Tag: praise

PSALMS #6: BAD TIMES, GOOD PRAISE. PSALM 34.

On By Pastor TomIn Podcast, psalms, Religion, Sermon, Uncategorized1 Comment
Photo by M Venter on Pexels.com

When we read psalm thirty-four, and then find out what was going on with David that caused him to write it, it can be surprising. This psalm of praise, joy, and trust was written during one of the most desperate times of his life. We too, can find hope, peace and joy, no matter what we might be going through.

To listen to the sermon, click the play button:

For some people, the player above may not work. If that happens to you, use the link below to either download, or open a player in a new page to listen.

To download, right click on the link (or do whatever you do on a Mac) and save it to your computer: Download Psalms Part 6

Psalm thirty-four is one of my personal favourites. When I was in university, I learned a song that is made up entirely of words from this psalm. The song doesn’t contain the whole psalm, but all of the words of the song come from it. We use the song in our yearly Passover seder, and so for me, psalm thirty-four is a reminder of joy and thanksgiving, gathering with family and friends in the presence of the Lord.

Before we actually look at the words of the psalm, let’s dig into the background. There is a superscription (that is a note attached to the psalm in the original Hebrew text) to this psalm which reads: “Of David, when he changed his behavior before Abimelech, so that he drove him out, and he went away.” This sounds a lot like the incident described in 1 Samuel 21:10-15, with one exception. The person mentioned here before the psalm is Abimelech, but the name of the king of Gath in 1 Samuel 21 is Achish. However, like many ancient leaders, he probably had more than one name. It is also possible that Achish is his name, and Abimelech is a title, like “Pharoah.” (The Philistine civilization was relatively small and brief, and we don’t know everything there is to know about it).

Anyway, the situation was this: David was warned by Jonathan that king Saul was absolutely determined to kill him. So David fled to the Philistine city of Gath. Remember, the Philistines were the mortal enemies of the Israelites, and David had already, by this point, killed many of them in battle. This shows us how entirely desperate he was: he was trying to hide among his enemies. He left with absolutely nothing: no food, not even a weapon. Shortly after he arrived in Gath, he was recognized. Some of the Philistines said, “Isn’t this David, the hero of the Israelites? Aren’t the Israelites singing songs about how many of us Philistines he has killed in battle?” They grabbed him, and brought him before their leader: Achish/Abimelech. This was a terribly dangerous moment. David had just escaped one enemy, only to be captured by another. He had the idea to pretend that he was insane. The leader of Gath saw him acting like someone who had lost his wits, and in disgust, he told his men to escort David out of town. It isn’t clear if he believed that it was David, gone mad, or just a generic madman that his men had brought to him. Either way, they kicked him out of town without harming him seriously. He fled from there, and went and hid in a cave. So it was a tense time, and a very narrow escape for David. However, in the end, he was safe (for the moment), from both Saul, and the Philistines. Afterwards, David wrote this psalm. With all of that in mind, let’s see what David has to say.

1 I will bless the LORD at all times;
his praise shall continually be in my mouth.
2 My soul makes its boast in the LORD;

let the humble hear and be glad.
3 Oh, magnify the LORD with me,
and let us exalt his name together!

4 I sought the LORD, 
and he answered me
and delivered me from all my fears.

5 Those who look to him 
are radiant,
and their faces shall never be ashamed.

6 This poor man cried, 
and the LORD heard him
and saved him out of all his troubles.

7 The angel of the LORD encamps
around those who fear him, and delivers them.

8 Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good!
Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!

9 Oh, fear the LORD, you his saints,
for those who fear him have no lack!

10 The young lions suffer want and hunger;
but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing.

11 Come, O children, listen to me;
I will teach you the fear of the LORD.
12 What man is there who desires life
and loves many days, that he may see good?
13 Keep your tongue from evil
and your lips from speaking deceit.
14 Turn away from evil and do good;
seek peace and pursue it.

15 The eyes of the LORD are toward the righteous
and his ears toward their cry.
16 The face of the LORD is against those who do evil,
to cut off the memory of them from the earth.

