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This article is part of Stephen Paulson’s series on the Psalms.
To the chief Musician on Neginoth, A Psalm of David (KJV)
If we begin with the title’s Hebrew word Lamnazeah, we already come upon the early Greek (Septuagint) translation: telos. To the end! Whom could this refer to? Only Christ—who is “the end of the Law” (Rom. 10:4), and as Luther says, “which ‘end’ they interpret in two ways, ‘that Christ is the end and sum intended by the law, and that he himself put an end to the law!”
Yet, as truly as Christ is the end to the law, Luther was also the theologian who noticed that this Psalm was not really speaking of Christ—though others clearly do. Yet, Luther admitted no one knows what the title really means. We are better sticking with the point of the whole Psalm—the enduring of the cross unto death (which is faith). Here, it’s King David who is under the cross —and so shamed, lied to, and unable to sleep. David uses his own trauma to teach others exactly what the cross means.
Indeed, this Psalm provides the only way to get to sleep at night when you are under duress. The first thing you must do is call to God derisively: “Answer me when I call!” Then, second, you learn how to “lie down and sleep; for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety” (Ps. 4:1, 8). This Psalm 4 could be called a “song of complaint,” but it really is, as Luther taught it, a song of victory and “invitation”—of triumph and perseverance by which David learns there are terrible battles of the cross and yet also terrific “trophies of the cross.” So, the song begins by whining, but ends in the greatest “triumph” and “trophy” in life: a peaceful good night’s sleep.
1 Hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness: thou hast enlarged me when I was in distress; have mercy upon me, and hear my prayer.
The Greek and Vulgate (Latin) translations begin with a past tense assurance rather than a present complaint: “You answered me when I called. You, O God of righteousness, heard me.” The Hebrew and King James are closer to the truth, however, in calling out presently: Hear me! Answer me!
David can’t sleep; he is mad. Yet, we learn that faith normally begins this way as a “fighting faith” that knows that the one it must contend with is the God of righteousness.
When you call out in distress (under the cross, to the true God) you almost sneer at his true name: “God of righteousness!” To be under the cross means that you are suffering unrighteously. So you call out in a saucy way: “Answer me, you supposed God of righteousness!” Yet, everything in that opening complaint depends upon David’s (and your own) faith. If the God whom you address is not truly righteous––if he does not deal mercifully with you—then your sneer at him will fail. You revile him and eventually stop speaking to him. If, however, you know that your God truly is righteous, then you are calling him out like David was by saying, “I could use your true, revealed, and bestowed mercy right now.”
So it is that whether this was prayed out by David as present tense (“Listen!”) or past tense (“you have heard me”), the teaching is the same. The only God worth praying to is the God who has given himself to us as a true Zedek—the one and only Righteous One. Then, once we have the right God, we learn the result of that God’s righteousness: “thou has enlarged me.” God has made me fat! He has grown me into something big! This is not saying, “give me my due.” When David says that my God is “the righteous one,” he is not saying God is righteous by the law. That would only mean that David could ask God to give him his “just desserts.” Give me what I am owed! Even-out the score in my life’s game! Let me have victory over my enemies because I deserve it!
No; instead, David knows God is “the righteous one” because he gives what is not deserved. That is not merit, but grace. It is a gift not achieved, but a mercy apart from the law entirely.
2 O ye sons of men, how long will ye turn my glory into shame? how long will ye love vanity, and seek after lies? Selah.
After making his plea to the righteous God, David turns to “the sons of men” who have given him his cause for complaint. “They have turned my glory into shame. They have taken my deeds and life in this world—my honor (glory)—or “reputation” and turned it upside down into shame. They have sinned against the eighth commandment: bearing false witness against me.” Well, David, welcome to this old, sinful world! There is nothing more that happens in it than that a good man’s honor is shamed and false witnesses line up against the “righteous” man. Many nights you will go to sleep suffering the abuse of the eighth commandment. The law that should protect and elevate David has now been used against him. No wonder he can’t go to sleep.
David is undergoing what we call lawfare: the abuse of the law against one’s political enemies. This is what happens in the world of “righteousness” between men. They only know the law and they know that the law should by all rights exonerate a person, but it is used against him to accuse him. The law is not my friend! Even if it has been abused and misappropriated, I cannot go to it for help in my trouble. The law gives me no rest when I lie in my bed at night.
Do you know what is the worst part of undergoing shaming by the world? It comes from people whom Solomon called vain vainers of vanity. “Vanity, vanity, all is vanity!” (Ecc. 1:2). The vain have one tool that they use to shame the honorable: they lie. Vanity produces lying liars of lia-fication. This lying is what kept David up at night: the liars are winning! They love vanity! They shame me! They use lawfare against me. It seems like it will never end. So, David finally pleads to his righteous, merciful God: “How long must this go on?” When can I get some rest?
3 But know that the LORD hath set apart him that is godly for himself: the LORD will hear when I call unto him.
The “godly” are chosen, not as the ones who have done what the law requires but as the ones who have faith in their outlaw God.
