Sermon March 1, 1998 Who will show us any good? based on Psalm 4 (NKJ translation)

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

1 Hear me when I call,

O God of my righteousness!

You have relieved me when I was in distress;

Have mercy on me,

and hear my prayer.

2 How long, O you sons of men,

Will you turn my glory to shame?

How long will you love worthlessness

And seek falsehood?

3 But know the Lord has set apart for Himself him who is godly;

The Lord will hear when I call to Him.

4 Be angry and do not sin.

Meditate within your heart on your bed, and be still.

5 Offer the sacrifices of righteousness,

And put your trust in the Lord

6 There are many who say,"Who will show us any good?"

Lord, lift up the light of Your countenance upon us.

7 You have put gladness in my heart,

More than in the season than their grain and wine increased.

8 I will both lie down in peace, and sleep;

For You alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.

You might remember from your history lessons, the fate of Pompeii, a village buried in a dramatic volcanic eruption of Mount Vesuvius in A.D. 79. People were buried alive as they ran to escape the volcano's fury. The village was lost for more than 1,600 years, but has now been excavated. Clovis Chappell writes that in the excavation was found a body that had been embalmed by the ashes of Vesuvius. It was that of a woman whose feet were turned toward the city gate, but her face was turned backward toward something that lay just beyond her outstretched hands. The prize for which those frozen fingers were reaching was a bag of pearls. Though death was hard at her heels, and life was beckoning to her beyond the city gates, she could not shake off the spell of the pearls. She had turned to pick them up, with death as her reward.

The theme of our message is "Who will show us any good?" which is contained in verse 6 of our text. The woman in Pompeii looked to the pearls to give her good things, instead of looking to escaping death. Looking to something for our good means trying to find happiness, relief from problems, peace, and so forth from that something. We seek good in this world in the way we spend our time, our money, and our thoughts and concerns. So the question becomes, "Where do we turn to find good?"

People today turn many different directions in their search for good. I would imagine the top direction that most people look has to do with money and the things money can buy. For the purposes of getting money, people look to their jobs for good. Don't we also put great efforts into spending our money? Shopping has become a recreational activity and our malls entertainment centers. We look to money and material things for our good. We give them great worth in our lives.

Entertainment is also a major direction in which people look for good. Of course, TV is right there at the top. We also find that sports and exercise are where people look for their good. Much time and money is spent on these activities, just trying to have fun or "get in shape." For children, videogames and other toys occupy a lot of time and effort. Kids will beg and plead to get the latest toys, but, the happiness only lasts a moment.

Some look to the highest good in things they put into their bodies; food and chemicals. Extravagant or excessive eating is a sign that food is very important to a person. Alcohol and drugs are also abused in the search for good. People may spend lots of money looking for the biggest and best of food and drugs and try to find happiness through these.

There are many who are searching for good in our world, but they haven't found it. Our text says in verse 6, "There are many who say, 'Who will show us any good?'" You see, even after people look in all these directions for good, they don't find it. When we try to get happiness from these things we find it doesn't last, if it exists at all.

Several verses in our text speak to this age-old problem of looking for good. They tell us that we should change from our seeking good in the things of this world and turn to God instead. The Psalmist looks to God for his good and feels like his faith has been disgraced by those who do not worship God. He says, "How long, O you sons of men, will you turn my glory to shame?" in verse 2. We turn the Psalmist's glory, his faith in God, to shame, from the perspective of our actions. What we do in turning to other things besides God for our good, is to reject the faith of the Psalmist. The thing that the Psalmist values greatly, his glory, we treat shamefully by rejecting it.

The Psalm challenges us further with these words: "How long will you love worthlessness / and seek falsehood?" In other words, stop running after those things which are worthless and false. Look for what is of truth and has real value.

We are called to godliness by Psalm 4 when it says: "But know that the Lord has set apart for Himself him who is godly." You know that if you are not one of those who are set apart by God, then you are in big trouble. God sets apart those whom he loves, and the rest are those who are not special, who are not His children. So you better be godly, so you will be set apart. Look to God for your good, not the world.

In the next verse, verse 4, we are told to "Be angry," which is perhaps better translated: "get excited." This is followed by: "Do not sin." Here we have some commands telling us to take sin seriously. Get excited about avoiding sin, make this something you work at in your life. It says to spend time thinking about it too: "Meditate within your heart on your bed, and be still." The more we think about this the more we will be working on the problem of whom we look to for good.

Now, you may be thinking "This Psalm is quite helpful. I can do this. I can work on these problems." Then you come upon verse 5 which says, "Offer the sacrifices of righteousness." This is talking about our righteousness--our goodness. If we follow God's laws, then we are righteous and we have the property of righteousness. Our sacrifices are the good works we do: helping other people, witnessing, giving our offerings of money, time and talents, etc. We are commanded to be righteous and do our good works.

Both you and I know, however, that we are not righteous. We know that God demands perfection out of us. We know we cannot free ourselves from sin and we cannot offer sacrifices of righteousness.

On our own we are stuck; unable to meet God's requirements. We are led to pray with the Psalmist in verse 1, "Hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness!" and "Have mercy on me, and hear my prayer." God does hear us and he does have mercy on us.

God has mercy on us by setting apart a godly one. Verse 3, which mentions this, could be more accurately translated: "But know that the Lord has set apart for himself a faithful or godly one." That faithful one is only singular, that is, there is but one person who has been faithful and godly. God set him apart to God himself. In fact, this faithful person is God himself, in the person of Jesus Christ.

We know Jesus lived as a perfect man. His life was no less than righteous. Then he died on the cross and became a sacrifice. So Jesus is our righteous sacrifice. And by his sacrifice we become righteous, for our sins are forgiven. Since we are righteous, our works are truly good works and become righteous sacrifices made to God.

Right after telling us to offer righteous sacrifices, the Psalm tells us how to do it, "put your trust in the Lord." We are not told to trust in ourselves, in our works or our righteousness. Instead, "put your trust in the Lord." Trust what Jesus has done for you.

The Psalmist says it yet another way. After commenting that "There are many who say, 'Who will show us any good?'" in verse 6, He requests of the Lord, "lift up the light of your countenance upon us." God's countenance literally is his face. So paraphrasing what the Psalmist says, "Lord, shine the light of your face upon us." This is what the Lord does, for Jesus Christ is the light of the world, which no darkness can overcome. Shine on us Jesus!

Our Psalm concludes by sharing some of the blessings God places upon us when we do "put our trust in the Lord." The first is "gladness in our hearts." This gladness is compared to the gladness when the harvest of grain and wine are brought in and it is a greater gladness. Our gladness from the Lord is greater than the gladness of those who look to the harvest for their good. We are glad for the stains of our sins have been erased. We are glad for our place in heaven is secure.

Another blessing is peace. Peace such that we can lie down and go to sleep. We need not lie awake at night wondering and worrying about our sins. We know that Jesus has completely forgiven our sins of the day and of our life. We need not worry about what is going to happen to us when we die for we know heaven is our home. We sleep like a baby cradled in its mother's arms for we are cradled in our Lord's arms. He cares for us and has sacrificed for us and now he gives us His peace.

The Psalm concludes by commenting on the safety the Lord provides. "For You alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety." There is no use for the things of this world, they don't provide safety, but the Lord alone provides it. We have safety in knowing the Lord has promised to deliver us from this world to heaven, and we have safety in knowing that the Lord is almighty and can certainly bring his promises about. The woman in Pompeii did not find safety from her pearls, but we find safety that lasts forever in Jesus Christ. Amen.

The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.