set apart, means to mark out. So God has marked out his people, God has separated his people unto himself and therefore God will not abandon them to the will of the wicked. What a beautiful picture that is of God's loving care of us, that we are viewed by him as his precious treasure, as his peculiar possession. And because of that David had confidence in the face of these great trials he was facing and particularly these assassinations against his character. He had assurance knowing that God would be there for him, that God was watching over him as one of his children. Then, the second truth David affirms is that the righteous enjoy God's special favour. The Lord will hear when I call unto him. Can you see that this is a statement of total confidence that God would hear the prayer of the righteous. David has total confidence in the Lord here. total faith in the Lord, there's no doubt in those words. And it's because of his relationship to God, David knew that there was great security for him in the face of these tremendous onslaughts. Now we notice also in verse 4 and 5, solemn exhortations. David continues to issue a challenge to these opponents. Stand in awe, he says to them, and sin not. Commune with your own heart upon your bed and be still sealer. offer the sacrifices of righteousness and put your trust in the Lord. So David is still addressing the sons of men, these ones who are pursuing vanity and emptiness, which represents very much a life without God, a life lived in this world without the Lord. He is dealing with these ones who are actively pursuing lies and falsehood instead of the truth. And now in light of the fact that God reserves for himself his people, God watches over his people and God answers the prayers of his people, David says stand in awe. He says tremble, that's what the word means, tremble. It means to quiver with violent emotion. So it talks about the fear of God. David is calling upon the unrepentant, he's calling upon the unbelievers here in light of the character of God to tremble in God's presence. So we see that the ungodly are exhorted by David towards two things. Number one, repentance toward God. Repentance towards God. This would involve that solemn fear of God leading to repentance, standing o'er, notice, and sin not. Okay, so the sin not is an outflow of the standing o'er. Okay, by fear of the Lord, men depart from evil. So, as one commentator says, in the psalm, David was calling for his enemies to be shaken to the core so that they would stop sinning. Shaken to the core in godly fear of the Lord. Repentance towards God, this would involve a solemn fear of God. Stand in awe and sin not. That's what's lacking today, isn't it? In the world, the fear of God. Men no longer tremble before God. In fact, they're the opposite, they are very often lifted up in pride and arrogance against God, charging him foolishly or blaspheming his name, shaking their fist at him. But here David, in light of the character of God, he has discussed in verse 3, he now exhorts his detractors, his enemies, to fear before the Lord. But this repentance would also involve a solemn reflection upon one's ways. Look at the verse again. Essentially, David is saying stop and think. Stop and think. Commune with your own heart. This describes, doesn't it, meditation. This describes inward thoughts in the still hours of the night. In the heart, David is calling upon these ones to think about their position in relation to God. That's a great challenge, isn't it, today, to just get people to even think, to get them to think about eternal things, to get them to just stop and even think virtually any serious thought is a real challenge today. I think Satan has people just running from one entertainment to the next and so much buzz and hype, and social media and just the buzz is constantly there. We're living in an age with so much noise that people don't seem to be able to stop very often and just think about eternity and serious things. But this is all the process of repentance, isn't it? Because repentance involves a change of mind. It's a fear of God, but it's that solemn consideration of my ways, weighing up where I stand before the Lord, knowing that God loves the righteous and that God protects the righteous should, if I'm unsaved, make me think about my own position before God and stir in me a desire to also be one of His. they're also exhorted to reliance upon God, verse 5, so we see those two truths that so often are coupled together in the Bible, repentance and faith. Verse 5, offer the sacrifices of righteousness and put your what? Your trust in the Lord, that's faith isn't it? Okay, so David is calling upon his enemies, those who are opposing God's man and God's truth, he's calling upon them to repentance, to fear God, to turn from sin and he's calling upon them then to exercise trust in the Lord, to put faith in him. to offer therefore sacrifices of righteousness. Now what are sacrifices of righteousness? Well sacrifices of righteousness would be sacrifices that are acceptable to God. The problem of course for Israel very often was they were still going through the outward motions of offering sacrifices to God but their lives were full of sin, there was no repentance there, it was just a meaningless ritual. So the sacrifices of righteousness would be sacrifices that God approves of coming from a sincere heart and life. And we know it also points to the truth that God is more interested, isn't he, in genuine righteousness than just empty outward acts of sacrifice so-called. Now it is interesting as we think about the sacrifice of righteousness here, that in the Old Testament system the sacrifices were to picture Christ, weren't they, the coming Lamb. And so the Gospel's in view here of turning from sin and putting trust in God's supreme sacrifice which is the Lord Jesus Christ himself. So that's the admonition of the psalmist. Notice now the psalmist's expectations, expectation pardon me, verse 6 through 8. There be many that say who will show us any good? So David now expresses some words of confident expectation there. And in verse 6 it's interesting that David returns to some of the rumours or comments that have been circulated. It could be that the many of verse 6 are the same as the sons of men in verse 2, or perhaps it even included some of David's followers that were despondent. And what were they saying? Well they were saying, who shall show us any good? There was a despondency there, life being viewed from a human standpoint. And it's the discouraged view, it's the eyes that lack faith saying, where will we see any good? Who's going to show us any good in this life? And so in verse six, we have a request of David, a request. We have the perspective of the foolish, which is these ones