In his sermon on Psalm 4, David Green emphasizes the comfort and guidance this Psalm offers in times of distress, highlighting the timelessness of the Bible's teachings. He notes that, while the specific circumstances under which David wrote Psalm 4 are uncertain, its message is universally applicable. The sermon underscores the importance of God-centered prayer, as illustrated by the Psalmist's plea for divine intervention based on God's righteousness rather than personal merit. Green also explores the role of music in worship, advocating for the use of stringed instruments as a tradition rooted in biblical instruction. The sermon further delves into the balance between prayer and action, urging believers to be both prayerful and proactive in their faith. It discusses the significance of fearing God as a deterrent to sin and highlights the importance of spiritual communion with God, especially during trials. Finally, Green explains that true gladness and peace come from God, surpassing any worldly abundance, and that every trial serves to strengthen our relationship with Christ.

All right, so if you have your copy of God's Word, let's go ahead and go to Psalm, Psalms 4, This evening Psalms 4. Psalms four, it says for the choir director with stringed instruments a Psalm of David. That's a Psalm of David. We'll begin reading at verse 1. Answer me when I call, O God of my righteousness, you have relieved me in my distress.

Be gracious to me and hear my prayer. O sons of men, how long will my glory become a reproach? How long will you love what is worthless and seek falsehood? Silo. But know that Yahweh has set apart the Holy one for himself.

Yahweh hears when I call to him. Tremble and do not sin. Ponder in your heart upon your bed and be still, Sila. Offer the sacrifices of righteousness and trust in Yahweh. Many are saying, who will show us good?

Lift up the light of your face upon us, oh Yahweh. You have put gladness in my heart. More than win their grain in new wine abound. In peace I will both lie down and sleep. For you alone, oh Yahweh, make me to abide in safety.

It is fitting that Psalm 3 and Psalm 4 are right there together. I don't know that Psalm 4 was written on the same occasion as what Psalm 3 was. Do you remember Psalm 3 was written when David fled from Absalom his son. Psalm four, we have no indication that that was what was going on. However, However, we know that David was distressed by some enemies.

It may have been when Absalom rebelled against him, but it could have also been when Saul was giving him some trouble. May have been some other time. Nonetheless, It is applicable that Psalm 4 does follow Psalm 3. It's applicable that it's written the way that it is and whatever the case may be that brought David to write this psalm. We may not know for sure what it was that was going on in his life and and what the circumstances were.

The reality is that this psalm is applicable to us in our time of trouble as well. The Bible is not necessarily an ancient book, although it is certainly that, but it is a timeless book. A book that Regardless of whether you're reading this in Old Testament times or reading it in New Testament times or reading it now, it is good for the soul. Great comfort. Certainly God's people have found comfort in this psalm for many, many years, many generations, and we thank God for it.

Because even though we may not all have a have a Saul or an Absalom in our lives, we all have enemies that we face. Every Christian is in a spiritual battle and certainly we do have those problems. This is the first psalm that is written to the, or rather for, the choir director. The chief musician was to take this and to Lead the choir, string portion of the orchestra in this celebration of worship. We see that direction given there in the Psalm as it says there for the choir director with stringed instruments.

Our God, Yahweh loves music and he loves a great arrangement of music. There is some traditions within some churches and even amongst some Baptist churches, which says that there can be no stringed instruments in worship. But I submit to you today that the Saints of old would have been surprised at that. It is such a blessed sound to hear the stringed instruments. It is what It is what we find in this song book, the book of Psalms.

As the Holy Spirit directed these psalm writers to give, they arranged it so that they would be sung with stringed instruments. And I believe that there is nothing in the scriptures which says that under the new covenant that somehow we are not allowed to or permitted to have stringed instruments in our worship today. We divide the psalm up into three portions. In the first portion we'll take just one verse, verse one. Praying to God for preservation.

Praying to God for preservation. Look with me there at our text. When the psalmist cries out and he says, answer me when I call, O God of my righteousness, you have relieved me in my distress. Be gracious to me and hear my prayer. If You want to get better in your prayer life, learn to pray like the psalmist.

There are, within the pages of scripture here, throughout these 66 books of the Bible there are many examples of good prayers and the Psalms contains many of them. You want to learn how to pray, study the Psalms as they are written. You want to get better at singing for the Lord? Learn to sing like the psalmist. Yes, we talk about the Psalms as being good medicine for the troubled soul and it's a fact that the Psalms are good for that, but there's so much here for worship.

And when we think about prayers and singing, This is so rich in the scriptures. The psalmist cries out to God with the understanding that the ultimate basis for divine intervention is God and not the psalmist. The ultimate basis for divine intervention is God, not David. You see, this is where our prayers must begin. This is where our songs must begin.

