October 30, 2022 – Sunday Service Live Stream

Ascension Presbyterian Church Longwood

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Deceive not yourselves, saying, The Chaldeans shall surely depart from us, for they shall not depart.

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For though ye had smitten the whole army of the Chaldeans that fight against you, and there remained but wounded men among them, yet should they arise up every man in his tent, and burn this city with fire.

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And it came to pass that when the army of the Chaldeans was broke up from Jerusalem for fear of Pharaoh's army, then

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Jeremiah went forth out of Jerusalem to go into the land of Benjamin, to separate himself thence in the midst of the people.

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And when he was in the gate of Benjamin, a captain of the ward was there, whose name was Uriah, the son of Shalamiah, the son of Hananiah.

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And he took Jeremiah the prophet, saying, Thou fallest away to the Chaldeans. Then said

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Jeremiah, It is false, I fall not away to the Chaldeans. But he hearkened not to him.

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So Uriah took Jeremiah and brought him to the princes. Wherefore the princes were wroth with Jeremiah, and smote him, and put him in prison in the house of Jonathan the scribe, for they had made that the prison.

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When Jeremiah was entered into the dungeon and into the cabins, and Jeremiah had remained there many days.

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Then Zedekiah the king sent and took him out, and the king asked him secretly in his house and said,

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Is there any word from the Lord? And Jeremiah said, There is. For he said,

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Thou shalt be delivered into the land of the king of Babylon. Moreover, Jeremiah said unto the king

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Zedekiah, What have I offended against thee, or against thy servants, or against this people, that ye have put me in prison?

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Where are now your prophets, which prophesied against you, saying, The king of Babylon shall not come against you, nor against this land?

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Therefore here now I pray thee, O my lord the king, Let my supplication,

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I pray thee, be accepted before thee, That thou cause me not to return to the house of Jonathan the scribe, lest I die there.

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Then Zedekiah the king commanded that they should commit Jeremiah into the court of the prison,

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And that they should give him daily a piece of bread out of the baker's street, until all the bread in the city were spent.

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Thus Jeremiah remained in the court of the prison. This is the word of the

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Lord. Thanks be to God. Let us continue our worship by the singing of the

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Apostles' Creed. Please take up the

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Trinity Hymnal once more and open up to hymn number 92, A Mighty Fortress is

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Our God, hymn 92. Amen.

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Let us make preparations for the prayers of the people. Let us pray together in unison.

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Almighty and everlasting God, in whom we live and move,

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We, your beloved children, offer to you our humble praises For having preserved us from the beginning of our lives to this day.

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Especially do we praise you for having delivered us from the dangers and uncertainties of this past week.

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For these mercies we bless to magnify your glorious name,

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Humbly beseeching you to accept this, our morning sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving.

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For it is Satan who lay down in the grave and rose again for us, Your Son, our

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Savior, Jesus Christ. Fulfill now, O Lord, our desires and petitions, as it may be best for us,

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Granting us in this world the knowledge of thy truth, And in the world to come, everlasting, everlasting.

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Amen. I ask your prayers for God's people throughout the world, for our denomination, especially for Ascension Reformed Church and Pastor Ray Simmons, who celebrate their first worship service today in our denomination.

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For this church and for all ministers and missionaries, pray for the church.

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I ask your prayers for the poor, the sick, the bereaved, the burdened, and for the widows, orphans, and prisoners.

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Pray for those in any need or trouble. Lord, if you are gracious, both to us and as you feed us, we pray that you would send us out to do the same.

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That as we consider the mercy and grace that you've shown towards us, that we would go find our neighbors who are in need of Christian ministry, and that we would be that person in our neighborhood who helps the poor and the sick.

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We ask, God, that you would impress this upon our hearts. We ask this in Jesus' name.

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Amen. I ask your prayers for those who do not know

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Christ, and for those who seek a deeper knowledge of him. Pray that they may find and be found by him.

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Lord, hear our prayers. I ask your prayers for our children and future generations which will be born to them.

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Pray that the knowledge of the Lord will fill the earth through them. Lord, hear our prayers.

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All our children here present in Ascension, that you would give them your spirit.

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We pray as you worked in David, in his mother's womb, for your purposes and brought him into the government.

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We pray that that would be for our children as well. We have faith in that. That they would come to the knowledge and true faith through repentance and faith and trust in Christ.

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We pray that you would give us strength as parents, wisdom as parents, knowledge through Jesus Christ our

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Lord, to raise up our kids faithfully in the moment that they are born, in the faith.

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We pray that you would bless this work with parents. That we would stand firm on the word.

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Not be fluctuating back and forth by the pressures of the world in regards to how we parent.

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But that we would always be looking to you, to you oh Lord, and to your word. We pray that this would be given to us all in Christ's name.

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Amen. Pray that we may have grace to glorify

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Christ in our own day. Lord, hear our prayers.

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With a desire to advance your kingdom.

