How is God testing your patience and your faith today?

You might be saying to yourself, “How isn’t God testing my patience and my faith today?” So much so that you can’t even sleep at night. So much so that at night you cry out, “Answer me when I call to you. . . . Give me relief from my distress; have mercy on me and hear my prayer.” Well, you’re not alone.

These cries for mercy and relief from distress are direct quotes from King David’s Psalm 4. When King David writes, “Give me relief from my distress,” literally he’s saying, “I’m in a tight spot. I’m in a narrow place. It feels like the walls and the ceiling are just slowly coming down and pressing in around me and making me feel that I’m crushed.”

So what is it that’s going on in your life right now? Or in the life of your family or parents or children or battle buddies or our nation? Maybe you’re thinking ahead to November 5th, and all of it makes you feel like the walls and the ceiling are just caving in on you, and you echo the words of King David and say, “Answer me, Lord. Give me relief from my distress. Give them relief from their distress. Have mercy on us and hear our prayer.”

And is there so much going on in your world right now that you look around and you ask, “Who can show us anything that’s good right now?” That’s exactly what people were asking King David in this psalm. In spite of all the distress in his life and in the lives of the people under his care and protection as king, he says this at the end of the psalm: “In peace I will lie down and sleep” (verse 8a).

How in the world could David be so confident? He says, “I will do this. In peace, I will lie down and sleep.” How can I have restful, peaceful sleep with all of this crying out for mercy and relief from distress?

Well, David answers that question by saying this in the psalm: “You alone, LORD, make me dwell in safety” (verse 8b). When we are asking who can show us any good, King David shows us the Lord.

And he tells us who the Lord is. In verse six, King David says he is the one who shines the light of his face on us. This is such a cool picture. In the Bible, when it talks about God shining his face on us or turning his face toward us, it’s a picture that God is showing favor on you. He smiles with approval on you. He keeps you and all the circumstances and situations in which you find yourself before his eyes. He knows about them. He knows about all of it.

And because of that, he is the God who is near to us, not distant. And because he shines the light of his face on us, that means that he blesses us in spite of our hardships and sometimes through our difficulties and hardships.

It means that because he turns his face to us, he not only hears and listens to our prayers but answers all of them according to his will. It means that he has mercy on us when we cry out for mercy. It means that he will give us relief from our distress because we cry out to him for relief from our distress. If not in this life, then in the life to come.

So my challenge to you this week is this: to read Psalm 4 out loud tonight before you go to bed. And not just tonight, but every night this week before you go to bed. And then, lay your head on your pillow in peace, knowing that the Lord is your God. In peace, knowing that the face of the Lord shines on you with all of its brilliant, glorious light. In peace, knowing that God not only listens but answers your prayers according to his mercy, that he does have mercy on you, that he will give you relief from your distress—if not in this life, then in the life to come.

Allow that peace to push out those walls and that ceiling that feel like they are crushing down around you. Let that peace surround you, and have a peaceful sleep tonight in the Lord.

Prayer:
O God, the helper of all who call on you, have mercy on us and give us eyes of faith to see your Son, that we may follow him on the way that leads to eternal life. As we look ahead to the election of our governmental leaders in November, and as we look at all that feels as if it is crushing us, help us to know that peace that surrounds us and protects us, and grant us peaceful sleep. In your name we pray. Amen.

My friends, the Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you. The Lord look on you with favor and give you peace. Amen.