Psalms 4:2

"Futile" is the word used of that thing that is empty, when there is something in name but nothing in substance. The Greeks have many names for their gods but not a trace of substance; so too in many other matters: wealth has a name but not a trace of substance; glory has a name but not a trace of substance; power has a name, and the name remains unsupported by fact. So who would be so heedless as to go in search of bare names of things and pursue hollow things that one ought avoid? Are not the pleasures and prosperity of life things of that kind? Do they not all mislead and deceive? Even if you cite glory and wealth and power, they are all futility. Hence Ecclesiastes also said, "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity." This is the very reason the inspired author is distressed, seeing such absurdity in life. I mean, it is like this: if you saw someone avoiding the light to seek out darkness, you would say, "Why are you doing this strange thing?" So too the inspired author: "Why do you love futility and seek falsehood?"

What are the lies you are seeking? I will tell you right away. You all want to be happy, I know. Find me someone, let him be a robber, a villain, a fornicator, a sorcerer, sacrilegious, defiled by every imaginable vice, up to his neck in misdeeds and crimes of all sorts, who does not want to live a happy life? I know you all want to live happy lives. But what is it that makes a person's life happy? That is something you are not all seeking after. You are seeking gold, because you imagine you will be happy with gold; but gold does not make one happy. Why seek after lies? Why do you want to get to the top in this world? Because you imagine you will be happy with honor from people and worldly triumphs; but worldly triumphs do not make one happy. Why seek after lies? And whatever else you may seek after here, when you seek it in a worldly way, when you seek it by loving earth, when you seek it by licking the dust of the earth, the reason you are seeking it is in order to be happy; but nothing at all that is of the earth will make you happy.… What you are seeking is deceptive; what you are seeking is lies.

Then when he says, "O sons," etc., he turns to the exhortation of others: and concerning this he does two things. First he rebukes sinners; second he exhorts them to amendment, at "And know," etc. Concerning the first he does two things. First he recalls …

"O sons of men, how long will you be heavy of heart? Why do you love vanity and seek after falsehood? And know that the Lord has made His Holy One wonderful: the Lord will hear me when I cry to Him. Be angry, and …

(2.) "You dishonour your Maker, and turn his glory into shame. " They may well be taken as God's own words, charging sinners with the wrong they do him in his honour: or, if David's words, the term glory may be understood of God, whom he called his glory, Ps. iii. Idolaters are charged with changing the glory of God into shame, Rom. i.

O ye sons of men,....

DAVID had many times been the subject of cruel mockery and, therefore, while writing this Psalm probably in the first place about himself, he also described in it one of the bitterest of our Savior's sufferings. What an illustration this is of the union which exists between Christ and His people in the matter of experience! He had a Cross to bear and so have they. He was "despised and rejected of men," and so are they.

sons of men--men of note or prominence (compare 2Ch 21:9). turn my glory--or, "royal dignity." into shame--or, "reproach." vanity--a foolish and hopeless enterprise (Ps 2:1). leasing--a lie.

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — starts-lowercase

In this second division of the Psalm, we are led from the closet of prayer into the field of conflict. Remark the undaunted courage of the man of God. He allows that his enemies are great men (for such is the import of the Hebrew words translated— sons of men), but still he believes them to be foolish men, and therefore chides them, as though they were but children. He tells them that they love vanity, and seek after leasing, that is, lying, empty fancies, vain conceits, wicked fabrications.

In this second division of the Psalm, we are led from the closet of prayer into the field of conflict. Remark the undaunted courage of the man of God. He allows that his enemies are great men (for such is the import of the Hebrew words translated— sons of men), but still he believes them to be foolish men, and therefore chides them, as though they were but children. He tells them that they love vanity, and seek after leasing, that is, lying, empty fancies, vain conceits, wicked fabrications. He asks them how long they mean to make his honour a jest, and his fame a mockery? A little of such mirth is too much, why need they continue to indulge in it? Had they not been long enough upon the watch for his halting? Had not repeated disappointments convinced them that the Lord's anointed was not to be overcome by all their calumnies? Did they mean to jest their souls into hell, and go on with their laughter until swift vengeance should turn their merriment into howling? In the contemplation of their perverse continuance in their vain and lying pursuits, the Psalmist solemnly pauses and inserts a Selah. Surely we too may stop awhile, and meditate upon the deep-seated folly of the wicked, their continuance in evil, and their sure destruction; and we may learn to admire that grace which has made us to differ, and taught us to love truth, and seek after righteousness.

DAVID had many times been the subject of cruel mockery and, therefore, while writing this Psalm probably in the first place about himself, he also described in it one of the bitterest of our Savior's sufferings. What an illustration this is of the union which exists between Christ and His people in the matter of experience! He had a Cross to bear and so have they. He was "despised and rejected of men," and so are they. The Church of God is not like the image that Nebuchadnezzar saw in his dream, which had a head of gold and feet of iron and clay, but as is the Head, such are also the members. As the Head had to endure cruel mocking, the members must not expect to be exempted from similar treatment. This is why so many of the Psalms of David are equally applicable to David and to his Lord. And I believe that we have, in this verse, a reference not only to David, himself, but also to "great David's greater Son." In the case of both of them, the sons of men turned their glory into shame, but I want especially to call to your remembrance the sufferings of our Savior in this respect. I. So, in the first place, notice that EVERYTHING ABOUT OUR SAVIOR THAT WAS GLORIOUS WAS MADE THE SUBJECT OF SCORN. Begin with His glorious Person, and think how shamefully that was treated by the sons of men in the time of His humiliation. He was betrayed, but the betrayer was one who had been His disciple and who, in the very act of betrayal called Him, "Master." This was shameful cruelty on the part of Judas, not only to betray Him to His enemies, but to hail Him as "Master," in mockery and to kiss Him in scorn. There was shame even in the way in which they went to Gethse-mane to arrest the Savior—with swords and staves, lanterns and torches—as though He had been some desperate malefactor who would resist to the utmost the officers of the law.

O ye sons of men - Turning from God to men; from Him in whom he hoped for protection to those who were engaged in persecuting him. We are not, of course, to suppose that they were present with him, but this is an earnest, poetic remonstrance, “as if” they were with him. The reference is doubtless to Absalom and his followers; and he calls them “sons of men,” as having human feelings, passions, and purposes, in strong distinction from that righteous God to whom he had just made his solemn appeal. God was holy, true, and just, and he might appeal to Him; they were ambitious and wicked, and from them he had nothing to hope. He looked upon God as righteous altogether; he looked upon them as altogether depraved and wicked. God he regarded as his just Protector; them he regarded as seeking only to wrong and crush him. How long - The phrase used here might refer either to “time” or to “extent.” How long in regard to “time,” - or to what “degree” or “extent” will you thus persecute me? The former, however, seems to be the true signification. Will ye turn my glory into shame - My honor, or what becomes my rank and station. If this refers to the rebellion in the time of Absalom, the allusion is to the fact that his enemies were endeavoring to rob him of his scepter and his crown, and to reduce him to the lowest condition of beggary and want; and he asks with earnestness how long they intended to do him so great injustice and wrong. Will ye love vanity - Compare the notes at Psa 2:1. That is, how long will you act as if you were in love with a vain and impracticable thing; a thing which “must” be hopeless in the end. The idea is, that God had chosen him, and anointed him, and had determined that he should be king Psa 4:3, and therefore, that their efforts “must be” ultimately unsuccessful. […]