“Hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness: thou hast enlarged me when I was in distress; have mercy upon me, and hear my prayer.”
This evening psalm of trust opens by invoking God's righteousness as the ground for answered prayer, suggesting that the speaker's confidence rests on God's character rather than on circumstantial evidence of deliverance. The request for expansion (enlarge my heart) anticipates relief from distress through both divine intervention and internal transformation that makes the speaker capable of bearing or transcending present suffering. The superscription's assignment to the choirmaster indicates this psalm functioned liturgically, likely in evening worship where personal distress encountered institutional structures of prayer. The appeal to righteousness grounds confidence in God's moral nature, suggesting that the divine character guarantees attentiveness to faithful prayer.
Church Fathers on Psalms 4:1
To the end, a psalm song to David. 1. “Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believes.” Romans 10:4 For this “end” signifies perfection, not consumption. Now it may be a question, whether every Song be a Psalm, or rather every Psalm a Song; whether there are some Songs which cannot be called Psalms, and some Psalms which cannot be called Songs. But the Scripture must be attended to, if haply “Song” do not denote a joyful theme. But those are called…
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
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