Psalm 34, we'll be looking at
verses 1-5 this evening. Psalm 34, 1-5, and the title
of the message is, Christ's Praise and Our Gladness. Christ's Praise
and Our Gladness. The Scripture says, I will bless
the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually
be in my mouth. My soul shall make her boast
in the Lord. The humble shall hear thereof
and be glad. Oh, magnify the Lord with me,
and let us exalt His name together. I sought the Lord, and He heard
me and delivered me from all my fears. They looked on Him,
and they were lightened, and their faces were not ashamed." Now, the author of this psalm
is David, and if you could read that up there at the top of the
psalm there, it says the psalm of David, when he changed his
behavior before Abimelech, who drove him away and he departed.
Now, David truly is the author of this psalm, is praising God
for his deliverance. from Abimelech, which is the
king of the Philistines." Now that word, Abimelech, is something
like we would use for Pharaoh. Pharaoh is not a particular name
of a man, but rather his position. We would use Caesar, and it's
not a particular man, but his position. And Abimelech is interpreted
as the king of the Philistines. So if you want to read this later,
you can go back to 1 Samuel 21, 10 through 15 and read this account. But if you remember, David, running
from Saul, he went to the Philistines. And he came in that country to
try to save himself from Saul's wrath. Well, when the Philistines
found out that David was in their midst, they thought they would
bring him before the Abimelech, the king, and he would have a
prize. But David, fearing for his life,
he began to change his behavior and act like a madman. He began
to scribble on the walls, and drool would come down his face,
and he pretended to be insane. And so when they brought David
before him, he had this insane look all over him. And the king
said, why did you bring this insane man to me? And the king
threw him out. He didn't kill him, he threw
him out. And so after he was driven out, David here, he praises
the Lord. He said, I will bless the Lord
at all times. And so David, he is not praising
his sin. Now it was a sin for him to go
there. Why did he go there? Because
he was afraid of Saul. He didn't seek the Lord's favor.
He didn't seek the Lord's direction. He went there. And he got in
trouble. But yet he recognized this. He
didn't give any praise to his acting ability. He gave praise
to God who sent him away. He gave praise to God who delivered
him from these Philistines. And so David determines, he says,
I will praise the Lord at all times. Let me ask you this, is it not
just reasonable to praise the Lord at all times? Is that not
reasonable for men who are created of God? We all are created of
God. God sustains us, God keeps us,
God gives us everything that we have. Is it not right then
to praise Him at all times? Yes. It's just reasonable. He is to be honored, glorified,
praised, and worshiped every second of every day, and that's
just reasonable. And friends, only God is to receive
such praise. Only God. Only He is to be worshipped
and exalted. David, as David determined here,
I will bless the Lord at all times, even so should every believer
determine in their heart to praise God at all times. This should
be our determination. This should be our affection. This should be our heart to praise
God at all times. And not only praise Him with
our hearts, but also to praise Him with our lips, to boast of
Him for all that He has done. We should boast in the triune
God, shouldn't we? Is it not reasonable for a believer
in Christ to boast in God? I mean, we boast in such trivial
things, don't we? We boast in our family. Look
at this. Look at my son. Look at my daughter. We boast
in such trivial things. We boast in our family. We boast
in what we do. No. Boast in the Lord. Our boast should be in Him. Our
praise should be toward God. Why? The Father chose us. Praise
be to God at all times. The Father in eternity chose
us and put us in Christ before the world began. Praise be to
God the Son who took on Himself willingly to save us and to redeem
us. and not only took it upon Himself,
but also accomplished it by His death and by His righteousness.
He satisfied the justice of God and brought in by His obedience
an everlasting righteousness for you and for me. That's something
to boast in. That's something to boast in.
