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"You have put gladness in my heart, More than in the season that their grain and wine increased". (Psalm 4:7)
We must remind ourselves that the Holy Spirit inspired David to write Psalm 4 during a time of personal crisis. The Lord used what David was going through to speak to each of us going through similar struggles.
In our passage for today, David sounded upbeat and confident. In earlier verses, he spoke about the voices of despair coming from his camp. Now, knowing that God was still with him, David talked about the joy that the Lord had given him.
David compared the confidence he had in the Lord to that of his opponents. David’s joy was from the Lord – you have put gladness in my heart. But the confidence of his opponents was from their strength and success. He compared his enemies’ way with a happy person who is in a good mood because his grain and wine fields have had a good yield.
The comparison is similar to a person who feels rich because it is payday. Anyone can feel good when things are going well for them. However, David’s delight was not a result of the happenings around him. The Lord had made him glad.
The Israelites experienced great joy at weddings and bountiful harvests but, the joy God gave David exceeded even those times. He knew of God’s peace. At this time, David’s situation had not changed for the better in any way. In the natural, he was where he was with a demoralized army and formidable enemies. On the other side, those who were against David were growing more confident because of the swelling number of those defecting to join them. Nothing in David’s situation pointed to the tide turning in his favour, yet, deep within his heart, he felt the joy of the Lord.
Like David, we must trust in the Lord to gladden our hearts. Even when enemies surround us on every side, the Lord is nearer. He is in our hearts. Those who trust in the arm of flesh rely on physical evidence to assure them of how well things are going.
For us who trust in the Lord, we rely on the scriptural evidence to convince us of how things are going.