Summer Psalms - Psalm 34

Let's pray. Father, I just thank you for the privilege of speaking and I pray for each one of us that the word spoken and what is heard will be a blessing to you. And I pray, Father, in the words of the psalm, that the words of our mouth and the meditations of our heart will be acceptable in your sight. We pray in Jesus name. Amen.

Well, this, I'm going to go back a long time, is one of my favorite psalms. It's actually is probably my second most favourite, but I remember first learning it in the King James Version, so it goes back a few years. So when I read it, you might find I'll get even more confused than normal because I'm going to have what they call version confusion. Because you learn things in one version. This is the fourth one that I've used frequently, so bear with me.

But I'm gonna be looking at Psalm 34. It's a Psalm about choices. It's the abc of good choices. I've decided to call this message. And that's why I love this psalm, because even from a young person, the thing that used to worry me was as a Christian is you come to faith, then you roll on your back, you stare at heaven, you wait for Jesus to come and you hope he's not too long.

And nothing goes too terribly bad because you're just passively there waiting. That is not what we're called to. What we're called to is a life of active good choices. What we're called to is a life of passion and seeking of Jesus and this psalm. Nerd bit.

Those who like nerd bits is an acrostic. An acrostic poem, for those of you who were teachers who can remember school, is a poem where each verse starts with a letter of the Alphabet. A, B, C. And why would you do that? Well, basically, there's the ABC of gardening. There's the ABC of almost everything.

So it's basically saying this is basic things to know about your relationship with God and basic choices to make. What's one of the first things we learn? Little kids learn their ABCs. So I'm just praying that we not only learn this, but we put it into action. The other reason to do an acrostic is they're easy to remember because if you get the first line, you think, now the second line, start in English with a B.

And it just really helps you. So David really wanted the people to know this and to remember it. And for the really nerdy bit, there's some argument about this. But if you They've missed out one letter, which they also did. I think it was in Psalm 25.

It's the letter that's also. And. And there's not a strong start to a verse, so they left that one out. But if you take the first letter of the first verse, the first letter of the middle verse, the first letter of the last verse, you get the word teacher.

So some people say it's a double acrostic. So it tells us one thing about David, doesn't it? Boy, was he a skilled writer. I think I'll take it even further. He was a divinely inspired writer.

He had a connection and a heart from God and he was relating that heart under inspiration.

The context. If we look at 1 Samuel 15:21, we see that God rejected Saul, anointed David, and David had to run away because Saul became jealous. So he's running away and he sought refuge with the Philistines.

Now think back to David and Goliath, who were they battling? The Philistines. So David went out single handedly defeated the Philistine army. So now he's going to hide in the land of the Philistines. As ideas go, not a good one.

Okay, it is a really, really poor idea.

So we start Psalm 34 with an introduction of David when he changed his behaviour before Abimelek, so that he drove him out and he went away.

Interesting introduction, isn't it? If you then have a look at introductions, Psalm 56 is written about the same event. And Psalm 56 is like Simon was talking about before. It's a lament. And boy is it a down lament.

It's a lamenting lament. And in it he thought David took talks about being trampled, being oppressed, having his cause injured. And it gets to the point of Psalm 56. 8 He says, you have kept count of my tossings, put my tears in your bottle and then are they not in your book. In other words, he is so down, he's saying to God, you've even gathered up my tears.

And when, you know, when you're saying I've cried a bottle full of tears that you've had to count how many times I've rolled over. David is in the pit. And I can relate. If I was David and I just been to the Philistines to hide and made that idea and got caught, I would not be feeling good about myself.

And now we see why he feels even worse when we look at 1 Samuel 21, 1315. I don't have all of these for you. I Just read them. So he changed his behaviour before them and pretended to be insane in their hands and made marks on the door of the gate and let his spittle run down his beard.

How would you feel if you'd just done that in public? Even a humble man like David, he's made a really dumb idea. Then he's had to look, act and look like he was mad before the king to get away. I'd be feeling pretty down. And it says that.

