Let Go and Sleep

Transcript

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[0:00] So, our reading is from, our sermon text is Psalm 4, and Psalm 4, I want to introduce you to Psalm 4. It's like this gem. It's this little gem in the Old Testament, nine verses, super sweet. It's really nice, and you'll see why. But before that, I want to talk about sleep, because I have a little trouble sleeping at night, and not for various reasons, but I want to hear who else, quick raise your hand, who has a little bit of a hard time sleeping at night? Okay, now tell me why. Why? Why? Just call it out.

[0:31] Stress. Stress. Caffeine. Caffeine, yes. Anyone else? I can't sleep. Sometimes I have sleep apnea, so I have this machine, which I don't really love, so that's part of my problem. And then, either stress or thinking about people I'm mad at. That never happens to any of you. Did any of you lose sleep over other people? Like, do you ever lose sleep over other people? Okay. All right. All right. Somebody said yes? Okay, I'm not alone. All right. So hold on to that thought about why we lose sleep, because David, the psalmist here, is going to talk about sleep at the end of our reading. But let's go to our reading. Chapter, Psalm 4, verse 1, but I'm going to start even with the musical direction. For the choir director, a psalm of David to be accompanied by stringed instruments. Verse 1. Answer me when I call to you, O God, who declares me innocent. Free me from my trouble. Have mercy on me and hear my prayer.

[1:33] How long will you people ruin my reputation? How long will you make groundless accusations? How long will you continue your lies? You can be sure of this. The Lord set apart the godly for himself. The Lord will answer when I call to him.

[1:52] Don't sin by letting anger control you. Think about it overnight and remain silent. Offer sacrifices in the right spirit and trust the Lord. Many people say, who will show us better times? Let your face smile on us, Lord. You have given me greater joy than those who have abundant harvests of grain and new wine. In peace, I will lie down and sleep. For you alone, O Lord, will keep me safe. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your word. And we ask that you would answer our prayer. We ask that you would add your blessing to it. In Jesus' name, amen.

[2:32] Well, let's take a look at Psalm 4. I'm going to just kind of go through it, try to unpack it a little bit. We're actually going to connect a little bit with Acts, the reading from Acts that was read earlier a little later, and then we'll bring it all together again about sleep. Now first off, warning, we have something that actually looks like a lament. Uh-oh, I thought we were done with lament. It's not a lament, but it kind of starts off sounding like one because it begins how a lot of laments begin. Except with the silence. There's a slight difference, right? There, thank you. It says, answer me when I call to you. Now that's kind of a plea. A lament would be slightly different where it says, the lament would say, why don't you answer me when I call to you? So this isn't a lament, but this is a plea to God. Answer me when I call to you. Okay.

[3:20] And it's directed at God. There's two different conversation partners in this Psalm, as we'll see. One is God and the other we will find out. So the next part in verse two, I guess you could leave that up. Thank you. That's helpful. Yeah.

[3:38] Is a complaint. The first is a plea. Answer me, oh God. The second is a complaint. How long will you people... Now whenever you say you people, whatever comes after that's not going to be good, generally, right? You don't say you people are also great. You could say that. You could say that, but usually anything that starts with you people is going to end badly. Okay. So he says, how long will you people ruin my reputation? How long will you people make groundless accusations, tell lies about me, things like that. And think about reputation just for a minute. Our reputations are important. Our reputations are important. They're important to us. But back then they were far more important because now if I have a bad reputation, I'm still going to eat. I'm still going to have a job. Well, maybe not. But you might have a job, some other kind of job. Actually being a pastor, your reputation kind of depends on keeping your job. But anyway, but you'll survive if you have a bad reputation. In fact, you might thrive with a bad reputation because that's just how this world is built. But back then, if you had a bad reputation, if your honor was called into question, or if your honor was sullied in some way, it could be a serious matter for you.

[4:51] Your children might not be able to make good wedding connections, marriage connections. They might not be able to make good connections with other families. Those other families wouldn't want anything to do with your family. You might not be able to get into a business deal that you need to get into to ensure your own prosperity. When you have a hard time, there might be fewer people in your village that are willing to stick out their neck to help you. So your reputation is actually more of a life and death thing back then than it is now. And so when David is saying, why are you hurting my reputation? That's like a serious accusation. You are trying to really go after me, my whole self, my whole life. So basically saying, how long will you ruin my reputation is like saying, how long will you keep trying to destroy my life?