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To minister to our brothers and sisters in Christ. And to worship you. Being in agreement of all these things, we join our voices together and say,

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Amen. Please stand and take up the insert once again. And turn, sadly, for the last time, to our

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Psalm of the month, Psalm 115. Not to our names, thou only just and true,

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Psalm 115. Amen.

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Please take up your Bibles with me and open to Psalm number four.

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The fourth Psalm. Psalm number four.

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To the chief musician with string instruments, the Psalm of David. Hear me when

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I call, oh God of my righteousness. You have relieved me in my distress.

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Have mercy on me and hear my prayer. How long, oh ye sons of men, will you turn my glory to shame?

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How long will you love worthlessness and seek falsehood? Selah. But know that the

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Lord has set apart for himself him who is godly. The Lord will hear when

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I call to him. Be angry and do not sin. Meditate within your heart on your bed and be still.

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Selah. Offer the sacrifices of righteousness and put your trust in the

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Lord. There are many who say, who will show us any good?

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Lord, lift up the light of your countenance upon us. You have put gladness in my heart more than in the season that their grain and wine increased.

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I will both lie down in peace and sleep. For you alone, oh

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Lord, make me dwell in safety. Let us pray.

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Our gracious God and Father, we are so thankful for your word, that you have preserved it for us throughout these many generations, and that we have good and reliable translations in our own language.

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But most importantly, Father, we are thankful for the living word, your

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Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ. And we pray that as your word is faithfully preached, that we would hear you,

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Lord Jesus, speaking to us. We ask that you would be with us now as we consider this psalm, and we pray this in Jesus' name, amen.

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You may be seated. Well, many of you know that today, in some traditions, is called

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Reformation Sunday. Tomorrow is Reformation Day.

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I'm very thankful to my brother and sister as they are preparing for a gathering tomorrow to celebrate.

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Tomorrow, 505 years ago, Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the church door in Wittenberg, sparking what we now call the

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Reformation. And in many pulpits, there will be men expounding, perhaps

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Romans, and taking a look at the great doctrines that have come from the

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Reformation. And if I were more clever, I might be doing the same thing myself. However, you cannot put in what

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God left out. And so we're going to continue our consideration of the psalms, picking up where we left off on Psalm 4.

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But I think it's very fitting for us to look at the psalms on Reformation Sunday. Many of you know that Martin Luther had a great fondness for the psalms.

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And when he was in deep distress or trouble, and there were many, many days when he was, he would turn to the psalms.

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He and his companion, Philip Melanchthon, would sing the psalms together. So as we continue in this tradition of the church to take a look at the psalms, we'll dig into Psalm 4.

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Church tradition and many of the commentators tell us that the subject of Psalm 4 is the same subject that we saw in Psalm 3.

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You may remember a couple of months ago, we considered Psalm 3, and it was during the time of Absalom's rebellion.

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And David had to flee Jerusalem. We spent some time looking at that event in history and then looking at the psalm.

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And tradition tells us that this psalm is related to that, so we'll pick up that theme. That Psalm 4 was written about the same occasion, during Absalom's rebellion.

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So it's intended that these two psalms may go together, and we will take a look at that in that vein.

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The psalm has three parts. The first part is verse 1, where David pleads to God for help.

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In verses 2 through 5, David turns his attention from God to what he calls the sons of men and discusses with them his extreme displeasure, we might say, at their attitude and their actions.

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And then it closes with a comparison of the godly and the ungodly.

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And that would be in verses 6 through 8. And one thing that I think we should consider as we read through this psalm, that great thing, and if you've hung around me for very long, you know that one of my favorite set of verses is

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Proverbs 3, 5, and 6. Trust in the Lord with all of your heart, and lean not on your own understanding, and all your ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct your paths.

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And I think as we think through this, that will come through in this psalm. As we start,

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I would like to start with the title, the inspired title. We won't spend much time here, but it says, to the chief musician with stringed instruments, a psalm of David.

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Sometimes we look at these titles and maybe we don't even pay any attention to them. We gloss right over them.

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But I think sometimes we should take a moment and just think about that. The author of this psalm,

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David, is the one who set the musicians in order for the house of God.

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Prior to the building of the temple, he set apart certain

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Levites to perform worship in the form of music.

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And these men, the sons of Asaph, we have some psalms by them, were instructed to perform worship with instruments.

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And here we have the chief musician with stringed instruments.

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And you can read all about this in 1 Chronicles 6, 15, and 25.

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But one verse I'd like to call out specifically. It comes from 1 Chronicles 15, 16.

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Then David spoke to the leaders of the Levites to appoint their brethren to be singers, accompanied by instruments of music, stringed instruments, harps, and cymbals, by raising the voice with resounding joy.

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David Ever, the military man, even set them in order. And there were 288 of these men who led the worship in singing.

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We know the importance of singing. We will be doing this in eternity. But likewise, we should look for the importance of music, and especially even musical instruments, in the worship of God.

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Let's now turn our attention to the psalm itself in verse 1. Hear me when

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I call, O God of my righteousness. You have relieved me in my distress.