17 When the righteous cry for help, the LORD hears
and delivers them out of all their troubles.

18 The LORD is near to the brokenhearted
and saves the crushed in spirit.

19 Many are the afflictions of the righteous,
but the LORD delivers him out of them all.
20 He keeps all his bones;
not one of them is broken.

21 Affliction will slay the wicked,
and those who hate the righteous will be condemned.

22 The LORD redeems the life of his servants;
none of those who take refuge in him will be condemned.

In the first place, the psalm shows us that in his time of great danger and fear, David put his hope entirely in the Lord. David isn’t just praising God because he happens to be happy. He isn’t writing a psalm like this because he’s never had any problems or experienced trouble. Already by this point in his life, he had faced a literal giant, and been in many battles. And then, just before writing this, he was in the very tricky situation I described above. So we can’t accuse David of being unrealistic about the serious challenges people face in their lives. Even so, he maintains that it is good and right to put our faith in the Lord, and praise him at all times.

Second, as I mentioned, David wrote this sometime relatively soon after his narrow escape from both Saul, and the Philistines. However, even then, though the immediate danger was suspended for the moment, he was still in a pretty precarious position. He had to go live in a cave in order to hide from Saul’s men, and also from the Philistines. In other words, he had enemies in all directions around him. He had no guarantee even about the source of his next meal.

Therefore, when he wrote this psalm, it was almost certainly the lowest point in David’s life so far. Things had started so well, and then came crashing down spectacularly. He was anointed by Samuel to be Israel’s next king. Not long after, he challenged Goliath, and won. Then he became Israel’s foremost warrior, and he spent time also moonlighting as a musician. He became a personal favourite of King Saul. He even married Saul’s daughter. It seemed like everything was on track. His career was moving forward. But then suddenly, everything fell apart. Saul tried to kill him. His best friend warned him to run for his life. He left with nothing – no food, not even a weapon. He couldn’t even find shelter hiding anonymously with Israel’s enemies. So, finally, he ends up in the cave.

But David shows remarkable perspective. He had a great deal to complain about. Things had gone from terrific, to bad, to worse, to “living-all-alone-in-a-hole-in-the-ground.” But instead of complaining, he remembered that God had saved his life. I might have been complaining about why God allowed such things to happen. David, however, thanked God for saving him. Not only that, but he wrote this:

8 Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good!

Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!

Clearly, there is something going on here that transcends David’s actual experience. I don’t think he means: “Oh, how wonderful it is that that I’ve lost everything, and I was almost murdered twice and now I live in a cave with nothing to my name.” But something in his experience of God was much more significant to him than his experience of fear and loss. I do hesitate to use the word “experience,” here. True spiritual things transcend mere feelings. But at some level David connected with the truth of God’s love and care for him, even when his circumstances told him otherwise. I believe the essence of that connection was faith.

If you have read many of these messages, you have probably picked up on the fact that I have some kind of health issue. The short version is, I have a never ending phantom kidney stone. I am in a great deal of pain almost all the time. I am in pain as I write this. Sometimes, I feel sorry for myself, especially when other difficult things happen to me. At times, I think it is healthy to vent my feelings of frustration, and even to complain to God. We have already considered a psalm in which David did that. However, though God can handle our complaints, too much complaining is not good for us. Although venting my feelings can be cathartic, if I continue to complain for very long, I start to feel worse again. What does reliably help my heart is to surrender in faith to what the scripture says about God’s goodness and love. When I trust, in spite of the circumstances of my life, that God is good and that he loves me, it lifts my spirit, and brings me peace. I think that is exactly what is going on with David in this psalm.

David invites us to taste and see that the Lord is good. How do we do that? I think it begins with thanksgiving. For my part, I have learned that it is important for me to thank him for all things, and especially for the difficult things in my life; even for my literal pain. I am learning to trust that the Lord is with me in the middle of this suffering, and therefore, I can thank him for it.

