Psalm 4 is one of the great evening Psalms, a Psalm of confidence and faith. Verse 1 reads: “You have relieved me in my distresses.”
Luther translates this more literally, “In tribulation You made room for me.”
Here is the on-ramp:
There follows the second part of the verse: In tribulation Thou didst make room for me. Behold, also in adversity his God has had compassion. Truly He is a faithful and kind God, who for His own name’s sake alone deems us, who are unworthy and evil, worthy of such great blessings. And who can be worthy in the presence of such great majesty except one whom He Himself has made worthy? This indeed is what reason affirms. For He is the highest and has no need of anyone’s blessings. Hence these brief words comprise all of the blessings of God that He offers in adversity. However, he correctly made mention of his prosperity first. For God first adorns and equips, He first justifies and makes alive, and then He quickly subjects to battle, so that strength may increase, which otherwise would quickly be consumed by rust and inactivity. No matter what, it is because of His work as the end. But that work meets with the opposition of tribulation and trial. Therefore this verse agrees with Ecclus. 2:1: “My child, if you come forward to serve the Lord,” namely, through justification, “prepare your soul for trials.” “Note then the kindness of God” (Rom. 11:22). What great things He offers in adversity, and with what faithful love He sends tribulation! “In tribulation,” he says, “Thou didst make room for me.” I understand this to mean, “You have provided broad spaces for me.”
Now, to the three benefits of tribulation, three “englargements” that the Lord provides us in trouble. First: education.
But this is a threefold enlargement which God provides in tribulation: the first is that of education, for in tribulation one learns many things which he did not know before; many things he already knew in theory he grasps more firmly through experience. And he understands Holy Scripture better than he would without trials. For that reason it is called “the Lord’s discipline” (Prov. 3:11). And a psalm confesses: “Thy discipline will teach me” (cf. Ps. 18:35). And the wise man says: “What does he who has not experienced trials know?” (Ecclus. 34:10, Vulgate). Therefore through tribulation a man enlarges his syntereses [intelect and will] and draws his practical conclusions in a wonderful manner. Again a psalm says: “Through Thy precepts I get understanding” (Ps. 119:104). I believe that only those with experience understand how broad this education is. Deeds and life explain and understand the Scriptures, forms, and creatures. And this breadth is ascribed to the Son among the divine Persons. To Him belongs wisdom and teaching.
Second: strength.
The second enlargement is that of strength, which manifests itself in recollection, especially among martyrs, for “strength is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor. 12:9), and a bent palm tree springs up more strongly, and strength compressed grows larger. Thus love, faith, hope, and all others grow larger in persecution, according to the word “their beginning has been strengthened beyond measure” (cf. Ps. 139:17). “The feeble have been girded with strength” (1 Sam. 2:4). Therefore just as this was extraordinary among the martyrs, so it was first in the holy teachers against the heretics, all of whom afflicted them. But from this they to a larger degree received from the Lord enlargement of knowledge and strength, of understanding and recollection, and this is made firm in its own good through the virtues. And this is properly ascribed to the Father, to whom belong strength and power.
Third: comfort and joy.
The third enlargement is that of comfort and joy in the Holy Spirit. So the apostle says in 2 Cor. 1:3–4: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction.” And this belongs to the Holy Spirit, who is the Paraclete, that is, the Comforter. Thus a psalm says: “Out of my distress I called on the Lord; the Lord answered me in a large space” (Ps. 118:5). And Hannah, the mother of Samuel, in 1 Sam. 2:1 says: “My mouth is opened wide.” Thus it is clear that the blessed Trinity offers a threefold enlargement to His living image, which is man. The mind is enlarged through education and understanding, the memory, or substance or nature of the soul, is enlarged through the strength and vigor of grace, and the will is enlarged through joy and comfort. On the contrary, all of these are diminished by sin and error and sadness. So Is. 54:2 exhorts: “Enlarge the place of your tent, and let the curtains of your habitations be stretched out, etc.” Similarly, in an allegorical sense, the church received a threefold enlargement. For they were exceedingly multiplied by Pharaoh’s oppression, and the truth of the faith was made illustrious, and their joy in the spirit was increased. Note lastly, that he adds for me. This is the remarkable grace of God, that He does not cause these enlargements to be repayment and reward in this life. But he says, “for me,” for my good, for my salvation, for my benefit. God indeed enlarges and exalts many to their destruction, their ruin and judgment. But this is not the case with those who “are enlarged in tribulation.”
(Martin Luther, Luther’s Works, Vol. 10: First Lectures on the Psalms I: Psalms 1-75, ed. Jaroslav Jan Pelikan, Hilton C. Oswald, and Helmut T. Lehmann, electronic ed., vol. 10 (Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1999), 48–50.)
Meditating on these things, we are learning to rejoice in our tribulation.
PrBW
