Walking By Faith in Distressing Times

1:27Life in this fallen world is hard. Ever since Adam and Eve rebelled, work is hard, childbearing is painful, relationships are difficult, life is simply not as it should be. There are lots of things to be sad about, there's lots to lament. And some people are going to feel sad more often because of their own disposition, or because of sins that they've committed, or because of sins that others have committed against them. But every person is going to feel sad living in this fallen world.

2:07And you're going to do something with that sadness. You can try to push it down, ignore it, but that's not good. It's going to end up spilling out of you and onto other people in unhealthy and unhelpful, maybe even sinful ways. You can get mad about it. That's my tendency. When I feel sad, my next emotion that I normally feel is anger. And a lot of the time, it's because something has happened to me or something has happened to somebody that I love that I can't control. And when I feel out of control, I feel angry that I can't do something about it. But 99% of the time, there's nothing to be done.

2:55So the third option, the healthy option, the biblical option, Is to lament. When we lament as Christians, we draw near to God in order to express our sadness, our frustration, our confusion, our bewilderment, our pain and suffering. We pour out our hearts to the God who exists, who hears, who cares, who can do something about our sadness. Psalm 4 is a biblical lament, and it seems closely related to Psalm 3. If you look back at Psalm 3, you can see in the superscription those words before the Psalm starts. David wrote Psalm 3 when his son Absalom rebelled against him, and he was distressed over it. According to Psalm 3, verse 5, David wrote that Psalm in the morning after he woke up.

3:53And as we heard in Psalm 4, verse 8, you'll notice that David refers to lying down and going to sleep. So it seems that David wrote this psalm at night, maybe even on the same day that he wrote Psalm 3. And if that's true, then David has bookended his day, morning and evening, with lament. You and I may never have a child rebel against us and threaten our life like David did. At least we certainly hope that will never be the case. But every one of us will face times of distress.

4:30And the question that we have to answer as Christians is: what are we going to do in those times of distress? What are we going to do when we feel so worried, so anxious, that it's hard to eat, it's hard to sleep, it's hard to do anything other than think about and worry about and be anxious about what we're going through? What are we going to do in those moments? And in those moments, a lot of professing Christians don't seem to know what to do. Don't get me wrong, we know we're supposed to pray, we know we're supposed to trust God, but we have a very difficult time doing those things.

5:11And maybe that's because we haven't learned how to lament. Thankfully, we have a lot of models in Scripture of biblical lament, including Psalm 4. It shows us what it looks like to trust in God's character and promises, what it looks like to walk by faith in life's hardest and most disappointing moments. So we're going to learn this today in Psalm 4. In distressing times, we must choose to walk by faith. In distressing times, we must choose to walk by faith. But I think the obvious question is, what does that mean? What does that look like practically? And so we'll break the psalm down at the end of the day. Four parts. First, request relief by God's grace. Second, remember God's promises. Third, reject revenge and resignation. And fourth, rest in God's peace.

6:20So let's begin here in verse 1 in that first point. Request relief by God's grace. Look at Psalm 4, verse 1. David says, 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. Now, whether the cause of David's distress was Absalom's rebellion or not, David is obviously anxious. He's obviously worried about whatever it is that's going on in his life. He is in distress.

6:57And when David recognized that he was in distress, that he was anxious, he had a choice to make. Where was he going to turn? What was he going to do about it? Where was he going to look for relief? Because that's what we want when we're anxious, isn't it? We want relief. We want to solve the problem that's causing our distress. But as we've already noted, a lot of the time we can't solve the problem. We can't get rid of the thing that is causing our anxiety, and that can make us even. More anxious.

7:33So, if we can't solve the problem itself, then we at least want to deal with the feelings, the anxious feelings that we are experiencing. We want relief from feeling the way that we feel. And plenty of things promise us relief, don't they? We're all tempted to seek relief in different ways. Some seek it through drugs and alcohol, others seek it through eating or shopping, others seek it through entertainment or pornography, or getting lost in the rabbit hole of the internet.

8:14And aside from the fact that those coping mechanisms are unbiblical, we all know that they don't actually work. Sure, you might forget your feelings for a while, you may even feel better for a moment, but after that has passed, then you're right back to square one. You haven't really dealt with the problem, you haven't really done anything about your feelings, you're right back where you started. The distressing situation is not revolved, so what do we do? I want you to look at the middle of verse one. Look at what David recalls. He says, You have given me relief when I was in distress.

8:59So, David's. Thinks about the past, he thinks about all these other times that he has been in distress, and he remembers, you, Lord, you have given me relief when I was in distress. Friends, David was just like us. The Bible teaches that the temptations that we experience are common to everybody. So David was tempted to seek relief from his anxiety in many of the exact same ways that you and I are tempted to seek relief from our anxiety. But he had learned that although various coping mechanisms promised him relief, God actually did give him relief when he was in distress. And recalling that lesson moved him to cry out to the Lord in prayer. He asked God to hear him and answer him and give him relief. And look at the end of verse one. David bases this request for relief on the grace of God. Look what he says. Be gracious to me and hear my prayer. Brothers and sisters, we serve a God who promises to hear us and to answer us when we pray. And because God is gracious, he promises to hear and answer us even when the problems that we face are the result of our own sins. Or foolishness.

10:33How did David's own sin with Bathsheba contribute to this entire situation with Absalom rebelling against him? At some level, it's impossible to know that answer, but this happens right after that situation. David seems to have set the example for his children. If you see a woman and you want her for yourself, take her. That's what his son Amnon did. When he violated Tamar, her brother Absalom took offense, wanted to defend her honor. And so Absalom killed Amnon, and then Absalom decided he would make a better ruler than David. How did David's own sin and foolishness contribute to this situation? We don't know, but David committed sin, and David was foolish.

11:19And in spite of all of that, thankfully, God is gracious. The author of Hebrews reminds us that because Jesus, our perfect high priest, was tempted in every way, just as we are, he's able to sympathize with our weaknesses. But unlike us, Jesus never sinned. And so he is able to help us in our time of need. So friends, when we are in distress and when we are feeling anxious, we have to remember that God alone promises and brings us true and lasting relief. He promises to hear us and answer us when we pray because he is gracious.

12:00God answered David's prayers in spite of his sins, in spite of his failures as a king, as a husband, as a father, as a friend. No matter what or who caused our distress, we can request relief by God's grace, because it is God's grace that assures us that we will be heard and answered. Look what Paul wrote in the New Testament, Philippians chapter 4. He says, Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.

12:45So, friends, in distressing times, we have to choose to walk by faith. And that begins with requesting relief by God's grace. Let's move on now to verse 2, and that second point. We need to remember God's promises. Look at verse 2. David says, O men, how long shall my honor be turned into shame? How long will you love vain words and seek after lies? Selah. In verse 2, David is vicariously talking to these people who are responsible for his distress and anxiety.

13:30And he's kind of talking to God. And he's kind of talking to himself. And in general, this verse just makes me feel a lot better about my own prayer life. Who am I talking to in these moments? God, myself, the haters? Who can know? The Lord knows. These men are turning David's honor as a righteous, God-fearing king into shame. They are slandering him and spreading lies about him. There are others who are listening to those lies about him. And, you know, there are a lot of bad things that can happen to us in this life.

14:10You can lose your job. You can go bankrupt. You can get a terrible health diagnosis. But I really think for most of us, there is nothing worse than having people spread lies about you and knowing that other people are listening to those lies and believing them. That cuts deep. That really hurts. It feels unjust. It feels unfair. And this is why the author of Proverbs 22 says this, a good name is to be chosen rather than great riches, and favor is better than silver or gold.

14:52David's good name is being slandered. His honor is being turned into shame. And he's understandably upset about it. Laments. He cries out to God about the treatment that he's receiving. And I want you to notice at the end of verse 2, there is this word, selah. Scholars are not entirely sure what that mysterious Hebrew word means, but given that the psalms were meant to be sung, most scholars see it as a cue to pause. It's a moment for reflection.