Then Achish said to his servants, behold, you see the man is mad. Why then have you brought him to me? Do I lack madman that you have brought this fellow to behave as a madman in my presence? Shall this fellow come into my house? In other words, that he kicked him out.

He thought, I've got enough loons, there's enough nutters. Those who have jobs will probably say the same at work. There's enough nutters already. The last thing we need is another one.

So David is feeling down, and I don't blame him. He had the reason to be depressed, to be sad. I can imagine what I'd be saying to myself. I'd be lying in bed at night saying, gee, you're an idiot. Why did you ever do that?

Serves you right. Now all those people think you're mad. Bit of pride coming in there, of course, but that's. You'd be just so down. Then he writes the lament.

Then we get to this psalm and we begin. In Psalm 34, verse 1 to 3, it says, I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul makes it boast in the Lord. Let the humble hear and be glad.

Oh, magnify the Lord with me and let us exalt his name together. So David is making a statement. I love. What's the word in there? That I love is the word Will.

In that situation, I'd be saying to myself, I. I will. He's saying, what I will is I will. That I will. Praise the Lord. He is making a conscious choice, even in this horrible circumstance, to praise the Lord and continually have praise on his lips.

I don't know about you, but at times I can feel quite down. I think we can all do it, can't we? And I can have thoughts I don't want to have. What's the best way to get rid of those thoughts? Praise.

Start thinking about God. Start thinking about his love. Start thinking about what he's done. So rather than filling your mind with the negative, you fill your mind with the positive. You cast out the evil and you bring in the good.

And David saying, I will praise.

And then he said, his soul will praise. Will boast, actually. And when I saw that, I don't like the word boast. Have all of you been brought up to dislike the word boast? When I see the scripture, I always think, what's that word doing there?

That's what we're taught as kids not to do. But when you actually look at the root of the word, it is halal, which is the same word as praise. So the word is basically to praise, to celebrate, to glory, to sing praise, or to boast. So what he's saying is his soul will boast or sing praises to the Lord. His soul will remember what God's done for us.

Our soul boasts. When what do we do? We say, jesus loved me when I wasn't and I'm still not worth loving. Jesus died for me. God's hand is upon me, even the way I act.

Even when I went to the king's palace and acted like a lunatic, God was with me and didn't forsake me. That's boasting in the Lord. So David's saying, I won't just speak the words, but in my very core, I'm going to worship God. That's powerful stuff, isn't it? And what's the lesson there?

The lesson is there how to turn around those moments, how to lift your eyes to make that choice. And the last one, oh, magnify the Lord with me and let us exalt his name together. He's saying, let's get together and let's proclaim it again. What's a good way out of the miseries? You start praising God.

Get together with other people who are praising God and your soul's lifted. I also want to encourage you next week for the week of praise and worship. I hope that you come along with this attitude. I will praise the Lord. Don't to sound too negative of.

So many situations over many years have passed where people have come to me. I don't feel the worship is lifting my soul. I've never hit them, but I have at least once. I maybe a few times referred them to this soul. This, this psalm.

It said, if you come along with your heart saying, I will praise the Lord. If you come to worship saying, I will praise the Lord, my soul will bless his name. I will boast in the Lord. I tell you what, you're gonna get into worship. Doesn't matter if I was singing and I'm very flat and tuneless you'd say.

It's not his singing that's making me worship. It is my choice, my soul, my heart and my words. So that's the first bit. I hope you're encouraged and you can see the choices he's encouraging us to make then. Verse 4.

I should say the first bit. Three times. I sought the Lord, and He answered, I did. I sought the Lord. He heard and he answered and delivered me from all my fears.

Those who look to him are radiant and their faces shall never be ashamed. The poor man cried, and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his troubles. The Lord of the angels encamps around those who fear him and delivers them. Action. I sought the Lord again.

It's not a passive thing, isn't it? I didn't lie on my bed and thinking, why hasn't God come done that? Why is God so distant? Why hasn't God. He didn't do that.

He sought the Lord. He went and said, God, I seek you. I need you. And what happened? God answered, God wants us to seek.

Why does he want us to seek? Because seeking shows humility. Seeking shows the willingness to to accept and be reliant upon God. We need to be able to seek and rely. Then in the next one, those who look to him radiant.

