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Psalm 4 · a question people ask

What are "the sacrifices of righteousness" (4:5)?

In the text

The psalm doesn't explain the phrase. It sets it beside trust: "Offer the sacrifices of righteousness. Put your trust in the LORD" (4:5). In Hebrew it is zivchei tsedeq (tap sacrifices). The same two words are in Moses' blessing of Zebulun and Issachar: "There they will offer sacrifices of righteousness" (Deuteronomy 33:19). And they are in Psalm 51: "Then you will delight in the sacrifices of righteousness, in burnt offerings and in whole burnt offerings" (Psalm 51:19). That verse comes after "For you don’t delight in sacrifice, or else I would give it" (Psalm 51:16) and "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit" (Psalm 51:17). These verses stand side by side in Psalm 51, and these notes don't choose what the phrase means in Psalm 4.

The verses

“Offer the sacrifices of righteousness. Put your trust in the LORD.”
Psalm 4:5 · World English Bible
“This is the blessing with which Moses the man of God blessed the children of Israel before his death.”
Deuteronomy 33:1 · World English Bible
“About Zebulun he said, “Rejoice, Zebulun, in your going out; and Issachar, in your tents. They will call the peoples to the mountain. There they will offer sacrifices of righteousness, for they will draw out the abundance of the seas, the hidden treasures of the sand.””
Deuteronomy 33:18-19 · World English Bible
“For you don’t delight in sacrifice, or else I would give it. You have no pleasure in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. O God, you will not despise a broken and contrite heart. Do well in your good pleasure to Zion. Build the walls of Jerusalem. Then you will delight in the sacrifices of righteousness, in burnt offerings and in whole burnt offerings. Then they will offer bulls on your altar.”
Psalm 51:16-19 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Psalm 4

Psalm 4: Answer me when I call

"Answer me when I call" (4:1) and "The LORD will hear when I call to him" (4:3) share one Hebrew word, beqor'i. In the first verse the psalm asks for relief, rachav, being made wide, in distress, tsar, a tight place. And Strong's gives the safety of the last verse (4:8) as "from 982", the verb of "Put your trust in the LORD" (4:5).

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions