Psalm 34. Those hymns we sang, I think the writers meant well. I know they did. Fannie Crosby
was a wonderful hymn writer. I forget who the other one was.
It says, sin, grief and pain. I don't want grief and pain.
I have a hard time praying for that. I mean well when Fannie
said, gladly will I toil and suffer. Well, I hope I'll go through
it, but we don't pray for those things. We don't ask for those
things. If the Lord is pleased to send them, then we ask for
grace to endure them. So they mean well when they say
that. But I have a hard time singing those particular verses.
Anybody else? Sin, grief, and pain. He will
without us asking Him. If we're seeking a blessing from
the Lord, a word from the Lord, you can't beat the Psalms. You
cannot beat the Psalms. I was looking for a blessing,
seeking a blessing for the Lord to speak to me through the Psalms
and came to this psalm. And it was a blessing to me and
I hope it will be to you. This is one of my favorites,
one of many favorites, the Psalm of David. If you'll notice under
the title, Psalm of David, it says when he changed his behavior
before Mimelech, or Achish, the king of Gath, David was a young
man and he was running scared, running from Saul and then ran
to his enemy, Achish, king of Gath. You remember Goliath was
from Gath. Those were his enemies, the Philistines.
He went to the wrong place, the wrong people, and realized it
too late. And then really got scared because
they thought, they began to say, this is David. And then he feared
for his life. And then he acted like he was
crazy. David acted like he was a lunatic. And that king of Gath said, Get
him out of here. He's crazy. And you'll see, I think, as we
look at this, I think you'll be glad to hear of this. It's
a psalm, a song, a psalming song, A song unto the Lord, that's
what this is. His name is mentioned at least
16 times. A song of the Lord, a song of
the Lord's praise to the Lord, of the goodness of the Lord.
A song or a psalm of the fear of the Lord. of the favor of
the Lord, a song of the salvation of the Lord. So this is a wonderful
psalm. Someone asked me, and he asked
me what the title of this was, and I said, I don't know. Maybe
just Psalm 34. If you've read it a number of
times, you're familiar with it, it could be, The Lord is Good. Or it could be, if you're looking for good days
and a good life, Trust the Lord. Or it could be those that trust
Him shall never be guilty. There's so much good here. Bless the Lord, he said. I will
bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually
be in my mouth. You bless the Lord. If we bless
the Lord, it will keep you from cursing. Our mouths are numb
to cursing. It doesn't take much for us to
want to curse our day, does it? But if we bless the Lord, it
will keep us from cursing. If we count our blessings, it
will keep us from murmuring in our tents. He said, I will bless
the Lord at all times, up, down, good time, bad time. We want
to have both. The Lord has promised us both.
There will be good times and there will be bad times set over
against those times to keep you from being too comfortable here.
But he said, bless the Lord. I will bless the Lord at all
times. Let us learn this. He says, His praise shall continually
be in my mouth. His praise. We're told to sing
unto the Lord. The Lord tells us over and over
again, sing unto the Lord. Sing unto the Lord. Sing unto
the Lord. It's not only for His praise
and honor, but it's for our good. I find that the times when I
get down, if I'll just start singing unto the Lord, that it
actually lifts my spirit. He said that. He said, speaking
to yourselves, not only between yourselves, but talk to yourself. Commune with your own heart.
Speaking to yourselves in songs and hymns and spiritual songs. Singing and making melody in
your heart to the Lord. Sing to the Lord. You sing to
the Lord, He'll speak things to your heart. I love to hear
Our youngest granddaughter is a singer. She loves to sing.
She sings all the time. And I love it and we encourage
her to do so. It makes me glad. It makes me glad. Well, the Lord,
it makes Him glad too. Now, this is no idle boast. This is the good intentions of
a godly man. He said, I will bless the Lord.
I will praise Him. Verse 2, My soul shall make her
boast in the Lord. My soul shall make her boast
in the Lord. Boasting excluded with saying,
Pride I abase. Why? Because I'm only a sinner
saved by grace. You know why most people are
unhappy? Most people are unhappy. Nearly everybody is seeking happiness.
