'Do you see yonder wicket Gate?' Evangelist pointing Christian in Bunyan's Pilgrims Progress to the way of salvation Gleanings in the Psalms
Psalm 4

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This is another instance of David's common habit of pleading past mercies as a ground for present favour. Here he reviews his Ebanezers (Hitherto hath the Lord helped me), and takes comfort from them. It is not to be imagined that He who has helped us in six troubles will leave us in the seventh.

C.H. Spurgeon

Verse 1 – "Hear me when I call, O God of my Righteousness; thou has enlarged me when I was in distress; have mercy upon me, and hear my prayer".

From his prayer learn: -
  1. Though there be many and divers troubles of the godly, yet there is but one God to give comfort and relief, and one way to draw it from God; i.e. by prayer in faith … HEAR ME WHEN I CALL.
  2. Albeit the conscience of much sin be opposed to the prayer of the believer, yet the everlasting righteousness of faith, whereof the Lord is God, author and maintainer for ever, doth open the way to the supplicant … "hear me when I call, O GOD OF MY RIGHTEOUSNESS".
  3. Acknowledgement of by-past mercies in former experience is a good preparation for a new mercy, and a means to strengthen our faith to receive it… "THOU HAST ENLARGED ME WHEN I WAS IN DISTRESS, HAVE MERCY UPON ME".
  4. Faith is a good orator, and a noble disputer in a strait. It can reason from God's readiness to hear … "have mercy upon me, AND HEAR MY PRAYER".

David Dickson

Verse 2 – "O ye sons of men, how long will ye turn my glory into shame?"

We might imagine every syllable of this precious Psalm used by our Master some evening, when about to leave the Temple for the day, and retiring to His wonted rest at Bethany, after another fruitless expostulation with the men of Israel … "O ye sons of men, how long will ye turn my glory into shame?" BUT FURTHER, not only is this the utterance of the HEAD, it is also the language of one of His MEMBERS in full sympathy with Him in holy feeling. This is a Psalm with which the righteous may make their dwellings resound, morning and evening, as they cast a sad look over a world that rejects God's grace … "O ye sons of men, how long will ye turn (HIS) glory into shame?"

Andrew Bonar

Verse 3 – "But know that the Lord hath set apart him that is godly for Himself: The Lord will hear when I call upon him".

See in this verse … THE BLESSED SEPARATIST. (1) Who is he? (2) Who separated him? (3) With what end? (4) How to make men know it? ? "Hints to a Village Preacher."

Andrew Fuller

Verse 4 – "Stand in Awe … commune with your own heart …"

You can hardly impose a severer task upon a wicked man than to go and retire for an hour or two and commune with himself. He knows not how to face his own thoughts; his own soul is a devil to him, as indeed it will be in hell the most frightful tormenting devil.

John Howe

Verse 6 – "There be many that say 'Who will show us any good?'"

A child is eager to have any toy he sees, but throws it away at the sight of another, and is equally eager to have that. Men and women are most of them children through life, and only change one toy for another from the cradle to the grave.

Anon.

Verse 6 – "… Lord, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us".

Where Christ reveals Himself there is satisfaction in the slenderest portion, and without Christ there is emptiness in the greatest fulness.

Alexander Grosse

Verse 7 – "Thou hast put gladness in my heart, more than in the time that their corn and their wine increased".

What madness and folly is it that the favourites of heaven should envy the men of the world, who at best do feed upon the scraps that come from God's table! … is it not below a Christian to envy others for temporals, when himself enjoys the spirituals?

Thomas Brooks

Verse 8 – "I will both lay me down in peace and sleep; for Thou Lord only makest me dwell in safety".

It is said of the husbandman that, having cast his seed into the ground, he sleeps and riseth day and night, and the seed springs up and grows HE KNOWS NOT HOW. So a good man, having by prayer and faith cast his care upon God, resteth night and day, and is very easy, leaving it to his God to perform all things for him according to His holy will.

Matthew Henry

"I will both lay me down in peace,
And quiet sleep will I take;
Because Thou only me to dwell
In safety, Lord, does make".

Metrical Version


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This Page Title – Gleanings in the Psalms (Psalm 4)
The Wicket Gate Magazine "A Continuing Witness".
Internet Edition number 39 – placed on line November 2002
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