What kind of safety do we dwell in? People who have trusted God have been killed in their sleep. What kind of security do we have? People who have trusted God have lost everything? There is more to life than food, clothing, and safety. Those treasures are in the lap of God. I wish that I could see them more clearly. I know that when I see God and comprehend Him my heart is filled with a greater joy.
Read Psalm 4
- What does the psalmist want from God (v. 1)?
- Into what do men change David’s glory?
- What must we remember in our anger?
- In times of distress how does David find joy?
- How do you find joy in times of distress?
Going Deeper
Compose a personal Psalm by writing:
- What you desire of God
- Recount God’s past works in your life
- Restate your faith in God
Example:
The ebb and flow of emotion perplexes me
Unsteady circumstances wound me
I stand to lose if another finds redemption
The desires of my heart will evaporate if another performs well
I can not will my sister’s failure
I can not sneer at her success
You have shown me more of you
Through paths of suffering
You have suppressed my destructive self
By leading through tangled woods and barren hills
I deserve nothing from your hand
But I ask for mercy
There is nothing I can demand from you
I have no right to hold you accountable
However, I am a child adopted into your family
I am a co-heir with Christ
You have allowed me to be a father for half of a year
For six months I have received joy from parenting
If only that could be permanent
If only my role was not hanging in the balance
But you can do as you wish
My will is bent to yours
I have an eternal inheritance that is no less real
I will dwell in joy and light eternal
There is my strength
I remember my rock
Plymothian 
My mind zoomed in on “Offer right sacrifices” when I read Psalm 4, and I was going to post about Jewish God-inspired OT worship traditions and how Christians should ecumenically seek to understand and appreciate each others’ worship-traditions as brothers and sisters (and create new ones for renewed symbol-driven worship of Messiah).But, instead, your own (beautiful) poem caused me to reflect on the purpose of worship-traditions themselves. They are to draw us to a difficult-but-loving God in the midst of the most difficult of human endeavors: living out this suffering-filled life for Him. Just today, Katie and I went to the Anglo-Catholic church just up the road on N LaSalle St. Our worship of Triune God was couched in explosive conflict-ending-in-mutual-regret-and-forgiveness (last night and immediately following the service) within our relationship. Without the worship service, we wouldn’t have remembered that our purpose here is to be God’s agents of New Creation: to love each other, to remain committed, to seek reconciliation by His Spirit’s power.Worship draws us to God so that we can be changed by God, because all of us have darkness that needs expunged and filled with the light of Christ. Worship, when done confessionally, energises us to engage this world with God’s future at our backs.