And we boast and we bless the Holy Spirit for revealing the
gospel to us. The only reason we know anything
about the Gospel at all is because of the Holy Spirit who reveals
these things to us in a supernatural way. The only way we're ever
going to know and to bless the Lord is if the Holy Spirit comes
and regenerates or resurrects our soul to life and faith in
Christ. Something supernatural has to
take place. Something God has to do for us,
not something we have to do for God. And because God has done
these things, we should continually praise Him. But let me ask you this, all
you saints of God, when have we ever blessed the
Lord at all times? When have we ever continually
spoke His praises with our lips? When have we ever continually
boasted in our God? The answer is never. But in our
experience, we have never continually boasted in God throughout our
life. We should have. We should have. He's worthy of it. He's done
all the things that are good for us. He saved us. He redeemed
us. He called us. Why should we not
praise Him all the time? I'm not even talking about before
we were called. I'm talking about after we were
called. We still have not continually praised Him as we should in our
experience. Therefore, I tell you that this
text is not only speaking of what we should have done or what
we should do, but it is speaking rather of what Christ has done. This text is speaking not of
David, but rather of Christ. So as we go through this psalm,
remember to keep your eyes on Christ. Let us put our focus
on Christ and see Christ in this text. In this text we may see the praises
of Christ. The praises of Christ. You see Christ praised God. That's what he did. When he came
to this world, he came for the express purpose of praising God. Of praising God. He came and
at all times during his life, he praised God. He praised his God. He praised his God, for God had
delivered him from death. from our sin and from the grave. He praised God even in the midst
of His darkest hour when He hung on the cross. He praised God. He boasted of God. And He calls all of His saints
to join with Him in this psalm. He calls every one of us who
are believers in Christ to come and praise the Lord with Him.
Praise the Lord with Him. Now, first of all, let us see
the blessings and boastings of Christ. Look at that, verse 1.
I will bless the Lord at all times, and His praise shall be
continually in my mouth. This is kind of strange, seeing
that He is Himself God. Jesus Christ is Himself the Son
of God, equal with the Father and the Spirit, who shared glory
with them in eternity, and yet here we see that Christ must
have yielded Himself to God. Christ must yield Himself to
become the servant of God. You remember in Philippians chapter
2 it says, let this mind be in you which was also in Christ
Jesus. Who being in the form of God thought it not robbery
to be equal with God. What does that word form mean?
That word form means nature. He being in the nature of God. He didn't think anything for
Him to be equal, God. It's not robbing God of His glory
to be equal with Him. It's His nature. He's God. Yet
He took upon Himself the form of a servant, the nature of a
servant, a man. God became man. and being found
in fashion as a man. The Scripture says He humbled
Himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the
cross. Christ humbled Himself before
the Father. He humbled Himself to become
a man. And He humbled Himself so that
He was made sin for us, so that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. Jesus as the substitute, as the
federal head of His people, He determined to bless the Lord
and He purposed in His heart, I will bless the Lord. Why? We didn't. You and I have not
blessed the Lord in our flesh. He must have blessed the Lord
by obedience to the law of God that we failed to accomplish. He said, I will bless the Lord. The Scripture says, Lo, I come,
in the volume of the book it is written of Me to do what?
To do Thy will. That's how He blesses God. Do
you suppose that anything besides doing the will of God is blessing
God? We can't bless God unless we're doing the will of God.
And only Christ continually did the will of God. Only He obtained
righteousness by His own merit. He obtained it by His own merit.
He said, I came not to destroy the law, but to fulfill it. And
truly, Christ blessed the Lord because He loved Him. Body, soul,
mind, and spirit. Do you realize that Jesus, when
He walked on this earth, He never did anything but love God? He never did anything but love
His neighbor as Himself? He completely obeyed the law
of God, perfectly, without exception. And by this, He blessed the Lord.
