A bit out of my routine this morning, I went to Psalm 4 instead of Jeremiah. It was a good—perhaps even God-inspired—choice. I am at amazed, challenged, and encouraged by David’s ability to cry out to God and then, with his next breath, to confidently sing the expectation that his cry has been, is, or will be heard…his petition granted.

I am so quick to quote Jesus, “ask, and you shall receive”—and to complain when I have asked but have not received. Or I’ll piously downplay any delay in the getting: maybe I’ll receive in heaven; maybe it’s not God’s will; maybe some hidden sin of mine has blocked the phone line to God.

But that’s not what David does. Consider these lines from Psalm 4 (the translation is Holman Christian Standard Bible. I have left out some lines, not to change or force some meaning, but to show the cries and the confidence. Read the full text here.):

Answer me when I call, God.
Be gracious to me and hear my prayer.
The Lord will hear when I call to Him.
On your bed, reflect in your heart and be still.
Trust in the Lord.
You have put more joy in my heart than they have when their grain and new wine abound.
I will both lie down and sleep in peace, for You alone, Lord, make me live in safety.

What confidence! What peace! Reflect. Trust. Be still. I needed these words today. So much of life is uncertain, so much in upheaval. Unemployment. Impending surgery. Waiting. The past few nights my sleep has been interrupted with questions and doubts and wondering. This morning, though, I call to God and trust that he will hear—that he has heard.

This morning, I am going to ask, and though I do not know what the answer will look like—or when it will come—I am going to choose to believe that God has heard and that he will “make me live in safety.”

Ask, and you shall believe.