And most people are unhappy because of pride. Because Scripture says,
He that walketh in pride, The Lord will abase us. And the same is true forever.
If we get lifted up with pride, the Lord will humble us. He will
humble us. He knows how. And so if we humble
ourselves before the Lord, He will exalt us. He will lift us
up. Start low and stay low, and He
will exalt you. My soul shall make her boast
in the Lord. He says, "...the humble shall
hear of me, of my story, of what the Lord did for me, and be glad. God's people. All are humble.
All God's people. The meek. Blessed are the meek.
They shall inherit the earth. Poor in spirit. That's God's
people. That's who they are. And they're
humble. All of them. Pride is the most averse thing
to a child of God. It should be, anyway. But, David,
I am glad to hear Although I'm sad for David, I'm glad to read
about what happened to him. Because I have acted the fool. I have acted like a blooming
idiot. Haven't you? And if you haven't, you will
soon enough. If you've got many years left,
you're going to have plenty of times to make a fool out of yourself.
to act like an unbeliever before this unbelieving world and bring
reproach on the Lord. So I'm glad to read about that.
I'm glad the Lord reveals and exposes the sins of the best
of men. Aren't you? That makes me glad.
It makes me sad for them because they suffered because of it.
But it gives me hope. If a great man like David Is
nothing but a poor sinner saved by grace? That gives me hope.
It makes me glad. Verse 3, he says, Let us magnify
the Lord with me. Let us exalt His name together,
now more than ever. In this day, God is so blaspheming. His name is nothing but a byword. Let us let fear of the Lord exalt
His name. exalt His name and stand up in
defense of His name. David says, I sought the Lord
and He heard me. I sought the Lord. Surely David
thought at this time after he ran away from Gath, and right
after that is when he ran to the cave of Abdullam. Surely
David thought that he acted such a fool that
surely the Lord's not going to hear me now. Surely he's going
to be silent to me, and the heavens are going to be brass, and his
mercy's going to be clean gone. I don't know when he wrote that
psalm. Is his mercy clean gone? Could have been about the same
time. But surely David thought, Lord's not going to hear me now.
I've acted like such a fool. But David said he did. He said,
I sought the Lord, and we seek the Lord by praying to Him, by
looking into His Word. David hoped in God's Word. That's
where he found all his peace and his comfort, just like that.
And he said, I sought the Lord, I called on the Lord, and He
heard me. He heard me. He said that all through this
psalm. Look at verse 6. He said, this
poor man cried, and the Lord heard him. Verse 15, the ears
of the Lord are opened unto the cry of His people. Verse 17,
the righteous cry, and the Lord hears them. Don't you? You hear the cries, the pleas
of your children? Sure you do. The Lord more so. He's more than us. And so He
hears us. And David said, He delivered
me from all my fears. He delivered me from all my fear. David had more fears than you
and I. He has all the same fears that we have. But he lived in
a more fearful time. David lived in a more dangerous
time. If we think the times of perilous
man, David and his people lived at a time when there were enemies
all around them that wanted them dead. And they lived in fear
for their lives and fear for their families. David said, He
delivered me. He delivered me from all my fears. There will be more fears to come
and He will deliver us from them also. In verse 5 he says that
these people His people look to Him. That's how He delivers
us. We look to Him. We look to Him in prayer and
reading and fellowship with the saints. We come here. This is
why we come here. We come together to look to the
Lord. To look to the Lord. We call
upon the Lord and seek the Lord together. Seek His faith. It
says, They looked unto the Lord, all of His people, David included,
and were lightened. That means unburdened. have a
heavy burden and look to the Lord and unburdened. Cast your care upon me, he said. He cares for you. We're unburdened. And their faces were not ashamed. All who come bearing a heavy
burden to the Lord, take your burden to the Lord, the songwriter
said, and do what? Leave it there. Leave it there.
All who come bearing a heavy burden of sin, guilt, doubts,
and fear, you look unto Him and He'll lighten it. He'll lighten
your load. All who come to Him in shame,
says their faces were not ashamed, they'll go away with joy. He's promised it. Because He's a God ready to pardon.