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Have mercy on me and hear my prayer. Here David is crying out to the

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Lord in his present distress. David knows that God is faithful, that he is always faithful.

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He is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. And him alone can be our trust.

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David knows that when he turns his attention to God, he can expect an answer.

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But notice how he addresses God. God of my righteousness.

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Sometimes we come across different phrasing in Scripture, and it doesn't encourage us to take a look and see how often this phrase is used.

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It is used in only one place in all of Scripture, right here. But the theme,

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God of my righteousness, is throughout the entire

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Scripture. The world of men are constantly looking to themselves for their righteousness, but not

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David. He knows that his righteousness comes from God and God alone.

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Paul echoes this theme in Philippians 3, 9, that our righteousness is found in him, the

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Lord Jesus. For we have no righteousness in ourselves, Paul says, by the works of the law.

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But that would be true for anything that we do. He, God, is our righteousness.

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David says that you have relieved me in my distress. That word translated relieved can also be translated enlarged.

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And if you have some older English translations, you will see this. It has a military connotation.

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The word implies that a soldier, perhaps confined in the line of march or by some confinement of the battle itself, now has room to maneuver.

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And in our modern warfare, the necessity for rooms of maneuver may be not as important as in the days of sword and shield, of pike and arrow.

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But in David's day, in order for a soldier to fight, he needed a lot of space.

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So here, David's saying that he is thankful to God, that he has given him the space that he needed.

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He has relieved him in his distress. He's saying, I have called upon the Lord. I felt hemmed in by my enemies.

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I felt surrounded by cares and sorrows. I was oppressed by my sins, but you,

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O Lord, have given me room to move. You have shown me how to maneuver.

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You have relieved me of the oppression. David goes on to say, have mercy on me and hear my prayer.

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We talked about this the last time. During Absalom's rebellion, there were some who may have thought that David deserved to have that happen.

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We consider that David, although I would say the godliest man recorded for us in the

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Bible, apart from the god man, the Lord Jesus, had sinned greatly in many cases.

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We know, of course, famously, the sin with Bathsheba. But also as we considered what led up to this rebellion.

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Absalom killed his brother, and David did nothing. Well, why did

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Absalom kill his brother? Well, his half -brother, Amnon, raped his sister, and David did nothing.

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Sometimes we tend to think that God should deliver to us or give us what we deserve.

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And he would be just to do so. But we worship a merciful

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God. And we can turn to him in our great sin and cry out to him,

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God, have mercy upon me. Hear my prayer.

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Our God is rich in mercy. David is calling on God in prayer, far from thinking of prayer as the last resort.

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I don't know if you've ever thought about prayer in that way. It reminds me of a story

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I once heard of an old man and his wife. And the man turned to his wife and said, I think we should pray.

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And the wife said, has it come to that? Well, that's not how we should approach prayer.

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As if it's the very last thing. It should be the first thing that we do.

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It should be the thing that we do without ceasing. That we should always be coming to God in prayer.

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For God says to us in one of my favorite verses, Jeremiah 33 .3.

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Call to me and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things which you do not know.

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The great and mighty things which we do not know. We may be tempted to lean on our own understanding and expect little things from God.

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But God shows us great and mighty things. Let's move on to verse 2.

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How long, O you sons of men, will you turn my glory to shame?

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How long will you love worthlessness and seek falsehood?

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Selah. Notice that David speaks to God first and then speaks to men.

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And then when he does so, he speaks very boldly to them. Do you wish to speak boldly to men?

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Do you wish to have a boldly witness in front of a lost and unbelieving world?

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Speak to God first. Then turn to speak to men. Fear God and not men.

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Remember that this psalm is connected to the one that we had seen before and to the events.

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He's speaking to the men engaged in that rebellion with Absalom.

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We see this term, sons of men. And it's not just that he's referring to men, males.

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The term son translated implies dignity, lineage, nobility.

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He is talking to powerful men, mighty men, men of renown, great men.

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This only underscores his boldness. It shows that his fear was not to men.

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Again, these men. He's not referring to the physical state, that they're males, but their spiritual state.

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They were mere men. They were driven by emotions, driven by man -pleasing.

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They were driven by their own understanding. They were reading the events that were surrounding them and seeing what looked like the obvious success of the rebellion.

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After all, David had been chased out of Jerusalem. All Israel had gone after Absalom.

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They were being very pragmatic. In their minds, they were dealing with things sensibly, realistically, being practical.

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David was out. Absalom was in. Perhaps they thought it was fashionable to go along.

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Martin Lloyd -Jones talks about men getting into a great sin. He calls it the thing to do, that people are just swept up by it.

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They're not thinking. They just go along. David is calling them out.

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He's saying to them, How long, O you sons of men, will you turn my glory into shame?

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How long? How long will they do this? The psalm was written in and around the events.

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We don't know exactly when it was written. Was it during the time, like the last psalm, at the beginning of Absalom's rebellion or after the rebellion was on its way out and there were some things that were going on with Israel at that time?

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We do not know. But he calls them, How long will you act foolishly,

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O you sons of men, and turn my glory into shame? My glory.

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We may be tempted to think of the glory of the kingship. David had some glory to an extent.

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He had honor and rank and majesty. The scepter and the crown were his.

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He was God's chosen king. Anointed. God's anointed.

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He trusted in God throughout his entire kingdom and his kingship.

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Yet even his trust for God, even showed his great trust for God, rather, in his sin with Bathsheba.

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You remember the account there. He was confronted by the prophet Nathan. And David recounted his thoughts and feelings and his repentance for us in Psalm 51.

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And he says, Have mercy upon me, O God, according to your lovingkindness, according to the multitude of your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions.

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This is his glory. His trust in the living God. And they were mocking that trust.

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Where is your God now? Where is your salvation?

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How long, he says, will you love worthlessness and seek falsehood?

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This may be an example of what we considered back in Psalm 2. Why do the nations rage and the people plot a vain thing?

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The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the

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Lord and against his anointed. David was pointing out that they were being foolish.

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Did they not know in their foolishness? And their seeking after worthlessness and falsehood, that they must fail?

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Not that they could fail, or that they might fail, but that they must fail.

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How long will you engage in an effort that is futile? Incapable of producing the end that you want.

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It is pointless. They were under a delusion. They were seeking what could not be accomplished.

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They were living a lie. They were going up against the

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Lord and his anointed king. The last word in this verse is

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Selah. As we noted last time, C .H. Spurgeon, the great 19th century preacher, suggested when we reach

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Selah in one of these Psalms that we should pause for a moment and look around. And as we had done the last time, we'll do so now.

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Let us consider the verse which we just looked at, verse 2. How long, O you sons of men, will you turn my glory to shame?

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How long will you love worthlessness and seek falsehood? Now let's see what comes next.

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Verse 3. But know that the Lord has set apart for himself him who is godly.

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The Lord will hear when I call. What a contrast.

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The sons of men, the so -called mighty men, those in on the know, were acting foolishly.

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They were mocking the Lord's anointed. They were living the lie that David would be overthrown.

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But God. The sweetness of that term, but God. The Lord had set apart for himself him who is godly.

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He has set his king on his holy hill. They mocked, but the

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Lord will hear the prayer of the godly. Well, let's consider verse 3. But know that the

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Lord has set apart for himself him who is godly. The Lord will hear when

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I call to him. David is continuing his address to the sons of men.

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This should remind us that he has to continually say something to them. Fools will not learn.

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They must again and again and again be taught the same lesson. Have you ever noticed this in your own life?

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In your observation of the ungodly? That they do the same things over and over and over again expecting different results, but always getting the same thing.

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Hearing they do not perceive. Seeing they do not understand. But David is imploring them to learn this, to know this once again.

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But know, and he's almost saying you heart of heart, that the

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Lord has set apart for himself him who is godly.

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Clearly, this can apply to David. He was the Lord's anointed after all.

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He had been set apart by a divine decree. Even the way he was set apart was done so in a fantastic manner.

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You remember, we considered this some time back, that when Samuel the prophet came to the house of Jesse to have a feast, it was his intent by the direction of God, by the decree of God, to anoint the future king of Israel.

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And when he came there, David was not in the initial company. He was left out in the sheep fold.

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Finally, he was called in and the Lord said, this is the man whom

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I have chosen to be my anointed. Almost a living example of the last shall be first.

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This is whom that God had set apart. David is saying to him, how can you prosper against the

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Lord and his anointed? How can you possibly succeed?

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The one who God has set apart and designated for a certain work, how can you overturn that work?

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David was God's instrument. In a very real way, he was the king's man there.

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The Lord would protect him. The Lord would direct his paths and prosper his ways.

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David refers to him who is godly. David is referred to a man after God's own heart.

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But it was not his godliness, per se, although he was involved. We can talk about that in sort of a manner of speaking our godliness.

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But David has said, and we've considered, that God was his righteousness. That God was

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David's glory. The godly always point to the source of their glory, of their righteousness.

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The triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This is not for David alone.

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But we too have been set apart by God. The godly are precious in God's sight.

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They are like fine gold. The precious sons of Zion are valuable as fine gold.

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Lamentations 4 .2. The godly are God's glory.

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I bring my righteousness near, he says in Isaiah 46 .13.

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It shall not be far off. My salvation shall not linger. And I will place salvation in Zion for Israel, my glory.

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The Israel of God, those set apart. Us are

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God's glory. We are the godly. We are like precious jewels to the Lord.

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They shall be mine, says the Lord of hosts, on the day that I make them my jewels.

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Malachi 3 .17. But David goes on to remind them that the

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Lord will hear when he calls. When I call him, he will hear.

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Since David was divinely appointed and was called to a particular purpose, he could confidently turn to the

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Lord and know that the Lord would hear him, that the

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Lord would deliver him from their hands, from their evil plans, from their vain plotting.

