Psalms 1-4

By Toure Carter

Psalms 1:1-2. It starts with the word BLESSED. It is emphasized by all capital letters. Now, Job gives you the account of an unhappy man until the end. Once he is restored, obviously, he regains some of, if not all, his joy back. Now, in Psalms, that blessed condition continues. Blessed means happy, and the book of Job has a happy ending. But, Psalms 1 shows how to continue in that happiness.

Psalms 1:1 The verse deals with separation, while Psalms 1:2 the verse deals with uniting ones self with the Lord in his word. Separation does not help if you will not join yourself to the right things in the Christian life. Please read Psalms 1:1-2, along with Proverbs 18:1, Roman's 1:18, we must separate ourselves from things but also join ourselves to the Lord and his word.

One of the main reasons SOME not all but some of God's people are not happy is lack of separation from evil things that grieve the Holy Ghost inside of them. But they also do not regularly unite themselves with Christ through prayer and ministering of his word.

That old saying "Joy Jesus, others, yourself last" is a great cliche and has some truth in it. But real joy and comfort come from the holy Spirit.

Psalms 2:1-2, and this is actually a prophecy of our Saviour; the Lord Jesus Christ. Read Acts 4:23-30. What makes our faith and Bible so real, is prophecy being fulfilled. The first prophecy of our Saviour Jesus Christ was prophesied back in Genesis 3:15.

Here in Psalms 2:1-2, we have another prophecy of Christ. You will find that Psalms is full of them. But this particular prophecy has a dual reference to the 1st coming of Christ and the 2nd coming of Christ.

In Acts 4:27-28, we see even at Calvary God knew, and his hand was in what was going on against his own Son. May we take comfort knowing we have a prophetic Bible, serving a prophetic God, with a great prophetic future called the RAPTURE of the church, Titus 2:13.

God knew all and knows all that will happen. You may not like everything God does, but you can rest in knowing he loves you and also in knowing he does know what will happen in the future.

Rest in him.

Psalms 3:1-8, we see a standard distress and prayer to God passage. I encourage you to read all 8 verses in Psalms 3; it is a great encouragement. But what people don't realize is that in Psalms 3:8, you see the word Salvation. Too many times we have associated that word with eternal life (all the time) when it comes to this statement.

In Psalms 3:8a, “Salvation belongeth unto the LORD:”, you read that and you will sometimes think eternal life. But in this context (Psalms 3), David is saying how he is in distress because of his enemies, Psalms 3:1-3.

So David prays in Psalms 3:4, and the LORD gives him peace, so much that he may go to sleep resting in God's security. May we learn to trust our own blessed Saviour; the Lord Jesus. So when we pray about things, God may give us such peace in our souls. Philippians 4:6-9 would be a great coalition passage that goes well with this thought. May the Lord bless you in his grace today.

All salvation, spiritual and physical, is due because of Christ. It is the Lord that sustains us.

Psalms 4:1 begins with prayer David was a man of prayer which we will see repeatedly throughout Psalms as a matter of fact a lot of the book of Psalms is just the prayers of David and others written out on paper. Psalms 55:17 David proclaimed he would pray evening morning and even at noon. Luke 18:1 gives the reason why some people faint for a lack of a consistent prayer life. 

God's people need to learn that prayer may not always change the problem, but prayer will always get you through the problem. But also prayer can get the situation even sometimes changed. David said that when he was in trouble in this situation, God enlarged him. I don't know what that exactly means. But apparently, God answered his prayer about that particular problem. 

Maybe this particular prayer David made changed David personally as in spiritual power or growth. Maybe it was a physical change. Even maybe God just might have encouraged David to go on a little further. But the reality is David's prayer changed something about the situation, either personally or corporately in his life. David saw and knew the change. David understood he was better and benefited from the prayer. 

Some of God's people take the attitude why should I pray it won't do any good. Well, if you are that person who feels that way, you need to read the book of Psalms more BECAUSE DAVID WAS ENLARGED!!!! Praise God Glory to the Lamb that was slain!!!! 

Stop letting the devil and our WICKED flesh make you think you are not benefiting from fellowship with God in your prayer closet.

Psalms 4:2-4 We have in verse 2 the onslaught attack of the wicked. Unfortunately, there will always be the wicked to deal with in some way. The word leasing means lying or acting deceitfully. The devil is a liar, and the father of it John 8:44. Here, David said they actually seek after leasing (deceitfulness).

Selah: is a word that indicates a pause in the music. So Psalms 4 is actually a song. When I say pause in the music, I am referring to a pause in the words. Selah actually indicates a raising of the octave, pitch, or volume of the instruments. So the words stop, but the instruments keep playing. There is a secondary Hebrew reference it also can mean the voice's pitch gets louder at that particular last word. As in the singer pauses at that word and raises their voices as the hold the note. The Hebrew synonym word for Salah is forever. So when you see the word selah, it is indicating a pause of some sort in the song. While still carrying on the song.

Psalms 4:3 David acknowledges God's desire of separation and sanctification for his saints. Proverbs 18:1, Romans 1:1, I Thessalonians 1:9 shows us that separation without a direction to join the right things will not work. Psalms 4:3 shows the Lord wants to separate his people, so we might have fellowship and service with him, and for him, note in Psalms 4:3 again (set apart him that is godly for himself) the separation is for God's fellowship and use. 

Note also the word 'godly', God wants clean vessels. Remember, God's virtue heals others. We may not be perfect vessels. Or always obedient vessels, but we can always keep cleaning our vessels. We must partake of Christ's divine nature. But we must strive to keep the vessel clean so our savior can use us. Also, read 2nd Timothy 2:21.

We saw in verse 3 the admonition for the doctrine of separation and sanctification, and it says in verse 3 we should know these things. But now verse 4 gives one of the reasons for the doctrine of sanctification, and separation will affect our hearts, minds, and affections towards our savior.

Note: Psalms 4:4a "Stand in awe, and sin not:..." When we become entangled, and consumed, and our affections are towards this world, it takes away from our love for the Lord Jesus Christ. I John 2:15-17, James 4:4-8 This world is designed to seduce us and take our hearts from Jesus Christ. Proverbs 12:26 tells us the way of the wicked seduces them. We now have the world as our neighbour constantly through social media, Hollywood, and other means. 

The wrong fellowship does affect one's affections and heart. Lord, help us all, myself included, to follow him and learn the doctrine of separation. There are some things that we need to separate from, 2nd Corinthians 6:14-18.

Why don't you ask the Lord to show you what you need to separate from in your own life?