Psalm 4 - Toddlers and Robbers

Podcast Transcript (Auto-Transcribed by Apple Podcasts)

Welcome back to Tabernacle Talk. I'm excited for today, and we are in Psalm 4, and we are in a kind of an evening prayer today. And so if you're listening to this when it comes out, it is probably 4 a.m.

I think. If you're on the West Coast, it is 1 a.m. And as we go through, we are looking at this song that the Psalm writer creates, and he wrote it for bedtime.

This is a sleepy time Psalm, and I always loved growing up the sleepy time T, and it was always very, very tasty, very comforting. Drink that, it was nice and warm, and I went, I'm ready for bedtime now.

And this is a Psalm that kind of has that same feeling for your soul. So we're going to dive right in. It says this, for the music director on stringed instruments, a Psalm of David.

He says this, answer me when I call God of my righteousness. You have relieved me in my distress. Be gracious to me and hear my prayer.

You sons of man, how long will my honor be treated as an insult? How long will you love what is worthless and strive for a lie? Selah.

But know that Yahweh has set apart the godly person for himself. Yahweh hears when I call to him. Tremble and do not sin.

Meditate in your heart upon your bed and be still. Selah. Offer the sacrifices of righteousness and trust in Yahweh.

Many are saying, who will show us anything good? Lift up the light of your face upon us, oh Yahweh. You have put joy in my heart, more than when their grain and new wine are abundant.

In peace, I will both lie down and sleep. For you alone, Yahweh, have me dwell in safety. What a great, what a great Psalm.

This, this Psalm deals with, quite often, we come to our evenings, we come to periods of our life, and we are fearful, and we are fretful, and we don't know what God has for us. We don't know really what He's doing.

We don't know what tomorrow will bring. We don't know, perhaps, the results of what will happen because of what our day has brought.

And here, David states over and over and over again his reliance on God and the fact that it's God with him, God in him, God for him, that makes all the difference.

There in verse number 8, kind of the conclusion of everything, David says, I, in peace, I will both lie down and sleep.

The thought is at the same time, I'm not going to lie down and worry and worry and worry, and then eventually at some point get to sleep.

He says, I'm going to hit the pillow tonight and I'm going to sleep because you alone, Lord, have me dwell in safety. As we look at this Psalm, we realize that it is only God that allows us to dwell in safety.

In other Psalms, we would read, some trust in chariots, some people trust in horses, the strength of the cavalry. It says, but we will trust in the name of the Lord our God.

If God is not for you, if God is not protecting you, it doesn't matter how many guard dogs you have, it doesn't matter how many security officers you have guarding your house, it doesn't matter if you've got a ring camera or if you have a doberman or

you have anything else, if God's not protecting you, nothing can save you. And if God is protecting you, if God is keeping you safe, then nothing in this world can come at you if God does not intentionally allow it for a specific purpose.

So, we're going to look at a couple of these verses, but I want to start off with that, that we can have a reliance, a safety, a security that we find in God that goes beyond our estimations of security and safety.

For my wife and I, back in November of 2019, we lived in the parsonage right next to our church there in Washington state, and a person broke into the church through kind of the, had gone past a gate and had broken through a ground floor window, and

they went through and they stole really tens of thousands of dollars worth of things. It wasn't that the church was particularly like super well off. It was just my wife's computer was in there.

The music pastor at the time, he had a guitar that was in there. I think my pastor's wife, her guitar case was in there. There was, I think, the church computer that was stolen and a number of other items.

It was a whole thing. But the night prior, so that was a Saturday night actually that happened. We had had several of us that were at the church that Saturday earlier in the evening.

And the music pastor's daughter, who was probably two or three at the time, she was there and she had stolen my wife's car keys and was kind of playing with them.

And because we just lived right next door to the church, we had a couple of different sets of keys and my wife had just kind of not quite noticed that the music pastor's daughter had stolen the keys. And so it wasn't a big deal.

We just live right next door so we can just walk over, lock up, grab our other set of keys, grab it.

So the keys were in the church building when the man came and he stole the car keys and stole our car, which was obviously, since it was at the church, we lived at the parsonage, stole the car as well.