who are viewing life from a human standpoint, the perspective of sight, not of faith. But David, having raised that objection and that issue, now immediately returns to the Lord again with another request. Lord, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us. David is recalling the blessing of the priests that they would give and it's documented there in Numbers 6, 24 and 25. It says, This was a blessing that the priests were to pronounce on the people of Israel and here David is taking that pronouncement of blessing and turning it into a prayer. Lord, would you lift up the light of thy countenance upon us? Meaning, Lord, would you show favour to us? Lord, would you bless us? Lord, would you work on our behalf? That's the picture here of God looking favourably upon his children, of shining his mercy upon us as it were there. So we have this request. Then we have rejoicing from David there in verse 7. Thou hast put gladness in my heart, more than in the time that their corn and their wine increased. And so David here takes the well-known example of harvest. The time when corn and wine increased, and he uses this to form a comparison. In Israel, harvest time was a time of great festivity, a time of great joy. When corn and wine increased, so the time had come to harvest the fields and to harvest the grapevines, that's the time in view here. But what David is saying is he's saying you take all the joy that you see at harvest time, All the joy when people are gathering in their corn and their wine and he says that does not compare with the divine joy that God has placed in me. Thou hast put gladness in my heart more than in the time that their corn and their wine increased. Isn't that amazing that David could testify that in a time of difficulty? Okay, what's the picture here? Here you've got prosperity, people happy over their produce. And David says, even in a time of difficulty, God, by his divine work, has put gladness in my heart that the world doesn't know, a gladness that is greater than the gladness of those who are experiencing prosperity. And that's what the Lord does, doesn't it? Again, Spurgeon says, Christ in the heart is better than corn in the barn or wine in the vat. Thirdly, rest, verse eight. Rest. I will both lay me down in peace and sleep, for thou, Lord, only makest me dwell in safety. David knew that true safety against the attacks of the enemy only came from God. Notice the word only there. He knew that his confidence was not to be in any one else or anything else. Only God was his confidence and because of that he had peace and he could sleep and that's what we need in times of distress. To be able to even sleep is a great mercy from the Lord when our hearts are burdened down with thoughts, with cares How many of you've lost sleep over a trial? I think we all have, haven't we? But as we learn to walk with the Lord, the Lord can put his gladness into our hearts. It's not a superficial happiness, by the way, or a superficial feeling even. The joy of the Spirit, which is the fruit of the Spirit, is something deeper than that. Your feelings might be very low. And you may, you know that the trial itself is burdening you down, but there's an inward sustaining grace of God there that gives you a deep abiding joy and assurance over your salvation and many other things there. Okay, conclusion now. I want some help from you. As we're going through here, we're asking what can we learn about God from this psalm? So there's some theological lessons, I have a few of my notes here, but as we've just gone through the psalm here, any suggestions on some things we can learn about God and his character? God's grace, yes, God is gracious. Yes, very good. God's mercy. God is merciful, yes. Okay, it's good to ask that question. What can I learn about God from this passage? You learn a lot about the character of God from Psalms. Yes, Isaac? God answers prayer. Yes, good. Okay, Matthias, I don't think you know. Any others? We can trust in the Lord in times of opposition, times of trial, times of difficulty. Yes, based on the faithfulness of God. That's right. Good. All right, so God ministers comfort and relief to those facing trials and opposition. We also see something about God's heart to us as his children, don't we? God knows and treasures us as his children. He sets us apart for himself. Isn't that a beautiful picture? We are set apart for him and therefore we are his special possession. That's a very secure place to be, isn't it? In the hands of the Father. All right, now, what are some soteriological lessons, or what can we learn about salvation? We touched on a couple of things there. Yes? Repentance is necessary, and what does repentance involve from the psalm there? A couple of things. Fear of God, tremble. Reverence and fear of God, and what else? Something in the mind, consideration of our ways. Okay, so yes, repentance involves the mind. The sinner must earnestly consider his sinful ways with a view to turning from them to God. Anything else that we learned about salvation in the psalm? Yes. Yes, so trust in Christ is essential, or faith, yes. Very good, God is our righteousness, okay, so the truth of imputed righteousness there, God is the source of our righteousness, okay, not ourselves, yes? Salvation brings joy, very good point, excellent, yes, salvation brings true joy. All right, and salvation involves total reliance upon God, the word trust there. All right, now some practical lessons, would there be something we could, or some lessons we could learn about the Christian life, just any other practical applications there? Tina. Yes, very good. So placing our trials and our difficulties in God's hands, knowing that he can look after us there. Any others? Daniel? Only God can give us true rest in the midst of our afflictions. That's right, very good. Kyla? We can have peace in our trials. Good, it's good to see the children are on board here. Matthias is raising his hand vigorously there. Yes, Matthias? Um, okay, very good. Um wasn't in the passage but that's okay. All right, I've put here, believers can expect false accusations about them and their faith. True? All right, David was experiencing that, leasing lies against his character and that is part and parcel of the Christian life. We have to be prepared for the persecutions and the oppositions that come. All right, believers need to take their burdens to the Lord in prayer as that was mentioned by Tina. And also we need to call the unrighteous to repentance, don't we, as David did, those who oppose God and God's people. I think also we can learn that believers can expect answers to prayer, can't we? Any others that I might not have seen there? Practical lessons. Right, faith in the face of foes, good to exercise faith in the Lord,