Rooted Mama Podcast
Episode 31: Imaginative Prayer Psalm 4
Hello friends, welcome to another episode of the Rooted Mama Podcast. Today we’re going to be talking about Psalms 4.
If you’re not familiar, these episodes are going to be a combination of imaginative prayer along with some study of the Psalms. I really want you to use these episodes as an opportunity for you to determine your own faith and meet with God for yourself. Obviously it will have some of my perspective in it, but I really want you to use this as a tool to springboard into deeper study and questioning for yourself. Now, let’s get into the episode.
To the chief musician on Neganath, a Psalm of David. Hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness. Thou hast enlarged me when I was in distress.
Have mercy upon me and hear my prayer. O ye sons of men, how long will ye turn my glory into shame? How long will ye love vanity and seek after leasing? Selah.
But know that the Lord hath set apart him that is godly for himself. The Lord will hear when I call unto him. Stand in awe and sin not. Commune with your own heart upon your bed and be still. Selah.
Offer the sacrifices of righteousness and put your trust in the Lord. There be many that say, Who will show us any good? Lord, lift us up. Lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us. Thou hast put gladness in my heart more than in the time that their corn and their wine increased.
I will both lay me down in peace and sleep, for thou, Lord, only makest me dwell in safety.
A couple things of note with this Psalm. Again, this was written by David, and I’m sure we’ll talk a lot more about him in future episodes. Additionally, it was written to one of the chief musicians. I almost picture David. I kind of got this idea from actually watching The Chosen.
It has a scene in one of the episodes where David and one of his queens are sitting in the temple. And the musicians come in and play for him. And I thought that was a really intriguing idea of David as king, but also as worship leader. Because in a lot of ways, music is designed to draw us to God. Designed to draw us to different spaces and different spheres.
We know from a scientific perspective that music has a lot of impact on mood and also our mindset as well. Music is one of the coping skills that people used for anxiety and depression and a variety of mental health issues as well. But I really think music helps us connect to higher dimensions and higher thought processes than what we might just on our own. And so I think music really gives us an ability to connect with God in a deep way. And it can be used for both good and bad, just like with any tool. It can be used for good purposes or bad purposes.
Now, Neginoth, N-E-G-I-N-O-T-H. It’s a stringed instrument. And from the research I found, it seems to be the proper name of a stringed instrument. And there were some references that said that this song could be used for music. But I don’t think it was used to mock or ridicule. I don’t necessarily know that that fits with the psalm that’s written here.
But I thought it was interesting. And I think it’s referenced in a couple other places as well. One of the verses that really stood out to me that I, there was really like two or three that I really had to wrestle with and figure out like, okay, what does this mean? And when you’re reading the Bible, it’s important to remember that in Hebrew, there’s no punctuation.
Even with all the education. And resources that we have, it’s not necessarily always possible to get a direct translation from Hebrew to English. And so sometimes they add words to make it flow better and make the scripture make more sense. So when you’re studying the Bible, it’s kind of interesting to note which words are words they’ve added versus which words are words that pertain to the original Hebrew.
And if you read in a King James Bible, especially a study Bible or an older Bible, you’ll find that the words that they’ve added are often in italics in the Bible. And I think it adds kind of an interesting context when we’re reading the scripture.
Breaking down the Verses [00:06:00]
So the first verse that kind of threw me was, Hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness, thou hast enlarged me when I was in distress.
And if you notice, the words when I was is actually words that they’ve added.
The word enlarged can mean a few different things. It means to enlarge, to extend. Open wide, gain space or territory, give relief in times of danger. As I was reading through this, it kind of got me pondering to think like, OK, is God enlarging his distress? Is God giving him relief from his distress? Is God talking about something else entirely?
What’s what’s going on with this passage? And I really think it makes a little more sense if you separate the sentence a little more than what it already is. If you put it into kind of four. Groupings and say, hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness, thou hast enlarged me. And then flipping to the next one, it goes in distress.
Have mercy upon me and hear my prayer. If you kind of separate it into different thoughts, I think it actually makes a little more sense. But there’s other translations that say that in this context, it’s saying God is giving David relief in times of distress, basically. So it’s kind of interesting to think about. When we come across stuff that we don’t understand, I think it’s easy to just blow past it and not really engage with it. But if you really meditate on it and think about it and try to study it, it’s I think God can really use that to speak to you in a variety of ways. And it’s really cool, in my opinion.
The next verse that really kind of threw me off was verse four. But a couple other things I wanted to define, because I think it makes more sense when you define it, especially using the King James Version. Because Older English is used in that translation, some of these words just don’t make sense unless you look them up. So I had to look up the word leasing. And leasing in this context means deception, falsehood, lie, or untruth. And so when David is writing this, he’s saying, O ye sons of men, how long will ye turn my glory into shame? How long will ye love vanity and seek after leasing?
So he’s saying you’re seeking after a deception, a lie. Why are you doing that, basically? The other words I looked up that were interesting was set apart. And this word means to be distinct, marked out, to be separated.
Some translations even said it could mean to be shown marvelous or make wonderful. But know that the Lord hath set apart him that is godly for himself. The Lord will hear when I call unto him.
It really gives us the impression of God kind of choosing his people and setting them apart for his own enjoyment and pleasure. And really in a lot of ways, too. To make his people distinct and stand out.
Like I said, verse 4 was the verse that really kind of threw me off.
It says, Stand in awe, and sin not. Commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still. Selah. And I did some additional research on Selah. And one of the other things that I’ve noticed is that it’s often used to pause the music.
Or in some ways to cause attention to be drawn to that point in the Psalm. I think one of the things that was interesting is that, Selah actually is a verb. It’s an action word. You’re supposed to do something. And so understanding that, I think it makes a lot more sense for it to be like a pause in music. I’ve been taking piano recently. And when you’re playing music, you learn quickly that often the pauses and the times without music are just as powerful as the times with music. And so if you can use those to your advantage, you can really draw the audience’s attention to certain parts in your playing. I think it’s the same way with the Psalm.
It’s really meant to be, okay, read to this point and then Selah. Like, pay attention. Pause. Look at this. So anyway, what I found about verse 4 was the phrase stand in awe is also a verb. And it means to shake, tremble, agitate, to disturb, physically move, to physically move or shake someone.
And I really think of this. I don’t know if you’ve ever been to a Pentecostal worship service. But I really think of this verse in that context of you are encountering the presence of God and you genuinely like can’t hold still.
You physically feel compelled to move in some fashion. And that movement for some people can be a representation of like God’s spirit moving you. I really think of a person in front of God in his presence.
And they’re just completely awestruck by who he is. And his glory and his power. And so it says, stand in awe and sin not. Commune with your own heart upon your bed and be still. Selah. That commune with your own heart was very intriguing to me. Because I think in the Bible we sometimes struggle with whether or not we’re supposed to translate something literally or figuratively. And I think often in the Bible when the word heart is used in this context, it’s actually referring to your mind. Or another way that it’s defined is your inner man. And it’s a masculine noun. And some of the other meanings were heart, mind, inner person.
The entire disposition of the person that God can discern. Your inner man. And so I really think it’s drawing our attention to this idea of when you’re doing this, you are to be thinking about this and meditating on it. And the word can be used. Commune means to say, utter, speak, to say to one’s own heart. So in a lot of ways it’s you’re in God’s presence.
You’re encountering him. You’re seeing him. You’re experiencing him. And in a lot of ways you’re supposed to speak those truths over yourself. You’re supposed to meditate on who God is and talk to yourself about this is who God is. And I think there’s a lot of power in what we tell ourselves. you have lies that run in the background of your mind 24-7, believe it or not, you believe those lies.
Whether the lie is I’m worthless or no one could ever love me or everyone’s going to abandon me or fill in the blank, whatever the lie is. Those subconscious lies really are the ones that your mind holds on to. And the Bible talks a lot about renewing the mind and guarding your heart. And things of that nature where I really think we’re called to reprogram those thoughts that perpetuate those trauma cycles. Because a lot of times we pick those up because of experiences we’ve had in the past. Very rarely do you see a little baby who is saying terrible things about themselves.
It’s the conclusions that we draw from the experiences we’ve made that really start to shift how we think about ourselves and how we see the world. And the Bible gives us very clear steps of how to reprogram and change those thought processes. Stand in awe and sin not. Commune with your own heart upon your bed and be still. Selah.
Stillness in this case really represents the ability to sit and be undisturbed. It’s a very like peaceful stillness. And another translation I actually found that it means to be astonished. And so we’re sitting. We’re standing in awe. We’re experiencing God. We’re seeing him for who he is. And that information is in essence changing us. And it’s not this like aggressive change. It’s more of this awe induced change of like I see you God. I see who you are. I see myself in proximity to you. And I’m just amazed by what I see.
One more word I want to define. And then I’m going to actually read this passage to you one more time before we jump into prayer. Because I really want you to listen to it again in the context of just what we’ve talked about. And so one of the other words was countenance.
The verse says there be many that say who will show us any good. Lord lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us. And countenance in this context means face. But it can figuratively also mean the whole person. And can sometimes even describe a person’s mood. And light in this verse actually refers to God’s heavenly glory. Like the radiance, the light of his presence. And so we’re asking, David’s asking in this verse that when people are mocking him and saying oh who will show us any good. David’s asking God I want you to turn to us and show us your glory. And let us see your face so we can encounter you. Because when you’re able to experience God for yourself.
Not just a knowing of well Shelby told me so or someone else told me so. But when you’re actually able to experience him for yourself. Your life will never be the same. It’s genuinely amazing to get to encounter God for who he is. Without the trauma and the fear and the anger and just all the things that blind us from actually experiencing him.
Dear God. I come before you and I thank you for your glory. I thank you for who you are.
God I thank you for your goodness.
God I pray specifically for anyone who’s listening now that has hurt. That has been hurt by you or the church or life or circumstances God. I pray for healing for that person right now.
I pray that you would give them a sense of peace. That is so deep God. I pray that there can be no questioning that it’s from you.
God I pray that everyone listening to this right now. Everyone who can hear my voice. That they would have a new encounter with you. God I pray that you would open their spiritual eyes and ears and their senses. So they can know you for themselves.
God I pray that they would be able to hear your voice and discern you. God I pray that they would be able to see your goodness.
God I pray that they would stand in awe and sin not. And they would commune with their own heart upon their bed and be still God.
God I pray that they would see themselves in light of you.
And that you would draw them to yourself with your tenderness and your love and your mercy God.
God I see you approaching them and they’re scared. They feel skittish God. I picture you as a father kneeling down and opening your arms to them.
God give them the courage to run to you and to be embraced by you.
God I pray that they would meet you in a fresh way. Not as a God of legalism or fear or rules or shame God. But as a God of grace and mercy.
God I know you want us to heal and grow and change.
But I also know that you love us exactly as we are right now.
Thank you God that you do not push us away and you do not push us aside.
Thank you God that you love us exactly as we are right now. Thank you God that you hold us and that when we lay down to go to sleep that we can rest in peace and safety God.
God thank you that you put gladness in our heart.
More than even when our circumstances are good and things are blessed and wonderful in our life God.
God I pray that you would shine your light on us. So we can hear you and love you and experience you God.
God I love you.
Thank you God for your amazing grace and your mercy.
God just wrap us in your peace and your safety.
I love you God in Jesus name I pray. Amen.