Stress and Security - Anxiety and Assurance

Well take your Bible and turn back with me to Psalm 4. Psalm chapter 4, I think I said earlier that we will have a part 1 and a part 2 here. Now I will go ahead and tell you how we will divide these verses. Tonight we will look at verses 1 to 5, but we will only glance at verse 3. Tonight we will spend all of our time in verses 1 and 2, and then we'll touch on verse 3, but we'll go around it really. And we'll look at verses 4 and 5. It really doesn't break down like Psalm 3. Psalm 3 really just broke down two verses at a time. And really I wrestle with that all week because I wanted to break it down properly.

So as to communicate what we have here and what the Lord wants us to see and learn, so that we can become who He wants us to be. Now before we get into the Psalm, the Psalm that is before us, I want to give us a little background information about Psalm 4 and about Psalm 3, but also many of the Psalms. When we started our study in Psalms, I said that I would give us some background information as we went along. And this background information is far more useful than maybe you know. And I feel like it's been a while since I've touched on some of this, but this is very timely. This is very appropriate.

If you look at Psalm 4 and your copy of God's Word, you might see some unusual language. You probably see a heading there above the Psalm. And it might mention something like a choir or a choir master, and even something like stringed instruments. Now question, what does all that mean? Some of you might know, but some of you might not have a clue as to what that means. You see the Psalms were considered to be the God-breathed hymnbook for the Jewish people. As a matter of fact, later on when the Psalms were compiled, Jewish teachers called the book of Psalms the book of praises. That sounds very modern, does it not? Sounds contemporary?

Sounds like something in our day. So that is why we see certain information above the Psalms. We may see the author of the Psalm, even maybe the historical occasion connected with the Psalm. We may see an assignment to the worship director. Some translations say choir master. And other worship instructions. We may also see what type of song it is. And if the song should have musical instruments accompanying the song. Again, that sounds like something we would hear in our day. Now what is my point? Why do I bring this type of background information to you? These were songs.

God's people, the Jews in those days, they sung these songs for generations. But notice this. These are praises to God from real serious life experiences. These were not high in the sky praises. No, not at all. These were real songs of worship, real songs of praise from very, very serious experiences in the lives of real men of God. I'll give you an example that's meant something for me in my day. It's an older song, but not near as old as the songs of Psalm 3 and 4. We sing this from time to time. It's pretty famous. The old hymn that's been remade by the Gettys called "Facing a Task Unfinished." I'll give you a little homework assignment.

You go research that song, research the author of that song and why it was written. It was connected to a particular mission's movement. See, it came out of a real life mission's experience, out of a true man of God in his heart. And it had a real purpose in the life of the church. And what I mean by that is when you look at the words and you understand the history, who wrote the song, what it meant. Listen, it's just real and it's just life and it's what I call spiritual meat and potatoes. Now think back to what we learned in Psalm 3. Just imagine with me a choir singing what we learned in Psalm 3. I mean, that's just real stuff.

This is real spiritual in the trenches, difficulties, praises, I mean stresses and just all types of stuff. These are not songs that make God out to be some big soft fat man in a red suit, ready to grant your every wish. These would not be songs that portray serving a God that we see in the Bible like some relationship where you're junior high school girlfriend or boyfriend. No, this is real Christian stuff. This is serious. This is manly Christianity, not sissy Christianity. Now why is this important? Look, much of the so-called Christian music today is the opposite of what we see in the Psalms.

Lots of this so-called Christian music misrepresents God, the nature of God, the person of God, the true man of God or woman of God. They misrepresent the true Christian life. Maybe some need to get into the Psalms and see that this was the true hymn book of God's people and measure what we have today up against what we see in the Psalms. Might do some worship leaders, music ministers and churches a lot of good. Now back to my point earlier. These two Psalms, Psalm 3 and 4 are songs of praise and worship that come out of real life experiences. Difficult days, great trials, life and death.

God truly was working in the lives of men and human history. Specifically, we have David and his point in history and time. But notice specifically, at the heart of all of this, Psalm 3 and 4, at the heart of all of this is a living, breathing relationship. Listen, David knew God and God knew David. This was not externals. This was not religion. This was a living relationship between a man and God. And look for David, this started way back when he was young. David was a young shepherd boy tending his father's sheep way off on the backside of nowhere. We see that he walked with God and he knew God and God knew him.

