1 When I cry answer me, O God of my righteousness; Thou hast in
straits made space for me:
Be gracious to me and hear my prayer.
2 Sons of men! how long shall my glory be mocked, [in that] ye love
vanity,
[And] seek after a lie? Selah.
3 But know that Jehovah has set apart as His own him whom He
favours:
Jehovah hears when I cry to Him.
4 Stand in awe, and sin not:
Speak in your hearts on your beds, and be silent. Selah.
5 Sacrifice sacrifices of righteousness,
And trust on Jehovah.
6 Many are saying, Who will let us see good?
Lift Thou upon us the light of Thy face, O Jehovah.
7 Thou hast given gladness in my heart,
More than in the time of their corn and their wine [when] they
abound.
8 In peace will I lie down and at once sleep:
For Thou, Jehovah, in [my] loneliness, makest me dwell in safety.
Psalms iii. and iv. are a pair. They are similar in expression (_my
glory, there be many which say, I laid me down and slept_), in the
psalmist's situation, and in structure (as indicated by the _Selahs_).
But they need not be cotemporaneous, nor need the superscription of
Psalm iii. be extended to Psalm iv. Their tone is different, the
fourth having little reference to the personal danger so acutely felt
in Psalm iii., and being mainly a gentle, earnest remonstrance with
antagonists, seeking to win them to a better mind. The strophical
division into four parts of two verses each, as marked by the Selahs,
is imperfectly carried out, as in Psalm iii., and does not correspond
with the logical division--a phenomenon which occurs not infrequently
in the Psalter, as in all poetry, where the surging thought or emotion
overleaps its bounds. Dividing according to the form, we have four
strophes, of which the first two are marked by Selah; dividing by the
flow of thought, we have three parts of unequal length--prayer (ver.
1), remonstrance (vv. 2-5), communion and prayer (vv. 6-8).
The cry for an answer by deed is based on the name and on the past
acts of God. Grammatically, it would be possible and regular to render
"my God of righteousness," _i.e._, "my righteous God"; but the pronoun
is best attached to "righteousness" only, as the consideration that
God is righteous is less relevant than that He is the source of the
psalmist's righteousness. Since He is so, He may be expected to
vindicate it by answering prayer by deliverance. He who feels that all
good in himself comes from God may be quite sure that, sooner or
later, and by some means or other, God will witness to His own work.
To the psalmist nothing was so incredible as that God should not take
care of what He had planted, or let the springing crop be trodden down
or rooted up. The Old Testament takes prosperity as the Divine
attestation of righteousness; and though they who worship the Man of
Sorrows have new light thrown on the meaning of that conception, the
substance of it remains true for ever. The compellation "God of my
righteousness" is still mighty with God. The second ground of the
prayer is laid in the past deeds of God. Whether the clause "Thou hast
in straits made space for me" be taken relatively or not, it appeals
to former deliverances as reasons for man's prayer and for God's act.
In many languages trouble and deliverance are symbolised by narrowness
and breadth. Compression is oppression. Closely hemmed in by crowds or
by frowning rocks, freedom of movement is impossible and breathing is
difficult. But out in the open, one expatiates, and a clear horizon
means an ample sky.
The strophe division keeps together the prayer and the beginning of
the remonstrance to opponents, and does so in order to emphasise the
eloquent, sharp juxtaposition of God and the "sons of men." The phrase
is usually employed to mean persons of position, but here the contrast
between the varying height of men's molehills is not so much in view
as that between them all and the loftiness of God. The lips which by
prayer have been purged and cured of quivering can speak to foes
without being much abashed by their dignity or their hatred. But the
very slight reference to the psalmist's own share in the hostility of
these "sons of men" is noticeable. It is their false relation to God
which is prominent throughout the remonstrance; and that being so, "my
glory," in ver. 2, is probably to be taken, as in iii. 3, as a
designation of God. It is usually understood to mean either personal
or official dignity, but the suggested interpretation is more in
keeping with the tone of the psalm. The enemies were really flouting
God and turning that great name in which the singer gloried into a
jest. They were not therefore idolaters, but practical heathen in
Israel, and their "vanity" and "lies" were their schemes doomed to
fail and their blasphemies. These two verses bring most vividly into
view the contrast between the psalmist clinging to his helping God and
the knot of opponents hatching their plans which are sure to fail.
The Selah indicates a pause in the song, as if to underscore the
question "How long?" and let it soak into the hearts of the foes, and
then, in vv. 3 and 4, the remonstrating voice presses on them the
great truth which has sprung anew in the singer's soul in answer to
his prayer, and beseeches them to let it stay their course and still
their tumult. By "the godly" is meant, of course the psalmist. He is
sure that he belongs to God and is set apart, so that no real evil can
touch him; but does he build this confidence on his own character or
on Jehovah's grace? The answer depends on the meaning of the pregnant
word rendered "godly," which here occurs for the first time in the
Psalter. So far as its form is concerned, it may be either active, one
who shows _chesed_ (lovingkindness or favour), or passive, one to whom
it is shown. But the usage in the Psalter seems to decide in favour of
the passive meaning, which is also more in accordance with the general
biblical view, which traces all man's hopes and blessings, not to his
attitude to God, but to God's to him, and regards man's love to God as
a derivative, "Amati amamus, amantes amplius meremur amari" (Bern).
