The Confidence of the Set-Apart Man Text: Psalm 4:1-3
Introduction: An Audience of One
We live in a noisy and frantic age. Every man is a broadcaster, shouting his opinions into the digital void, and every man is a judge, scrolling through the lives of others with a gavel in his thumb. The pressure to conform, to win approval, to build a platform, and to avoid the wrath of the mob is immense. Men are tossed to and fro by the ever-shifting tides of public opinion, and their peace rises and falls with their follower count. In this kind of world, to be slandered, to be misunderstood, to be attacked for your convictions, can feel like the end of the world. Your reputation is threatened, your name is dragged through the mud, and the temptation is either to lash out in carnal anger or to curl up in fearful silence.
Into this clamor, Psalm 4 speaks with a quiet and unshakable confidence. This is a psalm for the man under pressure. Tradition holds that David wrote this during the rebellion of his own son, Absalom. He was being hunted, his authority was being questioned, and his name was being turned into a reproach. And yet, this is not a psalm of panic. It is a psalm of profound peace. It is a psalm that teaches us where true security is to be found. It is not found in winning the argument with the world, but in knowing you have the ear of the God who runs the world.
David’s confidence is not rooted in his circumstances, his popularity, or even his own performance. His confidence is rooted in a foundational theological reality, a great doctrinal bedrock that holds firm when everything else is washing away. That reality is this: God has sovereignly set him apart for Himself. This is the great secret. When you know who you belong to, the opinions of others begin to lose their power. When you know you have an audience with the King of Heaven, the jeers of the crowd on the street become little more than background noise.
The Text
Answer me when I call, O God of my righteousness!
You have relieved me in my distress;
Be gracious to me and hear my prayer.
O sons of men, how long will my glory become a reproach?
How long will you love what is worthless and seek falsehood? Selah.
But know that Yahweh has set apart the holy one for Himself;
Yahweh hears when I call to Him.
(Psalm 4:1-3 LSB)
The Ground of the Appeal (v. 1)
David begins not with a complaint about his enemies, but with a confident appeal to his God.
"Answer me when I call, O God of my righteousness! You have relieved me in my distress; Be gracious to me and hear my prayer." (Psalm 4:1)
Notice the basis of his prayer. He does not say, "O God, look at my righteousness." He says, "O God of my righteousness." This is a crucial distinction. David is not appealing to God on the basis of his own intrinsic goodness. He is appealing to God as the source, the author, and the giver of his righteous standing. This is the Old Testament breathing the air of the New. David understands that his right standing before God is a gift from God. He is pleading on the basis of God's covenant faithfulness, not his own flawless record. For us, this is even clearer. We call on God as the God of our righteousness because He is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has become for us righteousness from God (1 Cor. 1:30). Our prayer is not, "Hear me because I am good," but rather, "Hear me because you have clothed me in the perfect righteousness of your Son."
This confidence is bolstered by experience. "You have relieved me in my distress." The Hebrew here gives the sense of making a broad place for him when he was in a tight spot. David is practicing the spiritual discipline of remembrance. He looks back at God's track record. God has done it before, and therefore, He can be trusted to do it again. Our past deliverances are not just pleasant memories; they are ammunition for present prayers. They are Ebenezers that we can point to when our faith begins to waver. Because God is the God of his righteousness, and because God has a history of faithfulness, David can boldly ask for grace and a hearing.
The Challenge to the World (v. 2)
Having established the ground of his confidence in God, David now turns and confronts his adversaries directly.
"O sons of men, how long will my glory become a reproach? How long will you love what is worthless and seek falsehood? Selah." (Psalm 4:2)
This is not the whining of a victim. This is a sharp, prophetic rebuke. He addresses them as "sons of men," which in this context carries the sense of powerful, important men who have set themselves against God's anointed. They are turning his "glory" into a "reproach." What is David's glory? It is his calling, his anointing, his status as the king chosen by Yahweh. To attack David is to mock God's choice. In the same way, for the Christian, our glory is our identity in Christ. When the world slanders us for our faith, they are attempting to turn the glory of our adoption into a thing of shame.
And what is the motivation of these men? They "love what is worthless and seek falsehood." The word for "worthless" here is empty, vain, a puff of smoke. The word for "falsehood" is a lie, a deception. This is a perfect diagnosis of the ungodly mind. The world loves things that cannot satisfy and chases after ideas that are not true. They build their lives on foundations of sand: the pursuit of power, pleasure, fame, and wealth. These things are worthless because they are temporary and cannot feed the soul. And they do this because they have believed a lie, the ancient lie of the serpent, that man can be his own god and can define his own reality.
The verse ends with "Selah." This is a directive to pause and think. Let the contrast sink in. The psalmist is grounded in the God of his righteousness. The sons of men are in love with emptiness and lies. Stop and consider the difference. Let the weight of their folly settle before you hear the glorious truth that follows.
The Bedrock of Assurance (v. 3)
After the pause, David delivers the central thesis of the psalm. This is the secret to his stability.
"But know that Yahweh has set apart the holy one for Himself; Yahweh hears when I call to Him." (Psalm 4:3)
The "But know that" is a thunderclap. It is a declaration of a fact that changes everything. "Yahweh has set apart the holy one for Himself." The verb "set apart" means to distinguish, to separate, to make wonderfully distinct. It is the essence of what it means to be holy. The "holy one" here is the `hasid`, the one who is an object of God's covenant love and loyalty. Primarily, this is David himself. Prophetically and ultimately, the "holy one" is Jesus Christ, whom God set apart and sent into the world. And by our union with Christ, it applies to every single believer. We are the saints, the `hasidim`, the set-apart ones.
Notice the direction of this action. God does not find holy people and then set them apart. God takes unholy people and makes them holy by setting them apart for Himself. This is the doctrine of election, pure and simple. It is a unilateral, sovereign act of God. He has placed His claim on us. We are His personal property, His treasured possession. This is not a truth to be argued about in a seminary classroom; it is a truth to be clung to in the middle of a storm.
And the conclusion flows with irrefutable logic. Because God has set the holy one apart for Himself, "Yahweh hears when I call to Him." Of course He does. Why would He purchase us, claim us, and separate us for His own possession, only to ignore us when we call? He hears us because He has invested Himself in us. His own name and reputation are tied up with our well-being. Our access to the throne of grace is not based on our eloquence or the desperation of our need. It is based on the fact that the One who sits on the throne has set us apart for Himself. This is why David can be at peace in the midst of turmoil. His enemies may love vanity, but he is valued by God. They may seek lies, but he stands on the truth of God's electing love.