Be gracious to me and hear my prayer

² O sons of men, how long will my honor become a reproach?
How long will you love what is worthless and aim at deception? Selah.
³ But know that the Lord has set apart the godly man for Himself;
The Lord hears when I call to Him.

⁴ Tremble, and do not sin;
Meditate in your heart upon your bed, and be still. Selah.
⁵ Offer the sacrifices of righteousness,
And trust in the Lord.

⁶ Many are saying, “Who will show us any good?”
Lift up the light of Your countenance upon us, O Lord!
⁷ You have put gladness in my heart,
More than when their grain and new wine abound.
⁸ In peace I will both lie down and sleep,
For You alone, O Lord, make me to dwell in safety.

David, the psalmist, even though he lived long before Jesus birth walked in a new covenant understanding and relationship with God. Here he says answer me when I call O God of my righteousness. It is an acknowledgement that it is not our actions that make us righteous.

Paul writes in Romans 3:10:    as it is written, "THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NOT EVEN ONE;
and in Philippians 3:8-9 he says:     More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, 9and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith,

David had this same knowledge and understanding, we are not righteous but rather are made righteous in Him.

David was often unjustly persecuted and even his life was threatened, not for anything that he did wrong, but rather for walking in the call God placed on his life. His prayer can be our prayer in these times when it seems as though righteousness is no longer honored by men.

O sons of men, how long will my honor become a reproach?
How long will you love what is worthless and aim at deception? Selah.
³ But know that the Lord has set apart the godly man for Himself;
The Lord hears when I call to Him.

Jesus assures us: "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."(John 16:33)  One of "these things" that Jesus says He has spoken is in John 15:18-20      “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. ¹⁹ If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you. ²⁰ Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you...

The psalmist says God has set apart the godly man for Himself. God says:  "Be strong and courageous, do not be afraid or tremble at them, for the LORD your God is the one who goes with you. He will not fail you or forsake you."(Deuteronomy 31:6)

Verse 4 begins with an interesting phrase:  Tremble, and do not sin;  When the things that are going on around us seem overwhelming we may tremble, yet the psalmist says do not sin. We need to understand that fear is a sin. There is a level of normal and even healthy fear that helps us to not do foolish things. But fear that causes us to lose sight of God's promise to us, fear that paralyzes us and keeps us from walking in all that we are called to is sin.

Revelation 21:8 says:    But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.
 

Fearful and unbelieving head up that list. Again this is not normal fear or having some doubt. This is allowing ourselves to be controlled by fear and doubt. Fear is the opposite of faith. It is believing more in the things we don't want than in the things we do. Fear is sin and so it separates us from God. The farther we are separated from Him the more fearful we become. We need to repent of our fears, confess them, speak them out, then run to God. The psalmist says:  Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me(Psalm 23:4)     Even death, the ultimate fear of man is merely a shadow, it has no substance when we walk in faith with Jesus. After all as He says:   "I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life."(John 8:12), a shadow can not exist when we walk in the Light.

David's prayer ends:   Many are saying, “Who will show us any good?”
Lift up the light of Your countenance upon us, O Lord!
⁷ You have put gladness in my heart, More than when their grain and new wine abound.
⁸ In peace I will both lie down and sleep, For You alone, O Lord, make me to dwell in safety.

As we apply this prayer to our present situation, one of the difficulties is that as we have allowed our society and culture to redefine things and change the meaning of words, everything has become relative and subjective in society's eyes. The psalmist says: "Who will show us any good" In our present culture we have changed what is good. God has something to say about that. He says woe,     Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil;
Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness; Who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! (Isaiah 5:20) If congress passes a law and the supreme court affirms it saying that 2+2 = 3,4 or 5 depending on what best dignifies your belief, it doesn't change the reality that 2+2=4. The psalmist though in his prayer offers us the best method to approach the darkness that exists in our society. It does us no good to go around shouting at the darkness, as if telling it that it is dark will change it to light.

David prays: Lift up the light of Your countenance upon us, O Lord!  Revelation 21:23 speaks of a time, when Jesus returns, it says:   And the city has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God has illumined it, and its lamp is the Lamb.

We need to pray like David that God will shine His light upon us. We also then need to follow Jesus instruction in Matthew 5:16 where He says:   Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven. 

Heavenly Father, Lord Jesus Christ and Holy Spirit, I do make David's prayer my prayer today. It is my prayer both for myself and for the world around me. I trust in You. I choose to walk in your righteousness. I pray that You will shine Your light on the world and through me. I pray that those who see Your light will choose light and not darkness.  I will walk in Your presence and Your peace, so that like David I can say, In peace I will both lie down and sleep,
For You alone, O Lord, make me to dwell in safety.  Amen