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1:20I don't think that the store owners found that funny, though. Well, now on a much serious note, according to the Chicago Tribune on On May 9th, 1994, a group of fourth graders at Fuller School on the south side of Chicago accused a substitute teacher of sexually molesting them. But that afternoon, the school board promised to bring in counselors for the children. By evening, the story was all over the news. But the next day, police investigators came and interviewed 14 of the children, and authorities determined that the charges were false. Apparently, the children made the false accusation because the substitute teacher threatened to report their unruliness. One radio announcer reported that one child had promised to give his classmates a dollar if they would join in the lie. Speaking to this problem, a spokeswoman for the teachers' union said sexual abuse charges are one of the hazards of the profession, a new one. Gets sharper. It's akin to putting glue on a teacher's chair 20 years ago.

2:29The teachers' union president said that exonerating the teacher doesn't always make everything better. What usually happens, he said, when a person is accused of this kind of thing, is they're exonerated by the board publicly. But then later, quietly, they're let go. Slander, gossip, name-calling. They're all extremely hurtful. They have long-lasting repercussions. They go far farther than just words, right? They don't stop at words. They have consequences. They can have legal consequences. They can have financial consequences. Look at those store owners. $85,000 for a woman who just tripped over her own toddler. It sounds dumb, but yeah, there's a consequence for that. You've heard the famous saying: sticks and stones will break my bones, but what? Words can never hurt me. Well, no, it's not true. Especially when someone important, at least to us, is saying those words. Surely you've been in the receiving end more than once, right? It's sadly a normal part of this world that we live in. And maybe you're suffering through it right now. One of the dangers of living in this sinful world is being slandered, especially as Christians. As the world becomes more and more ungodly, and Christians become more liable to being slandered, falsely accused, suffer injustice.

4:08We have an increasing need to know how to act, how to deal with this properly. Well, there was someone in the Bible who also experienced slander, big slander. Someone who demonstrated the right attitude, the right heart toward it, someone who dealt with it the right way. And he even wrote a song. About it, so that we can learn from his example. That someone is King David, and that song is Psalm 4. So I invite you to turn with me to Psalm 4 in your Bibles. Now, as you find Psalm 4, maybe you got it because you saw that very little, I don't know if you even see it. It says Psalm 4 over there. Let me clarify how we're going to go about this Psalm. Okay, so I want to start by explaining shortly what the text says about David's circumstances. There we go. And then we're going to get to the heart of our study, which is in David's response, that he teaches us three godly responses in the midst of slander. So first we're going to deal with the circumstances. That's going to be mainly verse 2, a little bit of verse 1 as well, and then we're going to go through the psalm again, seeing David's response. Good?

5:28Now, before we read verse 1, let me point to you that little title that is right above it. That's actually verse 1 in the Hebrew Bible. I don't know what it says above to the choir master. That's just part of what the translators put it, whoever your publisher is. They put that as a summary. But what it's below that, what it says to the choir master with string instruments. A Psalm of David, that's part of the Hebrew text. I believe that's inspired as well. And it teaches us something about how we are to read this Psalm.

6:12Well, this was meant to be taught to the congregation, to the choir master with string instruments. So this is going to the one who's going to teach the song. So this is meant for public singing. This is meant to be a template. It's not only just David's testimony. You see, that is a Psalm of David. It's not just his testimony. I believe this is meant to be a template that teaches us how to respond in the midst of the situation that David is explaining here.

6:48If you look at the same title in chapter 3, we see that it has a historical remark. It says, a psalm of David, when he fled from Absalom, his son. This one doesn't have it. This one doesn't have any historical remarks. It is not very specific. And that's something interesting about this psalm. Nothing is very, very specific, which I think is part of the wisdom of the Psalm, because we can put ourselves in David's shoes in spite of what specific situation he was going through, what historical situation he was going through. Insert ourselves into his shoes.

7:33So let's begin. Verse 1, let me read. Verse 1, answer me when I call, O God of my righteousness. You have given me relief when I was in distress. Be gracious to me and hear my prayer. O man, how long shall my honor be turned into shame? And how long will you love vain words and seek after lies? So we see that David's in distress. He has an attack on his character, that's slander, attacking one's character.

