They will shout and give His
name glory. Everybody there is going to be
singing to the top of their lungs. Alright, go to Psalm 34 with
me. I wanted to bring the message
of comfort tonight. God's Word is our comfort, isn't
it? And there's no more comfort to be
found in all of God's Word than the Psalms, is there? The Psalm
of David. We can relate to the things that
David went through. The Lord had him go through them
for our sake. There's a story behind this,
and you need to know it. It'll make it more of a blessing
to you. You'll notice right under the Psalm 34, it says a psalm
of David when he changed his behavior before Amimelech, the
king of Gath, who drove him away and he departed. And that's when
he went down to the cave of Adon. And he was there pretty much
alone until 400 men finally came to him. That's a wonderful message.
But David, in chapter 21 of 1 Samuel, is a story. David, he's afraid
of Saul. He's deathly afraid of Saul. Now, the Lord cut off the giant's
head through David. And he was without fear at that
time, but now he's afraid. And he ran and he went to Nod,
first of all, this place where he thought the priests were,
you know. And he lied while he was there. The fear of man will
cause all sorts of bring a snare and cause all sorts of bad behavior
on our part. Lies breed lies. He lied to the
priest there. The priest gave him bread to
eat, showbread, all right? And then David said, do you have
a sword? And the priest said, yes, it's in here right with
the linen ephod. And it's the sword, and he reminded
him, it's the sword that you used to slay the giant. And David
said, well, give it to me. And he said, there's nothing
like it. And that's a good story. But now David just ate the bread. He was reminded of what the Lord
did for him, through him, with that sword. He has a sword in
his hand, his belly full of bread, and he's still scared. He's running. You'd think his conscience would
have smitten him by then. Not yet. He's got to be real
broken. Well, then he fled to the land
of the enemy. He fled to Gath. The Philistine
fled there. And he sought refuge with an
evil king, Achishah, the Nebile. You know, in Psalm 33, look across
the page, Psalm 33, verse 16, it says, There is no king saved
by the multitude of hosts, a mighty man not delivered by much strength,
a horse is a vain thing for safety, neither shall he deliver any
by his strength. The eye of the Lord is upon them
that fear him, them that hope in his mercy, to deliver their
soul from death, to keep them alive in famine. Our soul waited
for the Lord. He is our help and our shield.
When did he write that? I don't think he just wrote it,
or else he just quickly forgot it. He's running, he's scared,
and he went to Gath, which represents the world. And he listened, and while he
was there, he was listening, the servants of the king were
saying, that's David. He overheard them talking. Now
he's really scared. And that's what will happen to
us if we don't walk according to
the truth. If we are afraid, the fear of man will bring a
snare. If we run to the world looking for refuge, it'll only
cause us more despair and more trouble. And you know what we'll
end up doing? Acting like we don't believe God at all. And
that's what David did. He changed his behavior. He was
so scared that he changed his behavior and acted like a crazy
man. David, can you believe that?
And the Achish and all of them were laughing at him. He brought
great reproach on the Lord, himself, his family, his brothers and
sisters, and this is the future king. Imagine that. Every man
at his best state is altogether mad at him. You know, salvation
is of the Lord. How much of it? All of it. From
start to finish. If he doesn't keep us, we'll
fall. David, the slew of the giant. Now he's scared to death. He's
running scared. He acts like he doesn't believe
God at all. He acts like a crazy man. Anybody? All of us. At one time or another. So he escapes to the cave, the
cleft of the rock. He ends up in the cleft of the
rock, and he's alone, and while he's alone, I can't help but
think, his heart is smitten, his heart is broken, his heart
is contrite, he feels so ashamed, and he starts calling, he starts
praying, didn't he? Lord, forgive me. How could I
act like that? And what the Lord did was spare
him. And he sent 400 men. And that's another story. 400 men. Now, would you follow
a man like that? Would you follow a man that acted
like that? 400 men did. Why? Because they can relate. David didn't always act like
that, thank God. Sometimes, most of the time, he was full of faith,
you know. But throughout the Psalms, and
this is why we like the Psalms, he's human, he's a sinner, and
he's overcome often by these fears and all that. Like Psalm
56, what time I'm afraid. He was afraid. And you would
be, too, if you were faced with the fellows that he was, hand-to-hand
combat, and everybody around you wanted you dead, and everybody
else dead. So he wrote this song while he's
sitting in that cave, I think it's before the 400 men came.
