Psalm 4 Story behind the Psalm

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Psalm Overview

Overview

The Story behind Psalm 4

In order to understand a Psalm, we have to understand not only what is said, but also what is assumed and left unsaid. Psalm 4, like many other Psalms, assumes a certain state of affairs (a story "behind the Psalm"). We can summarise the story behind Psalm 4 as follows: There has been some kind of national calamity (probably drought) which has caused a failure of crops and a lack of contentment. In response, the people have rejected YHWH and his king and have sought recourse to other gods. In Psalm 4, King David calls the people to repentance (vv. 3-6), and he prays to YHWH on their behalf (v. 7b). Having trusted in YHWH and performed his duty, David can sleep in peace (see v. 9). The psalm envisions a future in which the people repent, YHWH hears David's prayer, and the land is restored.

Background Ideas

  • The king represented the people to YHWH and YHWH to the people.
  • The king, like a prophet, was responsible for encouraging and admonishing the people to follow YHWH.
  • The king, like a priest, was responsible for interceding with YHWH on the people's behalf.
  • Israelite agriculture was dependent upon rain; drought was a frequent and serious problem for Israel.
  • "In the ancient Near East the king was held responsible for the rain"[1] (cf. Pss. 72; 132:15; 144:11-14).
  • In times of crisis, especially drought, the people often turned to other gods (cf. 1Kgs. 17-18; Jer. 5:24; Hos. 2:8-9; Zech. 10:1-2).

Background Situation

Psalm 4 - Background Situation.jpg

Expanded Paraphrase

(For more information, click "Expanded Paraphrase Legend" below.)

v. 1

For the director, with stringed instruments, a psalm by David, (the king), (who is in a unique relationship with YHWH) (and privileged in prayer).[2]

v. 2

(YHWH, you have made a covenant with me.)[3] Respond to me when I cry out (for help in trouble) (and so fulfill your covenant obligation), my righteous God, who (when I was previously in a distressing situation), granted me relief in distress. (Because you helped in the past, you are sure to help me again in the present.) Be merciful to me and hear my prayer.

v. 3

(As the king, I am charged to admonish)[4] You mortal humans. (As you know, I am responsible for the land's fertility.)[5] (Now that there is drought in the land) (and your crops have failed,)[6] (you question my right standing with YHWH.) How long will you turn my honour into shame? (And not only have you rejected me,) (you have rejected YHWH, your God.) How long will you love (idols which epitomize)[7] vanity (in a vain effort to bring rain on the land)? How long will you seek (gods who epitomize)[8] falsehood? (YHWH is the only true God.) Selah.

v. 4

But know that YHWH (the one true God) has set apart for himself a loyal person. (I have been loyal to the covenant YHWH made with me.)[9] (YHWH has set me apart, and) YHWH hears when I cry out to him.

v. 5

(Because YHWH is the one true God) (and you have rejected him,) (and because YHWH is on my side) (and you have dishonoured me,) Tremble (in fear)[10] and do not sin (anymore) (by going after idols) (and by refusing to acknowledge my right standing with YHWH). Think in your minds (about YHWH's singular ability to make things right) (and about my status before YHWH) on your beds (, the place of your innermost thoughts)[11] and be silent. Selah.

v. 6

(Whereas you have been offering wrong sacrifices to other gods) Sacrifice right sacrifices (i.e., sacrifices to YHWH,) (a heart of repentance first among them,)[12] and trust in YHWH (who is the only true God) (and the only one who will help us).

v. 7

Many are those (who are lacking good) (and who have rejected YHWH and his king, and) who say, "Who will show us (rain, which is)[13] good (so that our crops can grow and we can flourish in the land)[14]"? (YHWH will show us good.) Cause the light of your face to shine on us, YHWH (you who are like the sun, the source of all life),[15] (and send rain)![16]

v. 8

(Even now, during a time of dearth,) You have put joy in my heart greater than what you put in their hearts at the time in which (there was sufficient rain, and) their grain and wine multiplied.

v. 9

In peace, I will both lie down and fall sleep (confident that you will answer my prayer), for you alone, YHWH, make me dwell securely.[17]

End-notes

  1. ↑ Gentry
  2. ↑ In the psalms, as elsewhere in the ANE, "the king is privileged in prayer," and he is "prominent in leading prayers" (Eaton, Kingship 1975:174, 195).
  3. ↑ Cf. 2 Sam. 7; Ps. 89
  4. ↑ "The king as admonisher of mankind" (Eaton 1975:181). Cf. Ps. 2:10-12. "As ruler of men on God's behalf, the king cannot be solely concerned with subjugating them by military and administrative power. No less than any other upholder of divine law or any cultic leader, priest or prophet, he must stand before the people and address them with teachings and exhortations, now warning them, now encouraging them" (Eaton 1975:181).
  5. ↑ In the ANE, the king was held responsible for the land's fertility (cf. Pss. 72; 144). "If a satisfactory king meant fertility in his kingdom, dearth might well contribute to criticisms of the king. (For such blame falling on the Assyrian king, cf. Labat, pp. 323f. The idea was persistent, for Caliph Walid II says of his predecessor, the extortionate Hisham, 'The shrewd and evilbringing one is dead, the rain is already falling: we have ascended to the throne after him, the trees are now blossoming' - Widengren, Muhammed, p. 201)" (Eaton 1975:30). See also Walter Beyerlin, ed. Near Eastern Religious Texts Relating to the Old Testament, 148; Roland de Vaux, Ancient Israel, Vol. I, 110-113.
  6. ↑ See vv. 7-8 below.
  7. ↑ According to Peter Gentry, "a number and variety of derogatory expressions for idolatry are employed in the Old Testament:
    • אָוֶן = nothing: Isaiah 41:29, Hosea 12:12, I Samuel 15:23, Isaiah 1:13, 66:3, Zechariah 10:2
    • אֱלִֹיל = weak/worthless thing: Leviticus 19:4, 26:1, Isaiah 2:8, 18, 20bis, Psalm 96:5 (= I Chronicles 16:26), Psalm 97:7
    • הֶבֶל = breath/vapour: Jeremiah 10:15, 16:19, 51:18, Deuteronomy 32:21, I Kings 16:13, 26, Jeremiah 8:19, 10:8, 14:22, Psalm 31:7, Jonah 2:9 (all plural; for singular see 2 Kings 17:15 and Jeremiah 2:5 and cf. Jeremiah 10:15, 16:19, and 51:18)
    • רִיק = emptiness: Psalm 4:2 - Note the association of הבל and ריק in Isaiah 30:7 and 49:4
    • כָזָב = lie: Amos 2:4, Psalm 40:5
    • שָׁוְא = emptiness: Jeremiah 18:15, Jonah 2:9, Psalm 31:7
    • שֶׁקֶר = falsehood: Jeremiah 10:14, 51:17, Isaiah 44:20
    These terms all refer to idols as deception or non-entities. In addition, note that the verbs used in Psalm 4:2 are appropriate for idolatry. The verb אהב is occasionally used of idolatrous worship (cf. Hosea 4:18 and Jeremiah 8:2) and the verb בקשׁ is frequently used of seeking God, often in a cultic setting. Thus the language of Psalm 4:3 lends itself much more suitably to the idea that the men of rank are resorting to idolatry rather than the interpretation that they are receiving false and unfounded accusations against David and his reputation."
  8. ↑ "The expression recalls the use of 'falsehood' kazav) to refer to other gods (Ps. 40:4; Amos 2:4), and the use of the verb 'have recourse to' (baqash) in connection with prayer to other gods (e.g. Ps. 27:4, 8; 105:4). The people the suppliant addresses are people who have recourse to other deities" (John Goldingay, “Psalm 4: Ambiguity and Resolution,” Tyndale Bulletin 57, no. 2 2006: 161–72). "Ahav riq ('to love emptiness') and baqash (Piel) kazav ('to seek lie[s]') appear to be a perversion of pious Israelite practice — namely, 'to love Yahweh' and 'to seek Yahweh'" (Michael Barré, “Hearts, Beds, and Repentance in Psalm 4,5 and Hosea 7,14,” Biblica 76 1995: 53-62).
  9. ↑ SDBH defines hasid as "someone who practices חֶסֶד, who is committed towards fulfilling his/her (covenant) obligations." John Eaton translates the term as "covenant fellow," and he notes that, in the biblical world, "the king is God's preeminent covenant fellow (hasid)" (Eaton 1975). David is presumably referring to himself.
  10. ↑ On the association of "fear" with trembling, see The Meaning of רגזו in Ps. 4:5.
  11. ↑ "The privacy of the bedroom is where people can think and say things they would not express publicly (Ps. 36:5; Eccl. 10:20; Mic. 2:1)" (Goldingay 2006). Bedrooms "commonly offer a picture of that private, internal place where a person ponders, meditates, or plots. The bedroom is the place of the most personal, secret thoughts. So when Solomon advises his hearers not to curse the rich in their bedrooms, he is urging them to take care for their most private thoughts and words (Eccles 10:20). The psalms contain multiple pictures of people on their beds, opening their hearts before God (e.g., Ps. 4:4; 63:6)" (DBI, "Bed, Bedroom").
  12. ↑ "Might this (Ps. 51:19) suggest that true repentance is the 'acceptable sacrifice'?" (Michael Barré, “Hearts, Beds, and Repentance in Psalm 4,5 and Hosea 7,14,” Biblica 76, 1995: 53-62).
  13. ↑ "The 'good' par excellence in Palestine is the rain, so that in a number of texts tov without further modification concretely signifies 'rain.'” (Dahood 2008:25). (Cf. Deut. 28:12; Jer. 5:24-25; Ps. 85:13). See DCH entry on tov as "rain."
  14. ↑ On the importance of rain, see Elizabeth Arnold, "Climate and Environment in the Levant," Behind the Scenes of the OT (2018).
  15. ↑ On the sun as the source of light and life, see e.g., "The Hymn to the Aton": "Thy rays suckle every meadow. When thou risest, they live, they grow for thee" (Pritchard 1969:369-371). YHWH is called a "sun" in Ps. 84:12. "In the psalmic tradition and elsewhere, the deus praesens is typically depicted as an effulgence of light or solar theophany" (Brown 2002:84).
  16. ↑ "Drought is in the land" (Dahood 2008:23). "The lack of ‘good’, the departure of the ‘light’ of God’s favour, and the reference to ‘corn and wine’ (LXX has also ‘and oil’) suggest that harvests have failed, perhaps for several years, a devastating situation. Such a crisis could induce a turning to the fertility deities of Canaan, and also anger against the king, for it was thought that a good king in favour with heaven should ensure fertility (72:3, 6, 16) (Eaton 2003:71).
  17. ↑ "'Living in security' is a frequent description of God's ideal intention for Israel (e.g. Lev. 25:18-21; 33:28; 1 Kgs 4:25 [5:5]; Ezek. 34:25-29) that includes the idea of crops growing well" (Goldingay 2006).
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