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We have been called by the Lord. This should give us great confidence that when we turn to the

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Lord that he will hear us, that he will not only prosper our way, but he will hear our prayers.

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Be like David and with great confidence say,

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Whenever I am afraid, I will trust in you. In God, I will praise his word.

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In God, I have put my trust. I will not fear.

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What can flesh or man do to me? We can be confident that when we call upon him, that he will answer us.

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Let's take a look at verse 4. Be angry and do not sin.

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Meditate within your heart on your bed and be still. Selah.

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We have to remember that David is still speaking to those sons of men. Be angry and do not sin.

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Older English translations have this be angry as translated stand in awe and sin not.

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The Hebrew word that we translate be angry means to quiver or to shake, much like being afraid or standing in awe or to be moved by violent emotion like anger or rage.

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The Septuagint and the Vulgate translated this word into angry. Paul quotes this verse in Ephesians 4 .26.

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Be angry and do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on your wrath.

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Paul is giving instructions on Christian living and he's quoting from the

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Septuagint. But what is David saying here? I think he's saying this.

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You are moved with strong emotion. It may be fear. It may be rage.

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But consider yourself. Do not sin. Are you angry?

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If so, do not sin. He commands them, meditate within your heart on your bed and be still.

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That God is with him. I am God's anointed king.

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He has separated me for a purpose. Consider these things. I am not sure where the saying that we have in our day, go sleep on it, comes from.

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It may be from here. It certainly implies the same thing, right? That we should go and consider what we are about to do or what we are doing.

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But that's not all that David is commanding them to do here. He's commanding them to be still.

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They were trembling. They were quivering or quaking with fear or anger.

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But he was saying, be still. Don't take counsel of your anger.

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Do not take counsel of your fears. If you do so, you will never see clearly.

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You will not trust in the Lord, but rather lean on your own understanding if you take counsel of your anger or your fear.

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David is saying, be still. Focus on God. Consider his purposes as compared to yours.

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Or I would say, in short, he's saying, repent from your deeds.

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Well, we have another Selah. We'll pause here again for a moment and see the great contrast between verse 4.

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Be angry and do not sin. Meditate within your heart on your bed and be still.

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Offer the sacrifices of righteousness and put your trust in the

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Lord. They were commanded to repent. They had sinned. They had been told to consider their ways, to look upon their evil deeds.

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What is the right response to repentance? Worship and trust in God.

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That brings us to verse 5. Offer sacrifices of righteousness and put your trust in the

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Lord. Offer the sacrifices of righteousness. What is

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David pointing out here? Perhaps he is thinking about the sacrificial system that was designated for the people of God in their act of worship.

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And we can read about that in Leviticus chapters 1 through 7. And I think perhaps he was doing so.

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Considering they had entered into rebellion against God and against his anointed, that they should take counsel and know that they're not only sinning against God, but all that God has given them.

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If they truly repent, they would manifest their repentance with appropriate sacrifices.

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They were sinners. They were engaged in an unholy cause. They were to repent and offer sacrifices.

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Perhaps he was talking about the sacrifices of a broken and contrite heart.

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David years earlier had written in Psalm 51, that psalm after his sin, being confronted by his sin with Bathsheba, and he wrote this,

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The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit and a broken and contrite heart.

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These, O God, you will not despise. Most likely,

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David had both in mind. David had called them to repentance.

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We can imagine them. Maybe they were crying out after hearing this. What must we do to be saved?

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Much like we read in the New Testament. You may be thinking of the Philippian jailer. Or the men on the day of Pentecost.

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What shall we do? How can we be saved? In David's day, offering the sacrifices of God would have involved the sacrifices of the temple.

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Turning to God with a broken and contrite heart. In faith, God is never in favor of accepting faithless sacrifices.

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True repentance requires a broken and contrite heart. And David says, but that's not all.

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And put your trust in the Lord. There may be two objects here in mind.

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One, a call to turn to God. Turn away from your evil ways. Turn away from your leaning on your own understanding.

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Turn back to God. Trust in Him. You trusted in Absalom. Do not trust in princes.

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You trusted in your numbers. You trusted in your holy cause. Now trust in God.

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But it could also be faith. They have shown a great lack of faith.

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He had commanded them to repent. And they were commanded to offer sacrifices. Both of these were to be by faith.

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Let us consider verse 6. There are many who say, who will show us any good.

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Lord, lift up the light of your countenance upon us. David is now turning.

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This is the third part of this psalm. He had first spoken to God. Then he had spoken to the sons of men, those mighty men.

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Now he is comparing the godly with the ungodly. And he's saying that there are many who will say, who will show us any good.

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This is the ungodly. Man wants good, does he not?

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He may not understand it, but he wants it. He doesn't want evil, pain, or suffering.

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Yet that is what we see on every side. The wicked could cry out, who will show us any good.

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But I just want to note one thing. If you have the King James or the

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New King James Version, perhaps the NAS too, you will notice that the word any is italicized.

