Answer
me when I call, God of my righteousness.
Give
me relief from my distress.
Have
mercy on me, and hear my prayer.
Yahweh
will hear when I call to him.
Stand
in awe, and don’t sin.
Search
your own heart on your bed, and be still.
Offer
the sacrifices of righteousness.
Put
your trust in Yahweh.
Many
say, “Who will show us any good?”
Yahweh,
let the light of your face shine on us.
You
have put gladness in my heart,
more
than when their grain and their new wine are increased.
In
peace, I will both lay myself down and sleep,
for
you, Yahweh alone, make me live in safety.
Psalm
4:1,3-8
The
psalmist invites us to “stand in awe” of God – to rest in the knowledge that He
who laid the foundation of the earth is with us and hears us every moment of
the day and the darkest hours of the night.
We don’t have to make any pilgrimage or undertake any deprivation to
feel God’s gaze, we need only search our own hearts and be still. For the psalmist, knowing that God loves him
provides what Paul called, “the peace of God that surpasses all
understanding.”