15:28And I think that's instructive because of what we're about to read in verse 3. I think for a lot of Christians, whether we are suffering ourselves or whether we are ministering to other people who are suffering, we are tempted to race past the pain. We are tempted to encourage other people to race past the pain, to kind of acknowledge it and then quickly run to the truth. And that's understandable because pain is uncomfortable. It is very hard to sit in it. It's hard to experience it. It's hard to think about it. It's hard to dwell on it because it doesn't feel good. So in our own lives, when we're suffering and when we are ministering to other people who are suffering, our temptation is to race past the pain and to quickly turn to biblical truth. Now, I don't want you to misunderstand me. We need to speak the truth. We need to speak it to ourselves and we need to speak it to others.

16:31The great preacher Martin Lloyd-Jones is famous for saying, Do you not understand that most of your problems in life are due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of preaching to yourself? We need to speak the truth to ourselves and to others. But if we do not make time to properly acknowledge our pain, our disappointment, our hurt, our confusion, if we don't make time to slow down and sit in it and feel the depth of it, often the truth just rings hollow.

17:12And so I want you to notice that after David laments that his honor is being turned into shame, after he acknowledges the pain that other people are causing him because of their slander, he pauses. He sits in it. He gives himself room to grieve. And now it's time for the truth. Look at verse 3. But know that the Lord has set apart the godly for himself. The Lord hears when I call to him. So after David laments the situation, after he cries out about the treatment that he is receiving and he sits in it, he speaks the truth to himself and to these people that are causing him. The problem. David remembers and says vicariously to those causing this distress that God has set him apart, that God hears him when he prays. Other people may listen to this slander about David, but God listens to David.

18:18Friends, this is critical to remember when we are being slandered and opposed. It's especially important today in our cancel culture when people will say terrible things about you just based on rumor and hearsay. There are two truths that would have been important for David to remember, and there are two truths that are critical for us to remember in these moments. God knows the truth, and God is always with you. Look what Proverbs 15, verse 3 says: The eyes of the Lord are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good.

19:06Look what God told Joshua in chapter 1. He said, I will not leave you or forsake you. Friends, it's good and right to lament when people slander us and speak all kinds of evil falsely against us. That is good and right. That's part of living in a fallen world, and it is lamentable. We lament, we have to remember that God knows the truth and that God will never leave us or forsake us. Those are critical truths to remember. People may believe lies and turn their backs on us, but God never will.

19:48So, after you request relief by God's grace, the next step is to remember God's promises. Join me now in verse 4, where we'll see that we have to reject revenge and resignation. Verse 4: Be angry and do not sin. Ponder in your own hearts on your beds and be silent. Say laffer right sacrifices and put your trust in the Lord. There are many who say, Who will show us some good? Lift up the light of your face upon us, O Lord. You have put more joy in my heart than they have when their grain and wine abound.

20:36When you are in distress, you often feel helpless. Nobody likes feeling helpless, which is why when we feel helpless, a lot of the time, many of us become angry. We should note that it was right for David to feel angry at those who were slandering him. Slander is sinful, and when people sin against us, it's right to feel angry about that. But even when we are righteously angry, when we are angry about the right things, we can often display our anger in unrighteous ways. How do we think that David and his friends were tempted to display their righteous anger in unrighteous ways?

21:19Probably through revenge. Because that's our first inclination as human beings, isn't it? Someone says something or does something to us that is hurtful, and our natural inclination is to hurt them in return. Revenge comes naturally to fallen people. That's why Paul taught us in Romans 12, look on the screen. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God. For it is written, Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord. God commands us to leave vengeance to him. He says he will repay. We can be righteously angry, but we cannot sin through revenge. So what do we do? Look at the second half of verse 4.

22:13It tells us, ponder in your own hearts, on your beds, and be silent. Notice here we have another instance of the word selah. Pause. Don't rush this. Take time to ponder. God's character and his promises. Take time to think about the sins that you have committed against other people. You have slandered people. You have lied about other people. You are in need of God's grace and forgiveness for the very same things. Don't plan revenge. Don't return evil for evil.

22:51So, Christians, we have to reject revenge as an option. But we also have to reject its opposite, which is resignation. Look at verse 6. There are many who say, Who will show us some good? These people are hopeless. They're faithless. They're seeming to suggest that God has no more good purposes for David or for those who are following Him. It's almost as if they're asking, What's the point of trusting God? It's not working. We're always tempted towards pragmatic answers. It's not working.