He's like a Father that pitieth His children. Pities His children. He knows
our pride. He knows what we're made of.
had a close friend whose teenage daughter had a heavy burden,
unwed teenage daughter. It came to him, obviously, very
troubled. And he said, What's wrong? And
she climbed up into his lap and said, Daddy, I'm pregnant. She was so ashamed. She had a
burden that she had borne, she had known about it for days and
weeks. A burden that she was bearing.
And she knew there was only one person she could turn to. Her
daddy, Abba. And got in his lap like a baby.
Cried like a baby. Unburdened herself. She was so
ashamed. She didn't know how she was going
to deal with this. She brought reproach upon her
family. Brought reproach upon herself. And she looked into her father's
face and he smiled at her. He said, Honey, it's going to
be alright. We're going to get through this.
She unburdened herself. She came with a burden. And her
father lightened her load. She came ashamed of herself. When she got down out of his
lap, she was smiling. And so was he. And like as a father pitieth
his children, so the Lord pitieth them. He said, you look to me,
and though you're ashamed of yourself, you'll go away smiling. He promised that. Lighten the
load. He's the only one that can. The
only one that will. This poor man cried, David said. I think David's saying this poor
excuse for a man. Cried. The Lord heard him. They
say grown men don't cry. Well, poor men do. Sinners do. And he said this poor excuse
for a man cried and the Lord heard him. And that's the only
one He will hear. We're all guilty. We're all poor
sinners. And that's the way we need to
come to Him. He'll hear us. And He saved me,
He saved out of all my troubles. All my troubles. We get ourselves
in a lot of trouble now. And we're going to get ourselves
in a lot more. Like Psalm 107. How many times? They got in trouble. How many times? And they cried. And it didn't sound like they
cried unto the Lord until they got in real trouble. And, you
know, most of the time we really don't do much real praying until
we get in real trouble. That's sad, isn't it? I'm glad
the Lord knows our friend. I'm glad He knows. And He delivers
out of all of them. All of them. That's why he says
in verse 7, The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them
that fear him, and delivereth them. That's who he sends to
deliver us. The Lord said this. He said, I'll send my comforter. Now let
me, I don't want to misquote it. It's said in John 14, listen
to this, you can turn if you want. But the Lord said, it's
expedient that I should go. If I don't go away, a comforter
won't come, the one that will stay with you always. Christ
is still in a body. Christ is still a man. He's still
a man. And He sends the Holy Spirit.
who is the Spirit of Christ. And he says this in John 14.
Listen to this. I will pray the Father, and He
shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever,
even the Spirit of truth. That's the angel of the Lord.
Whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not. Neither
knoweth Him, but you know Him. And He dwelleth with you and
shall be in you. I won't leave you comfortless.
I'll come to you. The angel of his presence delivered
them. It talks about him all through
the Scripture. So the angel of the Lord encampeth,
dwelleth with his people, round about them. We are like that
servant of Elisha whom he looked and saw the enemy and feared,
and the Lord opened his eyes to see that they that were with
us were more than they would be against us. who can be against them. O taste,
verse 8, O taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is
the man that trusteth in him. Taste and see that the Lord is
good. Scripture says taste, if you've
tasted the Lord's grace. You know, this world, this world
of sin, like the lot, it vexes God's people. It leaves a bitter
taste in our mouth. My own sinfulness leaves a bitter
taste in my mouth. Doesn't it you? And so He tells
us, taste and see that the Lord is good. The only thing that
will bring sweetness out of the bitterness is being conscious
of the goodness of the Lord. The goodness of the Lord. Listen
to William Cowper. And William Cooper is how you
really pronounce his name. The British do. And he was familiar
with a lot of trouble. He was in an asylum for a while.
The one who wrote How Tedious and Tasteless the Hour. He wrote
this hymn. Judge not the Lord by feeble
sense, but trust Him for His grace. Behind a frowning providence
He hides a smiling face. His purposes will ripen fast,
unfolding every hour. The bud may leave a bitter taste,
but sweet will be the flower. Taste and see that the Lord is
good. You know, there's a popular slogan
now. They've even made a line of clothing out of it. Like is
good. We ought to say, the Lord is
good. Because in Him we live and move
and have our being. He's the one that gives us every
good and perfect. The Lord is good. Even the trials
he's sent are for our good. He can't do anything but good.
