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Past Ponderings

Sunday, June 24, 2018

PONDERING... How Do You Sleep At Night? (Psalm 4)

How Do You Sleep At Night? (PM Lesson Outline)
GIST: How about verse 8? “In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.”
SCRIPTURE: Psalm 4
I mentioned this morning that this psalm is sometimes referred to as the “evening psalm”. Therefore, I find it fitting that we’re addressing this in our evening service. Even more than that though, the message in this psalm is one we all need to hear...again, and again, and again.
1 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.
Just this week, Gary and I were talking about not being able to fall asleep at night sometimes because we can’t stop thinking about all the things we need to get done. Now, I need to be honest here because my wife is in the room, and she is familiar with my sleeping habits. While I do struggle with this sometimes, most nights when my head hits the pillow, I’m out. Even if I try to fight it, I’m out. I run at about the same speed all day long, but when I stop moving, even if I try to read a book or watch a T.V. show, if I can last 5 minutes, I’m doing incredibly well☺! Now, as much as I’d like to credit this to exceptional faith, since I see my life during my waking hours, it more likely stems from exceptional exhaustion.
I don’t know your sleeping habits, but I can assume you struggle with resting in the Lord. Trusting as you live day by day. Not trying to control that which you cannot. And it is because of this I think we can take verse 8 as our gist for this evening, “In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety. “

I. THE PLEA (1)
Request: Answer me when I call.
Directed to: God of my righteousness. The one who makes him righteous.
Because: You have given me relief. He remembered what God had done in the past (so should we), and therefore-->
Renewed Plea: Please do it again.

II. THE CIRCUMSTANCES (2, 6A)
Honor Turned to Shame. What is his honor? Following God. Haven’t you seen this in your life? I have even recently. There is nothing “special” about me, aside from Christ. It is in Him alone that my worth is found. Apart from Him using me and guiding me, I’m just a vain sinner pursuing self. Yet, it is for that love of Jesus that I’ve come under scrutiny over the past couple weeks. God has opened this incredible door for me to share Him with several individuals, but it is because I love Jesus that they are trying to point out how ridiculous my beliefs are. That’s the situation here in the psalm, and it is a common one today, as well. Why? Because→
Vanity and Lies are Loved. Look at the second part of verse 2. Those who turn his honor to shame, “love vain words and seek after lies”. We’ve talked about this before; this is the natural state of all of us. Just look at what the world pursues and what it is popular to “love”. Why is it vain? We quoted this verse last week, but let’s look at it again. Mark 8:34-38,34 And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 35 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. 36 For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?37 For what can a man give in return for his soul? 38 For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”
Many Looking for Good. Yet in the midst of this, people are still asking, “Who will show us some good?” And that us is important. We don’t want God, but we do want to live happy, healthy, and wealthy lives. Not only are we defining good superficially, but we’re also forgetting that “17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change” (James 1:17).

III. THE TRUTH (3, 6-8)
God’s People are His (3a). Bought with a price. Hallelujah
He Hears Them (3b). We spoke about this this morning, but when do we not need reminded of this marvelous truth?
He is the Source of Good (6)! See above (James 1:17)! We need to remember this. So often, people will ask questions like, “If God is so good, why is there so much evil in the world?” We often forget to ask the counter question, “If sin is so evil, why is there so much good in the world?”
He Provides Real Joy (7)! We find our joy in the Lord, not material things.
I Can Rest...Because of Him (8)! KEY: Our joy is separate from our circumstances (Keller). It doesn’t matter what is going on in this life because our hope is in His unshakable foundation!

TAKEAWAYS
  1. Remember these truths.
  • God’s People are His.
  • He Hears Them.
  • He is the Source of Good!
  • He Provides Real Joy!
  • I Can Rest...Because of Him!
  1. Take these admonitions (4-5)
Be Angry/Afraid and Don’t Sin. It is interesting to me. If you read older commentaries, they talk about being afraid or in awe and not sinning. If you read more modern commentaries, they tend to focus on being angry and not sinning. The reason for this is that the word translated angry in many modern translations and tremble in the KJV could mean either one. So which is right? Why not both?
We talked about fear without sin this morning. The same should be true of our anger. Now, I say this with caution. We should inform our anger with truth, just like our fear. However, because most of the time our anger is the result of sin, feeding our anger the truth will remove the anger… just like it does the fear. I have heard this used to teach that we should be righteously angry. This is true. But that kind of anger burns against sin, not sinners. So you being angry at an individual isn’t righteous. We can be righteously angry because of the sin that they are trapped in, but this is difficult because too often we simply aim our anger at the individual.
Meditate On Your Beds. This was something that struck me this week. How do you go to bed? Do you ever have trouble putting to to rest your concerns? Remember our gist from this morning? Feed fear facts. Well, that can be applied here, too. Rest in Him. Meditate on Him. I need this admonition, too. Fall asleep with His Words on your mind, not the concerns of this life!
Be Quiet. Oh, how we need reminded of this! Listen to Him.
Offer Right Sacrifices. We have already been reminded to take up our cross daily. So, let’s look at what Hosea 6:6 has to say about right sacrifices. “For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.” Remember how we summarized the greatest commandment? Love the Lord with everything you think, feel, and do...forever. Dig into His Word. Give Him your life. It’s already His ☺!
Trust God. Here is the key. Like we talked about this morning, fear becomes sin when it is allowed to become doubt. Likewise, we cannot lay to rest things we’re trying to control.

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