The songs that we sing, whether we use the black book or the red book, the hymnal, whether we sing out of the psalter or the hymnal, whatever it is, whether it's hymn or whatever it is, whether it's the old hymns or the newer hymns, they must begin with God. They must be Christ-centered. They must be songs that are biblical and theologically rich. And we see that example here in the scriptures. Our prayers, our songs, they don't begin with you or me, they begin with our God.

And the psalmist here begins this text. He says, answer me when I call. Oh God of my righteousness, you have relieved me in my distress. Be gracious to me and hear my prayer. God-centered prayer here.

He's crying out to God. In time of trouble, you have relieved me in my distress. Be gracious to me and hear my prayer. We have such a great need for God, but we have a great God for our need. And we see that with the psalmist as he prays to God for preservation in a time of trouble.

In verses 2 through 5 we see him reasoning with his enemies about repentance. Now there's a transition here as David the Psalmist, as he steps out of the prayer closet and into the field of conflict. And isn't that the way that it has to be in life? Some men seem to be off balance with this, but the psalmist gives us a good balance here. What I mean is that some people go through life and they're always praying but never doing.

There's other people who are always doing but never praying. But in this psalm, we find both. Let us be people of action, yes, but let us be people of prayer. If we were to take all of the great people of Christian history, men and women, 2, 000 years of history of Christianity, church history, and everybody that you've read about who have done something for Christianity and something for the name of Christ, great things for the Lord. Those who have made a great impact in the world, wrote their names down in a book, studied their lives, what you'd find is that there is a great load of differences.

You'd find Baptists, yes. You'd find Presbyterians and Anglicans and Methodists. You'd find all sorts of individuals who have done great things for God in this world. Some of them Calvinists, others of them Armenians. You'd find many differences.

And as you try to look at their lives, and you try to say, what is it that's something that I could say that they all had in common, you could look at it and say, well, they all believed in Christ, yes. They were all... And you begin to make a list of the things that they had in common. One of the things that you'd find is that they were all men and women of prayer. There were men and women of prayer.

So David, David gets off of his knees as it were, And he gets into the battlefield in verses 2 through 5. Or 2 through 6 rather. Or 2 through 5, I'm sorry, I had to write it the first time. And it says here, And it says here, O sons of men, how long will my glory become a reproach? How long will you love what is worthless and seek falsehood?

Sila. But know that Yahweh has set apart the Holy One for Himself. Yahweh hears when I call to Him. Tremble and do not sin. Ponder in your heart upon your bed and be still.

Seelah. Offer the sacrifices of righteousness and trust in Yahweh. David addresses these men his enemies, those who were working against him or maybe the ones who weren't necessarily in the class of those who were his enemies but Maybe there was another class of people, those who perhaps were on the sidelines and tried to stay neutral but mocked his trust in Yahweh or were indifferent towards him and his trust in God. Whatever the case may be, he addresses these people as the sons of men. As the sons of men.

They were fleshly of the world. Of the world. It's a way to be in this life as you try to live following the following the Lord. And strive to be a great academic. Strive to be a disciple of Christ.

A follower of Christ. And as you do that, the other things will come along. Your theology and things like that will come along because as you're looking to get in the Word, you see there's a difference. Someone who's striving to be the best theologian in the in the room or online, what's he doing? He's in the Word trying to get everything sorted out so he can give the best arguments here, there, or everywhere, so he can be the smartest person, so he can be the best preacher at the conference or have the best argument whenever the time comes.

But what we ought to do is strive to be more Christ-like. And we're getting the Word and find Christ there. And there's a difference. I don't necessarily want to be the best of anything, except I do want to be the best Christian I can be. I want to be the best preacher I can be.

I want to be the best slave of Christ I can be. You see. But be careful what you ask for. Because the way that that comes about isn't easy. About isn't easy.

As David addresses these others, He says, how long will you love what is worthless and seek falsehood but know that Yahweh has set apart the Holy One for Himself. Yahweh hears when I call to Him." Oh beloved, there is a blessing to be set aside. A blessing to be heard when you cry out to God. And he says, tremble and do not sin. Tremble and do not sin.

In its context, this admonition means to tremble or shake in fear of Yahweh, to have a fear of God such that you do not sin. You avoid sin because of a fear of God. You see, tonight there are all sorts of people out there who are doing drugs, having free sex, and in all sorts of problems. And why are we not doing that? Is it because we're afraid that we might get a dirty needle in the drugs?

Is it because we're afraid that we might get an STD if we engage in the free sex? Or is it because we actually fear God? You see. And we know that to engage in such debauchery and evilness would be to offend the God who made us, the God who redeemed us. Tremble and do not sin.