[5:40] Nobody likes that. So who has this directed this? In verse 1, he's addressing to God. In verse 2 and 3, it's directed at his enemies. The plural you. Like all you all. All you men. Many people out there are after him. Now you think, is David paranoid? Do you ever notice that sometimes there's this feeling of paranoia when you have all these sort of enemy lists? Like who are all these people? Right? Does David really have that many enemies?

[6:11] Turns out he did. David had a lot of enemies. I'm just going to list them real quick. King Saul, his father-in-law. They were enemies after a while, right? And his first wife, King Saul's daughter. And I never know how to pronounce her name. Is it Michal? Michal? It was his first wife.

[6:31] She kind of soured on him eventually, right? He had military enemies of all sorts. All sorts. And eventually his son Absalom became his enemy. David didn't have it easy, right? He did actually did have a lot of enemies. But any public figure is going to have people kind of talking about them. Just look at the royal family in Great Britain. It's just like, it's sport there to talk about them. And it's, it's a lot of fun. It's a lot of fun. Maybe for every, you know, one nice thing they say about them, there's probably 10 mean things that they say about them. And negative news about them, it goes around the world seven times before the truth can even tie its shoelaces, you know? So that's this, like, this is what people do when somebody's prominent, when somebody's famous behind their backs, they'll talk about them. They'll take their reputation into their own hands, right? Now what we would expect next from David, and go ahead and put that up there, Nathan, if you would. What we, what you can expect next from David. What you can expect next from David is that you're going to have a lot of enemies. And what you can expect next from David is to promise them evil in return. This is standard formula, not just in the Bible.

[7:31] And it often does happen in the Bible. Like they'll make a list of all the enemies, like the Moabites or the Girgashites or the, you know, any of the Perizzites. I could make up, I could make up words and you would believe me. I mean, like, I could, like the, the Etruscans. No. But there's like, you guys did these terrible things. Now God is going to smite you, right? God, it's going to come back at you. So, this is what you expect maybe David to do in this Psalm is you've, you've been hurting my reputation. You're telling lies about me.

[8:01] God's going to destroy you. I'm going to destroy you. You're going to get what's coming to you. God is going to judge you, right? But it doesn't say that. Look at verse 3. It says this, I can even read it from here. You can be sure of this. The Lord set apart the godly for himself. The Lord will answer when I called him. The Lord will protect my reputation. I don't need to worry about my reputation.

[8:22] Being holy is its own reward. God sets me apart. I worry about my reputation, but I don't need to worry about my reputation. And then there's a mini version of the Proverbs. David starts giving wisdom. We think of the Proverbs as mostly being written by Solomon, but it's nice to know that a few Proverbs have been written by David and they've been put in Psalm chapter 4, right? So here's the wisdom part.

[8:48] First, God sets apart the holy for himself, the godly. Your reputation is safe. If your reputation is in God's hands, you don't have to worry about other people. Like that's good proverb for now. You worried about your reputation? Worried about other people? Okay, that's important. How are you with God?

[9:08] If you are in relationship with God, that will overflow to all sorts of other things. That will kind of put those other things into the proper perspective. Because we stand before God alone in the end. We don't stand before our peers. We don't stand before our neighbors. We don't stand before our enemies. They can't judge us. Only God will, right? The other it says is God will answer when I call. And this is kind of an answer to the verse 1. Verse 1 was, hear me when I call.

[9:37] God does answer me when I call. Even it seems like over the course of this short Psalm, David is growing in confidence that God will actually hear him. And then here's the wisdom part. It says, don't sin in your anger. Does that sound like another proverb? It sure does, right? Take time to cool down, remain silent, and listen for God's voice, right? Think about it overnight and remain silent, right? Then the next one. Go ahead to the next slide there, Nathan, please.

[10:08] Then it says, make an offering in the right spirit. Make sure you come to God without a grudge against another person. Does this sound like anything you know? Jesus says this. Matthew 5, 23. This is what Jesus says. This is a warning from chapter 5. So if you are presenting a sacrifice at the altar in the temple and you suddenly remember that someone has something against you, leave your sacrifice there at the altar. Go and be reconciled to that person. Then come and offer your sacrifice to God. This is what Jesus says. Jesus is kind of like almost quoting Psalm 4.

[10:51] So here are some great verses. Here are some great verses. So what is David giving in response to all this evil that's coming his way? Not a curse, but some advice. Sort of a wise proverbial advice. Now let's take a little detour to our second reading. And you don't need to do anything for this, Nathan. But again, Peter is preaching on what?

[11:19] Somebody say it. What? What are all the sermons and acts about? The resurrection? The resurrection. Yes. Peter is preaching about the resurrection. He is also explaining, you know, about how this man was healed. Right?

[11:31] And Peter is so plain spoken. Like if you wanted to maybe bring somebody into your business and kind of figure out how to downsize and just tell it straight and, you know, just be very blunt and not sort of skirt around the issue, then you would bring Peter in. Because Peter would just kind of say, he's like a fisherman. He's like, I'm going to say it how it is. And so he's very blunt. He's very plain spoken. And he's very undiplomatic. And this is unusual actually culturally for you, for somebody to be so direct in placing blame on somebody else. Because in a culture like that, it would be a little bit more roundabout. Like, you know, something bad happened. We're not, we all know who did it, but we're not going to exactly say who did it, but we all kind of know who did it. That way we're not kind of confronting them directly. But Peter doesn't have time for that. I think Peter doesn't have time for that anymore. He just doesn't have time. He's like, I'm, I'm on a mission here. I've got to tell it like it is. So this is what Peter says. This is verse 14 from the section that Brian read. Peter says to this crowd of people who are curious about the healing of this man, he says, you, you all, all you all, you people, nothing good comes after this, right?

[12:38] You all rejected this holy righteous one, talking about Jesus, and instead demanded the release of a murderer. You all remember that? He said, yeah. And Pilate says, who can I release Barabbas or can I release Jesus to you? Please, please, please. Because Pilate didn't want anything to do with this. And they're like, no, no, no. They'll give us this murderer. Let him free. And oh boy. Okay. So then Jesus had to be put to death, right? You rejected this holy righteous one and instead demanded the release of a murderer. You killed all you all, you people, you killed the author of life.

[13:19] Wow. You killed him. Like it's no, it's not like, oh, something happened. You know, something indirect happened. You actually, you all killed him. And, but the remember it's about the resurrection. God raised him from the dead and we are witnesses of this fact. Okay. So I'm not sure like if Peter had gone to like evangelism 101 training, like this is not a way to bring the crowd along by telling them how rotten they are. Right?

[13:50] And there's another thing that we need to kind of stop right here and note that passages like this one, this is just important kind of awareness now. Passages like this particular one and a few others in John have been used over the years by Christians to persecute Jewish people. It just has to be said, this has happened in the past. And it was, it was versus like this where Peter says you all killed him. Right? Now, the idea was that the descendants of the Jews were the ones who were going to kill the Jews of that time. The actual people who asked for Barabbas to be released instead of Jesus, the ones who yelled out for Jesus to be crucified. And they're just that the idea is that their descendants shared in the guilt of what they did.

[14:32] You know, I don't buy that, but that was the, that was the argument. It was like the Jews are descended, the Jews in our town, you know, I'm in central Europe right now. The Jews in our town are descended from those Jews who killed Jesus. Thus those people that I don't really like. Right? They killed, they must've, they're responsible too. And I mean, there is some generational responsibility that kind of gets talked about in the Bible, but that's taking it way too far. And so this is a dangerous mistake that the church has made and the church needs to own up to it and the church needs to apologize for it. And the church in some cases has apologized for it. And there are famous people in the church that are not immune from this, like Martin Luther, who I quote quite often. But every hero has some feet of clay. Right? You know, and Martin Luther wrote some terrible things about the Jews. And there was a point at which Lutheran scholars all got together and they kind of compared their notes and like, these are all horrible. And they collectively apologized to Judaism and the Jewish people for the right, those particular writings of Martin Luther. But it doesn't mean that all the writings of Martin Luther are bad.