23:34Like all of us, David seems to have two types of friends. The first is volcanic and wants to fight. The other is melancholic, wants to throw in the towel. Both types of friends have forgotten God's promises. The first group has forgotten God's promises to repay evildoers. And the second group has forgotten God's promise to never leave us or forsake us. Second group has given into resignation, to this functional atheism that says God will not hear us or answer us, that He has not set apart the godly for Himself, that He will not graciously give relief to those who request it.

24:15And so, brothers and sisters, revenge and resignation are two opposite but equally dangerous responses to distress. Revenge is sinful action, and resignation is sinful passivity. We have to reject both of those. So, what does God call us to do instead? Look at verse 5. David says, Offer right sacrifices and put your trust in the Lord. In other words, we go on obeying God's word while we continue to exercise faith in God, believing that He will do what is best when it is best to do it.

25:08Again, we find ourselves in distressing situations, and a lot of the time there's nothing that we can do about it, at least, nothing that's going to help the situation. And so, instead of plotting revenge, instead of giving into resignation, our call, Christians, is to keep on doing what God has commanded us to do. Keep on trusting in Him. Knowing that he is always at work behind the scenes in ways that many times we cannot see, we do not understand, we only see and understand in hindsight, sometimes in the hindsight of eternity. But we have promises made to us in Scripture, like the promise that God is working all things together for the good of those who love him. That verse is in a section of Romans that is about suffering. That verse is in a section of Romans where we are crying out in prayer words that we can't even fully express because we need the Spirit's help, because we're so puzzled and confused and hurt in our suffering. God is always at work in ways that we cannot see and cannot understand.

26:21And so we go on trusting Him. We go on remembering truths like what we see in verse 7. You have put more joy in my heart than they have when their grain and wine abound. Oh, friends, God has proven Himself trustworthy. He's proven Himself trustworthy all through human history. And one of the most edifying things that you can do as a Christian is to get out a pen and a piece of paper, get out your journal, and think back over your life.

26:53The years before you became a believer, the years since you became a believer, and write down. All of the ways that you are aware that God has been faithful to you. All of the times that He provided for you. All of the times when you sinned and maybe didn't experience the full consequences that you should have experienced. All of the times when God blessed you and you didn't ask, you didn't pray. He just did it. All of the many prayers that you did pray, that He has answered and graciously blessed you with. Go and make a record of those things so that in times where you are doubting God's faithfulness to you, you can go back to your own life as well as the scripture and say, Look at how faithful God has been to me. Friends, there's no need to take revenge. There's no need to give into resignation. We can reject those things because God has proven Himself faithful, even in the most distressing times.

28:04Let's conclude now in verse 8, that final point: Rest in God's peace. Verse 8: David says, In peace I will both lie down and sleep. For you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety. We recall that David seems to have written Psalm 3 right. After he woke up in the morning, and now we see that it seems that we're at the end of the day. The end of another distressing, anxious, worry-filled day. Remember, his own son, it's entirely possible this is in that time period, his own son is seeking his life.

28:49Every day is filled with worry and anxiety, and he gets to the end of the day and he goes back to the Lord in prayer. He pours out his laments, he presents his requests to God, he remembers God's promises, and here at the end of Psalm 4, David chooses to exercise faith. He says, In peace, I will both lie down and sleep. For you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety. I want you to notice that David's focus is entirely on God. He's not doing this himself. He doesn't say, I'm manifesting peace. He doesn't use Eastern meditation, saying I'm going to empty my mind. He doesn't say, I'm going to do some self-care, and then through these measures, I will make myself ready to finally go to sleep. No, David says he is at peace because God is his refuge and strength. He is at peace because he knows the God of peace, he knows God will perform. Provide for him and protect him. He knows God is his shield and his shepherd. And that's why he can say with confidence, after praying this prayer of lament, in peace, I will both lie down and sleep.

30:16And I want you to look again at what Paul wrote, this time the full context, and look at how much of it parallels Psalm 4. Look on the screen at Philippians 4. Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

31:03Brothers and sisters, you have been in distress before. You might be in distress today. You will be in distress again. And the question is, what will you do about it? You can't choose your feelings. In certain circumstances, you are going to feel concerned. You are going to feel worried. You are going to feel anxious. There is nothing you can do about it. That is natural and normal. But what do we do at that point? What do we do when we feel those feelings?