So David knew God and walked with God and all of this comes out of a real, vibrant, living relationship with God. And I'll say more about that as we conclude later. Now some other specific information about the Psalm that is before us. This is more background information. There are three observations that I want you to take note of. First of all, Bible scholars connect Psalm 4 and Psalm 3. We know that David wrote Psalm 3 while he was running from Absalom. We know the story. David's son Absalom was trying to steal the throne from his father David and it was out of this awful trial that David wrote Psalm 3.

But Psalm 4 comes out of the same trial as well. But second, scholars tell us that while Psalm 3 was written in the morning, Psalm 4 appears to be written in the evening. Psalm 3 verse 5 speaks of the morning. But then Psalm 4 verse 4 and verse 8 speak of the evening. Scholars call these morning and evening Psalms or morning and evening devotionals. Well, I thought about it like this this week. If these are devotionals, these are very heavy, very serious devotionals. These aren't light and fluffy devotionals like some people are accustomed to. But then third, the theme in Psalm 4. Psalm 4 is full of lamenting just like Psalm 3.

We're going to see anxieties and stresses and fears. Yes, but there is another major theme that runs throughout and that is confidence in God. David had great confidence in his God. Let me show you this confidence in God that comes out of David. In verse 1, David understands that God relieves the distress of the godly. In verse 3, David knows that God sets apart the godly man. In verse 3, David knows that God hears and answers his prayers. In verse 5, David knows that God is trustworthy. In verse 7, David understands that God gives gladness to the heart. In verse 8, David believes that God can give him peace and safety.

So we see David had great confidence in his God. Remember that living relationship? And he had great confidence in his God, in his stress, in his anxieties, and in this great trial. So again, we get to peer into the window, a window of David's life. King David, the great warrior king, who was really also a man, he was just a man. He is working through the trial of a lifetime, through his writings. We see his great security in his God. Although he does struggle with terrible anxieties, we do see his tremendous assurance in God. His security and assurance show us that David knew that blessing and victory would be his.

Now that brings me to the title of the message. It's similar to last week's title. I'm titling Psalm 4, "Stress and Security, Anxiety and Assurance." This comes out of the verses. "Stress and Security, Anxiety and Assurance." Now we're going to look at verse 1 first, and then we're going to get into verses 2 to 5. And again, we will not divide verse 3. I will touch on a few things there, but we'll really go around verse 3. So first, let's notice verse 1, what I'm calling David's prayer of confidence. Verse 1, this is what I'm calling David's prayer of confidence. Go back to the verse. "Answer me when I call." See, this is David. He's praying.

"Answer me when I call, O God, O God of my righteousness, thou hast, or you have relieved me in my distress. Be gracious to me and hear my prayer." Now David starts off this Psalm just like he did the previous Psalm with a prayer. And just like in Psalm 3 verse 1, David reveals his great stress, the English standard. Now I'm reading from my New American Standard tonight. It uses the word distress. But there is a difference in Psalm 3 verse 1 and Psalm 4 verse 1. Whereas in the beginning of Psalm 3, David seems defeated by distress. Here in the beginning of Psalm 4, David seems to have great confidence in his distress.

Now remember what we saw take place in David in Psalm 3. We saw David's progression in his trial. He starts off in great adversity, but he moves on through to victory. Well in Psalm 4, David is still in that victory as he approaches God with confidence. Now I want us to see some details about this prayer. Remember this prayer of confidence. Three details that I think are very important. First, David's repetition. Again, this is a prayer, but we see David and he is repetitious in his prayer. Three times David mentions prayer in the verse. Look at the verse.

"Answer me when I call, O God, O my righteousness, for you have relieved me in my distress. Be gracious to me and hear my prayer." Three times he references prayer. Now what's the point? Why do I mention this? This reflects David's relationship with God. Remember, he had a living relationship with God, so he could pray to his God. But this also reflects David's humanity. Now question for you. When you're struggling in trial, when you have difficulties, do you have to repeat yourself? I think we all do. That's David's humanity, but that is also his confidence in God. But that can relate to us in more ways than we know.

