Psalm 4: 1 – 8
Sacrifice of Righteousness
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.
Someone walks up to you and asks you what is a ‘sacrifice of Righteousness?’ What is your response?
Would you give them something like the scripture passage in Galatians chapter 5, “16 I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. 17 For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary>”to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.”
I would say you are close, but you will have to give the person more information.
Righteousness belongs to our Holy God. It is in Him alone. In His Amazing Mercy and Grace, He applies it to us undeserving sinners. With His life-giving sacrifice at Calvary our Great God gives us His Righteousness. Therefore, like Galatians teaches and as Philippians chapter 4 points out, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” We are in good hands with our Lord Jesus.
Today we are going to see David understand this fact and speak about our Holy Kings Righteousness be applied in his life.
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 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 get revenge on 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.'
I have been blessed to see this condition apply in my personal life. I have truly seen some men who have been specially selected by our Great Holy Ruler. These guys are not specially gifted in any stretch of the imagination, but my o my what great accomplishments has God done through them and for them. You like to stay close to them in hopes that some of this amazing blessing might rub off on you.
David is reflecting on how some of the people whom he had placed his trust and friendship in had now become his enemies.
I had a young friend of mine just recently come and cry out to me this same situation. My answer to her and for you regarding these types of personal interaction is this. You see the problem is really on our part. We tend to put people in the ‘friend’ category when then do not really belong there. They were not a true ‘friend’ at all but merely an acquaintance. So, since we classified this person in our minds that he or she was a friend, therefore we feel so hurt. Do you understand my point here? Do not be quick to place someone in the ’friend’ category. Wait till they are tried and tested to see if they are really who you want them to be.
David knew that since God was not through with him that he could still enjoy a personal relationship with Him. He did not know that in the future our Holy Mater would reinstate him as king. In a matter of time through God’s design David would again lead God’s sheep. Therefore, we see his thinking towards those who have betrayed him, would live to regret the day when they would get theirs.
So, instead of growing in hatred towards these ‘Judas’s’, David knows that real spiritual growth means letting things go in your mind and thinking forward to God’s blessings. He could now go relived to sleep knowing that God Is still on His Throne and Is in control of all things.
4 Be angry, and do not sin. Meditate within your heart on your bed, and be still. Selah5 Offer the sacrifices of righteousness, and put your trust in the LORD.
When David was fleeing Jerusalem the priests who remained faithful to him brought with them the Ark of the Covenant. David knew that the Ark should stay in the spot where he had gone to great lengths to bring to the city of Jerusalem. He said to the priests these words which we read in the book of 2 Samuel chapter 15, “24 There was Zadok also, and all the Levites with him, bearing the ark of the covenant of God. And they set down the ark of God, and Abiathar went up until all the people had finished crossing over from the city. 25 Then the king said to Zadok, “Carry the ark of God back into the city. If I find favor in the eyes of the LORD, He will bring me back and show me both it and His dwelling place. 26 But if He says thus: ‘I have no delight in you,’ here I am, let Him do to me as seems good to Him.” 27 The king also said to Zadok the priest, “Are you not a seer? Return to the city in peace, and your two sons with you, Ahimaaz your son, and Jonathan the son of Abiathar. 28 See, I will wait in the plains of the wilderness until word comes from you to inform me.” 29 Therefore Zadok and Abiathar carried the ark of God back to Jerusalem. And they remained there.
With all his heart David wanted to be back in Jerusalem to worship God, yet even here he knew that you could still worship God by doing all he could to maintain God’s ‘right’ way of living. Please notice that it said the ‘sacrifice’ of righteousness. For us sinful people it many times causes us a great suffice. For example, I know of many people who are struggling with drug and alcohol problems. For these brothers and sisters they often must take a painful trust and obedience minute by minute to stay away from taking narcotics. You may experience the same type of overcoming addictions in other areas.
6 There are many who say, “Who will show us any good?” LORD, lift up the light of Your countenance upon us.
Please look at the words ‘Who will show us any good.’ We see now that many of the Israelites are now having second thoughts. They had turned to Absalom because of his promises of what he would do for them but now they are reconsidering. They are now remembering all that David had achieved for them, and possibly also aware that as he has survived the first onslaught he may well come out as the victor. They are also remembering that he had been a successful intercessor. They are asking ‘who is the one who will make the best king so that we prosper under his rule? Who will be the best intercessor?’ And they recognized that it had to be the one anointed by Adoni Yahweh, Father God. Now realizing the mess of the civil war they seek His delivering power to deliver David and themselves and bring the country back to normal.
7 You have put gladness in my heart, more than in the season that their grain and wine increased.
The greatest gladness in life in an agricultural society was for the corn and the wine to increase. And the harvest festivals, in a good year, were their time of greatest rejoicing. It meant plentiful food, much enjoyment, increasing wealth and a year of fullness. But the gladness that El Elyon, the Lord Most High, puts in the heart, David says, is greater far than that. David rejoiced in the pouring out of His goodness for it far exceeded the blessing of the harvest. And he especially rejoiced in that in his present situation God was working for Him and would continue to do so.
Have you ever thought or asked yourself why God allows all the problems we get? Do you why He does these things? The problem again is us. You see if everything goes well we have the tendency to just ignore God. Our Great and Majestic Holy God allows these things to go on in order for us to seek Him. Look at His words in Psalm 50 verse 15, ‘And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.’
Forgive us oh Precious Loving God.
8 I will both lie down in peace, and sleep; For You alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety.
David finishes with his declaration of full confidence in The One Who Is in charge of all things. The final battle is not yet over, in fact it is just beginning, but as he prepares for it he can afford to lie down, and yes, he even sleeps, for he knows that his safety and security are in his Maker’s hands. Because he is God’s son, he is confident of his safety and security. We too may sleep in peace if we are His.
