But we have to be careful here. Both the Hebrew and the context, for those of you who don’t read Hebrew, show that more is being contrasted here than quantity. The way the Hebrew communicates distinction is with the preposition “from” (min). For example, in Genesis 3:1, when it says, “The serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field,” it is literally, “The serpent was crafty from any other beast of the field.” And we are left to decide from the context: Is the craftiness of the serpent distinct from the other beasts in the quantity of its craftiness, the frequency of its craftiness, the subtlety of its craftiness, the wickedness of its craftiness?
And so it is here in Psalm 4:7, “You have put joy in my heart from the time of their abounding grain and wine.” And we are left to decide from the context whether this joy that David has is distinct from the joy of harvest and wine in quantity, in source, in kind. And so we are thrown back on the context where all of us English readers can do very serious thinking.
The closest contextual clue we have for how our joy is distinct from the world is in verse 6, immediately preceding. There is the prayer, “Lift up the light of your face upon us, O Lord!” So in verse 7a, you have David’s affirmation, “You have put superior joy in my heart” — superior in some way, in kind, in source, in amount? And on one side of this claim you have the hope of the light of God’s face shining on David, and on the other side you have abounding grain and wine.
And I ask, Why would David put it together in this way if he didn’t want us to contrast the joy that comes from grain and wine with the joy that comes through the shining of God’s face? Almost everyone who has lived has tasted the pleasure of food and drink. And some societies like ours have a stunning abundance of food and drink. We enjoy these pleasures morning, noon, and night.
But David is claiming that there is another joy that is not necessarily attached to having food and drink. It is a joy that comes from being in the light of the face of God. This is a new joy, a new gladness. Verse 3: “The Lord has set apart the godly for himself; the Lord hears when I call to him” (Psalm 4:3). And what the godly call for in verse 7 is this: “Lift up the light of your face upon us, O Lord!” Because this gives a different joy, a greater joy, than the world has when their grain and wine abound.