He's alone. The Lord heard him. He cried
unto the Lord. The Lord heard him. He felt better. And he wrote
this song. I'll bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall be continually
in my mouth. My soul will make her boast in
the Lord. From here on out, he's saying,
I'm not going to talk about anything I am or ever have done or ever
will do. I'm nothing. Look what I have done. Look at
me. Boasting excluded. Pride I have
based. I am only a sinner saved by grace. That's what David said. If I'm
going to boast, my glory is going to be in the Lord. He's the one
that holds me up. The humble shall hear. God's
people will hear this, they'll be glad. Won't you? I'm sorry
that David acted like that, but in a sense I'm not. In a sense
I'm glad. It gives me some hope. We've
all played the fool. We might yet play the fool. We've
all acted like we don't believe God. We've all been overcome
by fears, and we might yet do that. I hope not. We ought to
learn from this, but we might. No telling. But the humble shall
hear. Humble means those that don't,
you know, aren't able, not able to do anything. They'll hear
and be glad. I love Psalm 119 where David
said, They that fear thee will be glad when they see me. Those
that fear thee will be glad when they see me. In other words,
you can relate to another fellow sinner, can't you? You can relate
to a fellow weak person, believer. Oh, it says, magnify the Lord
with me. Verse 3, let us exalt his name together. Are you weak?
Are you fearful? Are you sinful? poor and needy,
and are you? Oh, that's who the Lord came
for. That's who the Lord saved. Oh, magnify the Lord with me.
You were just a moment ago. Was y'all singing those songs?
Say, sinner, is that you? Will you meet me? Let us exalt
His name together. My name's not anywhere around
here, and I don't want it to be. George Whitefield one time
said, let the name of George Whitefield perish on the earth.
Let the name of Jesus Christ be prayed. Nobody needs to know
my name or your name, do they? Men need to know His name and
fear His name. David said, I sought the Lord,
verse 4. I sought the Lord. What did you seek for? Every
day we seek for the same thing, don't we? Mercy, grace, the help
in time of need, wisdom, pardon, forgiveness of sins. kept, be
kept, led, lead us, guide us, direct us, restrain us, constrain
us, give us and help us. I sought the Lord and He heard
me. He delivered me from all my fears. They, the humble, those that
exalt His name, looked to Him. They looked to Him and it says
they were lightened, verse 5. They were lightened. That means
they had a burden and it was lifted. They cast their care
upon Him. They burdened, rolled their burden
on Him. They were lightened. I'll tell
you what else that word lightened means until I looked it up. It's
used two or three times in, turn to Jeremiah 31 real quick, Jeremiah
31. It's used, I love to look up
words. The best word is given to us
generally in the King James Version, but looking them up sometimes
It just keeps blossoming. But Jeremiah 31, the word means,
and our emergence said it, they flowed unto Him. Look at Jeremiah 31 verses 10
through 12. I can tell you, I hear the word
of the Lord, ye nations, and declare it in the aisles. Far
off, he that scattered Israel will gather him, keep him as
a shepherd of his flock, for the Lord hath redeemed Jacob. ransomed him from the hand of
him that was stronger than he. Therefore they shall come and
sing, and the height of Zion shall flow together. There's
the word. Flow together to the goodness
of the Lord. Wheat, wine, oil, young of the
flock, the herd, the soul shall be as a watered garden. They
shall not sorrow any more at all. Don't you like that? They'll
flow. Flow unto Him. And their faces,
verse 5 in our text, their faces were not ashamed. Do you know
how ashamed David was? We all do, we felt it. But you
look to him, you look into the face, he says, look unto me,
and be ye saved. Who? Sinners. Don't you love the story of Joseph
and his brother? Do you ever get tired of hearing
that? When they found out it was Joseph on the throne, oh,
it says they were afraid. They were greatly afraid of Joseph.
Their hearts were. Alright, and he said, and he
couldn't refrain himself. He said, come near. I'm Joseph,
your brother. Come near." They were afraid
he was going to kill him. No, he's going to hurt him. He said, come near. Don't you
know, Kelly? Oh, Eli, or Simeon, Ruben, Joseph. Oh, Joseph. I'm sorry. He said, look up. Look up. God did this. God sent me before you to save
my family. And he fell on their necks. He
fell on Benjamin first, and he fell on all of them and hugged
them and kissed them all. Look unto me and be saved.
