Let me make a few comments about
it. Look what it says up there in the title. It says a psalm
of David when he changed his behavior before Abimelech who
drove him away and he departed. Now this psalm David wrote after
you can read this in 1st Samuel 21 where he went down to the
Philistines to the King Achish and he got down there and he
acted like he was mad, acted like he was crazy and because
they said when he got down there this is that David that everybody
talks about that killed his ten thousands and his glory and power
is well known and David said well man they'll kill me here
so he started acting like he was mad started, you can read
it, and he started spitting just red out of his mouth down on
his beard, and he'd run around scratching on the walls, and
scratching on the doors, and that king says, why in the world
did you bring me a madman over here? He said, this guy ain't
nobody, get him out of here. He said, he ain't no danger to
nobody but himself, and so get him out of here. And this is,
and then he left there, and he went to the cave of Abdullam.
So here, that's what this psalm is, and David blesses the Lord
for saving him. A lot of people think that when
David did this, that it was a compromising thing to do. But David, I honestly
believe that God uses means. And David understood. He said,
Be ye wise as serpents and harmless as doves. And he understood. And he is trusting God. And he said, This is what's going
to take to save me here. And this is what's going to take
to keep them fellas from killing me or taking me captive. And
so he did that. I personally believe that he
was trusting the Lord even in that to get him from his situation.
And God gave him the ability to get out of it. And David,
I think he was trusting God all the way through that thing. And
he was praising and exalting God. Now I'll tell you something
else about this particular psalm. Psalm 34 is quoted twice in the
New Testament. Peter in 1 Peter 3, he quotes
verses 12 through 16. What man is he that desireth
life, and loveth many days, that he may see good? Keep thy tongue
from evil, and thy lips from speaking guile. Depart from evil,
do good, seek peace, and pursue it. The eyes of the Lord are
upon the righteous, and hear his cry, and open unto the face
of the Lord against them that do evil, to cut off the remembrance
of them from the earth. Now Peter quoted that almost
verbatim in 1 Peter 3. And then down in verse 20, this
is what was quoted at the cross by our Lord Jesus Christ. And
John talked about it. He says, And when they came to
break their legs, he said he was already dead. He said, He
keepeth all of his bones, and not one of them is broken. Quoted
in John 19. And so you see that's quoted
twice in the New Testament. Now this psalm is divided into
two parts and I'm going to deal with the first ten verses tonight
and the next later. But Mr. Spurgeon said this, he
says that this psalm is divided into two different parts. The
first part is a hymn, the second part is a sermon. And he sings
the hymn and then he preaches the sermon. And the first ten
verses are the hymn, the last ten verses are the sermon. Twelve
verses is the sermon. But I tell you what he does is
he starts praising the Lord. He starts blessing the Lord.
And then you know all of us have much, much reason to bless the
Lord. And David, he starts blessing the Lord here, he starts praising
the Lord. And he said, I will bless the Lord at all times. I'll bless the Lord at all times.
The word bless, it can also mean to bow the knee. I'm going to
bow to me and I'm going to bless Him. I'm going to bow to me and
I'm going to bless Him. I'm going to praise Him. And
what it is, is that we're praising God with the highest praise and
the highest exaltation. And it also talks about when
we say we will bless the Lord at all times, it means that our
heart is in submission to Him. that our hearts are submitted
to Him. That's why we bless the Lord. That's why David said in
1 Psalm 103, I will bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that
is within me. Bless His holy name, who redeemeth
from all thine iniquities, and healeth all thy diseases. You
see that the children of God, and just like David and all the
rest of us, we often go through great trials, lots of trials
while we're in this life. And I tell you, life in this
world is filled with difficulties. If it's not for us, it's for
people that we know. And when sometimes you hear this
news and you think, well, then here's some more news, and here's
some more news, and constantly you're praying for somebody and
somebody's in need. And we have these things happen
all the time. But here's one thing that God's people do all
the time, and Kathy did it today when she was talking to me. They always praise God no matter
what the situation is and the circumstances they're in. They're
able to turn around and praise God in whatever situation it
is. Praise God that the boy ain't dead. Praise God that he's still
alive. Praise God, she said, I'll take
him any way I can get him. If he ain't able to walk, I'll
take him. She said, the Lord lets disparity. And that's what
we do. That's what Job said. He said,
I came forth from my mother's womb naked and I'm going to return
naked. The Lord gave and the Lord take
it away. Praise and bless it be the name
of the Lord. And that's what David's saying
here. And that's what we do. We bless the Lord. Oh, our hearts
are in submission to Him. Something comes, bless the Lord.