8:09And as we will see through the Psalm, it won't just stop at words. He needs to live insecurely and he's thankful because God will help him sleep safely and in peace. There's threats. There's danger always with slander. It doesn't stop with words. And he's being falsely accused. We know that because he's calling to the God of his righteousness. We'll more on that in a little bit. And in verse 2, we see that his enemies, they love vain words. They seek after lies. They are turning what's good in him, his honor, into shame. They're trying to revert the whole situation. They're trying to attack his character. Whatever he does, whatever he is, they're trying to turn it on its head. and uh slander him and and make him good look bad in front of the congregation. Um but there's uh one uh clue as to who David's enemies are. We we said that this psalm is not very specific, right? There's not a historical mark over here or anything very specific about his circ circumstances. Um the only clue is found in verse two. If you read, it says O men, first two words. Maybe your translation says o men of rank. If you have an ESV or something else, you might have a footnote and it says or, oh, men of rank. And because that specific word for men was talking about someone who had some sort of importance in the community, someone who was weighty, their words can do a lot of harm. You know, because it's one thing if if a classmate or a coworker starts spreading some gossip about you, it's another thing if the chief of police, if the mayher, if the national newspaper is spreading false accusations against you, there's a lot more at stake. There's a lot more at stake, for example, at the court.

10:19It's not the same. So that's what David is going through. This is dangerous territory for him. Very important people, very Influential people are spreading these accusations. We don't really know what they are. And this can be very dangerous, very life-threatening. As we read his life, you know, every slander ends up with very, very complicated situations. David fleeing from people, hiding for his life. And we can sympathize with him, especially when he exclaims, How long? We see that in verse 2. How long? How long will you love vain words and seek after lies? How long shall my honor be turned into shame? We can feel his emotion. He's tired. This is a repeated thing that's going on, and people are slandering him.

11:22It seems that his enemies never stop slandering him. And maybe you can identify this week with David. Maybe there are some colleagues that spread rumors about you. You know, that that person only wants to get ahead. Maybe because of your biblical principles, people are calling you names. That's affecting the work environment, the school environment. Someone threatens to sue or to accuse you of something to your boss because you believe or support the truth. Maybe someone maybe. Misinterpret something you did or does it on purpose, you know, and they're making a huge deal about this.

12:08Your name is being thrown into the mud unjustly, reputation is being compromised. What do you do? What do you do in those moments? Do you complain to friends? Look for sympathy, right? You can draw attention to yourself in social media, make a big, bad, mean post. You can internalize your problem. You can feel sorry about yourself. Those are temptations that we have, right? You can start a slander campaign, you know, say, well, the only reason she said that is because.

12:50Well, let's look at David's response and learn from him three godly responses in the midst of slander that are worthy of imitation. First, let me see if it works. Turn to God. Turn to God for help. Verse 1: Answer me when I call, O God of my righteousness. You have given me relief when I was in distress. Be gracious to me and hear my prayer. First thing that we see here is that David turns to God. He prays. He asks God for help. Answer me when I call. O God of myself. Righteousness.

13:32And interesting thing here, he appeals to the God of, he says, O God of my righteousness. We could translate that my righteous God as well, or more likely means the God who vindicates me. You know, there's not such a thing as a fully righteous sufferer in a theological sense, because we all sin, right? We all may have done something to contribute or some, you know, nobody can say, I'm blameless of sin, period. And I don't think that's what David is saying here. I mean, look at other Psalms and he expressed, you know, in wickedness I was conceived, you know, I'm sinful, I have a sinful nature, etc. But if you put David, he's being slandered unjustly. He's been persecuted unjustly. If you put David here on the court and there are accusers here and the judge asks David, well, are you innocent or guilty of the charges? Well, he will say, I'm innocent. We're not talking about sinlessness here. We're talking about here that he is looking for vindication because he has not done the things that they told the other people are telling.