You won't be ashamed. You'll look into the face of
pure mercy, pure love, pure grace, pure forgiveness. See, God is
not a man. Then David says, and maybe this
is the title of the message, this poor man cried, and the
Lord heard him and saved him. I think David is saying this
poor, pitiful excuse for a man. I used to think I was a man.
Now I know I'm a worm. I'm a nothing. I'm a flea. I'm
a dog. I'm nothing. I can't do anything
without Him. I'm no man. Jesus Christ is the
man. Captain? I'm no captain. I'm
a poor excuse for a believer. That's what David said. This
poor man cried unto the Lord. You won't cry unto the Lord.
You really won't pray unto the Lord until you find out you're
poor and needy. Do you know that? The first thing the Lord said
in the blessings on the firmament was what? Blessed are the poor
in spirit. You don't need Christ if you're
not poor. You don't need his righteousness if you've got one.
You don't need forgiveness if you're not a sinner. You don't
need his strength if you're not weak. You don't need his wisdom
if you're not ignorant. And boy, if you are, he says,
look unto me. And he's made unto us. Can you quote it? Wisdom, righteousness, sanctification. That according as it is written,
may the glory of the Lord. This poor man cried and the Lord
heard him. David said, if you'll hear me, I'm just sure to hear
you. You remember that story, those
two preachers together. It was William Law and one of
the others. I forget. The fellow came in all excited
and he said, Brother Law, I think it's William Law. Many of you
know William J. That's who he was. He came in
and said, Brother J., did you hear the Lord saved old John
Smith? He was a notorious sinner. Did
you hear that? The Lord saved old John Smith.
And he said, Brother William, I'll never despair of the Lord
saving anybody since He saved old John Smith. William J. said,
Brother, I'll never despair since He saved me. And that's what David said. This
poor man cried, and the Lord heard him. He saved him out of
it. Listen to this. The angel of
the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him. You know that story over in 2
Kings 6, don't you? Turn that. I never get tired
of reading it. I never get tired of preaching
it. I never get tired of telling you to read it. 2 Kings 6, you
remember this? Elisha and his servant, the angel
of the Lord, campeth round about them, period. That's the Spirit
of God, and that's actual angels. But we can't see them. They said
they're camped. around it, surrounded it. 2 Kings 6, servant of Elisha,
verse 15, rose up early, went out to get some wood or water
or something, and a host of Syrians encompassed the city with horses
and chariot. That's like looking around the
world and all our enemies, all the troubles all around. Oh,
no. And he came in and said, Alas, my master, how shall we
do? I'll tell you what you're going
to do. Nothing. Here's what you do. Stand still
and see the salvation of the Lord. That's what the preacher
told Jehoshaphat. And here's what Elisha said.
He answered, Fear not. They that be with us are more
than they that be with them. And Elisha prayed and said, Lord,
I pray thee, open his eyes that he may see. We sing that song all the time.
Open mine eyes that I may see. And the Lord opened the eyes
of the young man. He saw, and behold, the mountain
was full of horses and chariots of fire round about one man. And Elisha represents our Lord,
and we're with him. I remember when our Lord was in
the garden and told Peter, put up your sword. He said, don't
you know I could call twelve leaders of angels? Brother Ed read Psalm 27 tonight. The Lord is my light, my salvation.
Whom shall I fear? Who shall I be afraid of? Like David, we need to be
reminded of that. Verse 8, O taste and see that
the Lord is good. Taste and see that the Lord is
good. Somebody asked me about that, what taste means there. Well, it means what it says.
You know, you come here tonight, and I'm not going to give you
a dissertation on superlapsarianism opposed to
inferlapsarianism, or the state of the world in the Antediluvian
period, or the history of the Jews. That's just going to your head,
and it's not going to help you at all. We need to eat this food. Now, our Lord said, except you
eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have no part in me. But he
that does. What's that mean? It means that
you're hungry and you're thirsty for Him, for truth, for Christ,
righteousness. and you come here hungry and
thirsty and you, Lord, I need you not to, I don't need you
to talk to my head, I need you to speak to my heart. These things
need to go down deep in the recess of my soul. I need to feed on
this. I need to gather strength from
it. I need to taste. Isn't grace taste wonderful? Don't you love the taste of it?
