...listen...

“1 Answer me when I call, O my righteous God!    

You gave me room when I was in distress.    

Be gracious to me, and hear my prayer.

2 How long, you people, shall my honor suffer shame?    

How long will you love vain words, and seek after lies? Selah

3 But know that the Lord has set apart the faithful for himself;    

the Lord hears when I call to him. 

4 When you are disturbed, do not sin;    

ponder it on your beds, and be silent. Selah

5 Offer right sacrifices,    

and put your trust in the Lord” Psalm 4:1-5.

These verses in Psalm 4 have always spoken deeply to me. They are words of a person who is struggling in personal weakness and sin, something we have all experienced. So like all of us, the psalmist calls out to “righteous God.” But the Psalmist believes that, despite our own sinful “distress” we can still call out to “righteous God” to “be gracious to us, and to hear our prayer.” But listen to the confession: God asks us, “How long, you people, shall My honor suffer shame? How long will you love vain words, and seek after lies?” This is our predicament. we want to be faithful to God, but we are not. Instead of “honoring God", we bring shame to Him. We “love vain words” from our own lips and from the lips of others. And we “seek after” and luxuriate in “lies.” And even though “the Lord sets apart the faithful for Himself,” He is close by our side and promises to “hear us when we call on Him.”

So “righteous God” calls us to sin not when we are tempted, when we are disturbed by loneliness or pressures and weaknesses of our life. God calls us at night when we lay in our beds to “ponder and be silent.” We need to “offer right sacrifices” that are pleasing to God. We are to “put our trust in the Lord.” We need to be silent and not listen to the other voices in our minds and hearts, but listen to the voice of God. To be silent and listen to God is God’s way of inviting us to pray, to be in His presence and listen, listen to His voice. That is the right kind of sacrifice in our life to make.

If we do what God wants, we are putting our trust in Him. In this New Year let this define us. So, read the text above once again. Think about it. And then sit in silence and listen to God draw you into His heart so that you can be faithful. Pray these words today, slowly, deliberately, and with open hearts:

“9 ‘Pray then in this way:

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.

10 Your kingdom come. Your will be done,        

on earth as it is in heaven.

11 Give us this day our daily bread.

12 And forgive us our debts,        

as we also have forgiven our debtors.

13 And do not bring us to the time of trial,        

but rescue us from the evil one’” Matthew 6:9-11.

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me a sinner.