14:56That's slander. So he's. Looking to God, to the righteous God who champions the rights of his people. He's asking the God who cares about justice. God cares about justice. That's why he turns to God, because he does. He is a righteous God, and he cares about righteousness and justice. So he appeals to him as a righteous judge that he is. Now, although I don't think that this is the main thought that David had in mind when he wrote The God of My Righteousness, there is also a blessed reality that we can approach God thanks to the righteousness of Christ, don't we? You know, that's that foreign righteousness that we can appeal to. And we can. We can approach God solely on the basis of what? Christ. He's the one who, through His righteousness, He allows us to have fellowship with the Father. And if we read Hebrews, right, He is the one who appeals for us in heaven, and He is there interceding for us. So we can turn to God for help because He cares. God cares about justice. And He's going through some injustice, so He can appeal to Him. Well, not only that, let's look at part B of verse 1. You have given me relief when I was in distress.

16:26So He not only turns to God for help because God cares about justice. Also, because God has been faithful in the past, God has a record of mercy. He looks back and he remembers and he realizes this is not the first time I've been in this position. God has been gracious, God has been merciful in the past, so I can trust Him today. He can carry me through because He has already done that in the past.

16:57We get some tunnel vision when we go through difficult circumstances, don't we? We just cannot look at anything else but what's wrong, and how am I going to get out of this thing? And this is so difficult, it's so complicated, and everything. The room starts getting a little smaller and smaller, and you feel the pressure. Well, one thing to remember here is God's mercy. He has been merciful. In times like this, let's pause and remember. You know, we a lot of the Old Testament, if you've read it through, a lot of it is remember, remember, remember. Well, why? I mean, we can even why remembering everything that is like repeated twice, three times, four times? I don't know how many times, like the Exodus is repeated in the Bible. I mean, isn't it enough to have the record, like the record once? No, because it's important to remember. In times of distress, Go back to the delivering acts of God, like the Exodus, like the Israelites forgot all the time. Every time there was something wrong, what did God say? Remember the Exodus? Remember how I carry you through the wilderness? Well, that was huge, and they forgot.

18:21How many huge things in our lives have we forgotten? Or we tend to forget when we get to those difficult moments in distress, while we have to deal with hurtful words. God has been faithful, merciful in the past. So let's remember. Bring that to mind. He says here, verse 1, I'm still there. You have given me relief when I was in distress. I love that phrase, you have given me relief. It literally means to expand, to spread, to make room, to make space. You know, when we have that tunnel vision and everything starts to get crowded and you feel small and you feel pressured, God is the one who gives you the space, can give you that relief. You can breathe again.

19:27Take that deep breath. He's the one who allows that. And you can have that many times by remembering. Bring that to mind. He's merciful. How merciful he has been. Not only we turn to God for help because he cares about justice, he has been merciful in the past. We must remember. God's gracious. The end of verse 1 it says, Be gracious to me and hear my prayer. So we don't deserve God's help, and I think that's important to bring to mind as well. I mean, we cannot just demand God and say, hey, listen, God, I'm going through stuff. Why haven't you showed up?

20:13We must remember and say, God, be gracious. This is not my prerogative. This is not my rights. And you have to obey me when I'm in distress. No, be gracious. And how amazing that we have a gracious God. That he does. He listens to us, even when we don't ask in the best ways many times. He's gracious. Turn to God when you're in distress, dealing with slander. Let's keep going. Second, treat your enemies kindly. This part was very, very interesting to me when I was studying it. Verses 3 to 5, we already looked at verse 2 when we dealt with David's. Circumstances, so that's why we're skipping. It says, but know, and now David is here addressing his enemies. He says, No, that the Lord has set apart the godly for himself. The Lord hears when I call to him. I'm going to stop there for a second. He look what he's doing, he's instructing his enemies, he's teaching them something kindly, by the way. He's saying, God is on my side. I mean, it may look like I'm losing right now. How can I turn around this whole situation where my name is absolutely slandered, and people may start, may have started already to look at me funny and think the wrong things about me.

21:50It seems like I'm losing, but hey, God isn't my side. He's on my side. And that's something to remember as well and bring to mind when things get so crowded in our mind and we think that there's no way around this. God is on our side. He says, He teaches them. So be careful. You enemies, you think you're winning. You think you're going to get away with whatever you're doing. Maybe there's some advantage that they wanted to get out of David.

22:25We don't know the circumstances, but he tells them, No, that the Lord has set apart. The godly for himself. He's on my side, not your side. He has a special treatment with his godly ones. If you are a believer, if you have come to Christ, you are one of those. And he has a special place in his heart, so to speak, for you. He has not forgotten you. He. Let me read that again. The Lord has set apart the godly for himself, and the Lord hears when I call to him.