The taste of sovereign grace. And it's not an acquired taste,
it's given. The Lord gives you a taste for
sovereign grace, you won't want anything else. You won't want
any of these dissertations or whatever. The people would hear
the scribes and then they heard the Lord. They said, that's what
we need. Common people heard Him gladly.
They ate His like bread, like sheep in pasture. And they said,
He speaks as one having authority, not like scribes. We fall asleep
when they pray. They don't help anybody. They
didn't know the Lord. They talk about Him, not preaching
Him. There's a difference. God's people feed on Him. When
you go to a restaurant, Wendy and I went to one last night,
and I had heard that they had good salmon, and I love salmon.
I can't get enough salmon. And I heard they had good salmon. Well, I didn't read a paper on
salmon. And I looked at the menu, and
it sounded real good. You know, ooh, look at that.
Look at this. It speaks to a certain flavor.
Garlic and all this. I said, bring that to my table. And I ate it. Oh. Maybe I went on and on, didn't
I? And if you, really, if you'll eat it yourself, you can't, words
can't, words, not good enough. Not good enough. And that's the
thing, is we're all going to have to taste ourselves. I can't
tell you what grace tastes like. The Lord's going to give you
a taste for it. He's going to make you eat it like a hungry man.
Why do we come here? Why do we come here? Because
it's Wednesday night and it's Sunday? Huh? Because we're supposed
to? Hungry. Thirsty. What are we going to
eat? Jesus Christ. That's what sheep eat on. They feed on Him. If we don't,
you don't have life. You don't know Him. If you need,
if you want anything else, want to hear anything else, you don't
know Him. You don't know Him. Oh taste, have you tasted that
the Lord is gracious? How gracious has He been to you?
Blessed is the man that trusteth in Him. Oh, blessed is the man,
the woman that trusts in Him, brothers and sisters. We need
to trust Him. Don't just say we trust Him.
We need to trust Him. We need to cast all our care
away. We really need... Let me ask you, how often do
you really live by faith? And that means going against
something you see in the face of some danger, in the face of
what the world is saying, and going against that according
to God's Word. are being totally dependent on
the Lord, regardless of what you're hearing otherwise. That's
faith. Like Hebrews 11, the whole...
people... How often do we really live by
faith? Oh, bless, if we'll trust Him.
If we'll trust Him. Look at verse 9. Oh, fear the
Lord. You won't trust Him if you don't fear Him. Now, I know
that sounds like It may be confusing to somebody, but you know what
it means. Fear means a profound awe and some understanding of
just how powerful he is, just how sovereign he is. He speaks
and it's done. That's all he has to do is speak. He's ordered all things ensured.
Everything's in his hand. Now that produces fear, but yet
If you know Him and if you've come to Him, you've called on
Him, He's revealed Himself to you, the first thing He says
is fear Him. Those disciples, when they finally
found out who Jesus was, when they saw Him, when He filled
their nets full of fish, remember what Simon Peter did? He hit
his knees and said, Oh, depart from me, Lord, I'm a sinful man.
He was in the presence of power, God, and he feared and trembled. Fear not. Does it fear Him? He says, fear not. Now trust
me. And we'll never lose that, because
it'll make you fear sinning against Him. It'll make you fear bringing
a reproach upon Him. And the more you fear Him, the
less you'll fear anybody or anything else. You won't. And you know,
He is doing all things. He's all-powerful. Whom shall I fear? Of what shall
I be afraid? The Lord is mine. Oh, blessed
are those that fear. Oh, fear the Lord, he is saying,
for there's no want, verse 9, there's no want, there's not
no many lack to them that fear him. The Lord is my shepherd,
I shall not want anything. Anything. God the Father provides
us everything through the Lord Jesus Christ. We have everything
we need. We're complete in Him. We're
not going to lack anything. He's our Lord. He's our Savior.
