You can deduct from David’s lyrics that the occasion which spurred his writing of the fourth Psalm was a time when he was on the wrong end of a smear campaign. His honor was being turned to shame (4:2a). Those who opposed him loved speaking vain words and spreading lies in order to call into question whether the king was fit to lead (4:2b). To say the least, it seems the public shredding of his integrity was causing David some internal distress.

You can’t undo slander. There’s no following in the wake of harmful words spoken with the hope of neutralizing or reversing what’s been communicated. No cleaning up a name that’s been soiled after it’s been dragged through the mud. When character is questioned and reputation is blackened, to a large degree you’re just gonna need to live with it. Did I mention it can be distressing?

So how do you sleep at night? By turning constantly to the God of my righteousness.

Answer me when I call, O God of my righteousness! You have given me relief when I was in distress. Be gracious to me and hear my prayer! . . .

In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for You alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety.

(Psalms 4:1, 8 ESV)

God of my righteousness. That’s what I’m chewing on this morning.

First, He is the God who knows my righteousness. The God who is omniscient, the God who searches the depths of the heart, the God who is just and will judge righteously. David could rest in the assurance that God knew the truth and God could be trusted with the truth — whether or not the truth was ever proclaimed among men as was the slander.

This is not to say that David was a man of no faults, or even of only minor faults, but that God, knowing the sin David would need to own, also knew the sin that wasn’t his to own.

But more than that, God of my righteousness is the God who is my righteousness.

Offer right sacrifices, and put your trust in the LORD.

(Psalms 4:5 ESV)

Ultimately, David’s righteousness lay not in how much, nor in how little he failed but in the reality of his faith. For, says Paul, “Faith is counted as righteousness” (Rom. 4:5b). Paul then goes on to quote David where, in another psalm, he puts it this way:

“Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.”

(Romans 4:7-8 / Psalms 32:1-2 ESV)

Sins forgiven. Sins covered. Sins not counted against us by the God who is both just and the justifier of the sinner. And beyond this, a righteousness freely credited to the sinner by faith. All from God of my righteousness.

That God is our righteousness is what brings the peace which allows us to lie down and sleep at night, the peace that passes understanding which brings true rest. It is this righteousness — the imputed righteousness of Christ, God of my righteousness — which ultimately makes us dwell in safety as we no longer live in the perpetual fear, nor the constant disappointment of our actual and inevitable failure for we abide beneath the shadow of the cross.

O God of my righteousness! You have given me relief when I was in distress . . . In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for You alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety.

By His grace. For His glory.