And we'll come back to that again at the conclusion. But second, I want us to see David's righteousness. In this verse, verse 1, I want us to see David's righteousness. Go back to the verse. "Answer me when I call, O God, of my righteousness." Notice it says, "my righteousness." Now question, is it that statement presumptive? Is it that maybe theologically flat-out wrong? The Old Testament scriptures teach that God is righteous. This would be one of his attributes, one of the attributes of God that's taught all throughout the Psalms.

As a matter of fact, in my study, I went back over my list of the attributes of God in the Psalms, and it was a long list of Psalms that deal with this attribute, the righteousness of God in the Psalms. Now this is not a righteousness which man is accustomed to. No, God is righteous by his own perfect standard of righteousness. He is the perfect righteousness in his being and in his actions, and there is no righteousness other than God's righteousness. But how can David say, "my righteousness"? Isn't that what the verse says? How can David say, "my righteousness" when the scriptures teach that only God is righteous?

David can say, "my righteousness" because God has made a covenant with him. God has established, God had established his kingdom, and God had promised his throne which would last forever to David in 2 Samuel 7. Of course, we know that this is prophecy concerning Jesus, the promised Messiah of God. So David's righteousness was God's righteousness, and David possessed a righteousness that came from God. But then third, out of this prayer, notice David's relief. We see David's relief. Go back to the verse. "Answer me when I call, 'O God, O God of my righteousness, you have relieved me in my distress.'" Here we see David's confidence.

I say it like this. His confidence is shining bright. David was praying back to God what God has done for him, and that is relief. Now this word "distress" here is very important. It means to be bound up. It means to be tied up. There is an image here. There is good military imagery or a good military picture here. It would be of when an invading army was coming in and surrounding, being surrounded by enemies on all sides. They are in distress. They are bound up by the enemy. For God to relieve them, they would be untied. There would be room made for them to defend themselves or even to fight.

And that is exactly what is happening here with David. So David is praying something like this back to God. And I guess I am putting it in my own words. David is saying something like this, "Lord, Lord, in this great civil war, when I was surrounded and everything seemed lost, you untied me and you gave me relief from my oppression and my oppressors." So in summary, notice what David is saying here in verse 1. It is really a lot. David is praying in this distress. Isn't that what the text says? But he had great confidence in his God. David is trusting in God all the way. I like that. He is trusting in God all the way.

He is saying something like this to God as he is praying, "Lord, you are my righteousness. You are my righteousness because you have made covenant with me and I am in a right relationship with you. I know you and you know me. You are my righteousness. And Lord, you have delivered me in my distress. You have freed me from my shackles. You have loosened me so I can deal properly with what?" This terrible crisis, this terrible rebellion, this terrible civil war. Verse 1 reflects two realities that we must see. David's great confidence in God and David's wonderful living relationship to God.

And all of this is tied to this great trial in his life. Now in application, there is really a lot more here that we can learn than you may know. On many levels, this will help you and direct you as you walk with God through the years. First of all, I want to touch on David's repetition in prayer. And I want to ask you, do you find yourself repeating yourself in prayer? Now I want to call you to question why you are repeating yourself and what that looks like. You see there is a type of repetition that is wrong. We don't need to be babblers in prayer. We just mumble and babble and just kind of say the same thing over and over and over.

You know I have heard people do this and they remind me of a sink that just gurgles, you know? When a sink gurgles, it just gurgles and gurgles and gurgles and won't go away. You know some people can pray like that. They just Bible on. But that's not what David was doing. He was repetitious in his prayer, but he was making progress in his walk with God. And so we might find ourselves praying and walking with God through a trial and through a crisis. And we have to make sure we are not just babbling. Remember I talked about belly aching and just complaining. No, we can't do that.

We have to come over and over, back and forth with God, repeating it over and over. As long as we are working hard to get through. We are good with repetitious prayer. But then second I want us to see David's possession here. His righteousness. Remember I said that he was a part of God's covenant. So he had a righteousness that came from God. Now we understand this in New Testament terms. What we must see is that we have a righteousness, but it is not our righteousness. It is Christ's righteousness. So if we have any righteousness in our minds, in our hearts, in our lives, it only comes from Christ. It comes from faith in Christ.

