Let us turn to the Psalm, Psalm
34, and considering in particular the verses 7, 8, 9. Psalm 34, verses 7, 8 and 9. The angel of the Lord encompass
round about them that fear him and delivereth them. O taste
and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man that trusteth
in him. O fear the Lord, ye his saints,
for there is no want to them that fear him. to say something
then with regards to this one who is referred to as the angel
of the Lord. The angel of the Lord encompass
round about them that fear him and delivereth them. O taste
and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man that trusteth
in him. O fear the Lord, ye his saints,
for there is no want to them that fear him. Who is this angel? Well, it is not a created angel. There are created angels. There
are cherubim and there are seraphim. And we know that there are certain
named angels, the angel Gabriel and the archangel Michael. But this angel is none of these. This is not a created angel,
this is God himself, the one who is spoken of as the angel
of the Lord, in verse 7, is the same referred to as the Lord,
both in verse 8 and again in verse 9. The passage that really helps
us to understand just who the angel of the Lord is is found
back in the book of Exodus. There's a passage there in Exodus
23 that we might say forms a key whereby we can understand who
this angel of the Lord is. In Exodus 23 we have the promise
of God In verse 20, Behold, I send an angel before thee, to keep
thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have
prepared. Beware of him, and obey his voice. Provoke him not,
for he will not pardon your transgressions, for my name is in him. Certain things then are being
said with regards to this angel. He is one who is able to forgive
sins, there at verse 21. He will not
pardon your transgressions if you are disobedient, says the
Lord God. Now remember the ministry of
the Lord Jesus as we have it recorded there in the Gospel
in Mark chapter 2. We read of those men who bring
their paralyzed friends to the Lord. There's a great crush of
people and they find it difficult to find access and they climb
onto the flat roof and they make a way whereby they are able to
lower their friend to where the Lord is in the house below. And when the Lord witnesses the
faith of this man and his friends, He says to the young man, Son,
thy sins be forgiven thee. And the scribes who were present
are outraged, and they cry out, Who can forgive sins but God
only? And they were right. It is God's
prerogative to forgive sins. As we see in another psalm, thou
wast a God that forgave us them, though thou tookest vengeance
on their inventions. God is that one who is able to
forgive sins, and what those scribes were doing really was
accusing the Lord Jesus of blasphemy. He was indicating that he is
God. And then, remember how he says
what is easier to say, thy sins be forgiven thee. And then he
turns to the young man and says, take up thy bed and walk. And
by the miracle, he demonstrates the truth that he is truly divine. He is the son of God who has
power to heal the sick, has power also to forgive sins. And this angel that is being
spoken of then, back in Exodus 23, that the Lord God promises
to send before the children of Israel is to be identified with
the Lord Jesus Christ. In fact, again, in the New Testament,
Paul, writing in 1 Corinthians chapter 10, says concerning the
children of Israel in the wilderness and what they were guilty of,
neither let us tempt Christ as some of them also tempted him
and were destroyed of the serpents. They templated the Lord Jesus
there in the wilderness. He was the one who was leading
them in the way. He is that one who is identified
with the angel of the Lord. And clearly this is the case.
Again, look at the language that we have in these verses that
I referred to in Exodus 23. God says at verse 21, My name
is in him. My name is in him in this one who is the angel
of the Lord and we can think of the words that we have in
the gospel there in John 14 concerning Philip when he says to the Lord
show us the father and he defies us and the Lord answers Philip
and says have I been such long time with thee Philip and yet
hast thou not known me? He that hath seen me hath seen
the father How sayest thou then, show us the Father? Believest
thou not that I am in the Father, and my Father is in me?" I am
in my Father. My Father is in me. My name is
in Him. It is what the Lord God says
there in Exodus concerning the angel. It is the Lord Jesus Christ. It is the Eternal Son of God.
