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Psalm 4 - Turn to God and understand His Glory

Psalm 4

Turn to God and understand His Glory

Summary
V1 David prays for God to answer his prayer
V2 David rebukes man for rejecting God
V3 God will answer the godly
V4-5 Instructions to man
V6-8 God's glory revealed

David prays for God to answer prayer
Verse 1 composes of 2 major themes - praise and requests. We keep in mimd that our ultimate purpose in Creation is to praise God - and in prayer that is achieved. David praises God as 'righteous', a word we've seen across the book of Psalms thus far very often. He then asks of God to relieve him of his distress over the depravity of mankind, and that God will answer his prayer.

David rebukes man for rejecting God
David asks of us 2 questions here, meant to be shocking and thought provoking. The phrase 'How long' implies that this has been happening for awhile already, and David is genuinely worried.
He asks - How long will we turn his glory into shame? David's glory is not merely his kingship, his kingdom, but his glory is God. Could we imagine being ashamed of being Christian? Ashamed of the very God who created us and delivered us from sin (Egypt and the Assyrians in their case)?
He asks - how long will we love delusions and seek false gods? How could we be so depraved that we could love lies and seek more than the God that so regularly demonstrates His love for us?
Sadly, the truth YES. We, in our depraved lives, are lost to sin and cannot find God our glory. We cannot love the truth that God is the One True God, that He created us and sent his only begotten Son Jesus Christ to die for us so that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. But God has given is His Holy Spirit to be with us, to return us the ability to love good over evil, to seek Him first over all other things. And we need to grasp hard to that truth.

God will answer the godly
David is confident that God will answer his prayer because God has set him apart from the rest of man as holy, and he wants to encourage us to be godly as well.

Instructions to man
David instructs us to:
- Not sin in anger. This speaks strongly to me, as i am often guilty of committing rash acts. We are called to be self-controlled people, even when angry. Galatians 5:22-25 - Bit the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness , goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.
- Search our hearts and be silent in our beds. He calls for a repentant and reflective lifestyle, that we will end our days remembering he things we have done wrong and solvethe issues behind it, always coming back to God. Ephesians 4:26 - In your anger do not sin. Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry.
- Offer right sacrifices and trust in the Lord. Sacrifices don't really apply to us now that the perfect sacrifice has been made, but indeed pairing this line with 'trust in the Lord'  is meaningful as we trust in the Lord Jesus as our redeeming sacrifice to bring us back to God.

God's Glory revealed
Similar to our modern day, David desvribes people who believe that there is no 'good'  in the world. David prays earnestly for them to discover God and His goodness in verse 6.
In verse 7,David goes on to describe God's goodness to be better than any grain or wine or any form of material, worldly posessions that would bring him joy.
Finally, to close his song, David says he will lie and sleep in peace, knowing that the Lord will answer his prayer, and that he will dwell in safety ONLY because of God,giving glory to God as the one and only who can provide all these things.

So what does it mean for us?
We must first recognise our oen depravity without God's given Holy Spirit. Understand that we cannot love God on our own without him first interceding.
We must pray for God to continually reveal himself, both to us believers and also to those who do not believe, that we may experience His grace and glory in our lives and that we may turn to Him.
Finally, we are to live our lives in a reflective and repentant way, considerig our actions and thoughts at the emd of each day.
'Homework'
This lesson, for me, was more practical than the rest, thus I didn't ask myself a question at the end of it. Instead, i want to pray for revelation in my life and those around me. Also, I want to live out the reflective and repentant lifestyle as suggested by David and Paul. Spend a few minutes at the end of every day just to reflect on and repent of our sins, not forgetting that all glory and praise and honor goes to God.

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