The Psalms are the inspired Word of God as written down by human instruments who were carried along by the Holy Spirit (2 Tim 3:16; 2 Pet 1:20–21). These God-breathed words of our Creator then minister to the human soul in the everyday moments of life. We read them in our daily devotions, but also turn to them in moments of crisis. As John Calvin wrote of the Psalms,

I have been accustomed to call this book . . . An Anatomy of all the Parts of the Soul; for there is not an emotion of which any one can be conscious that is not here represented as in a mirror. Or rather, the Holy Spirit has here drawn to the life all the griefs, sorrows, fears, doubts, hopes, cares, perplexities, in short, all the distracting emotions with which the minds of men are wont to be agitated.1

This truth became apparent to me while our family was traveling on vacation. I watched as my infant daughter’s eyes rolled back to the top of her head and she lost all consciousness. Just moments before, she had been fussing in my wife’s arms. Then suddenly, she was eerily silent and her body stiff. We rushed her to the emergency room where she would experience ten seizures in just twelve hours as the medical team scrambled to diagnose the problem. They connected her to an IV drip for anti-seizure medication and conducted countless neurological tests. My wife and I languished through those days of uncertainty, but thankfully our daughter recovered and remains healthy to this day. That Sunday, however, my heart was heavy as I rolled wearily out of the not-so-comfy hospital cot. I was scheduled to guest preach at a local church and I hadn’t spent much time preparing my sermon from Psalm 4. Mercifully, I’d been soaking in its truths all week.

The Psalms Speak to Everyday Life

A Desperate Prayer (v. 1)

In Psalm 4, David fears for his life and feels like he’s trapped in a tight spot. So, he instinctively cries out: “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!” (v. 1). David remembers God’s faithfulness in the past and calls out once more for grace.

As our one-year-old daughter experienced yet another seizure in the hospital waiting room, we were rushed into the ER like a scene from a movie. My wife and I stood back helplessly as a team of medical professionals swarmed around our daughter’s unresponsive body which seemed so tiny on that full-sized hospital bed. Our first instinct was to cry out to God as we wrestled against anxiety. We didn’t have long or well-worded prayers, but simply an expression of urgency: “Help us, Lord! Save our daughter’s life!” Our remembrance of God’s past faithfulness and our confidence in his present character reminded us that he was still sovereign in the storm.

Shame and Guilt (vv. 2–3)

David is tempted by shame and guilt as he listens to the lies of others: “O men, how long shall my honor be turned into shame? How long will you love vain words and seek after lies?” (v. 2). He refuses, however, to let others define him, for he claims his covenant identity in the Lord: “But know that the LORD has set apart the godly for himself; the LORD hears when I call to him” (v. 3). The God of righteousness had declared David a favored son of Israel and a child of the covenant (Exod 3:14–15). He had anointed David king of Israel and the nation’s representative (2 Sam 22:51). Thus, David now lives among “the godly” who are set apart for Yahweh’s steadfast love (Exod 33:16). Truly, the Lord listens when his people pray.

Once the initial terror wore off, my wife and I were tempted to question ourselves as parents: “Should we have brought her in sooner? Did we do something wrong? Has our foolishness harmed our daughter?” We had to refute those lies by remembering our identity in Christ: “We are chosen and loved. We are prayed for and protected. Even if we fail as parents, we are forgiven of sin and cleansed of guilt, for God is our righteousness and our salvation. We are called by his name and destined for eternal glory by the one who will never leave us nor forsake us.”

Unrighteous Anger (vv. 4–5)

As he counsels himself against anxious thoughts, David also fights unrighteous anger: “Be angry, and do not sin; ponder in your own hearts on your beds, and be silent” (Ps 4:4). David brings his anger before the only one who can restore the penitent: “Offer right sacrifices, and put your trust in the LORD” (v. 5). He then exhorts all those around him to trust in God when their anger rises from anxious hearts.

My wife and I remained hypervigilant that first night as we waited out each new wave of seizures. Then, as the medication wore off, I held my daughter while she screamed for hours and tried to rip out her IV. After a few sleepless nights, with the constant dread of each new setback, my wife and I began to snap at each other. We grew frustrated with the hospital staff and had to hold our tongues to keep from lashing out in anger (v. 4b). Many times, we had to repent for sinful thoughts (v. 5). Yet as we read the Psalms together, we counseled one another to trust in God because our anger was rooted in a deep anxiety which only he could take away.

