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.
-Psalm 4:6-7
The scenery has not changed much. There are still many who are looking for some good to finally come. The good they seek is implied in verse 7–the abundance of grain and wine, or material prosperity. Perhaps these verses reveal the motive of the men mistreating David (v.2): they have misused and slandered David for their own advantage. David, not without hardship in his life, seeks good from a different source–the favor of the Lord. What about you? Are you seeking good today from the world or from the Lord? I am ashamed to admit that I often seek the good that I can see rather than the goodness of the Lord. May the Lord refocus our distracted hearts. The sweetness of fellowship with Him is worth far more than the earthly comforts and conveniences we so often crave. May our time, our spending, and our prayers show that we value the favor of the Lord. And may our joy and contentment show that we have found it.
Jesus, I am resting, resting in the joy of what Thou art;
I am finding out the greatness of Thy loving heart.
*ESV, quoted above, places the closing quotation mark at the end of verse 6 (after “Lord”). ESV being the only English translation I see that makes this choice, I have chosen to defer to the majority of translations and end the quote after “good” (as NKJV, NIV, NASB, NET, HCSB; KJV does not include quotation marks).
