November 6, 2015

Answer me when I call, O God of my right!
You gave me room when I was in distress.
Be gracious to me, and hear my prayer.
How long, you people, shall my honor suffer shame?
How long will you love vain words, and seek after lies?
But know that the Lord has set apart the faithful for himself;
the Lord hears when I call to him.
When you are disturbed, do not sin;
ponder it on your beds, and be silent.
Offer right sacrifices,
and put your trust in the Lord.
There are many who say, “O that we might see some good!
Let the light of your face shine on us, O Lord!”
You have put gladness in my heart
more than when their grain and wine abound.
I will both lie down and sleep in peace;
for you alone, O Lord, make me lie down in safety.
Psalm 4:1ff

“This Psalm is a companion for our times of doubt. Even more, the Psalmist is a teacher who models for us 1) a way out of distress by articulating who God is and how God is for us, and 2) a way of responding to God. Regarding the first, the Psalmist rehearses all that he trusts to be true about God. Clearly the Lord is one who is in conversation with those who believe in him (verses 1, 3). Moreover, claiming that the Lord sets apart the faithful for himself justifies the distance the Psalmist feels between himself and others (verse 3). The Lord is trustworthy (verse 4) and provides peacefulness and security (verse 8).

Two other descriptions are noteworthy. First, God gives room when we are in distress (verse 1). This is a curious phrase which may become a central theme in your preaching this week. To “give room” originally alluded to “release from a tight noose at the neck (cf. Psalms 18:19, 118:5).” It was “a symbol of freedom before wide horizons (Genesis 26, Psalm 31:9, and Isaiah 60.5).” This is opposite of the distress mentioned in verse 1, a word which is used for “a constricted larynx.”1 The Psalmist is acknowledging the Lord’s willingness not to micromanage, to give him room to question, to let him work out the insecurities surrounding his belief”. (Working Preacher website, Commentary on Psalm 4 Shauna Hannan)

The Psalmist declares to the Lord: “You gave me room when I was in distress”. We often wrongly believe that when the Lord has seemingly left us for a time, we believe we are being punished. The Psalmist is stating that the Lord gives us space, the Lord refuses to micromanage our lives, and allows us to ponder what is happening both in our lives and in our faith lives. There is a recent study out about parents who micromanage their children’s lives, also called “helicopter parenting”. Here is just a snippet of their report:

“Being a parent can be tricky. Some parents are too relaxed, and some too overbearing. But some are helicopters, hovering over their kids’ every move. Julie Lythcott-Haims, a former dean at Stanford University and author of “How to Raise an Adult,” says parents who hover could be ruining a future generation, being too over-protective and doing so much for their kids that it’s keeping their children from becoming fully functional, independent adults. “When kids grow up, they can’t do for themselves,” Lythcott-Haims told ABC News. “They don’t have life skills. They don’t have the skills needed in the workplace and they have much higher rates of anxiety.”
(How Helicopter Parenting Could Be Ruining a Generation of Children, by ABC NEWS)

We have seen or experienced these parents, and often we wonder out loud “How are these children going to learn to cope?” The Lord understands this and the Psalmist is declaring to us that though the Lord never leaves us, that the Lord neither slumbers nor sleeps, yet the Lord allows us to struggle at times and uses this as a teaching mechanism. Our trust secures our salvation, but does not secure a G*d who sits on our shoulder like a parrot telling what to do at all times and in every situation. The Lord gives us room to question, allows us time to struggle with options, and allows us to work out our insecurities around our faith. The Lord hears all prayers, knows all things, but is not a helicopter “parent” – TBTG.

Pastor Dave