What does God say in Isaiah 42? He said, Behold My servant, in
whom My soul delighteth. You know, there is no other servant
but Christ that God so delights in. He delights in Christ. He said, this is my beloved Son
in whom I am well pleased. Did not Christ bless the Lord
at all times? Yes, absolutely. Number two,
He continually praised the Lord with His lips by preaching His
Word. In John chapter 8, He said, what
I've heard of my Father." Everything that Christ spoke
was the Word of God. He is the Prophet of God. He spoke only what He had heard
from the Father. You know, the prophets in the
Old Testament, they heard the Word of God. They heard it by
visions, by dreams. They heard it by all kinds of
things that they saw. God spoke to them in many different
ways, didn't He? But I'll tell you this, God never
spoke continually to any one of them. Only to Christ. He spoke continually to Christ
and Christ continually spoke what God gave Him to speak. Christ
continually spoke. This is His office, His prophet.
He said all of the Scriptures, beginning at Moses and the prophets
and the Psalms, He spoke things concerning Himself. If you go
to any place in this Old Testament and you start to try to study,
you need to find Christ, because it all speaks of Him. This is
God's Word concerning His Son. And what God kept in a mystery
in the Old Testament, He kept those mysteries. The sacrifices,
the temple, the law. They didn't really understand
all of what that meant. But now that Christ has come,
we understand that all of that pictured Christ. Everything pictured
Christ. God in His sundry times and in
divers manners spake unto the fathers and by the prophets in
times past, hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son."
And this is the last revelation of God. There is no more revelation
of God. God spoke His Word to Christ,
Christ gave it to His apostles, and His apostles gave it to us.
By the power of the Holy Spirit, they wrote down what Christ had
said and what Christ had taught. And God revealed to them the
mysteries of the gospel. And then God sealed this book. And He said, this is it. This
is My Word. There is no other Word. And this
Word was spoken to us by Christ. And I'll tell you this, no man
will ever know God unless God reveals Him by Jesus Christ. You can't see God. I can't see
God. The only way we can see God is
by Jesus Christ who has revealed the Word of God to us. This is
the only way. The only way we can know God
is by Christ. He said, No man knoweth the Father save the Son,
neither knoweth the Son save the Father, neither knoweth any
man the Father save the Son, and to whomsoever the Son will
reveal Him. Christ has revealed Himself to
you, and He'll only reveal Himself by His Word, which He spake all
of His life. Number three, the boasting of
the Lord. He said in verse 2, My soul shall
make her boast in the Lord. In Isaiah 53, verse 10, the Scripture
is clear that God said, He shall make His soul an offering for
sin. God made the soul of Christ an
offering for sin. And when the soul of Christ was
made an offering for sin, when God the Father imputed all of
our sins to Christ, so that He bore all of the weight of their
guilt, He had no sin of His own. It
had to be imputed to Him. It had to be charged to Him,
because He had none. And it was our sin that God charged
to Him, that God imputed to Him, so much that it became His own
guilt. So that He said in Psalm 22,
I am a worm and no man. A worm. Christ said this about
Himself. I am a worm and no man. Why? Because of our sins. Because
of our sins. Surely, Isaiah said surely, He
hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. He was wounded for
our transgression. He was bruised for our iniquity. The chastisement of our peace
was upon Him. And by His stripes, we are healed. Yet even under the weight of
that judgment, and I have... I don't have a clue as to what
that weight was. I can't imagine. I couldn't bear
hell for my own sin, much less bear the hell for all the sins
of all His people at one time. I can't imagine that. He did it. But all the time He
was under such grief, what did He do? He boasted in His God. He said, My God, My God, why
hast Thou forsaken me? He said, Thou art my strength
in Psalm chapter 22 and verse 19. He said, O God, Thou art
my strength. He boasted in God. And the people
knew it too when they were crucifying what they say. He trusted in
God. Let's see if God will save him.