And for probably a year or year and a half after that, there was so much anxiety for my life. As we went forward, we were woken up to the realization that all of that had taken place at probably, oh, I forget if it was maybe 2 or 3 a.m.

It was something very, very early in the morning, very late at night. And we were fast asleep.

It was pitch black, and all of a sudden, there was like a big knocking at the door because the pastor and youth pastor had come by, and they were like, hey, you know, we were broken into and we need your stuff and all that.

So for about a year and a half after that, I couldn't go to sleep unless there was some noise, maybe some music or a podcast or something.

I couldn't go to sleep unless kind of the not the whole light, but there was our living room light, unless that was on and I was in the bedroom and the door was open. I couldn't go to sleep until that took place.

And it was just really a deep, stressful burden. And a song that God used to really speak to my heart kind of through that time period was the song Jesus Strong and Kind by City of Light.

And if you've never heard that song, I would strongly encourage you to go listen to it.

If I felt like I could maybe remember more of the lyrics at this point in time, I'd swing over my guitar and sing it for you, but we'll forgo that for today on Tabernacle Talk.

But that song really brought some encouragement and then truthfully just a longer thought and look at and dwelling on the fact that God allowed that to be able to take place.

As a result of kind of the response of that, there was actually a couple of ladies that ended up accepting the Lord through communications with my pastor and his wife and how they dealt with the situation and God working.

And it was just an incredible thing that took place. I actually ended up, I think about a year, year and a half after that, ended up accidentally catching that same robber when he broke into the church again, this time on drugs.

And I didn't realize he was in there. I thought someone had just left a light on, so I walked over to the church. My wife and son were out here actually in Maryland visiting family.

And as a result, because he was so high, I was able to call the cops. I wasn't in danger. He was arrested, admitted to everything.

It was just a crazy set of circumstances. But through it all, God really brought to my heart this truth from this passage, like, hey, there are worries in life. There are fears.

There are struggles that you'll go through. But realize that it's God that gives safety. And if in any circumstance God says, okay, in this moment, I'm not going to provide health or I'm not going to provide safety, there is a purpose for it.

And there might be some trust that he wants to build up in our lives, that we would trust him more, that we would follow him. And wouldn't you rather have a greater reliance on God, a greater ability to go, God, I know you're in control.

That's truthfully worth more to me than stuff was. I think I had a 12-string guitar that I had received from my dad and grandpa for graduating high school. And that was one of the items that was stolen.

And I'd much rather know, hey, those two ladies that accepted Christ, their salvations. And because it happened because of those circumstances, I would much rather that than the guitar.

I would much rather the ability to know God more and to be able to understand Him more and trust Him more than the kind of pseudo-security that I thought I had before.

Thanks for taking a little bit of time to listen with, listen to me tell that story. I'll dive back into the word here, but just wanted to kind of testify about that and how I've seen this play out in my own life.

The passage says this in verse 1, answer me when I call God of my righteousness, that God is the one who takes care of us. He's the one that's keeping the score.

And for David here, there were many times when people thought he's not really following God. There were times when David, as we learned about yesterday, genuinely wasn't following God.

But God was the one that maintained David and kept him safe in so many times. When he didn't keep him safe, those were the times when he had some big lessons to teach David. And God was the one that stood by him.

David here says, You have relieved me in my distress.

You've made room for me that in those moments where we feel claustrophobic in life, like we are trapped, that we can ask God to make room for us in our distress, that we would no longer feel that ever-tightening grip of circumstances and situations

and maybe people that God is able to provide room. And here David praises God for that. He says, Be gracious to me and hear my prayer. We talked on Sunday about the wonderful truth it is that the God of the universe wants to hear our prayer.

And here this is what David is calling to him for. He says, Be gracious to me. He goes, I know I don't deserve this, so I'm asking for your graciousness.

That you would give me what I do not deserve. He says, You sons of man, how long will my honor be treated as an insult? How long will you love what is worthless and strive for a lie?

Here he's communicating to those that do not follow God, that do not know him, that would mock him for his stance of standing for the Lord and wanting to have a relationship with him, that they treat his honor, his glory, which is God, as an insult.

Like people today don't really say, You goody two shoes.