Again, When we think of the language that follows in that passage,
verse 22 of Exodus 23, If thou shalt indeed obey his voice,
and do all that I speak. To obey the voice of the angel
is to do all that the Lord God himself speaks. Those are parallel
statements. If thou shalt indeed obey his
voice, the angel's voice, it is the same as doing all that
God speaks and so we can be quite clear then with regards to the
angel of the Lord it is truly the Lord Jesus Christ himself
the angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him
and delivereth him. Well as we come to consider this
verse and the two following verses I divide what I say into some
four parts. First of all, with regards to
the angel to see how that here in the angel we have the revelation
of God. How the angel is clearly associated
with the face of God. I think of Exodus 33 and verse
14. Remember, after the children of Israel had sinned in the matter
of the golden calf, and God had spoken of disinheriting them
and making a nation out of Moses and his descendants, Moses stands
in the bridge and pleads for them that God will not cast them
off, but go before them, and God gives that promise. Exodus
33, 14, My presence shall go with thee. Literally, as the
margin says, My face shall go with thee." And what is that
face? Oh, that face is to be identified
with the angel. The end of Exodus chapter 13,
how the Lord went before them. It says in a pillar of cloud
by day, a pillar of fire by night, to lead them in the way, and
he takes not away that cloud from them. He is constantly going
before them. And so that promise is being
confirmed in Exodus 33, my presence, literally my face, shall go with
thee. Now, thinking of the angel then,
the angel of the Lord, We go back to the experience of Jacob
in the 32nd chapter of the book of Genesis where he wrestles
with the angel or the angel is wrestling with him. He's returning
now after all those years with Laban, his uncle, and he's returning
with his wives and their children and he's somewhat fearful because
he's going to meet with his brother Esau again and he wonders what
sort of reception he will find and he's left alone there in
Genesis chapter 32 and he wrestles with the angel and he will not
let the angel go except the angel bless him and remember afterwards
we're told that Jacob called the name of that place Peniel
For I have seen the face of God, he says, and have been preserved. Peniel
means the face of God. The angel is the Lord Jesus Christ
and it is in the Lord Jesus Christ that God reveals himself. We read in the New Testament
of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. It is in Christ
alone that we can see God. He is the image of the invisible
God. No man hath seen God at any time.
The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he
hath declared him, and that's so in the Old Testament, the
angel of the Lord. Does he not appear to Abraham? And as he appears to Abraham,
so as we've said, he also appears to Jacob, he appears to Gideon,
The angel of the Lord appears to Manoah and his wife so many
occasions in the Old Testament we read of this angel of the
Lord. The angel of the Lord encampeth
round about them that fear him, and delivereth them, O taste
and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man that trusteth
in him. Or this one who is the angel
then. identified with the face of God. And we have to think
then in terms of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is that one who has
come to reveal God, be it Old Testament, but of course when
we come to the New Testament we have the fullness of that
revelation of God. And again, I find it interesting
when we look at the words that we have there in that 23rd chapter
of the book of Exodus, because we see that there are distinct
persons in the Godhead. And we see it in the pronouns,
as God is the one who is speaking to Moses. Behold, he says, I
send an angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to
bring thee unto the place which I have prepared. And then beware
of him." We have the first person, but now God speaks. of someone
in the third person. Beware of him, and obey his voice. Provoke him not, for he will
not pardon your transgressions." And then again, the first person,
for my name is in him. It is God speaking to Moses,
and it is God speaking of His Son, the Father speaking of His
Son. This is the doctrine of God.
There is one God. Here, O Israel, the Lord our
God is one Lord, and yet there are distinct persons. There's
the Father, and as we see in other passages, there's not only
the Son, but also the Holy Spirit. And when he comes to that blessing,
that the priests were to pronounce upon Israel, the Lord bless thee
and keep thee, the Lord make his face to shine upon thee and
be gracious unto thee, the Lord lift up his countenance upon
thee and give thee peace. Three times we have the Lord,
the Lord, the Lord, and then It says at the end of that sixth
chapter, they shall put my name, in the singular, my name upon
the children of Israel. What is the name of God? It is
Lord, Lord, Lord, it's Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It is that name into which we
are baptized, baptizing them in the name, singular. of the
Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. And there we
have these wonderful intimations even in the Old Testament Scripture
concerning the doctrine of God and the person of God the Son
who in the fullness of the time is to be made of a woman and
made under the Lord he will appear as a real man in the earth. But
there are these passages in Old Testament where God appears to
men. How does he appear in the person
of Christ? He's what they call Theophanes.
