Somebody Else’s Mail (8)

The superscription to Psalm 4 reads, “To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments. A Psalm of David.” It reminds us that no matter how personal any given psalm may appear, each was written with the entire body of believers in mind. Three thousand years ago, your new psalm did not get played on the radio in your car, revolve on the turntable of your stereo, or get discovered on Spotify. The average Israelite did not even have a copy of the words at home in a scroll to read and meditate on.

Psalms were for the congregation when it gathered, whether sung and accompanied or performed for worshipers by trained musicians.

Common to Man

With that as context, we may reasonably ask ourselves exactly how universal and relatable the intellectual and spiritual struggles of Israel’s king might be to the average man. Psalm 3 saw David on the run from his rebel son, at risk of his life and legacy. How many Israelites or Christians have ever experienced anything remotely analogous? My guess would be not many. There are ungrateful children, then there are UNGRATEFUL children.

Psalm 4, on the other hand, finds David in the midst of the sort of experience that at one time or another confronts every servant of God who takes on the responsibility of leading his people. Not everybody agrees with what you are doing and how you are doing it. Not everybody appreciates you, trusts you or respects you. When they talk about you, complain and criticize your every move, it can be spiritually daunting. Moses experienced pushback from the troops with appalling frequency, and David went through it too. The shepherds at your local church may feel the same way from time to time as they deal with sheep who have no interest in being fed or corrected. They have their own ideas about what a church should be doing.

David’s solution? Take his detractors to the Lord in prayer.

Psalm 4:1 — An Appeal for Help

“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!”

The psalm begins and ends with David addressing himself to the Lord. In between, he rebukes his enemies, defends his own character and offers some solid advice to others in his situation.

He begins by appealing to the Lord for emotional (and perhaps practical) relief, addressing the Lord as “God of my righteousness”. As far as I can tell by searching both English and Hebrew, that’s a unique expression. God is both the source of righteousness and the defender of the righteous. We can approach him with greatest confidence when we know we have behaved righteously and can be sure our conduct is unimpeachable.

Secondly, David acknowledges that this is something of a habit. He has come to God before in times of distress and found the comfort he was seeking. Knowing from personal experience that the Lord can be trusted to provide what he needs, he approaches him humbly and gratefully. No doubt with the challenges of leadership, David went through this experience many times.

Psalm 4:2-3 — A Challenge to Enemies

“O men, how long shall my honor be turned into shame? How long will you love vain words and seek after lies? Selah But know that the Lord has set apart the godly for himself; the Lord hears when I call to him.”

Now David turns to confront his enemies. Where Psalm 3 found David in fear of his life and kingdom, what’s at stake in Psalm 4 is David’s reputation. He is being slandered. People are telling lies about him. He’s treated with shame instead of the honor appropriate to the position to which God has called him.

There’s no doubt the Lord is concerned with the reputation of those who serve him. After all, it reflects on him. The overseer, Paul wrote, must be “above reproach”, “respectable”, “well thought of by outsiders, so that he may not fall into disgrace”. Moreover, the Lord has built protections into his word for those who serve him faithfully. The apostle also reminded Timothy that the Lord requires two witnesses in order to admit a charge against an elder. Idle talk about leadership from the malcontents in the congregation is not to be taken seriously. Moreover, he instructed the Thessalonians to respect those who are over them in the Lord and to esteem them highly.

To his enemies, David points out that the Lord has granted him a unique position. He has set apart the godly for himself, and he can be trusted to defend them from attack because they are his servants. Furthermore, the Lord could be trusted to do something about the false accusations of David’s enemies, just as he defended Moses and Aaron when men like Korah, Dathan and Abiram maligned them and questioned their judgment and motives. Those who tried to depose Moses were summarily and memorably dispatched.

Psalm 4:4-5 — A Little Instruction

“Be angry, and do not sin; ponder in your own hearts on your beds, and be silent. Selah Offer right sacrifices, and put your trust in the Lord.”

There’s some question concerning to whom these next two lines are addressed. David Guzik suggests perhaps the king is counseling and comforting himself. “He reminded himself to not sin in his anger, and to find solace in meditation before the Lord.” That’s one possibility, certainly. Righteous anger would be a natural response to lies and reputation smears. Perhaps David is simply telling himself, “Buck up, little pilgrim.” Alternatively, he may still be talking to his enemies, counseling them on the right way to go. A third option is that he is advising any godly man in a similar situation to his own, not an improbable strategy when you consider the psalms were always intended for public consumption and regular usage in other voices than his own.

I note the NIV, ESV and some other versions pluralize both “beds” and “hearts”, suggesting the last two interpretations are more likely. However, the Hebrew is ambiguous. All we can say with certainty is that this moral lesson is the center of the psalm, the resolution to which David has come concerning how to deal with slander and defamation.

Psalm 4:6-7 — An Expression of Thanks

“There are many who say, ‘Who will show us some good? Lift up the light of your face upon us, O Lord!’ You have put more joy in my heart than they have when their grain and wine abound.”

At the end of verse 5, David returns to addressing the Lord, this time with gratitude. He appears to be saying something like, “Others might find this sort of treatment a reason to complain. However, having taken my problem to the Lord, I am filled with joy and strengthened in the inner man.” That’s usually the result of putting our trust in our heavenly Father. The average man rejoices when things go well for him circumstantially. He gets excited at the prospect of a good crop. David says, “I can find reason to rejoice even when I’m suffering.”

This too is the expression of a Christ-like spirit, though David lived in a pre-Christian era where the rules of engagement with enemies were slightly different: often, you took the sword to them rather than loving them. Yet the NT writers remind us frequently that “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.” This was precisely David’s position. He did not become king by his own manipulations or by good fortune, but through the call and choosing of God. Therefore, rejecting David’s leadership was rejecting the Lord.

Psalm 4:8 — A State of Reassurance

“In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.”

David recognized that he maintained both his throne and his composure only because the Lord upheld him. Those who have served the Lord by leading his people for more than a few years generally come to the same conclusion. Not only is our Father our sole source of effective protection from spiritual harm, he also enables us to feel safe in the process of living for him.