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“In pressure Thou hast enlarged me” (Psalm 4:1 JND).
In natural things, the statement made in our verse today would seem to be a contradiction. Normally, if we put something under pressure, it gets smaller, not larger. For example, we can compress air into a cylinder, so that it takes up a lot less space than if it is outside the container. The compressed air is “under pressure,” and if it is released, the resultant pressure has a lot of energy. (Compressed air in a cylinder is the basis for air brakes on big trucks.)
But in our verse we find that when we are in pressure from difficult circumstances, if we are walking with the Lord, we are enlarged. What does this mean? It means that in difficult situations the Lord can teach us things that we could not learn any other way. In Psalm 3, David is running away from his son Absalom, who wanted to be king instead of David. The 4th Psalm is probably a continuation of the same experience. But David learned more about the Lord, and experienced more comfort and blessing, than if the trouble had never happened.
The Lord may allow this in our lives too, so that later we can thank the Lord for the difficulty in our lives, even though it may have been unpleasant at the time.
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