#682 Song's Companion

4 Answer me when I call, O God of my righteousness!
You have given me relief when I was in distress.
Be gracious to me and hear my prayer!


2 O men, how long shall my honor be turned into shame?
How long will you love vain words and seek after lies? Selah
3 But know that the Lord has set apart the godly for himself;
the Lord hears when I call to him.


4 Be angry, and do not sin;
ponder in your own hearts on your beds, and be silent. Selah
5 Offer right sacrifices,
and put your trust in the Lord.


6 There are many who say, “Who will show us some good?
Lift up the light of your face upon us, O Lord!”
7 You have put more joy in my heart
than they have when their grain and wine abound.


8 In peace I will both lie down and sleep;
for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety. Psalm 4 ESV

David was a musician long before he became a king. He was a player of the harp and this song was written to be given to the chief musician that it might be played and sung. This king was also a prophet and we will find the messianic message and contemplation in some of his songs. This is a beautiful prayer.

When I was in distress - Looking back on the road here, there were many bumps along the way, yet the hand of God was unmistakably present in seeing David through. Lord, we may say, You are holy and I cannot hold up my end to that standard, but I remember calling out to You in times past and that You delivered me. Will You hear me once more? 

My glory to shame - Many good men have been attacked by men of lesser character, and David has his faults for sure, but he has also confessed them and sought God again in humility, through the law, in poetry and song, fasting in sack cloth and ashes. God is not held to respond when we do these things, He is not a vending machine, but He does seem so inclined to hear the prayers of the honest, not for their many words, but for their hope and sincerity. In this pond there is also the reflection of the Son of David, the seed of God, for every great miracle He performed before men, for all His good works, those that only cleaned the outside of the cup did mock and accuse. David can mourn over such slander because all men are guilty and what would you do in the place of such power, how is it that you cannot come to rejoice in his repentance? Now, while the reflection in the old testament is disturbed, the surface is not as placid but the image is of Christ. Jesus will bring the purest of clarity to this, for he is without blemish, yet when His disciple eat they are accused of breaking the Sabbath. When he heals on the Sabbath He is accused of defying God's law. When He cast out demons they say that he does it by Satanic power, black magic. When He tells them He is God they seek to stone Him. 

At that time Jesus went through the grain fields on the Sabbath. And His disciples were hungry, and began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. 2 And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to Him, “Look, Your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath!”

3 But He said to them, “Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, he and those who were with him: 4 how he entered the house of God and ate the show bread which was not lawful for him to eat, nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests? 5 Or have you not read in the law that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple [a]profane the Sabbath, and are blameless? 6 Yet I say to you that in this place there is One greater than the temple. 7 But if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless. 8 For the Son of Man is Lord [b]even of the Sabbath.”

Healing on the Sabbath

9 Now when He had departed from there, He went into their synagogue. 10 And behold, there was a man who had a withered hand. And they asked Him, saying, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”—that they might accuse Him.

11 Then He said to them, “What man is there among you who has one sheep, and if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not lay hold of it and lift it out? 12 Of how much more value then is a man than a sheep? Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.” 13 Then He said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” And he stretched it out, and it was restored as whole as the other. 14 Then the Pharisees went out and plotted against Him, how they might destroy Him. Matthew 12:1-14

Be angry and sin not - Hate the wickedness but do not let your anger become an excuse for vain retaliation, let God judge. He remembers a place to take this, the quiet meditation on His bed, talking to God, pondering the things of God, the mercies of God, it is like aloe for the soul, when we contemplate the sovereignty of God. 

Grain and wine abound - They thought, I thought too, that all was so well and could never be so grand as when the feast was laid out and the drink would not stop flowing. But I have experienced what they do not know, the joy that You bring in the darkest and coldest of nights or in the morning that looks upon a battle where I am outnumbered. His relationship with God is better than all his earthly comforts. 

A relationship with God is that peace that passes all understanding. I feel sorrow for those that cannot bear to be alone, for it is there that I have often found the greatest company.