Radiant means literally cheerful, not ashamed. How fitting is that for David? I reckon he's probably pretty ashamed of himself at the moment. After acting crazy and making really bad choices, he would be feeling that normal feelings of shame. But he's saying no.

Because I sought the Lord, because I look to Him, I'm now radiant. I'm reflected in his glory.

The poor man cries out, God hears again. I love in 2 Kings 6:17, which was mentioned the other week. That's where the eyes of the servant who open. He sees the army around him. What we tend to forget is the army of angels there to protect did not appear because he looked.

They were already there. The problem was he couldn't see them. So often we have God's protection around us. And the problem is not that it isn't there, it's just that our eyes aren't open to see it. I've got much better hindsight than foresight.

You've got better hindsight than foresight. I'm really smart in hindsight. Never get it wrong. I know exactly what happened yesterday.

What we need to do is we need to start living in foresight and know that God is there to protect us, that God is with us and not run around in fear. And then later oh, okay. God was there. How did that work? That's weird.

I can't believe that that worked that way. We need to have that heart and soul with our eyes open. And how do we do that? It tells us, doesn't it? We cry out to God.

How did the servant see when the prophet cried out? When the prophet said, show him. At times we need to cry out, God, show me what's going on. God, open my eyes that I might feel your protection.

Now comes one of my most favorite verses in the Scriptures. A verse that we all should know and we all should put into practice. Psalm 34, 8, 10. O taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.

Oh, fear the Lord, you his saints. For those who fear him have no lack. The young lion suffers want and hunger, but those who seek the Lord lack no. Good thing. Isn't that a great verse?

Oh, taste and see.

Now I'm going to talk about Margot here. She better cover her ears. Margo is not good with different foods. Okay? She looks at it and she said, I don't like that.

I roll my eyes and think, you haven't tasted it. How can you possibly know? You won't like it. And she'll tell you. Now it's obvious.

It's just not nice.

See, a lot of Christians are like that. I'm glad Margo, as a Christian, is not like that. She's very willing to taste and see. But many Christians are like that with their faith. They look at something, they say, oh, no, I can't do that.

Oh, no, that's too hard. Oh, no, I don't have the faith for that. But I want to encourage you to know that. When do you taste something? Often you taste and see in God through faith, but you're tasting because your faith often is not great.

You're giving it a go. You're saying, God, I believe. Help me with my unbelief. You're saying, God, I want to give it a go. I will try.

I remember many years ago, we had a couple in our church. And as you know, around here, we don't madly emphasize tithing. Margo and I in our churches never did. But it's something we believe in. And they came and they said, we believe we should be giving more, but we just don't have the faith to do it.

So givings between them and God. So I wasn't going to comment on that, but this is the verse I gave them was taste and see. Give it a try and see what happens. And they did. And yeah, they came back and monthly said, oh, my bills have been.

You know, it's working. We're no worse off than we were before. Which wasn't terribly well off, to be perfectly honest. But God honoured them and they, by tasting and see, it was just enough for them to actually find the step over that line. Have you done that?

I can do it. I can do it. I can do it. Maybe not. And it takes that first step.

And this is why I love this scripture, because what it's saying, taste it, try it, and you'll see that God is good and God is faithful.

Is it about money? No. I've heard it used in that way. No, no, no, it's not. It's about your life and your faith.

When God calls you to do something, it's saying, try, just give it a go. And what you'll see is we have a faithful God. Time and time again in our life, Margo and I have stepped out in faith and done really well. We haven't gone to the Philistines, I'm pleased to say, but we've done some things that on a worldly sense, didn't make sense. And I'll tell you what, every time God has come through, I could give you lots of testimonies, but God is a faithful God.

And at times we need to take an action of tasting and we need to then wait and see that God is good.

The next, we need to take refuge.

And then when you take refuge, you will lack nothing. God will meet your need.

Philippians 4:15 says, and my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory. In Christ Jesus. God will supply.

Now Psalm 34, 1117, and I'll have to hurry. Come, O children, listen to me. I will teach you the fear of the Lord. What man is there who desires life and loves many days that he may see good. Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit.

Turn away from evil and do good. Seek peace and pursue it. The eyes of the Lord are towards the righteous, and his ears hear their cry. The face of the Lord is against those who do evil to cut off the memory of them from the earth. When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles.

The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. Many are the afflicted afflictions of the righteous. But the Lord delivers him out of them all. He keeps all his bones, not one of them is broken. Affliction will slay the wicked and Those who hate the righteous will be condemned.

The Lord redeems the life of his servant. None of those who take refuge in him will be condemned. So we need to choose to turn away from speaking evil or lies. Out with the bad, in with the good worship. We need to attend to God because He will give his us his attention.

His eyes will be towards us and we will receive deliverance and salvation. God's action towards the righteous are. If you read this, he hears them, he delivers them from their troubles. He is close to them when their heart is broken. He saves those who have a crushed spirit and he delivers them from all their troubles.

Pretty good package. And that's exactly what this scripture says.

Peter quotes this scripture in 1 Peter 3, 9 and finishes it by saying, do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless for to this you are called that you may obtain a blessing. Okay, so what's it saying? It's saying whatever the circumstances, speak words of blessing. Speak the positive words that come from God and lift others up, even to evil people. So when you are with an evil person, don't start to think evil.

When you're with a difficult person, don't allow their mindset to sneak in and make you go down the same path. But stay and praise the Lord and speak words of blessing.

And then very quickly, in John 19:36, we see that bones not being broken is quoted of Jesus. Many thought Jesus was out of favour with God. But we see in this passage that when, basically when God is with you and his blessings upon you, your bones will not be broken. So when Jesus was crucified, God was with him and he received this blessing.

So again, it's looking forward to that. It's the reality of how we live and who we are.

So in summary, don't just hear God's word, do it.

Probably should stop there, shouldn't I? Don't just hear God's word, but do it. None of us have perfect faith. We all struggle with faith. I think that's a fair, fair statement.

We all have moments when we have doubts. We make a faith statement and we think, oh, then you know, that little voice comes in and we have little flickers of doubt. We have to embrace the faith. And I'm going to tell you today, it takes a conscious will. It takes a decision.

I will praise the Lord. I will taste and see. I will do what he's called me to. I will give it a go. I will embrace.

I will trust that my bones will not be broken. I Will trust that God will be with me and rescue me. I will trust. We have to make that choice. James 1:22, 25.

Great book, James. It's all about being doers. But be doers of the Word and not hearers, only deceiving yourself. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. He looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he's like.

But he who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty and perseveres being in a hearer who forgets, being no hearer who forgets, but a doer who acts, he will be blessed for his doing.

The whole message is be a doer. Now, I found three points on the Internet that should come up.

No? Okay. Oh, there it is. Good. Okay.

This is not original, but was worth robbing. Well, not robbing. Borrowing. Holy desires lead to holy protection.

Holy respect leads to holy provision and holy submission leads to holy power.

David says in that that he will teach us the fear of the Lord.

And that is the lesson we all need to learn. Because when we learn that, we will desire respect and submit not so that we get, but because of that we will get.

I love my family. I love my family wholeheartedly. I don't love them so they'll give me things.

I don't love them. It's not a transactional relationship. I don't love them so they will. I love them. Why?

Because they're my family and I love them. And we should also love our God. Why? Because what he's going to do for us? No, because he's our God and he loves us and we love Him.

So I want to encourage you today to taste and see, to be hearers and doers and to really find and enjoy an enthusiastic and active Christian life doing in faith and out of that, seeing the wonders of our risen Saviour and the glories of our eternal God. Let's pray, Father. I just pray that you do place your hands upon our hearts and our minds. That you help us to hear the Word and to do that you help us to really know the glories of being your children. I pray, Father, for each one of us that this week that we will pour out the wrong feelings and bring in the praise.

That we will, at every moment we can seek to glorify you. That our hearts and our minds and our souls will worship God and our risen Saviour. We pray in Jesus name a Amen. I pray that you go in peace, and the love of God is upon you this week.