Psalm 4

 Psalm 4

This Psalm asks a question in verse 6 that resonates and resounds in every generation and with every person, “Who will show us any good?”  Every man-made attempt at utopia, at good, at the brave new experiment that improves man’s situation by his own goodness and great ideals has been a house built on sand.  On the back of a U.S. one dollar bill is the motto "Novus ordo seclorum," Latin for "New order of the ages."  From our founding, we in America have believed that we have given birth to a new epic in human history.  We believed it would be better than all those that preceded it.  But like all great epics there are cracks forming, signs of erosion, and fears that the “New Order” of the ages might be just one of many.  Witness the mass shootings, a highly divided and hostile people, the inadvertent worship of the gods Himeros, Ares, Hedone, and Ploutos (sexual pleasure, war, enjoyment, and wealth), and the near absence of compassion as a few of these signs that our epic, this New Order of the Ages, is in trouble.  What are the alternatives?

The answer is the God; who is both the source of righteousness and who is perfectly righteous and who is actively involved in the life of the righteous person.  Verses 2-3 describe the two options.  The first option is men and their plans, which, by the way, treat God’s servant’s ethic as a reproach or a mockery.  The other option is life under God’s special attention. The reasonable and wise response to these options is to conform our lives to the will of God.  It begins with the command to “Tremble and do not sin.”  The word "tremble" would be better translated as "be angry."  Sin ought to make us angry, so angry that we want to do something about it.  We have often become so familiar with sin, both our own and that of the world around us, that we have developed a certain comfort level or numbness to it.  

We need to think about what is happening in our lives, to have a time of serious introspection.  Not in a morbid or self-absorbed way, but to contemplate the terrible cost of sin.  David calls for sacrifices.  As Christians our sacrifice has been made, but the worship of the One who made that sacrifice is our response as we meditate on our sin and His grace.  That, by the way, is the beauty and power of the Lord’s Supper.  Appropriate meditation brings us to the right conclusion, which is trusting God.  Our works can never make things right.  But trusting God for the grace He provides is the only life that is worth living.

Verses 6-8 show us a picture of the good life.  It is a life of God’s blessing.  He smiles on us, which is better than a bumper crop of grain.  No new order for the ages, no plan of governments, and no great new epic can provide for us what being under God’s care gives.  In confidence and contentment we rest, being assured of His protection. 

“Lord, guide me not to man made solutions but to a return to Your ways and will. AMEN”