This episode looks at Psalm 4:7, “You have put more joy in my heart than they have when their grain and wine abound.” Why gain the whole world and lose our soul? We can have true and lasting joy only in right relationship with God. All other grain and wine and material abundance will be fleeting in comparison to eternal joy in God’s presence.

This episode looks at Psalm 4:6, “There are many who say, “Who will show us some good? Lift up the light of your face upon us, O LORD!”” When doubt rises from other people, or even in our hearts, we can respond by calling ourselves to look to God for blessing and asking him to bless us.

This episode looks at Psalm 4:5, “Offer right sacrifices, and put your trust in the LORD.” David continues his call for the sons of men to repent by telling them to offer right sacrifices. For us in the Church age, these sacrifices look like praise to God and doing good to others. We also have a chance in this verse to renew our trust in Yahweh.

This episode looks at Psalm 4:4, “Be angry, and do not sin; ponder in your own hearts on your beds, and be silent. Selah.” May God give us grace to tremble with fear at our own sin patterns and then turn from them to righteousness and holiness. May God give us grace to reflect honestly and confess our sin before him.

This episode looks at Psalm 4:3, “But know that the LORD has set apart the godly for himself; the LORD hears when I call to him.” God has set apart a people for himself, and those he has called he will also make holy. God hears us when we pray because he has saved us and made us new. We can pray to God in Jesus’s name because of faith in him, being washed in his blood and raised to new life and holiness in his resurrection.

This episode takes a look at Psalm 4:2, “O men, how long shall my honor be turned into shame? How long will you love vain words and seek after lies? Selah.” When we call on God to hear our distress, we also proclaim to the world who we trust in. We also call out those (including ourselves) who mock Christ’s sacrifice and his kingship by turning to empty, deceptive things over God. We pray that God would help us to love truth.

This episode looks at Psalm 4:1, “Answer me when I call, O God of my righteousness! You have given me relief when I was in distress. Be gracious to me and hear my prayer!” We recognize that our very righteousness comes from God, and that on account of being found in his righteousness he hears us. We also look back at how he has grown us through past trials before we present our current trials before him.

This episode pauses to talk about the name LORD, and how it appears all over the Psalter. Yahweh means, “I am what I am,” or in other words, the self-existent one. No one causes God to exist, and instead he causes all things to come into being. We trust in that God!

This episode looks at Psalm 3:8, “Salvation belongs to the LORD; your blessing be on your people!” God does the work! We don’t save ourselves; he does the saving. We praise him, and we look forward in hope to him working blessing into our lives even in the midst of crisis. This is a verse worth memorizing!

This episode looks at Psalm 3:7, “Arise, O LORD! Save me, O my God! For you strike all my enemies on the cheek; you break the teeth of the wicked.” We call on God to fight for us in our battles, and we also take confident that he doesn’t need to remove us from circumstances to save us. He can just remove the power of those circumstances to destroy us.