23:08So he has special treatment with his own, to the ones loyal to him. He not only instructs them, saying, Hey, God is on my side, he warns them. In verse 4, and says, tremble and do not sin. Ponder in your hearts on your beds and be silent. Well, let me just pause for a second, and maybe your translation says, be angry. That's a translation decision because literally it means to be agitated, to quake, to be disturbed. So you can take that as trembling in a fearful way or like trembling, getting worked up and getting angry. So I side more with NASB, the NIV as well, the NRSV that put tremble, or when you are disturbed, do not sin. That's how they translated it. So, tremble, in the sense that, hey, be warned. Be thinking about what you're doing. If you're going against one of God's children, one of God's holy ones, set apart ones, think about the consequences. Tremble. Do not sin against me. God has set me apart, and He's with me, He's on my side. It might not look like it right now.

24:29And He says, Ponder in your hearts, on your bets, and be silent. Like, think about it. Consider it. Consider what you're about to do. How many times do we do that? And we consider that we have God on our side. And then he encouraged them to get right with God. That was the part that really caught me off guard as I was reading this psalm. It says, verse 5: Offer right sacrifices and put your trust in the Lord.

25:02He's talking to his enemies. I mean, I don't know about your first reaction, but I don't know if that will be mine. And I think that should convict us. To our enemies, we'd rather sing the impregnory psalms and say, Destroy them, Lord. And we'd rather speak back and slander back or try to. To push them down. But in the midst of slander and distress, treat your enemies kindly. That's what David is teaching us. And one way to do so is to aim for them to get right with God.

25:44After all, that would solve the problem at heart, right? For the non-Christian slanderer, you can aim for their salvation. And how grand will that be if they do? I mean, they cannot do any other than to sin against you if they are unbelievers. If they really don't have the love of God in them, how would you expect them to love you? So aim for their salvation. And for the Christian slanderer, save us from being one of those. Aim for their restoration. We want that brother to come back, not only to relationship with us, but relationship with the Lord. If they are slandering, they're not in a right relationship vertically either.

26:34And imagine, what if you could actually use this very difficult situation as an opportunity to win someone to Christ? That will be turning that situation on its head. By the way, it's no surprise, even though it's of great encouragement, that all these godly responses are perfectly, beautifully demonstrated by. The Son of David, our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the perfect example of this whole psalm, how to live it out. The Apostle Peter said in 1 Peter 2:21 through 25, you don't need to turn there. But it says, Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, read slander as well. He did not revile in return. When he suffered, he did not threaten, but continue entrusting himself to him who judges justly. He himself wore our sins in his body on the tree that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds, you have been healed, for you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls. We can see a lot of parallels. Which takes us to the third godly response: that just like Jesus Christ entrusted himself to him who judges justly, God the Father, we must trust in the Lord as well. We see that in verses 6 to 8. Let me read verse 6. There are many who say, Who will show us some good? Lift up the light of your face. Face upon us, O Lord. Maybe you have the quotations end at the end of verse 6. Let me remind you that if you read the Hebrew text, it doesn't have quotations and like little marks. So that's what the translation team sometimes thought. You know, let's finish the quotation at the end. I think, and I'm not the only one, if you were wondering, that the quotations end with, who will show us some good? That's what the people are saying. There are many others in distress. That's the point. Many people are doubting God's goodness. They're doubting God's favor. They're discouraged. Maybe they're going through similar situations. And they're saying, who will show us some good? I mean, when will this end? Where's God when you need Him? And I think it's David who answers here and says, Lift up the light of your face upon us, O Lord.

29:33What does that mean? Well, that is a request that the fullness of God's divine favor be directed toward them. If he's looking at them, he doesn't have his back on them. He's looking at them. He's paying attention to them. And the face shining is that picture of God's favor. His presence, his radiance is there for good. And he's asking for that. God, we need your favor right now. We need that sense of your presence as well.

30:06It's interesting that this phrase is very similar, pretty much, to the blessing that the priests will say to the people that will come and bring their offerings at the tabernacle. They will come, they will do, perform their sacrifices, and then Aaron or whoever the priest was at that time will say, The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. That's number 6:25. That's called the priestly blessing. So they're looking for the favor of God. And that realization that God's presence is with us, that can change our whole perspective.