You might say: “Great thought, Tom, but that’s not going to happen for me.” I might say: “Sure. How’re things working out for you doing it your way? Are you finding peace and grace in the midst of your struggles?” So, I encourage you to try it, even if it is hard, at first to thank God for difficult circumstances. I don’t mean feel thankful, I mean say “thank you” to God for what troubles you. You might be surprised at how much just that one act of will can change your heart.

You can almost feel David’s joy and peace in this psalm. The only explanation for it is that he trusted God beyond what he could see and feel. He said, “I will bless the Lord at all times.” This isn’t the peace of “everything is all right at this moment.” It is the peace of: “I have a hope that no tragedy on earth can destroy or touch.”

The overall point I am making is that in order to taste and see God’s goodness, we have to start by trusting that he is indeed good, whether or not we can feel his goodness at the moment. We taste his goodness when we surrender our own insistence that God do things our way, and instead trust that he is indeed good. Again, I think one way to help us do that is through thanksgiving.

Some of the verses in this psalm raise certain issues for me. There are many such troublesome verses in other psalms as well. For instance:

9 Oh, fear the LORD, you his saints,

for those who fear him have no lack!

10 The young lions suffer want and hunger;

but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing.

The reason this verse troubles me is because it seems to me that at times, I have suffered a lack of good things. For instance, in my particular case, I think it’s fair to say that while, like all human beings, I struggle and fail, at the same time, I do, by any reasonable measure, fear the Lord, and seek the Lord. Even so, I lack healing. Setting aside my own issue, I have travelled all over the world, and there are millions of Christians in other countries, even today, who lack good things like freedom, justice, access to good medical care, and even sufficient food. What do we do with this?

One thing to keep in mind with verses like this, is that this, like all psalms, is poetry. Because of the genre (poetry) we know we aren’t meant to take this in a overly literal way. The psalm invites us to enter into praising God. It also expresses certain truths, but those truths are general, and they are consciously exaggerated in order to express the feeling that David wants to convey. So this is not meant to be a straightforward teaching telling us that all believers will always have every single thing that they think they need. Instead, it invites us to see how good God is to his people, and how much he cares for them.

Secondly, and most importantly, we only receive all the fulness of God’s promises in eternity. That is, we don’t get the “full package” until we die in faith, and then stand with Jesus in our resurrected bodies. So, in that sense, we could say: “The Lord promises that he will completely, and utterly deliver us from every single trouble that we experience in this life.” He does promise that. And we get that total and complete deliverance, along with our new resurrected bodies, in the New Creation. Until then, we still do get some good from God, even when we don’t deserve it. But the complete version of the promise must wait until we step into eternity. Some people might think that’s a bit of a raw deal, but actually, if it were the other way round, that would be the raw deal.

Let’s do a thought experiment to understand why. Imagine you are a kid at a game arcade. In order to play any of the games, you need tokens that only work in that arcade. The tokens will also allow you to buy any of the food sold on the property. As it happens, your dad is a billionaire. You say, “Hey Dad, why don’t you give me a hundred million game tokens, so I can play these games and eat here whenever I want to?”

He says: “I’ll give you some tokens, because I love you, and like seeing you enjoy yourself. But too much time here, and too much of this cheap food would actually be bad for you.” Almost certainly, you don’t understand how just having fun and eating hot dogs could be bad for you. But your dad goes on: “What I actually want to give you is a hundred million dollars in real money. Then you can use it, even when you leave this place. But I have to wait until you are ready to handle it.”

Would you rather have a hundred million dollars worth of game tokens that you can only use in the arcade, or a hundred million dollars of legal tender? Obviously, any mentally competent adult would pick the real money. The game tokens are of limited use. When the kid gets older, he’ll probably stop enjoying the games that much, and he’ll certainly be sick of the cheap hot dogs and stale chips that the concession stand serves. The dad refrains from giving his child everything the child wants in order to give him something far, far better.

So, God does give us good things to enjoy in this present life. But his best promises are only fully realized in our eternity with Him. Jesus told us that the best kind of treasure is the stuff that lasts forever:

19 “Don’t store up treasures here on earth, where moths eat them and rust destroys them, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 Store your treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal. 21 Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be.