It comes from a living, breathing relationship with Christ. And we trace that back to when God saved us. And we have the living relationship with the Lord as well. And we have the righteousness of Christ and it's been applied to our life. We see this in Philippians 3 verses 8 and 9. And then Romans 3 verses 21 to 22. That might be a couple of good passages for you to go back and read. And so in our day, in New Testament times, we possess a righteousness. It is God's righteousness, but it's the righteousness of Christ. Now I want to turn this around and show you how this applies to your prayer life.

When you understand that you've been bought with a price, when you understand that you've been blood bought and born again, and you're the child of the king and he lives within your life, and then when you come in prayer, look, you won't be a babbler. You'll get past all that. You might be repetitious, but you come with a righteousness of Christ and you can have a confidence in your God. But then 3rd David's relief and distress. How does this apply to us? Listen, when we're working through trial, oh, on the front end, we might be bound up. We might be tied up.

We might feel like we're tied up and placed in a dark basement, but as we work with it and we press on through and we won't give up, God will work and we'll find ourselves becoming more free. We'll find ourselves becoming untied. We won't be bound up by the things going on in our minds and in our hearts. We'll begin to have freedom and we'll begin to have victory, and that'll get greater and greater, and we'll look back and see how we were all bound up, but then we'll look up and we'll have joy because we're free. I'll give you an example from my own personal life.

I don't want to take too much time, but I want to illustrate this and flesh this out. Most of you know that I spent 10 years in full-time ministry and I left full-time ministry for a little while. The Lord had directed me out of that and I was working through some things. God was changing my expectations about ministry and my life and such, and I was working a job I particularly did not like. Now, I preached a lot during that time.

I did fill in work and preached for some friends who needed some fill in work, so I wasn't just sitting on the sidelines, no, but the Lord wouldn't let me go on church staff and take a position, that kind of thing, but you know I was working that 9-5 job and I really didn't like it. As a matter of fact, I hated it. See, I was all bound up. I was in distress. And oh, I came to God many a day, babbling and complaining. I gurgled like an old dirty sink. I promise. But oh, as I just would not let go, I began to pray and I just kept praying. And I just got to the place after a long period of time of wrestling with that job I didn't like.

I wanted to serve the Lord in ministry like I once did, but I just was accepting God's will for my life. God had taught me Psalm 40 verses 1, 2, and 3 about waiting patiently for the Lord. And oh, I began to pray and ask God to give me joy in my circumstances, even when I could not change them. And oh, finally there came a day when God loosened the bounds that had me. He met me in my distress and he gave me room and I had joy. I could praise God no matter the circumstances. You see, it's exactly what David is talking about here. So I want to ask you, do you pray with confidence?

And do you pray with confidence when you're dealing with a trial and difficulty, longing for God to give you relief from your stress? So let's move on. I want us to see second. This is what I'm calling David reasons with his enemies. This is out of verse 2, verses 4 and 5. This is what I'm calling David reasons with his enemies. Let's look at these verses. It's really a big portion of scripture, but let's read them together. David changes here, "Oh sons of men, how long will my honor become a reproach, or shame some translations may say? How long will you love what is worthless and aim at deception or lies?

But know that the Lord has set apart the godly men for himself. And the Lord hears when I call to him, "Trimble and do not sin, meditate in your heart upon your bed and be still, after the offer the sacrifices of righteousness and trust in the Lord." Now here we see David's shift. I think I pointed that out. He shifts to men. These verses reveal the source of David's distress. Not just the Civil War, not just the rebellion, but the men behind all of this. Now we see two parts to this reasoning. Remember, I'm calling this David reasons with his enemies. I see two parts here.

This involves a rebuke from David, and then this involves a call to repentance. David rebukes those who are against him, and then he calls them to repentance. John MacArthur says that David is reasoning with his enemies here about repentance. I like that, but to me we have to see the rebuke in the reasoning. So let's look at David's rebuke, and then let's look at David's call to repentance. So first notice David rebukes the guilty. We see this in verse 2. David rebukes the guilty. Go back. "Oh sons of men, how long will my honor become a reproach or shame?" How long will you love what is worthless and aim at deception or lies?

Now here David gets more specific than we know. This term "oh men" in the English Standard Version, it is more specific than in our English translations in the original. In the original language, this was a technical term. That means that David was speaking to a particular people, particular leaders in the revolt against him. David was speaking directly to Absalom, and then some of those military leaders that had followed Absalom, and some of the people who had thrown in with Absalom. So David is speaking straight to the guilty, the ones who were guilty of the rebellion. But there is another layer.

David rebukes the guilty of their specific sin. In their rebellion, they had attacked David's position in honor as the king. They had treated David as a fugitive, not as God's anointed king. So they treated David with dishonor and shame. Also in their rebellion, they had loved the lie. Absalom believed that he deserved the throne. Those following Absalom had believed the lies well. So they created this grand deception, a civil war, a rebellion against God's chosen king. So notice what David does in the rebuke. He calls out the guilty, specifically almost by name.

He calls them out for dishonoring him as the king, and he calls them out for believing and propagating a lie. Now, I want to pause here for a minute. I don't want to divide verse 3, but notice what David does in verse 3. Before he moves on to what I call the part 2 of the reasoning with these men, I want you to see that David exalts himself. He exalts himself before these men. Simply in verse 3, David says this, "You better know that God has set me apart for the throne, and I am the godly one in this affair." David is putting them in their place. He is exalting him himself in their face.

He is exalting himself as the true king, the true man of God, and all that is going on. And we're going to divide this verse in greater detail next week. So let's move on to the second part of David reasoning with his enemies. Second David urges the guilty to repentance. We see this in verse 4 and 5. Go back to the verse. "Trimble and do not sin, meditate in your heart upon your bed, and be still, all for the sacrifices of righteousness and trust in God." Here we have the second part of this reasoning with the enemy. David does not just rebuke them here. David urges them to make repentance.

Truthfully, this is extremely, extremely good for us to see. Here in verses 4 and 5, we have a series of commandments. Now there are some scholars who debate as to who David is speaking to. Some say he's speaking to the rebels. Some say maybe he is applying this to himself. I think first this speaks to those who are rebelling against David. But I do think there's some application to David in his life. We'll speak about that next week. But notice what he is commanding the rebels here. First he says, "Don't be angry." We see this at the beginning of verse 4.

"Trimble and do not sin." Both the English Standard Version and the New American use the word "angry." But this word can be translated "trimble." David is simply calling the rebels to "trimble before God in all and worship." Not in anger, not in rebellion, not in sin. You can say it like this. David is calling them not to stand before God in the anger that they were in, but to stand before God trembling with all in respect. But a question, what were the rebels doing? If you've gone and studied the rest of the story, you know what they were doing. They were rejecting David's appeal.

And then second, notice he calls them to meditate in their hearts. We see that at the end of verse 4. "Trimble and do not sin." Meditate in your heart upon your bed and be still. Here David is calling on these men to get into the Word of God. The word "meditate" means to consider, to reflect upon. We saw this back in Psalm 1, verse 2. David delights, David, he delights into meditating on God's Word. David spoke about meditating on God's Word day and night, and that was the delight of his heart. So David is calling on these men to get into the Word of God and meditate on the truths of the Word of God.

Now a question, what were the rebels doing? Did they take David's advice? Did they receive his instructions? No. If we know the rest of the story, we know that they did not. And then third, he commands them to be still. We see that at the end of verse 4. What does he say? "Be still," right at the end of meditate. Here David is calling these men to what I call the other side of meditation. Being still before God in meditation, the mind and the heart is active, but in silence it is turned off. In silence, we are still before God so that God can speak to the man. You see?

God uses the scripture and the teaching of scripture to impress upon man's heart according to God's will and God's purposes. You see? This is the other side of meditation. But again, what were the rebels doing? They were ignoring what David was commanding them to do. And then fourth, David calls them to offer righteous sacrifices. Look at the beginning of verse 5. Offer the sacrifices of righteousness. Here David is referring to ritual sacrifices. This refers to the animal sacrifices. This refers to righteous sacrifices that involve the proper animal sacrifice. This was a part of worship. Now again, what were the rebels doing?

