Getting Much Sleep Lately? Series

Psalm 4: 1 – 8

Getting Much Sleep Lately?

1 Hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness! You have relieved me in my distress; Have mercy on me, and hear my prayer. 2 How long, O you sons of men, will you turn my glory to shame? How long will you love worthlessness and seek falsehood? Selah 3 But know that the LORD has set apart for Himself him who is godly; The LORD will hear when I call to Him. 4 Be angry, and do not sin. Meditate within your heart on your bed, and be still. Selah 5 Offer the sacrifices of righteousness, and put your trust in the LORD. 6 There are many who say, “Who will show us any good?” LORD, lift up the light of Your countenance upon us. 7 You have put gladness in my heart, more than in the season that their grain and wine increased. 8 I will both lie down in peace, and sleep; For You alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety.

I would like you to go with me to a time in the past when David, who penned this Psalm, was experiencing some traumatic events. The severe problems that David faced were a result of David’s adultery and murder of a faithful friend.

Our Great God Jehovah Elyon, The Lord Most High as you know IS present everywhere and knows all things. So, For his sins, David deserved to die, yet our Merciful God forgave him his sins but also allowed a severe discipline to befall him. Through the mouth of His prophet Nathan, The Holy El Shaddai pronounced upon David the fact that the sword would not depart from his family. This would mean that his sons would wind up killing each other. When the dust cleared four of his boys would die.

I guess you could say his favorite son, Absalom, had schemed to overthrow David and take by force the throne. Through God’s warning David figured out the plot and escaped with some of his trusted friends. So, now we are at the point where David is camped out and is reflecting upon all that had transpired and with a pen in his had wrote down for us these amazing words.

1 Hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness! You have relieved me in my distress; Have mercy on me, and hear my prayer.

When we sin we draw away from God. We feel that we are going ‘to get it’ from Him. So, being ashamed of our offense against the One Whom we have proclaimed our love and obedience, we just sulk. God must be pretty mad at us. We feel that He isn’t answering any phone calls that we make to Him. He has for sure withdrawn His love and affection towards us, right? - No, not at all. You are not alone if you feel this condition. David is pointing this out vividly.

Do you know what it means to ‘Grieve’ our Wonderful Holy Spirit? Most if not all of you will say that He Is upset over our failure to walk properly in His precepts. We have hurt Him to the point that He is emotionally hurting over our rebellion. In a way this might be true. However, I believe that when we ‘Grieve’ our Great Holy Ghost, He Is heartbroken at the breaking off of our close fellowship with Him and the fact that He hurts for us knowing the pain which will result from our sinful decisions.

What we should do is come quickly before our ever Merciful and Gracious Holy Creator and confess our sins. This will bring us back again immediately into a personal close relationship with our Holy King.

After his sins were found out David fell on his knees and proclaimed to God his acknowledgement of his sins. Being assured of God’s forgiveness David now realizes that even though these disciplinary actions were waiting in the wings and brought out by his sins, he also knew that once God ‘anoints’ someone that person remains special to El Shaddai, Almighty God.

2 How long, O you sons of men, will you turn my glory to shame? How long will you love worthlessness and seek falsehood? Selah 3 But know that the LORD has set apart for Himself him who is godly; The LORD will hear when I call to Him.

For those of you who are familiar with the biblical passages in 1 and 2 Samuel and 1 Kings then you know that David would not touch king Saul who relentlessly wanted to kill him. You see he understood this principal that a man who God anoints retains that special blessing. Look at one of these situations which brings out this fact which I take from the book of 2 Samuel chapter 24 verse 10, “Look, this day your eyes have seen that the LORD delivered you today into my hand in the cave, and someone urged me to kill you. But my eye spared you, and I said, ‘I will not stretch out my hand against my lord, for he is the LORD's anointed.'