David now gives his medicine—“But, know this!” I am not speaking to myself any more! Thus, when David eventually turned his midnight consternation into a song, he also managed to speak directly through it: “Know that the Yahweh has set you apart!” That means, he has chosen you specially from the crowd. He has holified you, or made you holy. By doing so, God favored you once and for all. The “godly” are chosen, not as the ones who have done what the law requires but as the ones who have faith in their outlaw God (the very God who lets all of this lying go on so long!). Yet, God will not allow this to go on forever.
If David began his psalm with his complaint, he has now finally come around to teach how faith, rather than moaning, sounds: “the Lord will hear when I call unto him.” David is saying, “I am not blowing smoke or speaking into the dark night. I am talking to the just God who is the one that chose me—set me apart—holy, righteous by his favor.”
4 Stand in awe [or “be angry”], and sin not: commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still. Selah.
Worship means to “stand in awe.” It can be translated as “be angry” or “get your dander up” –but here means that the feelings that keep you up at night (which you can’t control yourself) are turned away from their enemies toward the true God. How do you stay angry but “sin not”? You cannot control the feelings. Instead, the feelings of agitation at your enemies are turned by faith toward God. You cannot change yourself, but faith actually changes you. The greatest worship of the righteous God is in this great promise to you: “Sin not!” Paul was changed in the same way, and said the same thing as David: “Be ye angry, yet sin not!” (Eph. 4:2). That means, faith does what willpower cannot do. It gives you rest.
The fact that David had come to this point of communing directly with the righteous God (whom he early felt was not listening) means that David is about ready to go to sleep. Comfort comes in the night when the lying liars of liardom are silenced in your ears and you “stand in awe of God.” Only then are you really able to “sin not.” How is that possible? How can I ever keep from sinning? Am I not a sinner through and through? Have I not been revealed in this way by God’s own law? Have I not been reduced to living as if the lies of my enemies are true? No! “Sin not” ceases to be a command and becomes a promise. It is like the man beside the pool who waited all his life for healing, but nothing happened until Jesus showed up one day and said, “Pick up your mat and walk!” (John 5) Was that a command? Verbally, yes. Yet theologically or “truly” it was the greatest promise the lame man could receive: “Really, can I just walk out of here now?” The answer for the pool-man was the same as for David: “Sin not” means “I can sleep! I have been set apart, and I am standing in awe of my Lord!”
You now hear God’s voice rather than that of your detractors. When you speak this way, it does not sound like: “Shame on you!” it sounds like, “You are my chosen! You are my specially elected! Be still! Rest!”
True worship of God is faith, and true faith is that which has its hope made firm in the promise that God gave to you in your baptism. Since then, God has repeated this promise many times. In that case, you will learn exactly what David learned here: how to communicate with your own heart to hear God’s gospel word rather than the calumny of your enemies. At night, when you go to the bed, you let faith speak God’s own words to you, “I will fight for you, but you shall be still.”
5 Offer the sacrifices of righteousness, and put your trust in the LORD.
Trust comes in the night when I hear that my sins, though many, are finally taken from me.
David teaches us that the true sacrifice that pleases God is not of lambs and calves—things—but of “righteousness.” It is not a sacrifice of law, or of things, or of paying a debt or of merit or of doing what the law commands. What sacrifice pleases God? It is to confess your sin: “I am a sinner, as you know, O Lord.” David did not come to that easily! As he says in his Psalm 51:17: “The sacrifice of a broken spirit and contrite heart” is not despised by God. This sacrifice is not confessed from shame under the law, it is freely confessed when there is “trust in the Lord.” Faith, for the first time in your life, produces the true sacrifice of a contrite heart: I am a sinner who has not trusted you! That is why I cannot sleep! Yet, David was finally ready for bed because he acknowledges that God’s righteousness is not there to give him his due. God’s righteousness gives his own forgiveness for that very sin that previously belonged to David. That is not judicial righteousness, but sacramental and christological mercy. Trust comes in the night when I hear that my sins, though many, are finally taken from me. They have been washed in the blood of the lamb. Now I am made pure by sheer forgiveness of those very sins. They are not mine any longer; they belong to Christ.
6 There be many that say, Who will shew us any good? LORD, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us.
What if no one else knows this? What if the rest of the world says, “who will show us this blessing?” What if others see what I, David, have received and they want it for themselves? What if they turn toward God and want his light, but they only want a reward for their “corn and wine?”
7 Thou hast put gladness in my heart, more than in the time that their corn and their wine increased.
Never mind the world! Never mind my enemies! Never mind my detractors! They merely scramble for God’s righteousness but end up failing to present their sin to him. Instead they offer their harvest of corn and grapes! Let them make their sacrifices of deeds and accomplishments in life. Let them have the “time of their corn and wine.” Yet that is not what I want from God any longer.
8 I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep: for thou, LORD, only makest me dwell in safety.
Instead, I will “lay me down in peace and sleep!” Finally, I can get to sleep! For You, O Lord, have spoken. It is your word I hear, not that of my enemies. It is you who give me a dwelling place in your heaven and safety from my enemies. I can finally sleep when I hear only your voice: “Your sin I have taken, your sin I have forgiven, My righteousness is now yours, and you will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” David finally had a nice, long, deep, life-giving sleep. Since then, he recommends this song to you—a prayer that pleads to God for his mercy, and receives it by faith alone. Peace! Sleep! At last!