Out of His own deep heart of love Jehovah has poured His
lovingkindness on the psalmist, as he thrillingly feels, and He will
take care that His treasure is not lost; therefore this conviction,
which has flamed up anew since the moment before when he prayed,
brings with it the assurance that He "hears when I cry," as he had
just asked Him to do. The slight emendation, adopted by Cheyne from
Grätz and others, is tempting, but unnecessary. He would read, with a
small change which would bring this verse into parallelism with xxxi.
22, "See how passing great lovingkindness Jehovah hath shown me"; but
the present text is preferable, inasmuch as what we should expect to
be urged upon the enemies is not outward facts, but some truth of
faith neglected by them. On such a truth the singer rests his own
confidence; such a truth he lays, like a cold hand, on the hot brows
of the plotters, and bids them pause and ponder. Believed, it would
fill them with awe, and set in a lurid light the sinfulness of their
assault on him. Clearly the rendering "Be ye angry" instead of "Stand
in awe" gives a less worthy meaning, and mars the picture of the
progressive conversion of the enemy into a devout worshipper, of which
the first stage is the recognition of the truth in ver. 3; the second
is the awestruck dropping of the weapons, and the third is the silent
reflection in the calm and solitude of night. The psalm being an
evening song, the reference to "your bed" is the more natural; but
"speak in your hearts"--what? The new fact which you have learned from
my lips. Say it quietly to yourselves then, when forgotten truths
blaze on the waking eye, like phosphorescent writing in the dark, and
the nobler self makes its voice heard. "Speak ... and be silent," says
the psalmist, for such meditation will end the busy plots against him,
and in a wider application "that dread voice," heard in the awed
spirit, "shrinks the streams" of passion and earthly desires, which
otherwise brawl and roar there. Another strain of the "stringed
instruments" makes that silence, as it were, audible, and then the
remonstrance goes on once more.
It rises higher now, exhorting to positive godliness, and that in the
two forms of offering "sacrifices of righteousness," which here simply
means those which are prescribed or which are offered with right
dispositions, and of trusting in Jehovah--the two aspects of true
religion, which outwardly is worship and inwardly is trust. The poet
who could meet hate with no weapon but these earnest pleadings had
learned a better lesson than "the hate of hate, the scorn of scorn,
the love of love," and anticipated "bless them which curse you." The
teacher who thus outlined the stages of the way back to God as
recognition of His relation to the godly, solitary meditation thereon,
forsaking of sin and hushing of the Spirit thereby, and finally
worship and trust, knew the discipline for rebellious souls.
Ver. 6 seems at first sight to belong more closely to what follows
than to what precedes, and is taken by those who hold the Davidic
authorship as addressed to his followers beginning to despond. But it
may be the continuance of the address to the enemies, carrying on the
exhortation to trust. The sudden appearance of the plural "us"
suggests that the psalmist associates himself with the persons whom he
has been addressing, and, while he glances at the vain cries of the
"many," would make himself the mouthpiece of the nascent faith which
he hopes may follow his beseechings. The cry of _the many_ would, in
that case, have a general reference to the universal desire for
"good," and would pathetically echo the hopelessness which must needs
mingle with it, so long as the heart does not know who is the only
good. The passionate weariness of the question, holding a negation in
itself, is wonderfully contrasted with the calm prayer. The eyes fail
for want of seeing the yearned-for blessing; but if Jehovah lifts the
light of His face upon us, as He will certainly do in answer to
prayer, "in His light we shall see light." Every good, however
various, is sphered in Him. All colours are smelted into the perfect
white and glory of His face.
There is no Selah after ver. 6, but, as in iii. 6, one is due, though
omitted.
Vv. 7 and 8 are separated from ver. 6 by their purely personal
reference. The psalmist returns to the tone of his prayer in ver. 1,
only that petition has given place, as it should do, to possession and
confident thankfulness. The many ask, Who?; he prays, "Lord." They have
vague desires after God; he knows what he needs and wants. Therefore in
the brightness of that Face shining on him his heart is glad. The mirth
of harvest and vintage is exuberant, but it is poor beside the deep,
still blessedness which trickles round the heart that craves most the
light of Jehovah's countenance. That craving is joy and the fruition is
bliss. The psalmist here touches the bottom, the foundation fact on
which every life that is not vanity must be based, and which verifies
itself in every life that is so based. Strange and tragic that men
should forget it and love vanity which mocks them, and, though won,
still leaves them looking wearily round the horizon for any glimmer of
good! The glad heart possessing Jehovah can, on the other hand, lay
itself down in peace and sleep, though foes stand round. The last words
of the psalm flow restfully like a lullaby. The expression of confidence
gains much if "alone" be taken as referring to the psalmist. Solitary as
he is, ringed round by hostility as he may be, Jehovah's presence makes
him safe, and being thus safe, he is secure and confidant. So he shuts
his eyes in peace, though he may be lying in the open, beneath the
stars, without defences or sentries. The Face brings light in darkness,
gladness in want, enlargement in straits, safety in peril, and any and
every good that any and every man needs.