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That means it was added by the translators. The verse could read, who will show us good.

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This only deepens their despair. It's not any good.

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Like I could get some good someplace. No. Who will show us good.

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This is their despair. C .H. Spurgeon wrote of this verse, as for the worldlings, this is their unceasing cry.

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Who will show us any good. Never satisfied, their gaping mouths are turned in every direction.

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Their empty hearts are ready to drink in any fine delusion which imposters may invent.

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When these fail, they should yield to despair and declare there is no good thing in either heaven or earth.

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Their gaping mouths, they turn to and fro. Either mouths open in astonishment for not finding any good or perhaps in anticipation of finding good.

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We are often challenged sometimes, are we not, when we speak to the unbeliever. And they say, if God is good, how do you explain evil.

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We should turn to them and how do you explain good. But they cannot find it.

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Sometimes they look to idols. And as I mentioned earlier, I am sad to see that Psalm of the month go.

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I have enjoyed that greatly. But we see man turning to idolatry, looking for good.

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But sin in some way is the pursuit of something good in a twisted way.

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We can see this in our day. You can look across our culture and see it everywhere.

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People looking for good everywhere. Looking for love and not find it.

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It is like that old country song, looking for love in all the wrong places. But David continues.

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Here is the contrast. Lord, lift up the light of your countenance upon us.

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The believer doesn't cry out in despair who will show us good. No. The believer knows where good can be found.

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Hearing this, we should think of that great Aaronic blessing, your countenance.

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The Aaronic blessing is found in Numbers 6, 22 to 27.

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And the Lord spoke to Moses saying, speak to Aaron and his sons saying, this is the way you shall bless the children of Israel.

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Say to them, pause for a moment, what is a blessing?

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Goodness, prosperity, peace, and joy.

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The people could be saying, who will show us any good? But who shall bless us? Who shall give us that peace?

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Continuing in Numbers 6, the Lord bless you and keep you. Who will show us good?

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The Lord. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you.

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The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Who will show us any good?

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The Lord. His countenance is a reference to his favor, his blessing.

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Spurgeon continues on this verse. The true believer is a man of very different mold.

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His face is not downward like the beasts, but upward like the angels.

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He drinks not from muddy pools of mammon, money or wealth, but from the fountain of life above.

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The light of God's countenance is enough for him. This is his riches, his honor, his health, his ambition, his ease.

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Give him this and he will ask no more. This is joy unspeakable and full of glory.

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Oh, for more of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, that our fellowship with the

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Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ, may be constant and inviting.

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That's what the blessing, that is what good implies.

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His presence, his love, communion with him and comforts with the

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Holy Spirit, the joys of salvation. We're familiar with that greeting that the

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Jews have, that they say to one another, Shalom, peace. That's what that implies.

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A wholeness of body, mind and spirit, the blessings of God. Verse 7, continuing his contrast, but you have put gladness in my heart, more than in season that their grain and wine increased.

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You have put gladness in my heart. This is that joy unspeakable and full of glory that Spurgeon talked about.

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Joy is not only happiness. Yes, it includes that. But joy is a deep emotion, like we read about before, but not an emotion of anger and quaking, but an emotion that is a peacefulness, a quietness, a consideration of present or assured approaching of possession of something good.

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That is it. That is the blessing that is given in the countenance of God.

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It is gladness. It should make our heart glad. And then David contrasts it with this, more than in the season that their grain and wine increased.

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I don't know if David is thinking about the festivals or the pagan idolatry that goes along often with futility, fertility, not futility, it is futile, but fertility cults.

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But there is rejoicing in the things of God. There is rejoicing when grain and wine increased, but our joy that God gives us far surpasses that.

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We can take joy in those temporal things, but they are temporal. They will pass away.

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We can think about those who he just compared us to, who will show any good. They may take comfort for a season with food and drink, but that will pass.

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It will fade. But the righteous has much more in eternal satisfaction, in eternal joy.

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We should take joy in the things of God, yes. Every good and perfect gift comes from above, but the presence of God surpasses all of that.

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When we hear this, that joy, the gladness that came in, we may be reminded, especially as we approach the

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Advent season, of a reading that we have in Isaiah 9. The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.

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Those who dwell in the land of shadow of death, upon them a light has shined. You have multiplied the nation and increased its joy.

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They rejoice before you according to the joy of harvest. As men rejoice when they divide the spoil.

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Yes, there is rejoicing in those things. But Isaiah was pointing to a greater joy, was he not?

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A few verses later we hear this. For unto us a child is born. Unto us a son is given.

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The government will be upon his shoulder, and his name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

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The promise of the one who is the express image of God.

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That is his countenance. Well, that brings us to the last verse, verse 8. And I will both lie down in peace and sleep, for you alone,

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O Lord, make me dwell in safety. I will both lie down in peace and sleep.

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Remember back into verse 4, David commanded his enemies to meditate within their hearts on their bed.

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But their time on their bed was not one of peace or sleep. It was consideration.

