I’m really enjoying this journey through the Psalms. The Psalm we are on now is Psalm 4 and you can read it here. One thing I want to call your attention to is the beginning of the Psalm and the end. David starts out by saying, “Answer me when I call to you, my righteous God. Give me relief from my distress; have mercy on me and hear my prayer.” He concludes by saying, “In peace I will lie down and sleep, for you alone, Lord, make me dwell in safety.” 

I’m struck by the vulnerability of his request in the beginning. He’s desperate. He’s putting all of his eggs in one basket. As as a pastor, I hear people pray quite often. It’s rare that you hear someone expose their desperation before God. Perhaps we hold it back to protect ourselves. If we go all in with God and trust him with everything we have, what if he doesn’t come through? We’d be completely brokenhearted. Wisdom has taught most of us that we must diversify our investments. Keep your options open. Don’t put all your chips in the middle of the table. Hedge your bets. There is wisdom in this advice, but when it comes to God, we are called to do the opposite.

Scripture emphatically teaches that we are to go all in with God. Proverbs 3:5-6 calls us to trust God with everything we are. At the end of Psalm 4, David informs us of one of the results of his decision. He is able to sleep in peace. God guards his heart and takes care of him. I wonder what kind of peace we are forfeiting by holding back our trust from God. I struggle with this. I want to trust him, but I don’t want to trust him with everything. I don’t want to get my heart broken, so my tendency is to hold back just a little. My hope for all of us is that we would move in the direction of trusting God with everything. This is the only way we will experience peace….if we put all our eggs in one basket.