Only God’s Smile Can Bring Lasting Joy
This is a sample from the recently published book, God Is Our Refuge and Strength: 150 Devotionals Through the Psalms, by Bill Boekestein and Rob Ventura, Published by The Banner of Truth, October 2026. Following this installment is a review by Ron Kohl.
The opening line of Psalm 4 might catch us off-guard. Can we tell God to ‘Answer me when I call’ (1)? It sounds demanding, like something a frustrated parent might say to a distracted child. But David isn’t being disrespectful. He’s holding to God’s promise, nearly quoting his words: ‘Call to me and I will answer you’ (Jer. 33:3; cf. Psa. 91:15). True faith takes God at his word, appealing to his righteousness and asking him to act. Yet David knows he has no right to demand relief. All he can hope for is grace, God’s unmerited favor. We cannot control God, but we can tell him our cares, trusting that he hears us.
So what is David asking for? He turns his attention to his enemies: ‘How long shall my honor be turned into shame? How long will you love vain words and seek after lies?’ (2). The sting of false accusations is real, but David anchors himself in a greater truth: ‘The Lord has set apart the godly for himself; the Lord hears when I call to him’ (3). When God’s people suffer injustice, their cries do not fall on deaf ears (1 Pet. 3:12). Their heavenly Father always hears.
Having addressed his opponents and entrusted himself to God, David shows us how to respond to injustice. This highlights one of the benefits of singing and reading psalms together. We address ‘one another in psalms’ (Eph. 5:19) because we all need to hear God’s truth. One truth we must learn is that anger is an appropriate response to wrongdoing so long as we do not sin (Eph. 4:26). Sometimes anger calls for bold action (Mark 3:5). But it can also lead us to quiet reflection. Rather than letting anger consume us we should ‘offer right sacrifices and put [our] trust in the Lord’ (5). Through Jesus’ perfect sacrifice, we can be certain that God is our faithful protector and deliverer. Trials should not drive us from worship but toward it, with greater intensity. After all, only God can show us good. According to verse 7, the godly experience a joy deeper than the fullest harvest—the height of success in an agricultural society. This abiding gladness, rooted in God’s love for us in Christ, allows us to rest contentedly even amid trouble.
And so, the psalm that begins in distress ends in peace. ‘In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety’ (8). David doesn’t just ask for rest—he receives it. His troubles remain, but they are in God’s hands. This is the best way to face any trial: Start with God, end with God. Pour out your heart before him, then rest in his loving care. His promises are true, and he will never fail those who trust him.
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This collection of short devotional reviews of each of the 150 Psalms in the Psalter is a valuable and highly readable aide to pastors who are seeking to get an accurate handle on the central motifs of each of the psalms, but it’s also a highly-encouraging asset to laypersons who want to get a firmer grip on each Psalm and how the entire Psalter connects to the person and saving work of Jesus Christ.
If you are familiar at all with the Psalms, you have your favorites, go-to Psalms that encourage you when you are downtrodden, convict you when sin’s allures are pressing, and challenge you to think as God thinks and feel with conviction as He feels. God is Our Refuge and Strength pays off handsomely in regard to providing fresh food from beloved Psalms like Psalm 23, Psalm 139, and the like. But Boekestein and Ventura don’t stop there; they highlight every psalm, not just the well-known ones, and what they have to say about the lesser-known psalms, and the imprecatory psalms, is well worth the purchase price.
Indeed, before tackling the individual entries in the Psalter, the authors provide a helpful and even invaluable introduction that helps the reader to more accurately grasp the different types of psalms and provides exegetical insights that enhance anyone’s reading delight.
I had the privilege of preaching through many of the psalms in 2025 and yet, as I reviewed the authors’ accounts of psalms I had preached, I found new insights and helpful thoughts that I had not previously considered. I wish this book had been available to me as I preached through the Psalter!
Much of the value in Boekestein’s and Ventura’s book is found in its brevity. Many guides to the psalms, by authors I greatly respect, run to several volumes or at least to a single prodigious tome that requires reasonable strength just to lift it off the bookshelf. Not this entry. One of its strengths lies in its relative brevity: a reminder that often quality is more valuable than quantity.
I have found that my own soul has been uplifted by many of the lesser-known psalms—by psalms that, I admit, I had only previously glossed over. God is Our Refuge and Strength furthers that benefit by reminding me that the central figure in the Psalms is not David; it’s Christ Jesus. One of the book’s benefits for the busy pastor is the help it renders in assisting readers to see the Christological “true north” of every Psalm: that so many of the psalms point beyond themselves to Christ…which is a point that Jesus Himself made while speaking with the two disciples on the Emmaus Road in Luke 24. “These are My words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” And so the authors rightly remind us, “The psalms are God’s word, but not God’s last word. To understand them fully, we must read them in the light of the New Testament.”
The authors devote considerable pace in the introduction dealing with the purpose of the inclusion of imprecatory psalms. We may read them and conclude, “Why did the Spirit of God see fit to include them in the Psalter? But they say, “Imprecatory psalms will make little sense to nominal Christians, but they resonate profoundly with those who, like David, grieve over injustice…These psalms help us live faithfully before God’s face in a world where evil still thrives.”
It is the imprecatory psalms that, among other things, help us to lament over injustice while reminding that our God will faithfully render to each person what he or she deserves. While we may pray for justice, the imprecatory psalms remind us that, as Psalm 58:11 declares, “There is a God who judges on earth.” And yet the authors are compelled to remind us that we are not to be dormant, for the imprecatory psalms call us to take action when injustice takes place while at the same trusting that God will make sure that justice is done with absolute fairness and finality.
Sometimes the authors surprise us with how they treat a particular psalm. In their treatment of Psalm 139, for instance, though much of the psalm’s emphasis is on the completeness of God’s knowledge of us, Boekestein and Ventura hone in on the oft-neglected conclusion of the psalm: “Oh that you would slay the wicked” (Ps. 139:19). But they then quickly connect the dots. “How did David move from pondering God’s omniscience to pronouncing a curse on his enemies? Actually, it completely fits. The psalm’s tone changes but the logic is sustained from start to finish.”
I highly recommend this book to both the casual reader of the Psalms and the dutiful pastor who wants to stay faithful in his exegesis of God’s word. The authors take an approach that is both biblically sound and immensely practical. May God use this volume for His glory as well as for the rich benefit of his people.
—Ron Kohl, pastor of Grace Bible Fellowship, Quakertown, Pennsylvania
