Passage Research
Psalm 4 — Sermon Preparation
An evening psalm in which David calls on God to hear his prayer and chooses trust over anxiety, lying down in peaceful sleep. Below is a research summary for Psalm 4, drawn from openly licensed scholarly databases — original-language morphology, classic sermons from the church fathers through the Puritans, and ancient geography data.
- 9
- verses
- 77 / 64
- Hebrew words / lemmas
- 11
- classic sermon excerpts
- 5
- preachers & commentators
Psalm 4 in the Hebrew
Distinctive vocabulary of this chapter, based on original-language morphology.
| Hebrew | Transliteration | Strong's | Count | Glosses |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| צֶדֶק | tsedeq | H6664 | 2 | right, equity |
| קָרָא | qârâʼ | H7121 | 2 | call out to |
| שָׁמַע | shâmaʻ | H8085 | 2 | hear, tell |
| פָּלָה | pâlâh | H6395 | 1 | distinguish |
| בָּדָד | bâdâd | H910 | 1 | separate, separately |
| רִיק | rîyq | H7385 | 1 | emptiness, worthless |
| נְגִינָה | nᵉgîynâh | H5058 | 1 | instrumental music, stringed instrument |
How preachers through history handled this text
11 public-domain excerpts on Psalm 4, from the church fathers to the Puritans.
“Wordly people inquire for good, not for the chief good; all they want is outward good, present good, partial good, good meat, good drink, a good trade, and a good estate; but what are all these worth? Any good will serve the turn of most men, but a gracious soul will not be put off so. Lord, let us have thy favour, and let us know that we have it, we desire no more; let us be satisfied of thy loving-kindness, and will be satisfied with it. Many inquire after happiness, but David had found it. …”
— Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible (Concise), on Psalm 4:6–30 (Public Domain)
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