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It was self -reflection. It was considering what they were doing. But the godly can have peace and sleep.

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Their conscience is clear. They had looked to God as their righteousness.

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They have inner joy in their hearts. They have that peace that passes all understanding.

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But the wicked have no peace. They fret. They're anxious. They say, who will do us any good?

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Or who will do good? But the righteous have peace. And David, just to clarify, points to the source of that peace.

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For you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.

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If David had been tempted to trust in his position, if he had been tempted to trust in his strength, if he had been tempted to trust in his army, all of that was gone when he wrote this psalm.

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But he had God. And not only was that enough, it was more than sufficient.

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One man with God, as a man once said, is a majority. His trust was entirely in the

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Lord. He did not lean on his own understanding. His utter confidence in his safety, in his soundness, in his sleep, we consider that the last time he slept in the presence of his enemies, was based solely on God and God alone.

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Well, as we wrap up here, I am reminded of those words of the charge at my ordination.

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If you were here, you may remember. And any time any man stands to preach, he should have in his mind,

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Sir, we would see Jesus. Have you seen

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Jesus in this psalm? The psalm is indirectly messianic.

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We can see him in many places. In verse 1, you have relieved or enlarged me in my distress.

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Christ, David's greater son, experienced profound distress. Think of that acute distress in the

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Garden of Gethsemane, where he said, my soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death.

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Stay here and watch with me. He said that to his disciples. Then he went a little farther and fell on his face and prayed,

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O my Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but your will be done.

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No matter what our distress is, no matter what our acuteness that we feel, what was before our

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Lord Jesus Christ was greater than all of those. He had the cross before him.

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He was in great distress, but yet he knew he could turn to the Father and trust in his plan, in his works.

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He knew that he would have room enough, clear ground, we might say, and enlarged space at the cross to defeat his enemies.

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We can see Jesus in verse 2, David's glory, and that his glory was being turned into shame.

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In David's day, the Jews of his time were mocking God, were mocking his trust in God.

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They were mocking his glory. In Jesus' day, they mocked him as well.

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At the foot of the cross, they said, he saved others. Himself he cannot save.

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If he is the king of Israel, let him come down from the cross, and we will believe him.

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They spat on him. They struck him. They whipped him. They stripped him naked.

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They lied about his character. And they nailed him to the cross. They despised his glory.

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In verse 3, we read, but know this, that the Lord has set apart for himself him.

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We can capitalize that, him who is godly.

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The Lord will hear when he calls upon him. He was the anointed, the

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Messiah that David foreshadowed. David and others were small M messiahs, but Jesus was the

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Messiah, the Savior, the Redeemer, the glory of his grace, to the glory of his grace.

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It says here in Psalm 2, yet I have set my king on my holy hill of Zion.

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I will declare the decree. The Lord has said to me, you are my son. Today I have begotten you.

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This is the Lord Jesus, the anointed. But remember the cross, the appointed thing that Jesus came into the world for a reason, and that was to bear our sins on the cross and reconcile us to God, that we may have life in him, life everlasting.

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Also in verse 5, we can think of Jesus and the sacrifices of righteousness. All of the

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Old Testament sacrifices pointed to Christ. Christ is our Passover, who was sacrificed for us.

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Paul also notes that the righteousness of God is revealed by faith in the gospel.

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The gospel, Jesus calls sinners to fear the Lord, to quiet their hearts in submission, and to trust in the

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Lord. Also we see that in verse 5, trust in the Lord. And lastly, peace.

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In Christ, in Christ alone can we have peace. But that should prompt us.

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What about us? Have you seen yourself in this song?

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Back to verse 3, but know that the Lord has set apart for himself him who is godly.

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We touched on this briefly. As David was set apart, so are we.

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The doctrine of election is right here, that God has chosen for himself him who is godly.

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Are you in Christ Jesus? Then you have been set apart for him.

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We are his peculiar people. We are the apple of his eye.

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We are his treasure. We are his bride. We should take courage from your brothers and sisters that our faith would be strengthened.

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If he is for us, who can be against us? He that began a good work in us will see it through to the end.

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He is with us even to the end of the age. Call upon him and he will answer you.

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Let us not forget that we should be godly. This is the work of sanctification.

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Be ye perfect, as Jesus said, as your Father in heaven is perfect. And Jesus will make us perfect.

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He will accomplish that. And we know that we should pursue peace with all people and holiness without which no one will see the

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Lord. But lastly, we can see ourselves in verse 8. I will lie down in peace and sleep.

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Particularly, I want to focus on peace. But just one note. I had said that the ungodly are tempted to anxiety.

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But we must admit that sometimes the godly are also tempted to anxiety. Sometimes we lean on our own understanding.

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Sometimes we are tempted and give in to that temptation to live by sight rather than by faith.

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We may not be with the wicked and despairing on who would show us any good, but we may say it.

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But we have that peace that passes all understanding. We must not forget the command in verse 5.

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Put your trust in the Lord. Our trust is to be in the

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Lord. By that, we will have peace.