31:42The Bible says that we have two options: we can walk by sight, judging God's character and promises in light of our circumstances, or we can walk by faith, judging our circumstances in light of God's character and promises. We can't choose our feelings, but we can choose what to do about them. And in Psalm 4, David gives a godly example to all of us. What does it look like to walk by faith in times of distress? Friends, we can choose to walk by faith in those moments, and we must.

32:26If you're not yet following Christ, Psalm 4 states that the Lord has set apart the godly for himself, and it is the godly that God listens to and answers in times of distress. Here's the bad news: on our own, not a single one of us is godly. We have all sinned. We're born with sinful hearts, and we have done sinful things. We do them every day of our lives. And that means that on our own, God will not listen to us. That is the bad news.

33:07But here is the good news of the gospel. In verse 1, if you look there again, David calls the Lord God of my righteousness. And David calls the Lord God of my righteousness because the Lord has counted David and all believers righteous through faith. Specifically, we are counted righteous through faith in Jesus Christ. And if you think about the content of Psalm 4, people slandering, spreading lies, saying wicked and evil things about us, to some level, we have earned and deserved that, right? To some level, we have sinned against other people and we have brought some of these things on ourselves. I'm not saying that all slander is in that category or that you deserve the treatment that you've received. I'm just saying that we too are sinners and we are sinned against by other sinners.

34:10But look at what Peter writes about the Lord Jesus Christ and think about these words in light of Psalm 4. Look on the screen. Peter says about Jesus, he committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, He did not revile in return. When he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore 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.

34:55Oh, my friends, Jesus did nothing wrong. He never sinned in any way with his words or his thoughts or his actions. He was perfectly righteous, and yet he was slandered. People spoke all kinds of evil against him. They falsely accused him and then they put him to death. But understand that in his life, Jesus said, No one takes my life from me. I lay it down of my own accord, because the Father has given me authority to take it up again. Jesus said that he was willingly laying his life down in place of sinners, in place of slanderers and liars like you and me. He willingly laid his life down on the cross. He died, was buried, and on the third day he rose from the dead, so that any person who trusts in him would be forgiven and counted righteous. That we could pray. To God and call him God of my righteousness. It is not through our own righteousness that we are able to approach God. If you put your hope in yourself and your own righteousness, thinking that one day, either here on earth or through some unbiblical and fantastical notion like purgatory, you're ever going to make yourself righteous enough to stand before God, you are mistaken. We can never make ourselves righteous enough before God. But Jesus was perfectly righteous, and he laid down his life in your place and mine, so that through faith we would be counted righteous and we could call out to him, O God of my righteousness, save me. He promises to hear and answer that prayer. He promises to do that for you. All you need to do today is choose to exercise faith. Repent of your sin. Receive Jesus as Lord. And be assured, my friend, that you will be counted among the godly. And God will hear and answer your prayer in times of distress.

37:11Let's pray. Father, we are reminded afresh this morning of our sin, of our own failures, of the ways that we have turned others' honor into shame. We confess that we too have loved vain words and turned after lies at times in our lives. But we remember and we celebrate the fact that Jesus, while we were yet sinners, you came and you laid down your life for us. Not once we had cleaned ourselves up, not once we had made ourselves good enough or righteous enough, while we were yet sinners, you came and you offered yourself in our place for our sins. Thank you. Thank you, Lord. I pray that every Christian here would have the confidence that comes knowing that we have Jesus as our high priest, interceding for us, serving as our mediator, opening the way for us to have a right, reconciled relationship with the Father.

38:47Oh, God, we thank you for those incredible truths. May we embrace them and live in light of them. And God, for those who are not yet believers, we pray that you would reveal yourself. To them today, that they would turn from any attempts to make themselves righteous and they would look to the righteous one, Jesus, and receive him by faith today. O Father, call men and women, boys and girls to yourself this morning. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

39:22Thank you for listening to the sermon audio from New Life Baptist Church in College Station, Texas. For more information or to support our ministry, visit us online at newlifecs.net.