Doubting God (vv. 6–7)

David also warns against doubting the Lord in the despair of our anxiety: “There are many who say, ‘Who will show us some good?’” (v. 6a). David’s painful circumstances tempt him to wonder if God has stopped acting on his behalf. Yet he counsels his despondent soul to rejoice in the Lord: “‘Lift up the light of your face upon us, O LORD!’ You have put more joy in my heart than they have when their grain and wine abound” (vv. 6b-7). David draws upon the priestly benediction reserved for Israel (Num 6:24–26) and receives greater comfort from God’s assurance than the blessing of a bountiful harvest.

In those initial hours of uncertainty, my wife and I were tempted to fear the worst-case scenario. Yet we continually assured ourselves of God’s wonderful goodness. Only then could we rejoice with God in the midst of our trial (Jas 1:2–4). Like David, we learned to sleep at night as we trusted the Lord to care for our daughter. We trusted that “the sovereignty of God is the pillow upon which the child of God rests His head at night, giving perfect peace.”2 To this day, we continue to be grateful for our daughter’s good health, but even more grateful for our Father’s compassionate care in times of trouble.

Peaceful Rest (v. 8)

David finally concludes his psalm with the promise of perfect peace: “In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for you alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety” (Ps 4:8). David rests upon the Lord’s unchanging faithfulness and his promises for the future. He trusts that God will surely sustain him despite what else may come.

After preaching Psalm 4 that Sunday, I returned to the hospital to find my daughter sleeping peacefully. I had held her all throughout the previous night, singing the familiar songs of “Jesus Loves Me” and “God is so Good” to calm my heart as well as hers. Then, in the darkness of that night, God had reminded me that I could rest confidently in his unfailing love. As she’s grown up, our daughter has brought our family tremendous joy. She loves to sing and to learn about Jesus. As her father, of course, I still get anxious at times, but I have learned to pray Psalm 4 to remind me of God’s faithfulness: “Lord, thank you for graciously answering our prayers (v. 1). Fill my mind and my heart with your eternal promises as I long for rest (v. 4). Increase my gladness for every good blessing you’ve given to me (v. 7) and let me be assured of my security in you (v. 8). Thank you, Lord, for every good night’s sleep.”

The Psalms Speak to the Human Soul

Christians throughout the centuries have clung to the Psalms for help and hope because they teach us how to wisely traverse any human experience. According to John Stott, “The reason why Christian people are drawn to the Psalms is that they speak the universal language of the human soul Whatever our spiritual mood may be, there is sure to be a psalm which reflects it—whether triumph of defeat, excitement or depression, joy or sorrow, praise or penitence, wonder or anger.”3

The Psalms shape our thoughts, emotions, and words with the very Word of God. In essence, “[They] teach us whom to worship . . . [and also] how to worship.. [They] lift our hearts toward heaven while they keep us planted on earth.”4 The Psalms also reveal when we have fallen short of worshiping God in Spirit and in truth (John 4:24), then blaze the path for our feeble hearts to find this One who alone is worthy of praise (Ps 34:2). The Psalms stoke our souls aflame with the truths kindled by previous saints (33:1–12) and exhort us to proclaim with them the glory of our God. In the words of Perowne, “No single Book of Scripture, not even of the New Testament, has, perhaps, ever taken such hold on the heart of Christendom.”5

The Psalms Speak for God

The Psalms were written several millennia ago over a span of about 900 years.6 They were divinely inspired like the rest of Scripture (2 Tim 3:16) and quoted by Jesus as the Spirit-spoken Word of God (Mark 12:35–37; see Ps 110:1; 2 Pet 1:21). David, “the sweet psalmist of Israel,” was one such anointed prophet who spoke the oracles of God: “The Spirit of the LORD speaks by me; his word is on my tongue” (2 Sam 23:1–3).7 Robert Alter upheld poetry as David wrote at least seventy-five psalms (2–9, 11–32, 34–41, 51–65, 68–70, 86, 95, 101, 103, 108–110, 122, 124, 131, 133, 138–145; see 2 Sam 23:1) and Asaph, the worship leader, penned twelve (Pss 50, 73–83). The sons of Korah were a guild of musicians who composed certain psalms (42, 44–49, 84–85, 87; see 2 Chr 5:12; 35:15), while others were written by Solomon (Pss 72, 127), Heman (88), Ethan (89; see 1 Chr 6:42; 15:17, 19), and Moses (90). About fifty psalms remain anonymous language which best communicated man’s relationship with God:

God exists before and beyond language, and is by no means looked or the captive the poets’ medium. But God manifests Himself to man in part through language  The psalmist’s delight in the suppleness and serendipities of poetic form is not a distraction from the spiritual seriousness of the poems but his chief means of realizing his spiritual vision, and it is one source of the power these poems continue to have not only to excite our imaginations but also to engage our lives.8

The Psalms, more than any other book, have become the language of God’s people. Over and over in Scripture, “the community uses, reuses, and rereuses these same words because the words are known to be adequate and because we know no better words to utter.”9 The Psalms, therefore, stand waist-deep in the stream of biblical theology: “Of all the books regarded as Scripture in the New Testament, Psalms is the most widely cited. Of the 150 canonical psalms, 129 make their appearance in some form in the New Testament.”10 Many of these instances also point forward to the person and work of the messiah in ways surprising to the ancient Jews. For the Psalms trace the seed of the woman along Scripture’s winding path, then show the defeat of the serpent’s seed at every turn (Gen 3:15). Hamilton has identified many of these common themes within the Psalms:

The authors of earlier Scripture intended their audience to see the enmity between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent, and further that they wanted to encourage God’s people to stand fast as the seed of the woman against the seed of the serpent. For David to see the outworking of the pattern in his own life, then, was in keeping with the intent of earlier biblical authors, and likewise for later kings—including the man from Nazareth—to identify with David’s experience, even to see David’s experience fulfilled in his own, would be fully in line with David’s intent.11

New Testament Attestation that David Spoke the Word of God

David was “a prophet”

Acts 2:30, citing Psalm 16:9–11

David spoke “in the Spirit”

Matthew 22:43–44, citing Psalm 110:1

The Spirit spoke through David

Acts 1:16, citing Psalm 69:25 and 109:8; also Acts 4:25, citing Psalm 2:1

David’s words are “Scripture”

Mark 12:10, citing Psalm 118:22; John 13:18, citing Psalm 41:9; John 19:24, citing Psalm 22:18

David’s words are “Law”

John 10:34–35, citing Psalm 82:6

Walter Brueggemann, “The Psalms as Praver,” in Patrick Miller, The Psalms and the Life of Faith (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 1995), 33. “The book of Psalms was the first book printed on the Gutenberg press, and as the Bible came to be cast in the vernacular it became the most widely translated book in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century England. Today, Psalm 23 is probably the best-known text in the world. Still today, when the New Testament is published separately, the book of Psalms is often included with it. As Christian mission makes its advance, the book of Psalms is often one of the first books to be translated. It was the first for Jerome in his translating of the Bible into Latin, in what became known as the Vulgate. For centuries, the church sang only the Psalms in their corporate meetings; and still today renditions of and references to the Psalms pervade our hymnals” (Bruce K. Waltke and Fred G. Zaspel, How to Read and Understand the Psalms [Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2023], 2–3).

William P. Brown, “The Psalms: An Overview,” in The Oxford Handbook of the Psalms, ed. William P. Brown (New York: Oxford University Press, 2014):

The Psalms, then, as the very Word of God, direct our thoughts to biblical and historical theology before pointing us forward to our Lord and Savior. As such, they “make [us] wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus [and are] profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man [or woman] of God may be complete, equipped for every good work” (2 Tim 3:15b-17). In the following chapters, we will learn to read and study the Psalms as God-breathed Scripture with special care for understanding Hebrew poetry and wisdom literature. We will then prayerfully apply the Psalms to counsel ourselves and the souls of others (Rom 15:4).

For Further Study:

Barrick, William, and Eric Kress, The Psalms: A Primer for Prayer. The Woodlands, TX: Kress Publishing, 2020.

Blaising, Craig A., and Carmen S. Hardin, eds. Psalms 1–50. Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture, vol. 7.Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2008.

Calvin, John. Commentary on the Book of Psalms, trans. by Rev. James Anderson. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2003.

Spurgeon, Charles Haddon. The Treasury of David, 3 vols. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, n.d. Wesselschmidt, Quentin F., ed. Psalms 51–150. Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture, vol. 8. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2007. Witthoff, David, et. al. Psalms Explorer (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2014).

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