(Matthew 6:19-21, NLT)

The best “good thing” I can have in this life will still be destroyed. At most, I will get to enjoy whatever it is until I die. But the Lord promises good to us that will last forever. He is still kind to us, to bless us and give us many things to enjoy in this present life. But those are weak and cheap compared to the real things, which we will be able to enjoy for eternity.

David writes: “The righteous person faces many troubles, but the LORD comes to the rescue each time,” (verse 19, NLT). So we aren’t promised a trouble-free life. In fact, that verse says that those who follow the Lord will indeed face many struggles. But we do not face them alone. And again, the promise will be completely fulfilled in the New Creation, but even now we get partial fulfillments.

Finally, there is this: “The LORD redeems the life of his servants; none of those who take refuge in him will be condemned.” The Lord is merciful. If we take refuge in Him, we will not be condemned. Hear these promises. Trust that they are true, and receive them, and praise him in response.

PSALMS #4: A SECURE, JOYFUL LIFE: PSALM SIXTEEN.

On By Pastor TomIn Bible, Bible Teaching, Jesus, Podcast, psalms, Religion, Sermon, Uncategorized1 Comment
Photo by Jill Wellington on Pexels.com

David shows us what it looks like to have a life that is fully centered on the Lord, and on the love, security and joy that we can find only in Him.

To listen to the sermon, click the play button:

For some people, the player above may not work. If that happens to you, use the link below to either download, or open a player in a new page to listen.

To download, right click on the link (or do whatever you do on a Mac) and save it to your computer: Download Psalms Part 4

PSALMS #4. PSALM 16:1-11

Once again, I want us to begin by letting this psalm engage us at the level of heart and soul. Stop, and pray, and ask the Lord to engage your spirit and emotions as you read this psalm. Now read it. I have formatted it below to try and show the poetic parallels.

PSALM 16: A MIKTAM OF DAVID.

1 Preserve me, O God, for in you I take refuge.
     2 I say to the LORD, “You are my Lord;
     I have no good apart from you.”

3 As for the saints in the land, 
     they are the excellent ones,
     in whom is all my delight.

4 The sorrows of those who run after another god shall multiply;
     their drink offerings of blood I will not pour out
     or take their names on my lips.

5 The LORD is my chosen portion and my cup;
     you hold my lot.
     6 The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;
     indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance.

7 I bless the LORD 
     who gives me counsel;
     in the night also my heart instructs me.

8 I have set the LORD always before me;
     because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.
     9 Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices;
     my flesh also dwells secure.

10 For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol,
or let your holy one see corruption.

11 You make known to me the path of life;
in your presence there is fullness of joy;
at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

This psalm is a song of praise, and also a declaration of trust in the Lord. It is attributed to David, and the apostle Peter also confirms that David wrote it (more on that below). The very first line is “Preserve me, O God, for in you I take refuge.” I don’t think this means that David is in trouble when he writes this psalm – the rest of it, for the most part is joyful and peaceful. But it is a declaration of trust. David is announcing that his security is in God, not in any earthly thing. The remainder of the psalm makes this quite clear. He declares his full allegiance to God: “You alone are my Lord.”

David also says, “I have no good apart from you.” I don’t think David means that his life is so terrible that he has nothing good going on except God. Instead, what he means is that every good thing he has in life comes through the hands of God, and is a gift from God. Every good thing in his life has only one source: God. This reminds me of something written by James:

16 So don’t be misled, my dear brothers and sisters. 17 Whatever is good and perfect is a gift coming down to us from God our Father, who created all the lights in the heavens. He never changes or casts a shifting shadow.

(James 1:16-17, NLT)

Among the gifts to enjoy for those who love God are other people who also love God. That’s the point of verse three. David delights in those who, like him, have God as their greatest treasure. Verse four gives us a contrast: if we learn to love God himself as our greatest treasure, and we treasure others who do so, we find that we do not want to participate with those who are pursuing other things. We may be friends with such people, and even love them, but we do not go the way they are going, or pursue the things they pursue.