They knew who he boasted in, didn't they? He trusted God. Even in His death, He trusted
in God. How many times have we ran away
in the midst of our puny little sorrow or trouble? Run away from
boasting in our God. And yet Christ sustained the
weight of our sins and He still boasted and trusted in God. He boasted in the Father even
in His death. He knew. that God would raise
him from the dead and sit him on the throne of heaven. And
he boasted in it." Second of all, in this psalm,
we see the calling of Christ to His saints. Look at this in
verse 2. He says, "...My soul shall make
her boast in the Lord. The humble shall hear thereof
and be glad. Oh, magnify the Lord with me,
and let us exalt His name together." Who are His saints? Who are called
to be glad? Who are called to magnify the
Lord with Christ? Who are called? Well, the Scripture
there says the humble are called, aren't they? The humble. Those who have humbled themselves
as sinners before God. God's saints, they see themselves
as they really are sinners. Sinners. Only those who have emptied themselves
or see themselves empty of righteousness before a holy God could ever
truly be humbled. It is only the poor in spirit
that are made rich by Christ. It is only the blind that receive
sight. And it is only those in spiritual
bondage that receive deliverance. If you're not blind, what good
is sight to you? You already have it. You already
boast in it. Friend, I was blind. I'm a sinner
by nature. And I need mercy, I need grace. I'm poor and destitute before
God. I have nothing wherewith to offer
God but my sin. But praise God that Jesus came
not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. Isn't
that good? That's good for sinners. That's good news for sinners. If there is no true humility,
then there will be no true repentance. For repentance is a change of
mind, isn't it? That word repentance means change
of mind. That's what it means. Let the
wicked forsake his way. Let the wicked change his mind
about the way that he's going. The way that he's going is hell.
Change your mind about that. Let the wicked forsake it, forsake
his own way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him
return unto the Lord. Man by nature is proud. Man by
nature is not humble in themselves. Man cannot and will not come
to God by nature. The natural man receiveth not."
That's will right there. The natural man will not receive
the things of God. "...for they are foolishness
to him." When you witness to Christ and men won't come, why?
They say, I don't want that. That's foolishness. They will
not come. And why is it that they will
not come? Neither can He. That's ability. Man has not the
will to come to Christ, and he has not the ability to come to
Christ. Neither indeed can he know them,
for he is spiritually discerned. How then is a sinner humbled?
If a sinner cannot and will not come to Christ, how then is a
sinner made humble before God? How can he see his lowest state
and his helpless condition? Look back at your text. The humble
shall..." What? "...hear." Hearing. The Scripture says it
is by the preaching of the gospel that God has chosen to save His
people. This is the means, by hearing
the Word of God. This is the means that the Spirit
of God uses to regenerate the soul. The world thinks what we're
doing is foolish, but we know it is the power of God unto salvation
to everyone that believeth. We hear the gospel of Jesus Christ
and hear Him crucified. Sinners hear the Gospel. Christ
humbled Himself. Christ blessed the Lord. Christ
boasted in God. Christ died for our sins. He
rose again the third day and sits on the throne. Believe on
Christ and thou shalt be saved. That's the Scripture. That's
the Word of God. That's the message that I heard.
That's the message I believed. When God saved me, I believed. Jesus didn't do all of this for
His own self. He was righteous already. He
made a righteousness for us. Hear the Gospel. The Scripture
says, "...the righteousness of God cometh by the faithfulness
of Christ." Not by my faithfulness, praise God. It's not my faithfulness
that saves me. It's His faithfulness. He was
faithful at all times to praise God. I wasn't. He was faithful
to preach the Word of God constantly. I wasn't. He constantly boasted
in His God even as He died on the cross. We haven't. But praise God, He did it not
for Himself, but He did it for us. He did it for all who hear
His Gospel. God saw the travail of His soul
and was satisfied. Jesus was a substitute. And what
we could not and would not do, He did. He did. In John 17, the Lord says, I
have finished the work. which Thou hast given me to do."