[15:37] It just means that he was a product of his time. He became anti-Semitic later in life. He wrote about it and it was ugly. Okay. And verses like this poorly interpreted contributed to that. So we have to be aware of that. So it's true that some of the people that Peter was preaching to were responsible, but there was a whole lot of guilt to go around. It was, it's not even that simple. Right? There were the religious leaders that wanted Jesus to die. There was Judas who betrayed him. He wasn't even there. He wasn't even in the picture. He was dead already. There were the Romans like Pilate. And finally the soldiers who actually did the actual work of execution. And all of those people were responsible for the death of Jesus.

[16:21] And if you're thinking about this, you might realize that all of that misses the main point that's obvious throughout the whole New Testament is that it's our sin. Our sin. Not all you all people, but me people, you people in this room, it's our sin that put Jesus on the cross.

[16:43] Much more than anything else. It's the brokenness of sin in the world that put Jesus on the cross. So if Peter could come into this room today, he would say the same thing to us. You people killed the author of life. He would say that to us because it would be true. Our sin put Jesus on the cross. Right?

[17:02] So, well, let's keep reading. Let's keep reading in Psalm 4. We'll come back to sort of bring these ideas back together again. Well, we'll keep reading from Acts chapter. The Acts reading is that Peter then says, It says, So Peter started, even though Peter's plain spoken, he's starting to soften it a bit. You killed the author of life, but you didn't know what you were doing. And that sounds just like what Jesus said when he was on the cross. He said, Father, forgive them. They know not what they do. Right?

[17:34] And finally, in verse 19 of Acts, it says, Peter says, Now repent of your sins and turn to God. So then, Peter says, So that your sins may be wiped away. So even if we were to read Acts faithfully, we would say that the people who Peter identified as having killed Jesus were offered forgiveness for it because they acted in ignorance and if they could repent of it. Right? So there's hope that the sin, even of killing the author of life, can be forgiven and wiped away. And I like that phrase wiped away because it's so powerful. It's kind of like, you know, like it was never there. Imagine a dirty window that you kind of put all the Windex on and you get the squeegee on it and it's like a brand new piece of glass. Like that image of a whole fresh start and all because of the resurrection. It's because it's all connected to the resurrection. That new life can come and new things can come and forgiveness can come and sins can be wiped away and even generational guilt can be wiped away. Right? In a weird kind of way is because the resurrection. God can forgive. God does forgive. God can forgive. And Jesus died and was raised again so that we might have new life and forgiveness of sins. Okay.

[18:49] So let's go to the final verses of, oh, thank you, Nathan. He is so on it. Let's go to the final verses of Psalm four. And you get that kind of hopefulness. It's almost like the resurrection has happened. And look at verse six and seven.

[19:08] And it says, who will show us better times? Who will show us better times? Maybe better ages, better, not better times, like having a good time at a party. I'm talking like better, you know, the zeitgeist, the better, the better who will show us better moments in history. And honestly, I'm thinking that a lot myself. Like I am beset by the gravity of the world right now. And even if you're paying attention to the news, there's been a missile attack on Israel by Iran. Probably Israel is going to retaliate.

[19:40] It's going to be a great day. It's not great, you know. And there's a war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. There's a war in Ukraine. I could go, we don't have time to list all the things where we could say, who will show us better times? Because I sure could like to see some better times right about now. And I, maybe this is my challenge, is just to ask God for them. God, show us better times. Show us better times in your will, in your ways.

[20:09] Heal the world. Bring things. Show us the way. And I think that's the key to change. But the answer is not, you know, not that it's going to happen right away, but that God is the answer. And it says, you have, let your face smile on us, God. Which sounds like it's kind of a disconnect, but this is almost a quote from the blessing of Aaron in Numbers chapter six, where he says, may the Lord bless you and keep you and make the Lord face shine on you. But this is kind of a parrot phrase because it's the New Living translation. So you would translate it. The same way. Let your countenance shine on us. Let your face shine on us. Lift up your countenance to us. This idea that God wants to bless us, even when we're asking for better times and we live in the hope of better times. God wants to bless us. It's not an answer. It's not like better times are tomorrow. How long do I have to wait? God and God's like, uh, 24 hours. And then you're done. You get an answer. No, you will receive my blessings. You will receive my blessings. My face will shine on you even in difficult times. Right? I don't disappear in difficult times.

[21:14] You can still sense my presence. That's the only answer you can get, right? It's not like an instance, not like a coin into a slot and out comes tomorrow is a better day. That's not always going to happen, right?