They were not heeding David's instruction. And then fifth, he calls these rebels to trust in the Lord. We see this at the end of verse 5. Offer the sacrifices of righteousness and trust in the Lord. This is his final exhortation. David is urging the rebels to put their trust in or their trust upon the Lord. This is not a religious act, but a true throwing upon oneself, throwing oneself upon God. This is a true trusting in God. Again, what were the rebels doing? They were not heeding David's instruction. So in summary, what do we see here? I mean, this is a lot. David is reasoning with these enemies. He is rebuking those who are guilty.

And then he is urging the guilty to repentance. And this is a lot. David is reasoning with these enemies. He's rebuking them for dishonoring him and his throne. He is rebuking them for believing a total lie and leaving this awful civil war. Then the rebuke turns to that plea for repentance. Notice this repentance is directed at the rebels, but it involves God. He is saying stand before God in all and worship. Meditate on his word. Be still before God. Offer the righteous sacrifices of worship and trust in him. Again, what did they do? They did not heed David's instruction. Now an application, what must we see here?

First, we see how to deal with those who have truly wronged us. This goes on in our day. How in the world do we truly deal properly with the ones who have wronged us? First, we must urge them to repentance. See, here's the problem. Many times we cannot urge those who have wronged us to repentance because we want to approach them with revenge. Oh, we want a piece of their hide, do we not? But David did not have that attitude. He was urging those who were literally trying to steal his throne. He was urging them to repentance. Oh, but I want to warn you here. You might not have that platform. You see, David is the king. He had the platform.

He had the platform that God had given him. But you see, if you've been wronged, you might not have the platform to urge the one who has wronged you to repentance. But oh, if you do have that opportunity, point out to them their sin. You may have the opportunity to even rebuke them, but you must not do it with an attitude of revenge. And then lovingly and kindly direct them down a proper path of repentance. You see, all of these little commandments, starting in verse 4 all the way through verse 5, this was a path of repentance. But remember, remember David's heart. There is no tinge of anger. There is no tinge of bitterness.

And there is no hint of revenge. It just was not there. Stress, yes. Anxiety, yes. Oh, there were times when it seemed like he was ready to throw in the towel, but no anger, no bitterness, and no revenge. And I think it's imperative that we really do seek to have David's heart when we are wrong. Listen, the one who could be the closest to you could wrong you, and all of a sudden revenge can come and hound you at your door, but not David. Remember who had revolted against him? His own son. His own flesh and blood. So how do we react when people have wronged us?

Do we react in revenge, or do we nudge them and help them, and encourage them down a path of repentance? I hope it's the latter and not the former. But now in conclusion, in conclusion, notice what we are seeing here. Notice what we're studying. David is still in this trial. He's still in this hardship. Is he not? Oh, but he's progressing along very well. In Psalm 3, we have this morning devotion. Now look at what David was like in the morning. Remember? Oh, he was about to panic there in the beginning. At the beginning of the psalm in verse 1, he's just crying out, "Lord, they're all around me.

They're all around me." But then notice how he begins Psalm 4, this p.m. devotion, the p.m. psalm. Look at what David was like in the evening. Oh, he was progressing along in his victory, was he not? So we see this wonderful progression in his trial. We see this wonderful growth in the man of God. And I said this before, we just have this window that we can look into David's life at this particular time in his life. And it's a wonderful, wonderful teaching example. Now I want to remind you of how I advised you last week. I want to remind you of the advice I gave you from Psalm 3 in handling trials, handling fears, handling adversities.

You know, remember our context? We're dealing with the stresses of this coronavirus. Oh, we're dealing with the worries and the concerns of the economy and some of them laid off and some fear for their jobs. Listen, there are other trials that can come into our life. You might be in the middle of a trial that involves family. You might have been hurt by a friend like we talked about earlier. You could have a health trial going on in your life. But remember the advice that I gave you. First, we must have a good place of prayer. Listen, we must have a place of quiet, secret prayer.