I fail to think of at the moment maybe what someone today would say along those lines, where they treat fidelity to God and to his word as something that is shameful rather than something that is a great honor.

He says, But know that the Lord has set apart the godly person for himself. The Lord hears when I call to him.

Do you know that God, if you know the Lord today, that God has set you apart for himself, that he loves you, that he, of everyone in the world, when you responded to his call, everyone that responds to his call, no matter what they've done, no matter

how much of a failure they may think themselves to be, when we call on the Lord, he takes us and he sets us apart for himself, that we are his chosen, that we aren't, we weren't just part of the package deal, and God doesn't really love us

particularly, he just loves everyone, but he took us and set us apart. He put his seal on us, the seal of the Holy Spirit, and the Lord sets apart the godly person for himself. If you are God's own precious set apart possession, then know that he

loves you, and that he has not forgotten you, and he has not abandoned you, he is there for you. It says, the Lord hears when I call to him.

That is the wonderful truth of knowing that you're a child of God, that when you pray to God, he will answer and he hears.

The answer might not always be yes to your prayer request, it might sometimes be no, that just like you would tell your kid if they wanted candy for breakfast and lunch and dinner, and you would have to tell them no because it's not good for them,

sometimes God tells us no because there is something better ahead, there is a better lesson that we might learn, there's a better circumstance, maybe there's a better person that we would be married to or a better result in some way. We don't know

why God always says no, but oftentimes he does, but it doesn't mean he doesn't hear you. It might be that he is looking out for your best interests by saying no. And sometimes he says, wait, and we don't like that answer very much either.

He says, tremble and do not sin, meditate in your heart upon your bed and be still. He says, think about God, think about how powerful he is. Think about the fact that he is the ruler of everything, that he has all power.

And he says, be afraid of the fact that you are fighting against life himself. And don't fight against him. It says, don't sin, don't pursue what is anti-God.

Don't pursue what is anti-life and holiness and happiness. He says, don't run after those things. He says, meditate in your heart upon your bed and be still.

They are the thought. Think over the reality of who God is and what he has commanded us. Meditate on it, think on it.

I mentioned before, it's the cow chewing the cud and putting it into the four stomachs and burping it back up and then putting it in stomach number two. It's that, it's think over and over and over again. Okay, what does God want me to do?

Who does God want me to be? He says, offer the sacrifices of righteousness and trust in the Lord. He says, go all in with God.

Hear the sacrifices of righteousness. He says, he doesn't say offer the sacrifices of bulls or goats or whatever. He says, God wants your heart.

He wants who you genuinely are to follow him. And to offer the sacrifice of righteousness to do what God wants comes from that heart of trust in the Lord that says, I believe him.

When I thought about who he is, it has moved me to action because I genuinely believe on the inside that he is who he says he is. He says, many are saying, who will show us anything good?

People want all sorts of additional things from God in addition to everything that he has already given them. Life and clothing and food and shelter and friends and relationships and jobs and so many pleasures in life.

God says, I've given you all these things. He says, lift up the light of your face upon us, Lord. Lifting up the light of your face, it's cause your countenance, your gaze, your look to fall on us.

Cause when God looks on you, it's a sign of blessing. It's, I'm paying attention to you and I'm going to help you with where you are at. He says, you have put joy in my heart.

More than when their grain and new wine are abundant. The happiest time of year would be when you have all of the crops in and you've got food out the wazoo and you've got new wine and so there's happiness and there's joy.

And he says, God, you make me happier than the best times of financial gain and security. And that's when he says, in peace, I will both lie down and sleep. He says, those that do not know you, they should be trembling and in fear upon their bed.

They need to be thinking about when they are alone by themselves, meditating your heart upon your bed and be still. He says, they need to think about their actions. He says, if I'm following you, God, I'm asleep as soon as my head hits the pillow.

He says, you alone, Lord, have me dwell in safety because he is our righteousness. He is the one that sets us apart. He hears when we call to him.

Hope Psalm 4 would be an encouragement to you today and realize that safety and sleep come from the Lord. He loves you. He is for you.

So let's pursue him. Let's give him our heart and be genuine with him. Tomorrow, we are in Psalm 5, really looking forward to that great portion of scripture as well.

See you then. Thank you.