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He is the God of all grace. He is the God of all temporal blessings. He is the

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God of all spiritual blessings. He is the source of every good.

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And he freely gives of his grace. We can fully trust in him, and we can turn to him.

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But we must not forget that trust is personal. It is always personal.

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We can speak metaphorically of trusting in things. We can trust in cars, buildings, or chairs.

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We can trust in the principles, say, of gravity, or the laws of physics. But we only speak about that in a manner of speaking.

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Trust is always personal. And our trust is in a relationship with God.

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God is not a force or an object. He is our friend.

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He is our Father. He is our Savior and our Redeemer. And we must follow

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Christ, our great example, that we should trust in the Lord with all of our heart and lean not on our own understanding.

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In all our ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct our paths as he directed

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David's. Our gracious Heavenly Father, we thank you,

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O Lord, for this word which you have given us to consider here today.

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We pray, dear Father, as we leave from here and we consider these things, but most especially as we prepare our hearts to meet with you at the table, that you would increase our faith, that we would trust in you with all of our hearts, and that you would give us the grace to continue in doing that.

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We face great temptations to rely on our own understanding.

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We pray, Father, that you would be with us now. Feed us, we pray, as you have fed us spiritually.

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In Christ's name, amen. Let us now continue our worship with the presentation of tithes and offerings.

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Please stand and let's pray together. O Lord, you have supplied all things to us.

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We stand here provided for. We thank you that you have given us talents and abilities and the ability to work, that we might have something to share with others.

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We pray that you would use these tithes and offerings for the advance of your kingdom, that the whole world would glorify and magnify your hallowed name.

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It's in Jesus' name that we pray, amen. Let us now respond to this great message from Psalm 4 and this time of worship.

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Let us give glory to our Father in the singing of the Gloria Patri. Let us give thanks to the

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Lord. It is right and a good and joyful thing that we should at all times and in all places give thanks to you,

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O Holy Lord, God Almighty, Everlasting Father, because you sent your beloved

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Son to redeem us from sin and death and to make us heirs in him of everlasting life, that when he shall come again in power and great triumph to judge the world, we may without shame or fear rejoice to behold his appearing.

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Therefore, with angels and archangels and with all the company of heaven, we praise and magnify your glorious name, evermore praising you and singing.

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I'm gonna ask you to join with me in prayer now. O Lord, you have furnished your church, your people a glorious sacrament, an amazing picture that touches our senses.

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It engages our minds. It shows to us

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Jesus Christ. We thank you that you have intended that these creatures of bread and wine, broken and given for us, would communicate to us the body and blood of Jesus Christ crucified for us.

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And O Lord, we ask that the benefits of nourishment, this glorious means of grace, that the floodgates of heaven would be open to us, that the blessings would fall down on us, your people, because of this great work of Christ.

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I ask all these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Lord Jesus, on the night in which he was betrayed, took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to his disciples saying, take and eat.

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This is my body. Likewise, he took the cup after supper saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood.

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Drink from it, all of you, for as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the

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Lord's death until he comes. Therefore, we proclaim the faith. Christ has died.

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Christ is risen. Christ will come again. Let's now with one voice approach the table in prayer.

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We do not presume to come to this your table, O merciful

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Lord, trusting in our own righteousness, but in your manifold and great mercies.

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We are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under the table, but you are the same

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Lord who always shows mercy. Grant us, therefore, gracious Lord, so to eat the flesh of your dear son,

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Jesus Christ, and to drink of his blood, that our sinful bodies may be made clean by his body, and our souls washed through his most precious blood, and that we may evermore dwell in him and he in us.

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Amen. Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. Therefore, let us keep the feasts, the gifts of God for the people of God.

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Thanks be to the Lord. I know from Satan's year,

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Emmanuel Rejoice!

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Rejoice! Emmanuel Shall come to thee,

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O Israel Shall come to thee,

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O Israel Your strength indeed is small

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Try the creepers, watch and pray Find in me your all -enlarged, white as snow

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Yours alone, O Israel There by your grace to claim

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I'll wash my garments white In the blood of Calvary's Lamb My lips shall still repeat

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Jesus, fear not

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As we feast in the midst of the presence of our enemies, let's wholeheartedly make this commitment to the

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Lord together. Almighty and ever -living God, we thank you for feeding us with the spiritual food of the most precious body and blood of your

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Son, our Savior Jesus Christ, and for assuring us in these holy mysteries that we are living members of the body of your

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Son and heirs of your eternal kingdom. And, O Lord, grant us this other benefit, that you will never allow us to forget these things, but having them imprinted on our hearts, may we grow and increase daily in the faith which is at work in every good deed.

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And now, Father, send us out to do the work you have given us to do, to love and serve you as faithful witnesses of Christ our

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Lord, to him, to you, and to the Holy Spirit. In honor and glory, now and forever.

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Amen. Please stand. Receive now the blessing.

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Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great

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Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you what is well -pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever.