Psalm 4

Psalms 4:1

The Hebrew title, which this page's text does not show, reads To the chief Musician on Neginoth, A Psalm of David, Neginoth naming the stringed instruments that carried it. The plea rests its ground not on the psalmist's own righteousness but on God's, O God of my righteousness, and recalls a specific past deliverance, thou hast enlarged me when I was in distress, as the basis for asking again. Gill reads enlarged as room made in a tight place, the same word used of open ground after a siege.

Psalms 4:2-3

The sons of men addressed here are David's own opponents, men of rank who turn my glory into shame, most likely read against a challenge to his kingship such as Absalom's revolt. Leasing is the King James word for falsehood, love vanity and seek after leasing describing a court that prefers flattery to truth. Verse 3 answers the charge rather than arguing it: the Lord has set apart him that is godly for himself, a claim of consecration that settles the question before it is pressed further.

Psalms 4:4-5

Stand in awe, and sin not calls for a controlled response rather than none, and several commentators set the Greek of Ephesians 4:26, be ye angry and sin not, alongside this verse as the same counsel carried into a different tongue. Commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still turns the anger inward into private examination before it becomes public sin. Verse 5 moves from that silence to worship, offer the sacrifices of righteousness, and put your trust in the Lord, so that the private reckoning ends in an outward act.

Psalms 4:6-7

The crowd's question, Who will shew us any good, is answered not with an argument but with a prayer, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us, the same picture as the priestly blessing of Numbers 6:25, the Lord make his face shine upon thee. Verse 7 sets the psalmist's gladness against the two great harvests of the ancient economy, corn and wine, and claims a joy that outruns both. Spurgeon reads the contrast as the difference between what the many chase and what the few already hold.

Psalms 4:8

I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep reads traditionally as the evening companion to Psalm 3's morning word, I laid me down and slept; I awaked, the pair read together as a full day covered by trust. The safety claimed is not circumstance but the Lord's own company, thou, Lord, only makest me dwell in safety, only ruling out every other guarantee. Henry notes that the sleep of the troubled man in verse 8 answers the sleeplessness that opened the psalm's complaint against the sons of men.