Meditations on Psalm 4:1

This is a verse I have been pondering as of late. Just a few things I was thinking about, and maybe you might think about as well.

NASB/ ESV/ ASV
"Answer me when I call, O God of my righteousness! You have given me relief when I was in distress. Be gracious to me and hear my prayer!"

KJV/ NKJV
"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."

Psalter which I sing from:
"Answer when I call, O God who justifies..."

"Answer me when I call, O God..." For this verse I actually prefer the KJV rendering here (not because they translated it better, both translations are perfectly fine, in fact both mean the same thing). The way the KJV has it makes my point clearer though: "Hear me" is how the KJV has it, "Answer me" is how the NASB renders the first petition. For God to "Hear" us, is for God to "Answer," at least in the case of a believer. "And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive..."(Matt. 21:22) "Whatever we ask we receive from Him..."(1 John 3:22) "If we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him..."(1 John 5:14,15).
Thus, it follows that what we ask of God in faith we shall receive. And for the Lord to "Hear" us is to answer. "Be gracious to me and hear my prayer.."(end of v. 1), this having the same conotation. Its no wonder that in the verse after next, David says, "The Lord Hears when I call to Him." He knows the Lord hears his cries, and He is not afraid of the enemies pursuing him, for he knows that God will answer.

"O God of my righteousness..." C.H. Spurgeon, has a good thing to say of this particular part of the 1st verse, it goes along with how I viewed it. He states, "The name by which the Lord is here addressed...deserves notice, since it is not used in any other part of scripture. It means 'Thou art the author, the Witness, the Maintainer, the Judge, and the Rewarder of my righteousness; to thee I appear from the calumnies and harsh judgments of men'"(Treasury of David, Psalm IV, P.34). This, a righteousness not of our own but a gift of God through Christ. The imputation of which was divinely orchestrated by the work of the Holy Spirit. The psalter renders it, "O God who justifies." Rightly so, since the same Hebrew word can mean justify as well. To be justified is to be seen as righteous in the eyes of God. There is not way to this, but by faith in Christ, and the alien-righteousness (not belonging to us) imputed to our account.

2 Cor. 5:21
"He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him."