Now, with that introduction, I invite you to turn to my text; namely, Psalm 4:6–7,
There are many who say, “Who will show us some good?”
Lift up the light of your face upon us, O Lord!
You have put more joy in my heart
than they have when their grain and wine abound.
This is “a Psalm of David” according to verse 1, but who are the others in the second half of verse 7? “You have put more joy in my heart than they have when their grain and wine abound.” Who are “they”?
Earlier in the psalm, in verses 2 and 3, we read about them:
O men, how long shall my honor be turned into shame?
How long will you love vain words and seek after lies? Selah
But know that the Lord has set apart the godly for himself;
the Lord hears when I call to him.
There is David on the one side, and there are those who love vain words and seek after lies and try to turn David’s honor into shame. These are not the godly. They are not covenant-keeping lovers of God. They are the world. For “the Lord has set apart the godly for himself.” And those who love vain words and seek after lies are not included.
“In the last 200 years, Christianity in America has been distorted by the teaching that decisions for God are more basic than delights in God.”
Nevertheless, they often prosper, as they certainly do in verse 7. Their grain and their wine are abounding. Wine is made out of grapes, not grain. So this is a reference both to a bountiful harvest to provide the sustenance of food, and a bountiful vintage to provide for the refreshment of wine.
These are the gifts of God, which we see in Isaac’s blessing over Jacob:
May God give you of the dew of heaven
and of the fatness of the earth
and plenty of grain and wine. (Genesis 27:28)
These good gifts of God are meant to awaken thankfulness and joy in the bounty and the refreshing sweetness of God himself. But as David looks at the unbelieving world enjoying the bounty of its grain and wine, he says to God in verse 7, “You have put more joy in my heart.” More joy than that. More joy than bountiful food can give. More joy than bountiful wine can give. That is, more joy than having every basic need met, and more joy than having the overflow of superadded pleasures of taste and gladness.
