Psalms 4:3

3. The Lord hath set apart, etc. David here advances, as the ground of security for his honour and throne, that God had by wonderful grace separated him chosen him for himself, for his own special purpose, to be the ruler of his people. The efforts of enemies, therefore, could avail nothing. He introduces this with the emphatic but know, warning them not to adventure against the decrees of God.

Him that is godly Rather, him that is merciful. The verb חסד , ( hhasad,) to show one’s self kind, with its substantive form חסד , ( hhesed,) kindness, love, and its adjective form חסיד , kind, merciful, is used to designate the mode of God’s dealing with men, and also how men should deal with one another. As a substantive it denotes mercy, ( ελεος ,) and is thus translated by the Septuagint one hundred and thirty-five times out of the two hundred and twelve times of its occurrence: also righteousness ( δικαιοσυνη ) in several places. Applied to the regulation of the conduct of man with man, it covers the great law of Matthew 22:39, and is illustrated in the parable of the good Samaritan. In the Old Testament it is generally rendered kindness, mercy, pity, favour, goodness, loving-kindness. The adjective, therefore, as in the text, should have the prevailing sense of kind, merciful; but is thus rendered only three times, and good once, in our English Bible, out of the thirty-three places where it occurs, being elsewhere rendered godly, saint, holy. The Septuagint uniformly translates holy, ( οδιος ,) which shows that in the Jewish mind holiness entered into the quality of mercy. But, as Girdlestone says, ( Old Testament Synonymes, p. 187,) it is to be feared that the practical nature of godliness has been to some extent obscured, or thrown into the background, in our English version, by rendering the word in question so often by godly, or saint, instead of merciful, after the example of the Septuagint and Vulgate. See notes on Psalms 12:1, and Psalms 86:2