This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

(upbeat music) Welcome back to Psalms part one, the first 25 psalms over these
next five weeks. This is week one, day four, so we're in Psalm four. And as we
turn to this psalm, it's a psalm again of David.

Many, many teachers believe that he's still dealing with Absalom's revolt in
this psalm. He's certainly dealing with distress. And we've just read about the
distress of his own son betraying him.

But in this psalm, it's more the internal battle that we're looking at. In the
previous one, it was more the external here, it's more the internal. And I'd
like to begin by looking at the last verse in Psalm four.

Psalm four eight, David writes and says, "I will lie down and sleep in peace,
"for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety. " I know for some of you
listening to this right now, that sounds so good. Just to lie down and sleep in
peace.

Yesterday, we talked about the need to get rest when you're overwhelmed. Well,
what do you do when your anxious thoughts won't let you sleep? You can't seem to
rest.

What brought David to this place in verse eight? Well, we're going to look at that
in this psalm. How do you lie down and how do you sleep in peace?

Look at the things that David did as things that you and I can do. When you
can't sleep, you're tossing, you're turning on your bed. So I'd like to take
that word turn and turn it in a different direction.

How do you turn in a different way so that you can get the rest that you need?
Well, number one, first turn you need to make is you need to turn to God for
relief. You need relief.

Turn to God for relief. Verses one and two. Answer me when I call to you, O my
righteous God.

Give me relief from my distress. Be merciful to me and hear my prayer. How long,
O men, will you turn my glory into shame?

How long will you love delusions and seek false gods? So you start by asking for
relief from your distress. Now to ask for relief from your distress, you have to
admit two things.

First, you have to admit that you're in distress. God, I'm in distress. This is
a big problem.

And many times it's hard for us to do that. Maybe that's what you need to do
right now. Just in your heart say, God, I have been in distress.

And maybe I don't think it's important enough to be in distress or maybe I've
always seen myself as the person who's never in distress, but I am in distress
right now. I am in distress. And so I know I need to turn to you.

So that means you have to admit the second thing, that you need God's answer
instead of your answer for that distress. Now, if you're a normal human being,
you've tried what I've tried, what everyone else has tried. First thing we try
is our answer for our distress 'cause that's the immediately obvious answer.

And we want to get out of it as quickly as possible. And then our answer doesn't
work. David has a word here to those who seek false gods.

And if you think that this is to someone else about something else in this point
of seeking the wrong answer for your distress, you've totally missed the point.
The point is, I'm either going to look to God for relief when I'm in distress, or
I'm going to look to a false God for relief because I need relief. So I'm going to
look somewhere to find it.

So David writes and he says, "How long will you love delusions? " That's called
living in denial. Loving delusions is living in denial, thinking that I can
somehow accomplish something on my own that only God can accomplish.

Here's how we can miss God's relief. We ask for relief from a distress. And God
comes and he encourages us to see our problems in the light of eternity.

That's often how God encouraged Paul when he was going through a time of
distress. He comes and he says, "See that problem in the light of eternity. "
But that's not the answer we expected.

And so, because what I wanted was more instant happiness, what I really wanted
was for the problem just to go away. I reject that answer because I didn't get
the answer from God that I expected. I turned somewhere else.

Maybe a friend's advice. Maybe some old habit or routine. Maybe trying to buy my
way into feeling better.

Those are called false gods. Some of them may not even be bad in and of
themselves. It's just that I'm trusting them instead of God.

That's what makes them bad. I'm trusting myself instead of God. I'm fooling
myself when I think my answer can give me the relief that I truly need.

So even when the answer that God is giving you is not the one that you expected,
embrace it. Know that that's the answer that's going to give your soul the relief
that you're seeking. You turn to God for relief and then you accept the relief
that he's given you.

There's a second way you need to turn in this psalm in order to get a good
night's sleep. And that is turn your thoughts towards God's love. Verse three.

Know that the Lord has set apart the godly for himself. The Lord will hear when
I call to him. When you can't sleep, going to sleep, Satan would love to tempt
you in those moments to feel like God doesn't love you.

To feel like God doesn't hear, doesn't even hear you. Know that the Lord has set
apart the godly for himself. That God will hear when you call to him.

Now it helps many people in a practical way to memorize verses on the certainty
of God's love. That they can go over as they fall asleep. So you memorize psalm
23.

The Lord is my shepherd. I have all that I need. You memorize Romans eight.

There's therefore now no condemnation for those who in Christ Jesus. Nothing can
separate me from the love of Christ. And you go over those again and again and
again.

You allow that to turn your thoughts toward God's love. It's a third way to turn
in this psalm if you want to get a good night's sleep. And that is you turn from
anger before you sleep.

In verse four. In your anger, do not sin. When you're on your beds, search your
hearts and be silent.

This verse tells us don't go to sleep angry. First, you won't sleep well. And
your anger will harden into bitterness as you toss and turn through the night.

Don't go to sleep angry. Now we often apply this phrase, don't go to sleep
angry. Or in your anger, do not sin.

To our relationships with each other. Because the book of Ephesians applies it
that way. This verse is quoted in the book of Ephesians you might remember.

But here, it's especially applied to our relationship with God. You need to
solve your anger issues with other people. But you also need to solve your anger
issues with God.

So notice he says here, when you are on your beds, he's talking about anger when
you're trying to go to sleep. He says you need to deal with it before you go to
sleep. How do you deal with it?

Well, David says, I search my heart and I'm silent. Instead of thinking
outwardly at God, who you're angry at, or the person that you're angry at, you
say, God, would you search my heart? Show me, as Psalm 139 says that we're going to
get to, show me if there's any hurtful way in me.

Lead me in the everlasting way. In that moment of silence, you're admitting your
own faults. You're admitting that the anger might be coming out of you and not
just out of what God has done or the circumstances have done.

Anger is an opportunity for self-evaluation. Anger is an opportunity to allow
God to search your heart. Don't go to sleep angry.

Next thing you need to do, two more. Number four, you turn your rest into trust.
Verse five says, offer right sacrifices and trust in the Lord.

You turn your rest into trust. Because when I trust, then I can truly rest. If
I'm in a place of real trust, I trust my circumstances, I can rest.

Physically, it's true. If you're sleeping on a bed and you feel like the bed's
about ready to fall down, or you're sleeping in a house and you feel like the
wind's blowing, the house is about ready to fall down, you're not going to rest
very well. But if you feel like everything's solid, you can rest physically.

Same thing is true spiritually, emotionally. When I trust, then I can rest. Now,
that's easy to say, it's very difficult to do.

And one of the ways to do that is to intentionally begin to think of your time
of sleep, your time of rest, as a time of trust. As you're resting physically,
you are resting in God spiritually. Why do you think God made us so that we need
to sleep?

It's a daily invitation to remember that you can't do it all, you have to sleep.
That you gotta put into God's hands your life. You're trusting Him as you're
asleep.

You don't know what's going on, you don't know who might be breaking into your
house, sorry to create another worry, I won't say anything else about that. You
gotta recognize that you're in God's hands even as you sleep. The idea that I'm
only in God's hands as I'm aware, as I'm the one who can make sure I'm in God's
hands, totally misses the point.

I trust God. Now some of you are thinking right now, I trust God, it's those
people who hurt me that I don't trust. Well you can trust God to work in the
lives of even those people.

You turn your time of sleep into a time of trust. Jesus said in John 16, 33,
"These things I have spoken to you, "so that in me you may have peace. "In the
world you have tribulation, but take courage.

"I have overcome the world. " That's not a bad verse to memorize and just take
through your mind again and again as you're going to sleep. Now to trust the
Lord, you might need to do the last thing that David did.

The last thing he did is he turned his doubts into prayers. Verses six and
seven, "Many are asking who can show us any good. "Let the light of your face
shine upon us, O Lord.

"You have filled my heart with greater joy "than when their grain and new wine
abound. " God already knows your heart. He already knows your doubts.

And here there was the doubt, who's going to show us any good? How could any good
happen in my life? If you're feeling that, tell God.

He already knows it's in your heart. You tell God your doubts. You talk to God
about your doubts.

You turn them into prayers. Satan hates it when you do that. When you turn your
doubts into prayers, you're trusting that God is greater than your doubts.

And of course he is. Satan would love for you to believe that that little seed
of doubt that you have in your mind is somehow greater than God, the God of the
universe, the God who made you, the God who saved you. But when you voice it to
God, it's easy to recognize who's greater.

God is greater. So you turn your doubts into prayers. Whatever those doubts,
he's willing to hear any of them, all of them, because of his greatness.

So, you having a hard time getting to sleep? Do these five things that David
did. Turn to God for relief.

Turn your thoughts toward God's love. Turn from anger before you sleep. Turn
your rest into trust, and turn your doubts into prayers.

Let's pray together. Father, thank you for sleep. You made it, and we thank you
for it.

It gives us physical rest, but it also does something for our souls. It's a
picture to us. It's a truth that we rest in you, that we trust in you, that
you're the one who sustains us.

And so, God, I pray for each of us. Give us the sleep that we need, for those
especially that are struggling with sleep, for physical reasons. Give them
wisdom to find the right doctors, to find the help that they need.

And if the struggle is for spiritual and emotional reasons, I pray that these
words of David would be a comfort to us. They'd be a strength to us. Thank you
for your word.

Thank you that we can rest in you. In your name, we pray, amen.