He's Theophanes, the angel of the Lord. And then in the second
place, how this one is to be feared. The angel of the Lord encompass
round about them that fear him. And then verse 9, O fear the
Lord, ye his saints. Again, going back to that 23rd
chapter of Exodus, I said it's a significant portion and you
can read it and study it and meditate upon it, but see what
he goes on to say there at verse 27. Exodus 23 verse 27, God says,
I will send my fear before them. Oh, the angel is the fear of
God. He is that one who is to be feared. Remember the language
there in verse 21, beware of him, provoke him not. This is
the angel of the Lord. When we come together to worship,
we worship God in and through His Son. There is one mediator
between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. How we are to reverence
that name. Keep thy foot when thou goest
to the house of God. Be more ready to hear and to
give the sacrifice of fools, for they consider not what they
do. God is in heaven, thou art upon earth, therefore let thy
words be few, says the wise man, the preacher in Ecclesiastes. We are to tread carefully then,
reverently. Think of that third commandment,
thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain,
for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name
in vain. We take that name upon our lips,
and we are to do it in a spirit of real awe. Here then we see
the importance of the fear of the Lord. It is round about them
that fear Him, and the exhortation, O fear the Lord, ye His saints. What is this fear? Well, it's
not It's not a slavish fear. It's not the fear of the demons.
James says, Thou believest there is one God, thou doest well.
The devils also believe and tremble. It's not that fear that brings
torment. You can think of the ministry
of the Lord Jesus when he commences his ministry there in the synagogue
in the opening chapter of Mark. There's a man possessed. What
does the demon say? Let us alone. What have we to
do with thee? Jesus of Nazareth, art thou come
to destroy us? I know thee who thou art, the
Holy One of God. Oh, the demons are filled with
dread. They do believe. You know, there's
no unbelief. In hell, isn't that part of the
awful torments of the damned? They know that God is. And yet
they are eternally separated from that God. That God who really
should be the center of our very being, our very existence. What a blessing it is to know
Him. Thou hast made us for thyself, says Augustine. Our souls are
restless till they find their rest in those who are eternally
cut off with the demons they believe and they're in torment
but the fear that we have here of course is that filial fear it's that fear that is in those
who know the Lord who know that true faith, that real repentance
they know they're sinners but they know that There is grace
and salvation with the Lord. If thou, Lord, shouldst mark
iniquity, O Lord, who shouldst stand? But there is forgiveness
with thee, that thou mayest be feared. Where there is that real
forgiveness, it goes hand in hand with the fear of the Lord. Are we those who do truly fear
him? We reverence his name. We can think of so many scriptures
that speak of it. It's spoken of, of course, much
in the Book of Proverbs. The fear of the Lord is the beginning
of wisdom. The fear of the Lord is the beginning
of knowledge, or to know God, to be made wise unto salvation. The hymn writer says, this fear,
this fear is the spirit of faith, the confidence that's strong,
an anxious light to all that's right, a bar to all that's wrong. The fear of the Lord. And that's
what we have here. The angel of the Lord encompassed
round about who? About them that fear him and
delivereth them. O fear the Lord, yea his signs. But then also we see here something
of the fervour of the Lord. There is the favor of protection. He encampeth round about, it
says, round about them that fear him. Now, we read in another
psalm of how the mountains are round about Jerusalem. Jerusalem
surrounded with mountains. Psalm 125, they that trust in
the Lord shall be as Mount Zion, which cannot be removed, but
abideth forever, as the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so
the Lord is round about his people from henceforth even forever. Well isn't this proof again that
this angel who is round about his people in the Psalm that
we're considering, Psalm 34, is the same one who here is simply
referred to as the Lord? The Lord encampeth round about
His people and isn't that a fiver? God protects
His people. He is round about them in order
that they might be kept safe, in order that they might be delivered out of all their troubles,
He will keep them safe from all the assaults of Satan. He will
preserve them in the midst of all the snares that are to be
found in this wicked world. They're kept. They're kept by
the power of God through faith unto salvation. The psalmist
says in the 22nd Psalm, none can keep alive his own soul.
And we live to prove that. We cannot keep alive our soul. We cannot give ourselves any
spiritual life. We are poor dependents upon the
grace of God. But what a blessing to know the
favor of the Lord, that the Lord is round about us, that he keeps
us in the midst of all the temptations that the devil comes and throws
at us. Oh, he is far stronger than that
strong man armed. But as he protects his people,
so we see him as that one who also provides for his people. Verse 9, O fear the Lord, ye
his saints, for there is no want to them that fear him. The young
lions do lack and suffer hunger, but they that seek the Lord shall
not want any good thing. How the Lord favours His people
by making every provision for His people. Again the Psalm says,
I have been young and now I am old, yet have I not seen the
righteous forsaken nor his seed begging bread. The Lord makes
provision for His people providentially. At times we become very fearful. But has the Lord ever failed
us? No, the Lord provides with regards to all our temporal needs.
in spite of all our doubts and all our unbelieving fears. But
the Lord doesn't only provide for us with regards to temporal
things. He has made every provision with
regards to our spiritual need. And those of our great, what
provision God has made, I have not seen nor heard, neither have
entered into the heart of man the things that God has prepared
for them that love Him. Has not the Lord Jesus Christ
Himself gone to prepare a place for His people? Oh, it is that that is eternal
in the heavens. We look not at the things that
are seen, but the things that are unseen. It says, Paul, the
things that are seen are temporal, the unseen things are the eternal
things. Oh, the Lord makes every provision
temporal, but also spiritual. all our needs. Do we need faith?
