The Pulpit Commentary on Psalms 4:6-8

The Pulpit Commentary · Joseph S. Exell and contributors · Public domain

The believer's ground of confidence.

David now turns from admonishing his enemies to the ease of his companions in trouble, who saw no ground of hope in the visible aspect of things.

I. THE DESPAIR OF UNBELIEF. "Who will show us any good?" No one can.

1. The grandest revelations are made to the mind, and not to the senses. The question, therefore, is beside the mark. God, Christ, immortality, justice, love, holiness, cannot be shown in visible material form. Christ showed them for a season.

2. The good that can be shown can work no cure of life's greatest evils. It is the inward deliverances, not the outward, that we most need. Talent, money, position, health, cannot work these.

II. THE HIGHEST GOOD COVETED BY THE BELIEVER IN GOD. "Lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us." As the sun lights the world.

1. Then we become intensely conscious of God. The thought of him fills every faculty and solves every problem. "In his light we see light."

2. Then we know that he is our Helper and Saviour. For what is the light of the Divine face?—the light of Fatherhood and love? The light of the warrior's face is that of courage; of the poet's and prophet's, inspiration; of the judge's, that of absolute justice; but the light of God's face is that of an infinite abundance of love for all his children.

III. THE SUPERIORITY OF THIS GOOD OVER THE RICHEST MATERIAL PLENTY. (Psalms 4:7.)

1. It creates a Divine joy and gladness. The excitement of the senses wears out the body and corrupts the mind; but the joys of the heart and mind impart the highest strength and the noblest impulses. Therefore "be not drunk with wine, … but be filled with the Spirit."

2. It gives a deep inward peace. (Psalms 4:8, "I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep?) An intense consciousness of God and his favour has power to tranquillize the mind that is most disturbed by inward or outward trouble. It can calm the greatest storm, because we know the centre of rest, and are reposing upon it.

3. It gives a sense of security. (Psalms 4:8, "For thou, Lord, only makest me dwell in safety.") He needed no guards to ensure his safety during sleep, because God was nigh. "Who is he that can harm you, if ye be followers of that which is good?" But "though he slay me, yet will I trust in him." If we perish by shipwreck, or in battle, or railway accident, we are still in God's hands, and ought to trust in him. This is faith in God—to trust him in the darkness as well as in the light.—S.

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