Friends, I am not preaching just a creed or a doctrine, I'm preaching
a person. Christ, the successful Savior. Any other Savior than a successful
Savior is no good to anyone. Christ accomplished the work
the Father gave Him to do. And God glorified His Son and
set Him on the throne. He glorified Him. All God purposed in eternity
to save, Christ fulfilled their righteousness, redemption, justification,
sanctification. He is their wisdom. He is all
their salvation. And all who are humbled by the
Holy Spirit in regeneration will believe and be glad. I like that. The humble shall
hear and be glad. They'll be glad when? When they
hear, When I hear of what He has done, I'm glad. I'm glad. If people went around talking
about what I did or what I have to do, that wouldn't make me
glad. The law never makes me glad. You know that? When people
sit out there and say, we need to do this, do this, do this,
do this, then God will save you. That doesn't make anyone glad. Proverbs 12.25 says, "...heaviness
in the heart of man maketh him to stoop." Does not sin make
our heart to stoop down? When God reveals to our heart
who we are, it makes a man humble. But I like this conclusion, "...but
a good word maketh it glad." A good word. Who's the Word?
Christ is the Word. Christ makes me glad. I'm glad that I don't have to
provide my own righteousness. Aren't you glad of that? Does
that not make you glad, happy? It should make us the most happy
people in all the world. If we keep that in view, that
Christ has made all of our righteousness, should we not be glad in everything? I'm glad that I'll never have
to pay for my sin. I'm glad that I'll never have
to satisfy God's justice. Why? Christ already did it. He
already satisfied God's justice for me. I'm glad. That's a good word. It makes
my heart glad. And all who are glad, look what
Christ calls us to do with Him. Look at this. Verse 3, O magnify
the Lord with me, and let us exalt His name together. Is that not something that Christ
calls His people to magnify God with Him? What does that mean? Well, that means that I am so
in union with Christ that when He magnified God, I magnified
God. When He exalts God, I exalt God. You know what it is to magnify?
You know, we take a magnifying glass, we look closer at something.
Have we ever found the end of God's character, of His holy
nature, of His eternal person, of His singularity that He is
holy and happy within? I've not found an end to that.
Christ has, He knows it. You know what? One day I'll know
fully what He's done for me. I'll know how much He has magnified
and exalted God's name. I'll know how much He knows.
Isn't that something? I'll know Him even as I am known
of Him. That's a wonderful thing. And Christ calls His people to
magnify Him, to exalt God, and to worship together. You know, as we worship God tonight,
Christ Himself is with us. Christ Himself, the Scripture
says, He walks among the candlesticks. He walks among His churches.
Where two or three are gathered in My name, there I am in the
midst. We can't see Him. And I'll tell you what, you may
not be able to feel Him, but that doesn't matter, does it?
He's here. He promised to be here, and He
cannot lie. Magnify the Lord with Christ.
Exalt His name with Christ. Is that not a wonderful call
of our Savior to worship together? It is. Verse number 4, I sought the
Lord and He heard me and delivered me from all my fears. Scripture
says that Christ suffered in that He feared. He reverenced God. And I'll tell
you what, I don't have any idea what burden He bore in Gethsemane. I don't know what agonies He
took. before He went to the cross and
while He was on the cross. But I know this, He said, My
God shall deliver me. And you know what? God will deliver
all of us from our fears as well. Do you have fears? Do you have troubles and needs? God says, I'll deliver Him. He
delivered Christ, He'll deliver us. If He delivered Him out of
such a great fear, how shall He not deliver us out of our
small fears? He will. And they looked on Him and were
lightened and their faces were not ashamed. Look to Christ. Look to Christ and you'll not
be ashamed. One day Christ will present us
before God holy and perfect without shame. I know this, I feel shame for
my sin at times here. One day I shall never be ashamed. I'll be presented holy and righteous
before God and all my fears and troubles will vanish away. Look
to Christ and you'll be enlightened. You'll understand. He'll deliver
you. I pray that God bless this to
your hearts. Let's stand and be dismissed
in prayer.