He's too good to do wrong. Too good to do evil. Too wise
to do wrong. It all works together for our
good. The Lord tastes that. Taste of that. It will relieve
you of the bitterness. Blessed is the man that trusteth
in Him. Trust in the Lord, ye saints. Oh, fear the Lord, ye
saints. There's no want to them that
fear Him. The young lions. You know, they're strong, aren't
they? They're able to fend for themselves. But they go with
that. The Lord provides for them. There's nothing that the Lord
doesn't feed, even the whale. You know how many tons of food
it takes to feed a whale daily? You know how many whales there
are in the ocean? Who feeds them? It's not very hard for Him to
give us this much. Nothing to it. There's no want
to them that fear Him. No want. The Lord is our shepherd, we
shall not want. They that seek the Lord, verse
10, shall not want any good thing. We may not get everything we
want, but we won't lack anything we need. Anything. Any good thing. Come, you children. Look at verse
11. Come. Hearken unto me. I'll teach you
the fear of the Lord. Now, do you know how old David
was when he wrote this? Twenty-eight. Come, you children. Well, I want to listen to a 28-year-old. I want to be like a little child.
Except we are. We're not entering the Kingdom
of Heaven. Well, teach me then, David. May the Lord teach me
through you. Jeremiah was 24. Twenty-four. He said, I'm a child. I can't
speak. The Lord said, who lays man's mouth? Well, come, you
children. I want to be a child of God,
don't you? Hearken unto me. I'll teach you
the fear of the Lord. Much said of the fear of the
Lord. What is it? Well, the fear of the Lord. About
the fear of the Lord, men depart from evil. Fear of the Lord is
the beginning of wisdom. Well, here it is. He's going
to teach you. Verse 12, What man is he that
desireth life, and loveth many days, that he may see good? You
want to see some good days? You don't have many left. Want to live the good life? Everybody
wants to live the good life. Want to see some good days? Well,
here it is. Now look what he said. And here's
the fear of the Lord. Keep thy tongue from evil. It was Solomon who said, God
is in heaven, we're on earth, let your words be few. I recall
as a boy spouting off and turning around, my dad was standing there.
He knows me. And our father does too. And
he hears us. Keep your tongue from evil and
your lips from speaking guile. You know what our greatest source
of trouble is? Not somebody else's. Ours. My, my, keep your tongue
from evil and your lips from speaking guile. The Lord said this. He said there
are six things that he hates. The first is pride. Seven are
abominations. The first is pride. And the last
is so in discord, and that always comes from pride. It always ends
up that way because of our pride, so in discord. James said this,
if any man seemeth to be religious and bridle not his tongue. To put a bit and a bridle in
a horse's mouth, well, that's what we need to do with our own.
He says they deceive their own heart and their religion is vain.
The tongue, he says, is a fire. The tongue is a world of iniquity. The tongue is an unruly evil.
Who can tame it? The tongue is full of poison. That old saying, sticks and stones
may break my bones, but words can never hurt me. It's the opposite. The opposite is true. The opposite. Bones will heal, but a brother
offended is harder won than a city. Our tongues are the source of
our trouble. Go with me to James. We all need
to read this over again, the book of James, because he's the
one that deals with it more than anybody. The book of James. Keep our tongues from speaking
evil about anyone. It says not to even speak evil
of the ruler of thy people. That's a hard thing not to do,
isn't it? A hard thing not to do. But Paul
didn't about Nero and even that false high priest. He said, I
didn't know you were the high priest. I wouldn't have said
that. Oh, Lord, teach me that. But my pastor once gave these
three rules for speaking and repeating a matter. It's always on my mind and I hope I can practice
it. Before repeating a matter, is
it true? Are you absolutely certain it's true? Beyond a shadow of
a doubt. It might not be true. Is it kind? If it is true, What you're going
to say, it better be kind. And then the last one, is it
necessary? Is it necessary? Does it need
to be said? That would put off a lot of speech,
wouldn't it? But in James chapter 4, it says this, where do wars and
fighting come from? Verse 2, you lust and have not. Desire to have and cannot obtain.
