Commonplace –
“Stand in awe, and sin not: commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still. Selah
Offer the sacrifices of righteousness, and put your trust in the Lord” (Psalm 4:4-5).
Psalm 4 is credited to David. David begins this psalm with a plea to God to be heard; he predicates his argument to be heard on God’s previous responses to his cries. In the past, God blessed him in his distress, and he is asking for the same again: “have mercy upon me and hear my prayer” (Psalm 4:1b).
David then turns to his oppressors and calls them out for their shaming him to stoke their own vanity. He warns them that God will hear him, when he prays.
Then, David turns his face to God, and the glory of God fills him to overflowing as the wisdom pours out in his song. He instructs the reader in the way of the good in verses 5 and 6. This receiving from God and sharing with others has “put gladness in [his] heart” (v. 7), and his prayer has been answered. He receives the calm and comfort only God can impart: “for thou, Lord, only makes me dwell in safety” (Psalm 4:8). In this psalm, David leads the reader from being perturbed to being at peace and the pathway is prayer.
Matthew Henry paints a beautiful picture of David as we see him in Psalm 4.
“David was a preacher, a royal preacher, as well as Solomon; many of his psalms are doctrinal and practical as well as devotional; the greatest part of this psalm is so, in which Wisdom cries to men, to the sons of men (as Prov. 8:4,5), to receive instruction” (204).
Works Cited
Henry, Matthew. “Psalm 4.” Matthew Henry’s Commentary On the Whole Bible: New Modern Edition. Volume 3 and Volume 6, Hendrickson Publishers, Inc., March 1996.
Holy Bible: Giant Print with Study Aids. Dugan Publishers, Inc., 1984.
© 2025 Angela Hormberg
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