We can go and close that door and we can spend not just a few moments, but lengthy time, hours there. It is our place. And the Lord meets us there and we meet our Lord there. You must get yourself a good place of prayer. Get on your knees before God and bring these struggles before God. Oh, pray, pray over and over and over. Pray till you don't babble anymore. And look, use Psalm 3 and Psalm 4 as a pattern. And then that leads me to the second piece of advice. Get in the Word. We know who God is from the Word. We know his character, what he said, what he does. And again, Psalm 3 and 4 is a perfect template. This is a great example.

We can study and find ourselves right here and see where we are in the progression. We can see when we get like David on the side of victory. So we get in that place of prayer and we get in the Word of God as we are in prayer. And then third, we pray and we pray through that fear. We pray through that adversity. We pray through that trial. See, we grab a halt of it as it is grabbed a halt of us. And we pray that thing all the way through to victory. It might take you months. It could take you years. And then fourth, we just keep with it. Now what I mean by keep with it, we don't give up.

There are a lot of people, they have a trial come their way and they run the other way. We keep with it in prayer and in the Word and we just will not let go. Remember what I said last week? This is an opportunity and an invitation. This is an opportunity for you to grow in a way in which you've never grown and an invitation from God. So just stay with it. Now last in closing, I want to emphasize something that is a dominant theme in Psalm 3 and 4. I did not mention it much when we were in Psalm 3, but I did mention it earlier. Here it is. We see the theme of this living relationship. David had a real living relationship with God.

And listen folks, you can't fake that. If you don't have it, you don't have it. And when trials come, when fears come, when adversities come, when anxieties come, when all of these different types of experiences come in life, listen, it proves if you have that living relationship and it might prove if you don't have that living relationship. I'll give you an example. Marriage. We understand marriage. We've been dealing with marriage in our study through the Sermon on the Mount. One man, one woman joined by God permanently. A permanent union. But you know a marriage is a relationship, is it not?

A relationship between the man and his wife, but between the woman and her husband. And you know some have a good marriage relationship and some don't have a relationship. But you know certain trials and circumstances come along that reveal that. You know you've got a mom and a dad and they put on a good front in front of the kids and the neighbors and everybody down at the church house. But when the kids are gone, they don't have to fake it anymore. See they never had a good relationship. And when the kids are gone, they don't have to fake it anymore.

And lo and behold you look up and say, wow they were married 30 years and they're getting a divorce. See all of that just revealed that they never had a good relationship. Another thing that comes along is tragedy. Maybe cancer. Maybe an accident. Or maybe the husband loses his job. You know one of those great trials that just rocks the marriage down to the car. And see that'll prove if they got a good relationship or they don't have a good relationship. You see? But when trials and difficulties come to that marriage, what does it do? Oh if it's a good relationship, it refines that relationship. It makes it stronger. It makes it better.

Oh they go through the rough times but they don't give up because they got that good relationship. Why? Because the two have become one. And look, the difficulties come and it proves that good relationship. It's the same way with our Walt with God folks. Many times these trials and fears and adversities come. Rattles folks to their core. And it proves that they don't have a real relationship with God. Now I want to touch on one more piece of background information that I mentioned earlier. Remember I said that Psalm 3 was the AM Psalm. David wrote it in the morning. Psalm 4 was the PM Psalm. You know what this might show us?

We need a lot more of God's Word than maybe we're getting. You know we get up and do our devotion in the morning. We go on out through our day but we spend the rest of the evening, you know, with our time. Maybe this just shows us that when the trial comes, we need more of God's Word. Didn't David? He sure did. Now what do we have tonight? Stress and security, anxiety and assurance. Now I want to do this with the title of the message and then we're going to close. Look at the stress here in verse 1. Psalm 4 verse 1. Answer me when I call, O God. O God of my righteousness, you have relieved me in my, what? In my distress. You see the stress?

And then we see David's great security. Go on down to verse 7 and 8. You have put gladness in my heart more than when their grain and their new wine abound. In peace I will both lie down and sleep. For you alone, O Lord, you have made me to dwell in safety. You see, there's the stress in David's life but oh, the great security from the work that God has done in him. So what do we see? Stress and security, anxiety and assurance. We're seeing a lot of this man David and how God worked in his life. So let's pray and let's commit what we've learned to the Lord as always, seeking to be the Christian that God wants us to be.

And then we're going to pray over a few things in this missing.