He's our Prophet, Priest, King. He's our Messiah. He's our bread,
our food, our Father, our Mother, our Friend, our Redeemer, our
Captain, our covenant head, name something,
he's off. Because it fear him, he said. The young lions, he said in verse
10, the young lions do lack, they suffer hunger. As strong
as they are, they suffer hunger. But they that seek the Lord shall
not want any good. And notice the thing is in italic. Because we shall not want any
good, good word, good fellowship. Come ye children,
verse 11. David says, come ye children.
Remember what the Lord said we need to become? Little children. I will, hearken unto me and I
will teach you the fear of the Lord. I need to know, David.
And I just tried to say it and I couldn't because he's too great
and glorious and we can't fear him. We just don't know. He said,
I'll teach you. What man is she, what woman is
she that desireth life? Remember Pilgrim, Proverbs, life,
life, eternal life. I need life. I want life. And Christ is our life. It's
not just wanting to be saved or wanting to go to heaven. It's
Him. It's Christ. He's our life. What man is he that desireth
life and loveth many good days that he may see good? And Peter
said these very things, didn't he? Keep thy tongue. Here's where you start. Keep
your tongue from evil. David, how did his trouble start? He started lying. He started to lie. Protect himself.
You don't have to do that. Why? Because the Lord's our shield.
He's our protector. Keep thy tongue from evil, and
thy lips from speaking guile. Depart from evil. What's that?
Well, what do you mean, what's that? Why do we have to qualify
that? Evil's evil. He says, depart
from it. Do good. What's that? What do
you mean, what's that? Why do we have to qualify that?
Whatever he says, Mary said, do it. Do good. Keep his commandments. I can't. We'll do it anyway.
Pursue it. 2nd verse 14. Depart from evil
and do good and seek peace. That's him. He is our peace. Seek him and seek to be a peacemaker
like him. We seek Christ and we seek Christ's
likeness. And pursue it. Go after it. Give
diligence to make your calling and election sure. Go after Him.
Some man came to the Lord one time and he said, what seek ye? Remember that? What are you looking
for? They said, where you dwell. He
said, come on. And they went in and dwelt with
him. You seek the Lord, you'll find Him. Let me find it. Read
on. The eyes of the Lord are upon
the righteous, and his ears are opened unto their cry. Now you
think for a minute David thinks he's righteous because of something
he'd done? Oh, come on now. What did he just do? No. Read
Psalm 71. Over and over, John. You know
that Psalm. Over and over he said, I'll speak mention of thy
righteousness and thine only. Surely shall one say, and the
Lord have our righteousness and strength. Well, here I am. You,
two, three, four, five. He's made unto us righteous.
The righteous are those that trust in Him. The righteous are
those that are in Christ, Christ in them. The Lord, the eyes of
the Lord are upon the righteous. Oh, He sees everybody. But His
eyes of mercy and love and grace and kindness and tenderness and
forgiveness is upon His people. His ears are opened unto their
cry. Always. Always. The face of the Lord,
verse 16, is against them that do evil. To cut off the remembrance
of them from the earth. The righteous cry. Now look at
this. We've looked at this many times.
Right here it says the righteous cried. Here it delivered them.
And on down it talks about the righteous being Him. Which is
it? It's both. You remember Jeremiah
said this is his name that he'll be called Jehovah Sidkenna. And
then over on later in Jeremiah it says this is her name. Jehovah
Sidkenna. We bear his name. But the righteous,
verse 17, those that trust in Christ, they cry, and the Lord
hear it and delivereth them out of all their trouble. I've gotten
in a lot of trouble all my life. And there's going to be more
trouble coming. The Lord has delivered me, up to this point,
out of all my troubles. Well, that's not all my troubles.
I've got more coming. Brother Donnie Bell once said,
people, there are three kinds of troubles they worry about.
Troubles they used to have, troubles they are having, and troubles
they expect to have. Well, you can't do anything about the troubles
you did have. And right now, just... And then,
don't worry about tomorrow. Because the Lord is going to
deliver us and hold us. Read Psalm 107. Isn't that one
of your favorites? Psalm 107. Oh, my. It says they
cried. They got in trouble. They got
in trouble. It was three out of four times it was their fault.
It's completely their fault. Talking about Israel. Their fault.
It says the Lord heard them. He healed them. Sent His Word
and healed them. Delivered them out of all their troubles. And
the last troubles the Lord sent to trial. His troubles. Sickness and all that. He delivered
them out of that. He delivered your husband out
of that trouble. He's completely delivered. No more trouble. No more trouble. No more crying. No more sorrow. No more tears.