It is the Lord who provides faith. That faith is the gift of God.
Do we need repentance? It is the Lord Jesus Christ who
is exalted, a Prince and a Saviour to give repentance. All those
graces that we stand in need of, where do they come from?
They are the graces of the Spirit of God. We need the Holy Spirit. Remember how God reminds the
children of Israel of the Lord's provision for them through all
the wilderness wanderings, when they come to the borders of the
Promised Land in Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy 8, Thou shalt remember
all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years
in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know
what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments
or no. And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and
fed thee. with manner which thou knewest
not, neither did thy fathers know, that he might make thee
know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word
that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live. Thy
raiment wax not old upon thee, neither did thy foot swell these
forty years. How the Lord cares for His people!
How the Lord favours His people! Oh, the angel. The angel is none
other than the Lord Jesus Christ and we are to fear Him. But it
is a fearful fear because He is that God who has favored us
and we can call upon Him. We can approach Him through Christ
and address Him as our Father, which art in heaven. But then
finally, the vital necessity of true faith. We have it here
in verse 8, blessed is the man that trusteth in Him. Here is
the blessed man. What is the mark of the blessed
man? He has faith in God. His trust is in God. He doesn't
look to men. He doesn't look to himself. He
is ever looking unto Jesus, the angel of the Lord, the author,
the finisher of our faith. How is his trust seen. Well, we see that his faith is
in God in that he prays. Verse 4, I sought the Lord and
he heard me and delivered me from all my fears. Verse 6, this
poor man cried and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all
his troubles. verse 15, "...the eyes of the
Lord are upon the righteous, and His ears are open unto their
cry." Here is the mark of faith, you see. These people who fear
the Lord, who have faith in the Lord, they pray to the Lord,
they call upon His name. And God hears them, and God answers
them, and God delivers them. They don't pray, In vain, we
see that quite clearly, do we not? In the text, look at verse
7, the angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him,
and delivereth them. Oh, they need to be delivered,
time and time again. Paul says of God who delivered
us from so great a death and doth deliver, in whom we trust
that he will yet deliver us. He's delivered us in the past,
He'll deliver us in the present, He'll deliver us again in the
future. He's the God of deliverances.
Verse 17, the righteous cry and the Lord hear us and deliver
us them out of all their troubles. Verse 19, many are the afflictions
of the righteous. What a word is that? You see
how the Lord tries His people. Now, we tried the children of
Israel during those forty years of wanderings. Many are the afflictions
of the righteous, but the Lord delivereth him out of them all. And so, we have that exhortation
in verse 8, O taste and see that the Lord is good. Now, There's an address, as it were,
to our senses. We don't just have the sense
of hearing, hearing the Word of God, nor the sense of sight,
seeing the Lord, as it were, with the eye of faith. One thinks
of the language of John there at the beginning of his first
general epistle, that which was from the beginning, he says,
which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which
we have looked upon, and our hands have handled of the word
of life." He speaks of hearing, of seeing, of handling, and here
we have tasting, or taste and see. Are we those who want all
of our senses to be, our spiritual senses as it were, engaged? And
with those then who truly do know this One who is spoken of
here in our text, the Angel of the Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ,
that One in and through whom the Lord God does truly reveal
Himself and make Himself known, the Angel of the Lord, encompass
round about them that fear Him and delivereth them, O taste
and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man that trusteth
in Him, O fear the Lord, ye His saints, for there is no want
to them that fear Him." May the Lord grant His blessing upon
His Word. Now let us further worship God
in the singing of the hymn 832. The tune is Dennis 26. The men that fear the Lord in
every state are blessed, The Lords will grant whatever they
want, their souls shall dwell at rest, when He pities all their
griefs, when sinking makes them swim, He dries their tears, relieves
their fears, and bids them trust in Him." 832.