Enjoying God's Approval - Psalm 4:1,3 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

The most basic summary of the Christians life is this: knowing God. That is what Christianity is. Jeremiah 9:24 says the only thing that is worth boasting about in life is knowing God – nothing else matters. The term “know” in that context does not refer to mere information about God. It includes information, but it also involves personal experience.

Isaiah 59:8 They have made their roads crooked; no one who walks on them will know peace.

“They will not know peace” means they will not experience peace. So knowing someone means experiencing that person. And it is not just any experience with a person, but specifically an intimate exchange of love.

Genesis 4:1 Adam knew his wife Eve and she conceived.

Amos 3:2 [Israel:] You only have I known of all the families of the earth

On Judgment Day, if you have not had a personal, intimate mutual exchange of love with God He will say, “Depart from me; I never knew you.” (Matthew 7:23) So knowledge of God is a relational, personal, experience of the true God through a mutual exchange of intimacy and love.

Peter casts the entire Christian life in terms of knowing God.

2 Pe.1:2-8 Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. 3 His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 4 Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.

It is through knowing Him that we receive grace and peace (verse two) and all that we need for life and godliness (verse four), and we escape corruption and evil desires, and participate in the divine nature. If you have a problem with sin or anything else the solution is knowing God more. That is why Paul prayed the way he did:

Ephesians 1:17 I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.

This is the chief thing God wants from us.

Hosea 6:3,7 Let us know him. Let us press on to know the LORD.

7…For I desire loyalty and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.

So how do you increase and deepen your knowledge of God? Where can you go in the Bible to not only learn what the attributes of God are, but to also learn how to experience them? There is one particular place in the Bible that I believe is the densest concentration of truth about God. In this particular part of the Bible that I have in mind there are more direct statements about what God is like than in any other place. In fact, I can not think of any truth that is known about God the Father that isn’t taught in this one part of the Bible.

And not only that, but in this particular part of Scripture those truths about God are taught in the most practical of ways. Instead of a list of abstractions like you might read in a theology textbook, this part of Scripture I am talking about presents hundreds and hundreds of attributes of God in contexts that teach us exactly how those attributes are experienced in day to day life. And that part is crucial, because that teaches us how the truth about God is experienced relationally. And without the relational part there is no knowledge of God.

You cannot know God without knowing the truth about God. If you think you can know God through your experiences, without doing the hard work of studying Scripture, you are very much mistaken. However, mere information about God is not enough. All that does is put you in the same category as the devil, who probably knows more true facts about God than any of us.