However, I don’t think we should miss the main point David is making: the greatest treasure is God himself, not his gifts. He demonstrates this again in verse five. Let’s start with the idea of “cup,” as David means it here. In the Bible, sometimes the word “cup” is used in a metaphysical way. In psalm 23, David says, in a way similar to here: “my cup overflows.” At other times, the prophets speak about the “cup of God’s wrath.” When James and John ask Jesus for a special position in the Kingdom of God, Jesus asks: “Are you able to drink the cup that I drink?” So, used as it is in psalm sixteen, the cup means: “the present and future that God has planned for me.” David is saying: I choose the cup that God offers me. I will drink in the life that he gives me, including all the blessings he chooses to give, and all the hardship that he allows. As it turned out, David’s life included both many hardships and many blessings. His life was very full, and almost never boring.

David also uses three key terms: portion, lot, and boundary lines. When the people of Israel came into the land of Canaan, God, through Moses, gave careful instructions about how the land was to be divided up between the tribes, and clans and families of Israel. Portions, lots, and boundary lines all refer to the dividing, and inheritance, of the land. In those days, in that part of the world, virtually all wealth came from land. Land allowed you to grow grain and pasture animals, so that you had enough to eat. It was security. It was sacred. Someone without land had nothing. Land-inheritance was a sacred right for Israelites; the land was given to them, and their families, in perpetuity, by God himself.

Now, David writes that he finds his inheritance beautiful. That could mean he is delighted with his ancestral lands. However, the way he puts it makes me think that he is saying something that would be shocking to those who first heard it. He says first: “The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup; you hold my lot.” I think he is saying, “rather than my ancestral land, I choose the Lord. I choose him even above my land. He is the inheritance I want, and He is beautiful. He is everything I want and need.”

This fits with the psalm as a whole. To understand how shocking this sentiment is, imagine someone who inherits a sizable amount of money from his or her parents. With diligent management, that money will provide a lifelong income for this person. But that person says: “Forget the money. All I want is the Lord. He is worth more to me than my inheritance. I choose Him as my inheritance.”

David goes on to bless the Lord for counsel. God directs him, and gives him wisdom. It seems to me that is a wisdom that comes through the head, and thinking. I find it interesting that he adds: “In the night also, my heart instructs me.” He had an instinctive awareness that God speaks to us through our hearts, as well as our heads. This is part of his joyful experience of following the Lord: the Lord speaks to his head, and to his heart.

Again in verse eight he declares that his faith gives him more security than land, or anything else on earth. He once more proclaims his delight in God’s presence with him. He has chosen God above all else, and this means that his greatest treasure cannot be taken from him. He rejoices in God with everything within himself.

The last three verses are very interesting. From David’s perspective, it looks like, because of his faith in God, he is not afraid to die. The writers of the New Testament saw this part of the psalm as a prophecy about Jesus, and the resurrection of Jesus. In the book of Acts, after the Holy Spirit was poured on the apostles and the group of close disciples, the apostle Peter preached a sermon. He explained what was happening with the Holy Spirit being poured out on the believers, and then he spoke about the resurrection of Jesus. He quoted directly from this psalm, psalm sixteen, and after quoting it, he said:

29 “My friends, I must speak to you plainly about our famous ancestor King David. He died and was buried, and his grave is here with us to this very day. 30 He was a prophet, and he knew what God had promised him: God had made a vow that he would make one of David’s descendants a king, just as David was. 31 David saw what God was going to do in the future, and so he spoke about the resurrection of the Messiah when he said,
‘He was not abandoned in the world of the dead;
his body did not rot in the grave.’
32 God has raised this very Jesus from death, and we are all witnesses to this fact. 33 He has been raised to the right side of God, his Father, and has received from him the Holy Spirit, as he had promised. What you now see and hear is his gift that he has poured out on us.

(Acts 2:29-33, GNT)

So what does all this mean for us?

I think David is a model for us. He shows us the joy, comfort and security we have when we choose the Lord above all else. The best this world can offer us is only temporary joy, temporary pleasure, temporary security. But when our deepest treasure is God, we can be joyful and secure even when things are not great in our outward circumstances. He writes:

8 I have set the LORD always before me;

because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.