We fight in war. Verse 4, it says, friendship
with this world. That's what we're generally after
and that's what causes us so much trouble. Verse 5, you think
Scripture saith in vain, the spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth
to envy? Oh, God giveth more grace. But
he said, God resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the humble.
Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil. He'll
flee from you. Draw nigh to God and He will
draw nigh to you. Be afflicted and mourn. And on
and on it goes. And then chapter 3 is where he talks about the
tongue. The tongue is a little member and boasts great things,
but a great fire it will kindle. So, you want to see good days? Keep your tongue and your lips
from speaking evil. Just don't say it if you don't
mean it. That means guile. Verse 14 in
our text. Depart from evil. Depart from
evil. You know, the Lord speaks to
us like children, like a father to children, doesn't He? Like,
quit that. Put off that old man. Now lay
aside anger and wrath and malice and evil speaking. So He says,
just quit that. Don't you say that to your children?
That's what He says to us. Depart from evil. He commended
Job because Job, it says, eschewed evil. He departed from it. And do good. What's good? Do good. What's
good? You know what good is. Good is
being like Christ. Whatever is good. Whatsoever
things are pure. Whatever things are good. Do
good. Seek peace, verse 14. Seek peace and pursue it. That means go after it. Be a
peacemaker. It's easy to take peace, but
it's another thing to pursue it. It's another thing to pursue
it. Our Lord made peace. How? By the blood of His cross. He tells us to love not only
those that love us, but who? Our enemies. And isn't that what
he does? That's what he did. Oh, blessed
are the peacemakers. That's who's like Christ. The fruit of righteousness is
sown in peace by them that make peace. God will be at peace with
you. The eyes of the Lord, verse 15.
The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and His ears are
open unto their cry. The face of the Lord is against
them that do evil. cut off the remembrance of them
from the earth. The eyes of the Lord. He looks upon His children. The
righteous are those in Christ. You know that. He looks on His
children in love and mercy. But there are also times He frowns
on that. Yes, He does. We can feel it. And we know why. He'll tell us. We'll find out. granddaughter this weekend. I
love her. I don't think anybody could love
their children more than I do. I know they can't. I don't think
it's possible. And they just give me so much pleasure. And
there's nothing I wouldn't do for them. And most of what they
do I think is cute. But Sophie did something the
other night that was just ugly. It was mean. It was being destructive
and caused her sister great grief. And it made me mad. I never felt
that way about her. It made me mad. But thankfully,
her father and mother dealt with her. I didn't have to. Or she
would have seen a side of me she'd never seen before. But
she needed to be accosted. And she was. And made to be sorry
for it. And the Lord, His face, His eyes
are upon us in love, in mercy, in grace. And if we're His children,
if we be without chastisement, we're bastards. Thankfully, most
of His chastening is through His Word. And He makes us smart
for it. And He's going to cut off, verse
16, the remembrance of the evil from the earth. He's going to
cut their remembrance off. You know, most of God's people
are unknown. yet unknown in this earth. Well, they are well known
in heaven. Well known in heaven. And all
the well known on the earth are going to soon be forgotten in
heaven. Nobody will even know who they
were. The most famous person on earth.
Don't know and don't care. But who's that? Who's Virgie
Jones? Oh, I know her. The angels know
her. Who would we rather be known
by, the Lord or the world? Verse 17, the righteous cry,
and the Lord heareth. He hears every cry. David even
said this one time, he said, Are not my tears in your bottle? Anything that touches you more
than the tears of a loved one? Anything. They're a pretty hard
person if they don't. Pretty hard person. The righteous
cry, and I mean that means cry. David said, I watered my bed
with my tears. And the Lord sees that. And he
hears it. He hears every cry. The Lord
hears every cry of every human being. His tender mercy is over all
his works. The Lord taketh no pleasure in the death of the
wicked. The Lord is not without compassion. Have all these dying babies and
so forth. And this is why most of the world
rejects God. Because they feel like, how could
a loving God do this? Well, I'll tell you how. Those
starving babies that die, they only spend a few short months
or whatever years on this earth. Then they're forever with the
Lord. That's pretty good, isn't it? That's real good. That's
great mercy. Great mercy. The Lord is good. He has tender mercies over all
His work. And He hears the cry, and delivereth
His people out of all their troubles. The Lord is nigh unto them that
are of a broken heart, and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.
