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I was looking at one of those psalms. The fourth psalm 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. O sons of men, how long will my honor become a reproach?
How long will you love what is worthless and aim at deception? Selah. But know that Yahweh has set apart the godly man for himself. Yahweh hears when I call to him. And then listen to verse four. Tremble and do not sin.
Meditate in your heart upon your bed and be still. Be still can also mean be silent. And I wonder how often we do that. We live in a society where we're constantly distracted. I remember when it was pointed out to me not very long ago, and it's not like this was a brilliant insight, but it was profound, that amusement comes from two words.
Muse, which means to think, and the alpha privative, which means to not think. Amusement is how to not think. And so much of what we spend our day on is amusement. It's keeping us from seriously considering important things.
I combine that with the words of Scripture that says it is far better to spend a day in the house of mourning than a day in the house of feasting. And I put all that together, and this idea of meditation, not transcendental meditation, but the extended, serious contemplation of God's truth, and the idea of silence.
We have a pastoral prayer in our church on Sunday mornings that I normally lead, and we have a few moments of silent prayer. And I've often thought we don't normally even have a moment of silent prayer in the sense of 60 seconds.
And yet I note, especially for the younger people, that seems like a long time, that silence. No music, no television, no sound, just silence. Meditate in your heart upon your bed and be still. That grows patience.
And I think the kind of faith that comes when we endure discouragement, when we patiently wait upon the Lord, when we accept from his hand those periods of time. And I know this doesn't go over well on certain Christian broadcasting networks and things like that, but when we recognize that there are times when, for our own spiritual health, God causes us to walk through the valley of the shadow of death, and he causes us to experience those dry times so that we can more fully appreciate the times of blessing and the maturity and the depth of our faith can grow.
Those are times we look back upon, and though I don't know that I could ever desire them, I can certainly learn to desire the result. I can certainly learn to desire the sanctification, the growth in maturity.
And so if you are experiencing discouragement in the Christian life, I have not addressed all issues of discouragement at all. Sometimes discouragement is just because of our own sin and our own apathy and our lack of repentance and all sorts of other things.
But sometimes, sometimes it is not because of sin in our lives, but it's because God is growing us and he is causing us to become more mature and to wait upon him. It is that waiting, that eschewing of our societies now, now, now, that I think might make us most unlike the world around us.
Not easy things to learn. That's why it's people who have walked with the Lord for many years who tend to start understanding these things and experiencing these things. But it's certainly God's purpose in our life.
And just as the psalmist knew what it was to tremble, to meditate, he also looked back and he said, you have relieved me of my distress. He knew that this had happened before and that he could trust in the faithfulness of God, whose loving kindnesses are new every morning.
So I don't know if this has meant anything to you, but I have a feeling there may be a few folks out there who likewise have experienced those difficult times. And with me need to learn what it means to be still.
Know that he's God, but be still. Stop talking so much. Stop being distracted so much. And stop being so demanding that God's purpose of sanctification take place on my schedule. No, it takes place on his.
And it's that sanctification that has the greatest impact upon us in making us more like Christ.