“Hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness: Thou hast enlarged me when I was in distress; have mercy upon me, and hear my prayer … I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep: for Thou, LORD, only makest me dwell in safety.”
(Psalm 4:1; Psalm 4:8)

Reader, let us never lose sight of the Lord Jesus while reading this Psalm. He is the LORD our righteousness. Therefore, in all our approaches to the mercy seat, let us go there in a language corresponding to this which calls Jesus the LORD our righteousness. While men of the world are seeking their chief good from the world, let us desire His favour which infinitely transcends corn and wine, and all the good things which perish in the using. Yes, LORD, Thy favour is better than life itself. Thou causest them that love Thee to inherit substance and fillest all their treasure.

Oh! Thou gracious God and Father, hast Thou in such a wonderful manner set apart one in our nature for Thyself? Hast Thou indeed chosen one out of the people? Hast Thou beheld Him in the purity of His nature, as one in every point Godly? Hast Thou given Him as the covenant of the people? And hast Thou declared Thyself well pleased in Him? Oh, then, well may my soul be well pleased in Him also. Now do I know that my God and Father will hear me when I call upon Him in Jesus’s name, and when I look up to Him for acceptance for Jesus’s sake! Yes, my heart is fixed, O LORD, my heart is fixed; Jesus is my hope and righteousness; the LORD will hear me when I call. And henceforth will I both lay me down in peace and sleep securely in Jesus, accepted in the Beloved. “For this is the rest wherewith the LORD causeth the weary to rest, and this is the refreshing.” (Isaiah 28:12)

Robert Hawker