Join us for an enriching study of Psalm 4 where we explore the themes of distress, prayer, and divine comfort. The episode discusses the significance of trusting in God’s provision and the transformative power of prayer. As we contrast human fallibility with divine faithfulness, we learn from the psalmist’s plea to be heard by God and reflect on the blessings of being heard and relieved in our times of need.
Hi friends, one of my favorite hymns makes the continual plea, hear me when I call. Let’s see from whence this hymn arises as we return to the Psalms today. Our Psalmcast is just ahead. Please stay with us.
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Hi, this is Jay Webb for International Gospel Hour.
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For 90 years, churches of Christ have proclaimed God’s Word through International Gospel Hour. You are about to listen to another Bible-based lesson with Jeff Archie of International Gospel Hour, starting now.
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Well, thank you to our J-Web for his kind words. You will hear from Jay throughout our broadcast. And greetings to all of you. We are honored to have you as part of our audience here at International Gospel Hour. We are always amazed at how well our broadcasts are received and how the growth of those that tune in, that follow us on social media, visit our website, the number of you that make such a great difference. We hope that we are giving you good, sound Bible teaching that will help you. Please tell others about our work. And I’d like to share with you a free online tool, gospelgazette.com. Now, when you get to GospelGazette.com, and by the way, that’s one Z and two Ts in Gazette. When you get to GospelGazette.com, click on the Archive tab. You’ll see access to over 25 years of articles by Christian men and women. We appreciate our kind brother and editor, Lewis Rushmore, and we appreciate him allowing us to share this with you. He would love to see you visit gospelgazette.com. Now, friends, our psalm cast is simply a study of the book of Psalms, and today we continue with Psalm 4. Now, with this broadcast, I’m going to read a little and will study a little, rather than read the entire psalm at one time. We’ll do that as we’ll begin in a moment. I’ll be back in around 30 seconds or so.
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Friends, when we talk about Psalm 4, Psalm 3 is called a morning song, and some look at Psalm 4 as an evening psalm. In that Psalm 3 serves as a base to build into Psalm 4. How Psalm 4 shows further relief from God and how God will respond unto us when we’re faced with our greatest trouble. The late Roy Deaver, a kind friend from days gone by, suggested that this psalm was penned on the eve of the battle of David and Absalom recorded in 2 Samuel 18 verses 1 through 6. David’s plea unto God. I thought that was an interesting observation. So let’s think about Psalm 3. Now let’s just, I’m sorry, Psalm 4. Let’s begin with verse 1. Hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness. You have relieved me in my distress. Have mercy on me and hear my prayer. The plea to hear. Yes, friends, that’s where one of my favorite hymns has its origination. Hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness. Written by the late Tillett S. Tedley. Now let’s define some words here. Distress in this verse. It’s interesting. This word means a tight and narrow place. Or in other words, troubles are pressing in on us. Do we know that feeling rather well? I’d say we do. Then the idea of relieved is to send one to an open place. In other words, I am distressed, Lord. Have mercy on me. Hear my prayer. Hear me when I call with my distress. And you relieve me or move me to an open place. You ease my distress. Romans 8.32 reminds us, He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? What God has done and will build on what He will do. The plea for mercy and prayer. God will answer and God will assist those who trust in Him. He answers and he assists. Psalm 37.25 I have been young and now am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his descendants begging bread. Hebrews 13.5 Let your conduct be without covetousness, be content with such things as you have, for he himself has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you. Now let’s go into verse 2. How long, O you sons of men, will you turn my glory to shame? How long will you love worthlessness and seek falsehood? Selah. Now, selah. Once again, a pause and thought for emphasis. In other words, there is nothing man has that will provide comfort unless that comfort comes from God. 1 Corinthians 1, 3-4. I mean, you think about it, friends. From the verse, worthlessness and lies will not get it done. You can’t trust that. Now, we’re going to stay right into verse 3 because here comes the but. But know that the Lord has set apart himself or for himself him who is godly. The Lord will hear when I call to him. Be angry and do not sin. Meditate within your heart on your bed and be still. Selah. All for the sacrifices of righteousness and put your trust in the Lord God. There are many who say, Who will show us any good? Lord, lift up the light of your countenance upon us. You see, those who would love worthlessness and falsehood, look at what all they are missing. God will hear the righteous. 1 Peter 3, verse 12, For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayers. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil. The wicked are punished by God. Such passages as Psalm 37 verse 38 and Isaiah 3 verses 10 and 11 affirm as such. But notice, do not sin. Be still. Offer sacrifice. Friends, these appear the very opposite of what many individuals would do. I mean, they would be trying to fix or do things on their own. Let’s seek God’s answers to provide, not take our answers to pursue. Allow God to guide us. So many times individuals will say, Brother Jeff, I’m just struggling. Brother Jeff, I’ve got this. Brother Jeff, I’ve got that. Well, the thing is, we create our own way of fixing things, and we’re the ones that got us in the mess. What if we responded unto God’s answers to provide and quit pursuing our answers or our thoughts? Verses 7 and 8. What’s the conclusion? You have put gladness in my heart, more than in the season that their grain and wine increased. I will both lie down in peace and sleep, for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety. You know, when you look at that parallel of gladness in the heart, more than in the season that grain and wine increased. You know, you think of the grains to where it’s reaping time. Or of the wines or the fruit, the grapes that would be harvested. How that all of a sudden that blossoms and what has planted and worked has grown. That’s the gladness in the heart. That’s where the child of God grows. has distress relieved. It’s where the child of God is blessed that God hears our prayers. What a beautiful thought. You see, that distress was relieved with gladness and increase. God provides. Meditation on the bed became peace, and being still results in sleep. That’s such a refreshing and a reassurance of safety. And you know, this is where later David could pin with great assurance. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. Psalm 23, 1. I love our studies on the Psalmcast. And which means down the road we’ll look at Psalm 5. But for now… How thankful we are to see the evening song, if you will, or how God will allow us to rest from the strain of the day. Friends, maybe we can help you in your study of the Word of God. I want to defer to our J-Web for an online study that we have available through our friends at the World Bible School. And then, as time permits, I’m going to share another study with you. Here is our J-Web.
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That’s the free online study at worldbibleschool.org. Sign up today. Tell them the International Gospel Hour has sent you.
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Friends, we are thankful to offer such online material, and we’re grateful that we can offer a number of different tools for study. We realize that a lot of you do not have online access, and so here is another Bible study by mail. We offer Bible studies in a number of ways, but I want to share this one with you. It’s relatively new to International Gospel Hour. It’s called, God and Man, How to be Saved from Sin. Now we can mail this booklet to you. It’s free. So here’s what you do. You can call us at 855-444-6988. Leave your name and address and just say God and man. That’s all you have to do and we will mail that to you. Now, if you do have online access, you can go to our website, internationalgospelhour.com, click on the contact tab, leave us the same information, name, address, and type God and man in the message box, and we will send that to you as well. But again, it’s just as easy to call, 855-444-6988, and leave us your name and address, and just say God and man. Now, very quickly, I’m going to give you the website of God and Man. It’s God, and then you put in the dash, and then put in another dash, man.com. Be sure you get your dashes in there. You can actually download that study if that will be of help to you as well. Friends, we are delighted to study the Psalms with you. We’re delighted to study the Bible with you. Thank you for joining us here on the International Gospel Hour. We’ll continue our studies together at another time. I’m Jeff Archie. Thanks again, and keep listening.
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Thank you for listening to our broadcast today. To God goes all the glory, and we hope that our study today will draw you closer to His Word to walk in His way. To listen to it again or our other broadcasts, please visit our website at internationalgospelhour.com.
