When I call, give me answers. God, take my side!

Once, in a tight place, you gave me room; Now I’m in trouble again: grace me! hear me!

Psalm 4

Grace is room; grace brings a wide-open space. I know what it is to be in a tight place, sometimes even trying to work my way out,  in my effort,  struggling  with unease and unrest, but now because of Grace, I am back in a roomy place.

Grace us Lord,  take away the press of trouble and the tightly pressed places of challenge and give us room.

Galatians outlines, ”…It was for freedom we were set free…” this grace brings us to this roomy place of freedom .

Romans 5:2

And that’s not all: We throw open our doors to God and discover at the same moment that he has already thrown open his door to us. We find ourselves standing where we always hoped we might stand—out in the wide open spaces of God’s grace and glory, standing tall and shouting our praise.

Grace is an open space – liberty and freedom.

2 Corinthians 11:11-12

Dear, dear Corinthians, I can’t tell you how much I long for you to enter this wide-open, spacious life.

We didn’t fence you in. The smallness you feel comes from within you. Your lives aren’t small, but you’re living them in a small way.

1 Thessalonians 5:5

You’re sons of Light, daughters of Day.

We live under wide open skies and know where we stand.

 

O Lord you are  great “…you gave me  room…” the Psalmist is opening up to the grace life we find in the New Testament,  how wide-open and how high is your love?  as wide open as your grace, ever-increasing.

Rev 19:11

Then I saw Heaven open wide—

The open heavens is the manifestation of a wide-open, roomy place called grace!

“…Wide open spaces of God’s grace and glory…”

There is only one kind of grace, wide-open space freedom and grace, that the Lord shows us – wide-open!

This psalm written by David, is a night-time psalm, probably belonging to the time of David’s flight from Absalom (see Ps. 3), as he faces a second night sleeping rough and under threat. Like Ps. 3, this is a psalm of prayer, we note that coming into the place of prayer is to find oneself in the place of peace —even though the pressures remain.

The centre piece of this psalm however is not prayer but a knowing and trusting.

True prayer is urgent, resting completely on the righteousness of God, is specific and dependent on divine mercy.

Here—as in Ps 3:4.

God of my righteousness—or, “my righteous God, as my holy hill” and Ps 2:6, who will act towards me on righteous principles.

thou hast enlarged—expresses relief afforded, past favour being a ground of hope for the future.

NASB – Answer me when I call, O God of my righteousness! You have relieved me in my distress; Be gracious to me and hearmy prayer.

The Message – When I call, give me answers. God, take my side! Once, in a tight place, you gave me room; Now I’m in trouble again: grace me! hear me