When it is said
Pray it in bed before you sleep, or when you wake in the night and cannot settle.
The last verse alone makes a short prayer to repeat in the dark.
Where it comes from
Author by tradition
A psalm for the night
The Hebrew heading gives Psalm 4 to David. He cries to God out of distress and urges those who shame him to be still on their beds and trust the LORD. He ends by lying down to sleep in peace because God alone keeps him safe (Psalm 4:8).
Before sleep, East and West
The Orthodox evening service of Great Compline usually begins with this psalm. In the West, St Benedict’s Rule has monks pray it every night at Compline and then keep silence through the night.
Isabel F. Hapgood, Service Book of the Holy Orthodox-Catholic Apostolic Church (1906), Grand Compline; The Rule of St Benedict, on the Christian Classics Ethereal Library
What the words mean
Tremble, or be angry?
Translations differ over verse 4. The Jewish Publication Society’s English of the Hebrew has “Tremble, and sin not”, and the King James Version has “Stand in awe”. The Greek Psalter that the Orthodox pray reads “Be ye angry, and sin not”. Paul quotes those words in Ephesians 4:26, and the Berean Standard Bible reads the same, so the plain wording here follows them.
The Hebrew Bible with the Jewish Publication Society’s 1917 English, on Mechon Mamre; The Greek Old Testament in Brenton’s translation, on eBible.org
The Scripture in it
Answer me when I call, O God of my righteousness! You have relieved my distress; show me grace and hear my prayer.
Be angry, yet do not sin; on your bed, search your heart and be still. Selah Offer the sacrifices of the righteous and trust in the LORD. Many ask, “Who can show us the good?” Shine the light of Your face upon us, O LORD. You have filled my heart with more joy than when grain and new wine abound. I will lie down and sleep in peace, for You alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety.
Bible text: Berean Standard Bible, public domain.