30:50Sometimes that's the only thing we need, just to have that sense of God's presence, that He's with us. Even in a dark situation, His face shines. Well, we can trust in the Lord because He can show us favor. We can see that, verse 6. Also, He can give us joy. It says, verse 7, You have put more joy in my heart than they have. Who's it they? They're the enemies that they have when their grain and their wine abound. I think this Talks a lot about, you know, in the harvest time when everyone will gather their fruits and they will be having a great time. Think of Thanksgiving, you know, especially in the early times. That's when harvest was, you know, gathered and people were celebrating plenty.

31:49Have you ever got a nice tax return? Big paycheck? You know, how do you feel? You know, pretty joyful, right? There's a lot of happiness when that happens, especially when it's not expected. How do you feel when there's plenty of food and Thanksgiving? You know, thinking back when there's family around gathered and you're having a great time. Well, David says, well, in the middle of this slanderous situation, dark situation, complicated, dangerous, possibly physically as well, he says, I have more joy. I can't have more joy. Why? Because you have put more joy in my heart, God, than they have when they're having the best Thanksgiving meal of their lives. How is that possible? How is that possible? Well, let's keep reading. And says, in peace, I will both lie down and sleep. For you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety. Ever stayed up late in bed because you Your brain just won't shut down. You keep replaying things. Why is this happening? How can I fix this?

33:10You're putting yourself in different scenarios, and maybe it's a test. How can I beat this thing? How can I deal with this? And your brain keeps going and going and going. Well, think of David going through possibly physical danger. He can rest. He can put his head to the pillow and sleep. Why? Because you alone, oh Lord, you make me dwell in safety. What an amazing God that we serve. That's why we can have joy. That's why we can have safety and that peace. Because he's just. I mean, let's think about how many descriptions of the Lord we have here. He's the just God. He's the God of my righteousness. He's merciful. And we can just keep counting and counting and counting and counting the record of His mercy on our lives. He is abounding in grace, who listens to us even though we don't deserve it at all. A God who listens, a God who sets the godly apart and he has a special interest in you, a God who shows favor for his people, especially the ones who are discouraged, a God who gives joy, a God who gives rest.

34:30A God so powerful that He can give us safety and peace, who's loving and tender enough that He allows us to rest in His presence, and He can give us peace in our hearts even in the midst of conflict and danger. That's our God. Now, do you have this joy? Do you have this confidence? Well, if you're a follower of Christ, I mean, if you have put your faith in Christ alone for the forgiveness of your sins, you can have them. I mean, this can be yours.

35:06You can be joyful, you can be confident in the midst of slander and difficulties and all that. And it all starts with prayer, with turning to God. Think of the progression that we saw David here. He ended up, he started up sounding pretty desperate, didn't he? Answer me when I call, O God. And as he prays through and he reminds himself of who God is and how he deals with him and what we can expect from his beautiful character, we see this upward trajectory where he ends up saying, I can sleep now. I can put my head to the pillow, have a good night's rest, even in the midst of all this. Because you are my God, and you make me dwell. In safety. His circumstances have not changed. But as he reflected on the Lord in his prayer, that started to change his heart and his whole outlook in life. So, in the midst of slander and distress, let's imitate these three godly responses. We have to turn to God, we have to treat our enemies kindly. Again, that's not our own doing, that's supernatural. We need the Lord for that, and we trust the Lord because, regardless of how the situation unfolds, God will carry you through, He will give the peace, and He will give you the joy that surpasses all understanding. Let's pray, Father, thank you for who you are, how great you are, how you take care of us even in difficult situations when we get this tunnel vision and things start getting complicated. Thank you because you have done this in the past. You have given us this rest, you have given us this breathing room, and we pray that I pray for everyone who's going through this that they can have that breathing room again, that they can put their head on the pillow and sleep.

37:30Trusting in you. Help us all to trust you. Help us all not to be on the other side of the fence either, of being the slanderous one, the gossiper. Let us heed the warning and know that if we are slandering, you're not on our side. Help us to be on your side always and trust in you. Christ name we pray. Amen.