The Sermon for Wednesday, June 3rd, the Commemoration of St. Augustine of Canterbury
A sermon on Psalm 4
Psalm 4 is a lament psalm arising from either the psalmist’s distress or from some distress suffered by the nation of Israel but voiced by the speaker. The psalm commends itself to a universal audience by offering wise and godly counsel to everyone who seeks a good life.
The first verse is a call to God, who has given the speaker righteousness by treating him justly and delivering him from bondage in the past. On the basis of God’s faithful treatment of him in the past, the speaker asks God to be gracious to him and to pay attention to his prayer.
In the second verse, men are asked either how long they will blaspheme the Lord’s honor or how long they will dishonor the speaker, and how long they will delight in futile things and make a habit of lying. Verse 2 can stand as one of those verses that is God’s diagnosis of some aspects of man’s sinfulness.
In the third verse, the speaker emphasizes God’s choice of the man that is godly, that is, the man who practices righteousness and godliness. Since God chooses the godly person, he chooses to hear the prayers of the godly person, as Psalm 34 reminds us:
The eyes of the LORD are upon the righteous, and his ears are open unto their cry.
(Psalm 34:15, KJV)
Verses 4 and 5 contain the directions anyone must follow to pleaser the Lord. Firstly, one must stand in awe of God and refrain from sin. Secondly, one must commune with one’s heart, and in one’s chamber and be still. This is excellent advice! Instead of complaining or devising evil against others, or speaking against them to others, one examines one’s own motives and conscience in stillness. This is the discipline of silence, for in it we come face to face with ourselves in the presence of God. There in silence, we allow the Holy Spirit to convict us of sin, to show us how we need to improve our behavior, to reveal to us what he wants us to do. Verse 5 follows up with the kind of sacrifice God requires. He wants the sacrifice of righteousness as well as faith in him.
By contrast, many people are waiting for someone to show them good things (v.6), good times, prosperity, but the best course of action is to approach God in faith, continue living righteously, and waiting on God in silence.
Verse 7 is a prayer for God’s favorable blessing.
Verse 8 can mean two things: either the Lord has put joy in the speaker’s heart since the time of corn, wine , and oil crop increases, or the Lord has put more joy in the speaker’s heart than the people had when their crops increased. Either way, there is a resolution to the distress we find earlier in the psalm.
Verse 9 expresses the speaker’s faith in God, so that he may lie down and rest knowing that only the Lord causes him to live in safety.
CONCLUSION
The psalm identifies the wrong and right responses to distress in one’s life and advises one to follow wise directions to remain in God’s righteousness, so that one’s prayers may be heard. The psalm ends with an expression of faith in God shown in taking one’s rest peacefully, for God alone causes one to live in safety.