He is near unto the brokenhearted sinner. That's who that's talking
about. And sorrow. We all have sorrow. Great sorrow. The Lord is nigh. How do you
get through such sorrow? The Lord. The Lord's arms undergird
you. It's the only way. And He does
that often through our brethren. The Lord is nigh unto them that
are of broken hearts, saveth such as be of a contrite spirit. Many are the afflictions of the
righteous. The Lord said there would be. Man is a few days,
born of woman is a few days, and full of trouble. And he said,
in this world you shall have tribulation. You must through
much tribulation. Many are the afflictions of the
righteous. It's necessary. The trial of
our faith is necessary. And it proves Him to us, proves
His Word to us. It's chastisement, some of it.
But the Lord delivered it out of them all. Some of you can
attest to the deepest afflictions and trials, and you can also
attest to the Lord bringing you out. Attest to the proof of His
Word when He said, I'll not make you go through more than you
can bear. He's true. He can be trusted.
He should be trusted. He has never disappointed anyone. Many are the afflictions. Why
is this written here, verse 20? He keepeth all his bones, not
one of them is broken. Well, you know, this speaks of
Christ, yes, as the righteous, but there is such a union between
Christ, our Head, and His body. This is still David talking about
the people of God. who are like his bones. Remember
when the Lord brought Eve to Adam? He said, this is the bone
of my bones. And when it speaks of Mary's,
he said, I speak of Christ in this church. They're the bone
of his bones. Taken out of his side. And not
one bone will be broken. Severed. A broken bone. Compound
fracture means it's in two. It's not joined. He said, it
will never happen. And the Lord, the reason, you
remember when he was hanging on the cross? And the way that
they often killed those crucified malefactors early so that they
would die quickly was break their legs. They couldn't hold themselves
up and they would suffocate. But they came to Christ and that
soldier took a bar back to break his legs. He said, he's dead
already. He said, drop that lock. Who
did that? The Lord said, don't you break
a bone. Don't you break a bone. We have such a union with Christ.
He's our head. We're His body. No little toe. How many bones are in the human
body? You don't know? Robin, you're a nurse. I did
it. 206. I googled it. 206. Surely you can do without one
of those. Surely there's a little bone somewhere you can do without,
a little toe. Can you do without your little toe? Try it. No, not one bone. Those members
that are the least, our Lord said, are stained the greatest. And we'll be out of sorts if
we think we're a big toe when we're nothing. He keepeth all
his bone, not one of them is broken. Evil shall slay the wicked.
They that hate the righteous shall be desolate. The pits that
men dig, they'll fall in it themselves. The nets that they cast are spread,
they'll catch it in themselves. Count on it. The Lord is going
to see to it. Those that hate the righteous,
oh, if any man loved not the Lord Jesus Christ, he's going
to be anathema maranatha, a curse when the Lord comes. And you
hate His people, it's like hating Him. And they'll be desolate. They'll be all found guilty.
But look at this. Oh, how I love this verse. The
Lord redeemeth the soul of his servants. Like David, they often
act like the world, act like fools, act like they don't know
the Lord. Act like the Lord has never been good to them. But the Lord redeemeth his servants.
They may not have too many redeeming qualities, but the Lord redeemeth
them. And none of them, not any of
them, that trust in Him shall be guilty, shall be desolate,
shall be cast out, shall perish. Not one. The biggest fool. Wayfaring men, no fools, shall
not err therein. This man received the sentence,
that's why. Come, you children, let me teach
you the fear of the Lord. He that will love life and see
many good days will taste and see that the Lord is good. Let
His praise be continually in your mouth. Sing His praises.