Joy Contest: God Vs. World - Psalm 4:2-8 Series

Psalm 4:1-8 For the director of music. With stringed instruments. A psalm of David. Answer me when I call to you, O my righteous God (lit God of my righteousness). Give me relief from my distress; be merciful to me and hear my prayer. 2 How long, O men, will you turn my glory into shame? How long will you love delusions and seek false gods? Selah 3 Know that the LORD has set apart the godly for himself; the LORD will hear when I call to him. 4 In your anger do not sin; when you are on your beds, search your hearts and be silent. Selah 5 Offer right sacrifices and trust in the LORD. 6 Many are asking, "Who can show us any good?" Let the light of your face shine upon us, O LORD. 7 You have filled my heart with greater joy than when their grain and new wine abound. 8 I will lie down and sleep in peace, for you alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety.

Introduction

Psalm four is a psalm that shows us how David handles it when he has a conflict with some unbelievers who had the upper hand against him. And we saw that David focused first on God, not on his enemies. We tend to think the one who holds the keys to us getting out of our problem is the person causing the problem. That is wrong. If we follow David’s example, instead of focusing on that person causing our problem, we will focus on the One in charge of the problem – God. Instead of behaving as though some human being were in charge of our wellbeing, we will behave as though God and God alone is.

We also saw that the most important question in a conflict is not, “Is that other person in the wrong?” but “Do I have God’s approval?” David had God’s approval. In verse three he places himself in the category of the godly whom God has set apart for Himself and whose prayers God will answer. This means his enemies are God’s enemies, which is bad news for his enemies.

David is known for being pretty hard on his enemies at times. Sometimes he writes imprecatory psalms, which is a prayer that calls for God to send judgment on his enemies. But we do not see that in this psalm. What we see instead is David trying to lead his enemies to God. It seems that the more David thinks about the fact that God will give him decisive victory, and defeat his enemies, the more he starts to feel sorry for his enemies. Defeat at the hands of God is a horrible, horrible thing. So David reaches out to them in this psalm to try to bring them to a knowledge of God.

The main body of this psalm, from verse two through verse five (or, you could even argue, through the end of the psalm), is nothing but pure evangelism. David is showing them the way out of their empty, worthless lives and into knowledge of God. So this psalm is a great model for how you can effectively share the gospel with unbelievers. So that is our focus in this lessong – how to lead an unbeliever to God.

And David’s process is pretty simple – all you have to do is four things. 1) Go first to God. Make sure you are right with God and that you have His approval. 2) Show them that the most important question is “What do you love?” 3) Talk to the person about how God compares to wind. 4) Call for repentance.

I. Seek God’s approval

This first step (explored in the last lesson) is crucial. You may want to review it at this point. The only thing I want to do in this lesson with this first point is to underscore the results that come from doing what was discussed in that last lesson, and how that prepares you to share the gospel with someone.

Before sharing your faith it is essential that you make sure you are right with God. Make sure you are not carrying on with any unrepentant sin in your dealings with this person or anything else. And when you do that, and you are certain that you are right with God, it will do two very important things to prepare you to lead someone to God. 1) It will give you compassion and 2) it will give you courage.

A. Compassion

David was so sure that God was going to make things right, that he started to feel compassion for the men who he knew were going to end up on the business end of God’s rod. And so instead of praying for their destruction, he reaches out to them in this psalm. You can hear the mood of David’s soul in verse two, where he pleads with them. There is no anger – it is obvious his words are coming from an ache in his soul - an ache that comes not just from the fact that they are hurting David as much as the fact that they are hurting themselves and ruining their lives. “How long will you pursue that which is worthless?” He sees their pursuit of emptiness and rejection of the things of God, and it just pains him to see it. And there is a longing in his heart for them to change. And the question “how long” carries with it almost an assumption that they probably will change. David shows a little bit of optimism that they will listen.