9 Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices;

my flesh also dwells secure.

As it turned out for David, this was an extremely important lesson, one that he must have relied on again and again during the many occasions when his life was in danger, and he had nothing to his name. He writes that because the Lord is at his right hand, he shall not be shaken. Well, we know that his circumstances were shaken again and again. But he was not shaken, because everything he really wanted and needed he had in the Lord.

Something else is worth remembering here. David is saying that his entire life is centered around the Lord. As we think about this we should remember that David was not a priest, nor was he any kind of full time minister for his vocation. David felt this way about the Lord, and arranged his life around his relationship with the Lord, and he kept up that heartfelt attitude to the Lord in the midst of “ordinary life.” He didn’t retire to a monastery (those hadn’t yet been invented). We know that David loved to worship with others who loved the Lord, and he did so joyfully whenever he had the chance. But his life was spent mostly as a warrior, and a king (and also a short gig as a professional musician).

As I just mentioned, for a time he was a professional musician for King Saul. He also engaged in military maneuvers, and in battles. He spent many years actively running for his life from other military units. Later, he became a king, and he had to have meetings with advisors, and engage in formal ceremonies, and do a lot of administration. In short, he always had a “secular job.” He wasn’t just sitting around praying, and contemplating God. And yet, whatever he was doing (with the exception of one or two horrible sins) he did with an awareness of God’s presence, and a desire to be used by God. He was a full-time God lover in all that he did.

I think this is a very important point. Sometimes, we compartmentalize our faith. On Sundays, we get encouraged in faith, and we seriously think about the role of the Lord in our life. But it’s easy to forget the presence of God in the middle of a phone call with a superior who is blaming you to cover her own mistakes. It’s easy to forget that we can be secure in the Lord when we’ve just been laid off, or when someone we love tells us that they are angry with us. It’s also easy to forget our Lord when we are kicking back with our friends and some cold beverages.

But the kind of faith that we read about in the Bible is meant to be for every day, and every situation. We are followers of Jesus (who is the Lord) at all times: at work, with our families, and when we are relaxing, or with friends. David understood, and rejoiced, that faith is a way of life. We don’t merely “practice it” on Sunday mornings, or whenever we happen to remember. It is full time. David shows us that anyone, no matter what their circumstances can live a life that is centered on the Lord.

I also think it is really important to connect with David’s word: “Apart from you, I have no good thing.” This doesn’t mean that the only good in the world comes through Christians, or things created by Christians; that is not remotely what it says. But it does mean that every bit of true joy we’ve ever had was originated by God, and brought to us by God, whether we know it or not. Paul, preaching a sermon in the town of Lystra, said this:

We are here to announce the Good News, to turn you away from these worthless things to the living God, who made heaven, earth, sea, and all that is in them. 16 In the past he allowed all people to go their own way. 17 But he has always given evidence of his existence by the good things he does: he gives you rain from heaven and crops at the right times; he gives you food and fills your hearts with happiness.”

(Acts 14:15-17, GNT)

All good things come originally from God, and we can and should receive them as such. I receive a lot of music as goodness from God, even when I know the musicians don’t believe in Him. He exists, and he is kind to us, and sometimes uses us to bless others, whether we believe it or not. The same is true of many books I read. It is true in the company of the people we love, and in awe-inspiring encounters with nature. These moments of joy, happiness and goodness are hints of what life is like in the full presence of God. Right now, our sin prevents us from experiencing more, but we are promised the fullness of God’s joy in the New Creation. I think that is what David means when he writes:

in your presence there is fullness of joy;

at your right hand are pleasures forevermore. (Psalm 16:11, ESV)

I think it is good for us to learn to recognize the goodness of God in every moment of joy and happiness we experience. The more we do so, the more we will start to feel the way David feels, as expressed in this psalm. It is easier to love God, and choose him above all else, when we realize how wonderful he is, and how kind he has been to us. This is not something we can do just once. I think the key is to develop a habit of gratitude, and a habit of recognizing the hand of God in everything around us.

Let the Holy Spirit speak to you right now!