[21:27] So there are hard times and they're going to last a while, but we have this promise from God. Now, finally, I'm going to draw it all together here. What comes from working through all of this, the attacks of my enemies, the wisdom I share with them? To keep them from dying? Je and it says, in peace I will lie down and sleep for you keep me safe. Now how does David sleep well at night? All these people talking dirt about him, right? How does he lie and people wanting to kill him? Like he's on the run often, right? Saul is chasing him down. His wife is kind of soured on him. And how does he sleep at night? In peace I will lie down and sleep for you, Lord, will keep me safe. So if you're up at night tonight, you know, and well, let's put it this way. If you fall right to sleep tonight, good job. You know, great. Good job. I'm proud of you. That's great. I hope you can, you know, and if you're younger, you maybe have fewer cares in your life, but that's not necessarily true because young people have all sorts of cares, we know this. We all have cares. But if you can fall asleep tonight without so much as a blip, praise God. But if you're having trouble falling asleep tonight and you're mad at somebody or

[23:12] you're thinking about some situation that didn't go the way you wished it had, and you think of the perfect comeback, you know, three days later, but there's no chance to give it, you know, all that you can kind of just say, my reputation is important, but what's more important is my relationship with God. And God sets aside the holy. And so we would, you just, if you can forgive, and this is where it is all coming down. Peter is saying to the crowd, you did this thing, and you would expect the next thing to be, and God's going to judge you and hurt you and destroy you. But no, he says, you did this thing. Let's acknowledge the truth of it. But the next step is turn and turn. Repent. Your sins will be, you'll be forgiven. Your sins will be wiped away.

[24:05] David, I'm mad at all these people. I'm not going to curse them or judge them. I'm going to share with them a proverb. I'm going to share with them some wisdom, right? And in both cases, we'd expect something worse, right? But instead, there's just this blessing. Bless my enemies. Bless and repent. And it's like Jesus says, pray for your enemies and love them. And I'll speak honestly. I mean, I talked about falling asleep at night.

[24:30] The only way through for me, and I forget this, and then I remember it, and then I forget it, and then I remember it. So I'm doomed to a cycle of if I am having trouble falling asleep because I'm annoyed at somebody in particular, and there's nobody in this room, I promise you, promise you.

[24:48] No, I'm kidding. But the only way through, and this is just me, it might be different for you. If I say, God, teach me how to love this person. God, help me pray that this person will be well. Not pray that they'll see how wrong they are and come crawling to me for, I don't pray that because that doesn't help. But if I say, God, help me, help me love this person. What do they need? I'm going to pray for that. And it's a miracle because every time I do just that, then I'm like, ah, I can let go of this now. It's so amazing. And this is like a proverb. It's like, I mean, just like if you have some problems, do this thing, you know, it works for me. It may not work for you, but I think that's where we're going here, right? We don't, if we keep the fire burning, if we keep wanting revenge back and forth, revenge back and forth, nobody will get any sleep. If we can, you know, within reason, there's some things that need to be addressed because they're wrong, but within reason, if you can let something go and pray and not curse and judge the other person, then you're going to sleep. Do you really want sleep? You want to sleep all the night? The sleep of greater joy, then don't congem, don't judge because God can do that better than you can. And

[26:06] he'll do it correctly. He'll do it justly, right? And bless the ones that are against you and forgive them. And if you come to the altar and remember a conflict with a brother or sister, leave your sacrifice there. And that could be your offering that you put in the plate. It could be before you come up for communion. You know, it could be before you come into the God's house and say, I'm not here with the right heart. I need to be here with the right heart. I need to be here with the right heart. I need to be here with the right heart. I need to be here with the right heart. I need to be here with the right heart. I need to step outside those doors for just 30 seconds and go, okay, I got to mentally, I've got to, I know I need to straighten something out with somebody or let go of it, which one or the other, but, but, but, you know, get to that so that you come with this, you know, this peace that God will give you and God will, and you'll sleep. So here's a, this is the only way I can end it is I hope you sleep well at night and I hope you sleep well tonight because Psalm 4, is telling you this is how God wants you to live. Let's pray. Father, thank you again for your word. Thank you for this gem for Psalm 4. Thank you that you don't expect us to judge other people,

[27:15] but that you do and that you forgive everybody. Father, teach us to forgive in the way you forgave us in Jesus name. Amen.