But sadly, so many in our day have reversed this counsel and they sin, but do not tremble. You show me a man or a woman, a boy or a girl who has gone out in rebellion against God. And we can scratch our heads and say, why would they do that? Especially if they've been raised on the Bible and they know the Word of God. And there's no logic to any of it, but the answer always comes back to this.

There is no fear of God. So David, when he came out of the prayer closet, he engaged with his enemies. He engaged with those who were opposed to the Word of God. And when the rebels took heed of this passage, pondered in their hearts upon their bed and we're still. What happens?

Well, it says offer the sacrifices of righteousness and trust in Yahweh. This is Old Testament writing. This is Old Testament writing, but I submit to you today than when the Jew offered sacrifice righteously. What I mean by that is when he did so in a spiritual manner, and there were many sacrifices in the Old Testament, Old Covenant religion. But when he did so righteously, he thereby set forth his Redeemer, the great sin-atoning Lamb, the Son of God.

And therefore, the full gospel in this exhortation is shown here by the Psalmist. And in the same way on this side of the cross they were looking forward to it with their bloody sacrifices. You and I, we looked backward to it and we point you, dear sinner, flee to the sacrifice of the cross. Flee to Jesus. The only hope that you have.

Put your whole confidence and trust in Jesus Christ, who died for men. This is the only sacrifice of the righteous. Trust in Yahweh. Trust in Jesus Christ, the Lord, the Redeemer, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And in the third section of this psalm, We find him praising God for a true perspective.

This is verses six through eight. Many are saying, who will show us good? Lift up the light of your face upon us, oh Yahweh. You have put gladness in my heart. More than when there grain and new wine abound, in peace I will both lie down and sleep.

For you alone, oh Yahweh, make me to abide in safety." There were people then who were much like people today. People who were more ready to see than to believe. Who will show us good? And so they go out looking for the biggest crowd, the most exciting place, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, where it's all happening it seems like. Even those who are saved sometimes fall into this trap rather than trusting the Lord will follow after whatever looks prosperous according to the things of this world.

And hearts are turned in every direction, ready to drink whatever delusion imposters may invent. On some days we've been looking at some of the apostates and the things that Jude wrote there, and we know that the apostates can fill a building pretty quickly, draw a crowd and all that sort of thing. They're fake healings, and that's why I said fake, not faith, fake healings. They're entertainments and they're snake handling or they're springing in tongues and whatever else may be going on in those places. Many will follow the crowds thinking that's where they should be.

The crowds may not be the right place. There are crowds headed to an eternal hell. So our heads, our heads must be not downward thinking, but upward thinking. The Word of God has got to be our standard. A church isn't wrong just because it's big.

It's not wrong because it's small. It's not right just because it's big either, you see. The standard has got to be the Word of God, and we've got to look at it that way. Many were saying, who will show us good? Lift up the light of your face upon us, oh Yahweh.

And David goes on, he says, you have put gladness in my heart more than when their grain and new wine abounded. There's gladness in our hearts only to be found, only that can come from our God. I'm talking about lasting joy and happiness. I'm talking about gladness that is better than even the grain and the new wine. Charles Spurgeon wrote and said, It is better, said one, to feel God's favor one hour in our repenting souls than to sit whole ages under the warmest sunshine that this world affordeth.

Remember the occasion on which this was written. David was not in great circumstances. The world would say, Oh, well David, you're doing really good. David, what a great life you've got going on there. He was distressed because of his enemies.

There was trouble on hand. There were things going on in his life where The world might look at him and say, well, you know, something needs to change. But understand something, every trial, every war, Every breaking in this life that we live spiritually, it has a purpose. It really does. We often forget it, don't we?

We get into the midst of some dark valley, some rainy day, some big trouble, and we stand in the dark rain, the dreariness of the fog, and we just cry out, and we say, why? I don't understand why this would happen to me. I can tell you why. Regardless of what it is, it has a purpose. And that purpose is to drive you and me to ongoing communion with Christ.

To bring communion with Christ to bring us to the point where we are closer to God than where we've ever been. And that's the way this Psalm ends. He says, you have put gladness in my heart more than when their grain and new wine abound. In peace I will both lie down and sleep, for you alone, O Yahweh, make me to abide in safety." You see? He finds gladness in the time of trouble.

He finds sleep, peace, sleep. He finds safety. Why? Because he is, he is there with God. With God.

Yahweh makes him to abide in safety, and that's true for all of us. What a great joy it is to be one of his. May God add the blessing to the preaching of his word. Let's dismiss in prayer.