No more pain. Nothing. Zero. Well, we're left
here in trouble. But the Lord is going to deliver
us. All of us. All of us. So I'd like to tell
you, don't fear. Read on. It says, verse 18, The
Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart. and saveth
such as be of a contrite spirit." Broken heart, contrite heart,
spirit is the opposite of pride. It's hard to think of sin as
being good in our life, but I tell you, this is what it serves.
It's to humble us and break us and keep reminding us what we
are. and keep us calling on the Lord. We probably wouldn't if
we didn't fall. The broken heart over sin. The
contrite spirit over sin. Many are the afflictions of the
righteous. Verse 19. Many. Our Lord said, through
much tribulation you'll enter the kingdom. But The Lord delivereth
him out of them all. Now that was Christ, Him. We
have a high priest who's touched with the feet of our prophet.
Tempted in all points like as we are yet without sin, but he
was tempted really very really Tempted in all points like as
well, and he knows our brain. He knows We can't resist On our
own he could we can't he knows that He's the one that said the
spirit is willing, but the flesh He's the one said that when disciples
were asleep for sorrow In the garden, they were asleep. And
he'd been telling them all along what's going to happen, but they
just didn't hear it. He said, the Spirit is willing,
but the flesh is so weak. But when I'm weak, He's strong. The Lord delivers him out of
them all, and he delivers us in him out of them. He keepeth...
What's this doing here, verse 20? He keepeth all his bones,
not one of them is broken. What's that doing there? Is that
out of place? He's the righteous one. Surely everyone in here
knows why the lamb was not to be cut up in pieces. He was to
be burnt whole. The whole leg was to be burned
off, not cut up. Because Christ is not going to
lose one member of his body. Not one bone broken. The little toe, you may think,
I'm just a little toe. Well, you're not going to be cut off. He's going to keep you. Not one
of them broken. Evil, they quit. Evil shall slay
the wicked and be overcome by it. And the evil one, they are
of their father, the devil. And they that hate the righteous,
those that hate Christ, hate his people, shall be desolate,
guilty, cut off, declared unjust. cast in the lake of fire, cut
off, decimated. But the Lord, now the Lord redeemeth
the soul of his servant. You're redeemed. You're bought
without money. But you're bought with a precious
blood of the Lamb. And God's going to have it. He's
going to keep what He spent His blood on. The Lord redeemeth
the soul of his servants. Do we not serve his cause? Do
we not serve his glory? That's what we're doing here.
Nothing else. We're not trying to build big buildings. We're trying to have fun and
family. We don't do that at all. That's
not what the church is about. There's no true church that does
those sort of things. We're here to serve our Lord's
honor and glory in his name. We're here to preach the gospel.
That's what the church is all about. Nothing else. Nothing
more, nothing less. serve him, his glory, his name,
his honor, his kingdom. And so he says, the Lord redeemeth
the soul of his servants. And this is maybe my favorite
line in all the Bible. None of them that trust in him
shall be destined. Not one single person that really
looks to the Lord Jesus Christ, that trusts him, that says, Lord,
I'm weak, I'm vile, I'm helpless, I'm hopeless, I act like a fool,
I act like I don't know you, I act like I don't love you,
but Lord, please, would you have mercy on me? Not one, he said,
will be cut off. Not one will be left to themselves.
Not one. When He comes, He's going to
come for every one of us. Every little toe is coming with
the rest of the body. Bless the Lord. Alright, stand
with me. Father in heaven, thank you for
Psalm 34. Thank you. Thank you for all the Psalms. Thank you for all the word from
Genesis to Revelation. It's your word. It's one word.
It's one truth. It speaks of our one Lord. One
salvation. One faith. One hope of our calling. And our hope is Christ. So we look to Him. And you promised
not one single person that looks to him. Trusting him will be
desperate. And we believe you. We take you
at your word. But Lord, forgive us. Forgive
us when we don't trust you. Forgive us when we fear. Forgive
us when we act a fool. Forgive us, Lord. Don't let it
happen again. Lord, you can keep it from happening again. Please,
don't let us bring reproach on you. Let us trust you fully and
live for thy glory and our honor. That's our prayer. In Christ's
name, amen.