This is the Lord's doing. We're not going to get upset
with, oh, bless His holy name. And then look what else is said
here. He says, you know, I'll bless the Lord at all times.
At all times. It's easy to bless the Lord.
You know, Habakkuk talks about this. He says, when the cash
in the stall, the corn's in the barn, and the fruit's off all
the trees, and everything's, you know, and the children all
fed, and everything's well taken care of, he said, it's easy to
praise the Lord. But oh, whenever Whenever things
ain't good, whenever you like Job, or whenever you like what
some of you went through, and like what some of you are going
through, you know you still turn around and you say, yes, bless
the Lord at all times. You bless Him in the good, you
bless Him in the bad. You bless Him in the morning,
you bless Him at night. You bless Him in your health,
you bless Him in your poverty. We bless the Lord at all times. All times. And I specially bless
Him that there is forgiveness with Him. Oh, that there is forgiveness
with Him, that He forgives all our iniquities, takes care of
all of our sins. That in and of itself is enough
reason for us to bless Him at all times. If we never blessed
Him for anything else but forgiveness of our sins and taking care of
our sins, that's enough for us to bless Him the rest of our
lives. And look what else David said here now. Verse 1, he said,
I will bless the Lord at all times, and listen to this, His
praise shall continually be in my mouth. Now you know, he blessed
the Lord in his heart, and in his heart is where he worships
God at all times. It's a heart submission thing,
and it's a bowing to me, and it's praising and blessing God. But then he says, you know what's
in my heart has got to come out of my mouth. If I bless Him in
my heart, and I worship Him in my heart, and my heart is submitted
to Him, then I'm going to have to tell everybody else, you know.
His praise is going to be continually in my lips. He said, you know, if it's in
your heart, it's got to come out. That's what our Lord said.
Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh. Out of the
good treasure of a man's heart, He brings forth a good thing.
And he said, I'm not only going to submit to Him in my heart,
but I want everybody else to know, I'm going to praise Him
continually. I'm going to praise Him with
my mouth. And you know, it's one thing to bless Him in our
hearts, but boy, to be able to praise Him with your mouth. And
open your mouth and say, Oh, ain't the Lord gracious. Ain't
the Lord good. Let's praise Him. Let's bless
Him. He's never done nothing but good for me. And that's what
David goes on. And I tell you, it may begin
in the heart, but it can't stay there. I mean, it's got to come
out. If it's in there, it's got to come out. And I tell you what,
wouldn't it be wonderful if we, Clarence Ford was telling me,
telling us yesterday, that he's got up a A sign that says, the first thing
he sees when he wakes up, he said, he will keep him in perfect
peace whose mind is stayed upon him. He said, I see that time
and time and time again, every day. And he says, you know, and
I think of it every time I look at it. Oh my, wouldn't it be
wonderful if our mind stayed on him and our mouth was full
of praise continued to him ever, then we'd never Never had to
worry about slandering a neighbor or saying something we ought
not say. And then look what he said in verse 2. I love this
right here. Then look what he says, My soul shall make her
boast in the Lord. My soul will do that. That soul
is what worships God. That soul is what God saves.
That soul is what communes with God. We don't commune with God
with this body. We commune with the soul. And
the soul communes with Him. And the word boast here means
to praise or hallelujah. But it also means this. It also
means to glory. You know I'll make... I'll make
my boast in the Lord. I'll make my glory, I'll make
God to be my glory. I'll glory in the Lord. That's
why he says, you know, if any man glory, let him glory in the
Lord. If a man, if he's got wealth,
don't let him glory in that. If he's got strength, don't let
him glory in that. If he's got wisdom, don't let
him glory in that. He said, if he's going to glory
in anything or boast in anything, let him boast in this, that he
knows the Lord God. That's why we make our boast
in the Lord. And you know where praise, this
word praise is found, I believe it's found 160 times in the Psalms. Just the word praise, 160 times
in the Psalms. In Psalm 150, 6 times, 6 verses,
it's mentioned 13 times in just 6 verses. And verse 6 of Psalm
150 says, Let everything that hath breath praise you, the Lord. And that's what it means, if
the man is going to glory, let him glory in the Lord. He said,
I'm going to make, my soul is going to make its boast in the
Lord. My soul is going to make its boast, not in me, not in
being king, not in anything I said or done, not in my throne, not
in my homes, not in my children. My boast is going to make its
glory in the Lord. That's where I'm going to make
my boast. That's where my soul is going to make its boast. And
ain't that the safest place? Ain't that the best place to
make you boast? If you're going to boast in anything, glory in
anything, wouldn't that be the most blessed thing in the world
to glory in? Is the Lord. And then look what
David does. He calls on us. And look what
he said, the humble will hear that, and they'll say, oh, he
makes you boast in the Lord, and they'll be glad. I hear somebody
saying, you know, The Lord, blessed be His name. To Him be all the
good. To God be the glory. Great things
He hath done. And he says, and when the humble
hears that, it makes him glad when he ever hears somebody else
making the Lord their boast. Now look what he says to us here
in verse 3. This is praise and exalting and
magnifying the Lord. He said, O magnify the Lord with
me and let us exalt His name together. Together. And he's talking about the Lord's
people, all the Lord's people. God's people. Let's all magnify
the Lord. Come on, magnify the Lord with
me. And let us all get together. Let us all exalt His name. And
I'll tell you what, he's talking about the people of God, God's
people. And we know God, so let's magnify His name. And wherever
you find the Lord's people together, they're with one accord and one
purpose, one aim, one desire. Their fellowship, their association,
everything is all... We all have the same thing in
common. We all want to magnify and exalt the Lord. And David
said, Oh, magnify the Lord with me. Now you know what magnify
means, don't you? You know what magnify means.
If you use a magnifying glass or binoculars, it makes... things to appear bigger than
they are. It causes them to appear bigger. It means to cause them to grow.
You look at some little something out there and it may be just
about like that but you put on spy glasses or binoculars and
that little thing will get that big. He said that's what we want
to do. We can't make God any bigger
than He is. We can't make Him any Make him
grow any more than he is. Make him bigger than he is. But
what it means is for us, O man, let us magnify his name. Let
us recognize his greatness. Let us recognize his immensity. Let us recognize his dominion. Let us recognize his power. Let
us recognize God and all that is. And then we, when we magnify
him, somebody else will say, Oh, that God they're talking
about. I remember when Dion Selby, Dion
Myers now, when she comes to see me early one morning, I was
up here to study, and we hadn't been here very long, and she
banged on the door and come on in, and she hadn't been married
very long. And she said, Brother Don, I
just got to tell you something, I got to tell you something.
I said, what is it? She said, the Lord saved me, and I don't
hardly know how to describe it, I don't know how to describe
it, I don't know how to describe how the Lord appears to me and
what He means to me. But He said, He's just so big
and so great! He's just so big and so great, that's the way I see Him now.
Just a young woman. I just, oh I can't tell you. I'll magnify the Lord with us. Yes, what you call magnifying
the Lord. Let's all do that. He said, oh, magnify the Lord
with me. And you know when God is our life, when Christ is our
life, and we recognize His greatness in all aspects of His being,
and His immensity. I mean, He covers heaven and
earth, can't contain Him. All our decisions will be based
on what we know of Him. We'll make our decisions based
on Him and our relationship to Him. Yes, we will. And that's what David's saying.
Let's come and magnify the Lord with me. And then he says this.
He said, let's exalt the Lord with me. Come and exalt the Lord
with me. That's what he said. Let's exalt
His name together. Let's exalt His name. When we
gather in a place to worship together, let's exalt his name.
That's what Elijah did that one day, standing there with all
those false prophets and that, and he said, If God be God, let
him answer with fire. And if Baal be God, worship him. And Lord God called down fire.
And folks understood that then and there. That's why Elijah
said, how long are you going to halt between these two opinions?
It's obvious who the god is. This is the one that's magnified.
This is the one that's got the greatness. This is the one that's
got the power. This is the one you're going to worship. Or you're
going to perish with that false one over there. And they did.
And oh, there's nothing more important than us gathering together
to magnify the Lord, to worship God, And let it, let's magnify
Him, lift Him up. And then David said, let's exalt
His name together. Let's raise up His name. Exalt
means to raise Him up. Lift Him up high. And I tell
you, worship David saying, I'm worshiping God. You all come
on together and worship with me. Let's exalt His name together. And then look what David says
in verse 4. And he gives us several reasons
here why he praises the Lord. Gives us several reasons. And
here's one of them. This is why he blessed the Lord,
magnified the Lord, make his boast in the Lord, exalt his
name. I sought the Lord and he heard
me. I sought the Lord and you know
what? He heard me. And then what did he do? He delivered
me from all my fears. David was afraid when he went
on a vacation. He was afraid. He was afraid
his soul was going to get him. He said, I'm like a partridge
being hunted down. And he had all these fears. And
David said, I sought the Lord and He heard me and He delivered
me from all my fears. He said, that's why I exalted
Him. That's why I delivered Him, to call on Him. And you know
He delivered us from our fears. And you know what our fears are.
We have fears and most of the time our fears is not near as
bad as they appear to be when they actually come to pass. Now
ain't that right? If you had fears and you said
I'm afraid this is going to have that on it and it never, you
have these fears and when it all comes down to it, it ended
up to be groundless, baseless. Well that's what David said,
you know. Our fears are never as bad as they seem. And God
delivers us from our fears. Paul told Timothy, He said, God
has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love
and a sound mind. A sound mind. That verse of scripture
right there kept me a lot of times when I was afraid I didn't
have a sound mind. Years and years ago, that verse
of scripture kept me. God gave me a sound mind. I did.
I thought, boy, I'm going to go crazy in a bed bug. But I
kept going back. God said He gave me a sound mind.
I don't care what the devil says, I got a sound mind. I got a sound mind. I kept telling
myself, God said I got a sound mind. Everybody else made a question,
but I, God said, I got a sound mind. I'd walk through the woods
and say, well, don't say much. I got a sound mind. God said
it. I don't know how many times I went to that verse of scripture.
And that's why he said, it's one reason why, because God heard
me and delivered me from all my fears. And then look what
he said down in verse 6. He said, and they're talking
about seeking the Lord. This poor man cried. This poor man
cried. And the Lord heard him. And not
only saved him from his fears, but saved him out of all of his
troubles. Here's a poor man. You know he was, before he was
king, after he was even anointed king, he still had to flee from
Saul. He had to beg for bread from
the high priest. He didn't have a sword of his
own. He took Goliath's sword. And he dwelt in caves, depending
on other people to give him his food. But when he talks about
this poor man cried, he's talking about this man before God, poor
before God. No strength before God, no ability
before God. No wealth before God. And he says, I'm the weakest
one, I have nothing to offer, I'm a poor man, and this poor
man cried. And oh my, I tell you what, when
we're poor, and that's why our Lord Jesus Christ says this,
when we're poor in spirit, blessed are the poor in spirit. And He
says, you know what? He says, for in the end, they'll
be the ones to be rich, and the rich will end up being poor.
That's why He says, the first to be last, and the last to be
first. And that's what our Lord Jesus Christ said to Paul, when
Paul says, I ain't got no ability. He says, my grace is sufficient
for you. My strength is made perfect in weakness. So Paul
just backed up and said, well, if that's what it is, and I've
got infirmities, instead of complaining about them, I'm going to glory
in them. I've got weaknesses, instead of complaining about
them, I'm going to say, bless the Lord, the Lord's going to
be magnified in my weakness. I've got necessities, I'm not
going to quit complaining about, I've got necessities, I'm not
going to talk about what I need, I'm going to say, the Lord said
His grace was sufficient. That's what I'm going to do.
That's what I'm going to do. And I tell you what, and that's
why I said here in verse 5, go back up to verse 5. And here's
another reason why, because those who trust in God are never ever
disappointed. Look what He said, they looked
unto Him, And oh my, what does that mean?
They lined up, their face just lit up. Their face just lit up, just
lit up. One man said it like this, he
says, those who look to him are radiant and their faces shall
never be ashamed. That when we look unto the Lord,
He enlightens us, causes us to shine, causes our face and everything
to be light up in His blessed presence, and then our faces
will never be ashamed. We won't be ashamed because we
look to the Lord. We won't be ashamed because we
look to Christ. We won't be ashamed for what
God does for us. Never be ashamed. Never. And
look what He says here in verse 7, giving us these reasons. Here's another reason, because
God's protection. Look what he said in verse 7.
The angel of the Lord encampeth around about them, that fear
him, and delivers them. Do you remember when Israel was
coming out of Egypt? They got across the Red Sea.
And by night there was a pillar of fire. And by day there was a cloud.
And that fire separated him, you know, gave them from their
enemies. And a cloud to guide them by day. When the cloud moved,
they moved. And the fire would be at night.
And you know what that was? Encamped around them, both sides. That was the Lord Jesus Christ.
Encamped around the righteous. He's that flame of fire. That's
why Moses said he baptized into that cloud and that's what he's
talking about here and then also I tell you what it means also
this that God's people have an angel in camp that God gives
angels to minister us and meet all of our needs and look what
I'm going to show you that over here in Hebrews chapter 1 let
me show you this in Hebrews 1 real quick Hebrews chapter 1 God protects
his people and that's why he says you know the angel of the
Lord encamps around the battle Them that fear him. And you know
how many times he's probably delivered us and us not even
conscious of it. Hebrews chapter 1 and verse 13. But to which of the angels said
that he at any time sit on my right hand until I make thine
enemies thy footstool? Well, he know he never said it.
Angels said that. Then look what he said about
angels. Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister,
to be servants, to wait on those who are heirs of salvation? That's what he said back over
here in this text, the angel of the Lord encamps around the
boundaries. Oh listen, I'll tell you what, there was a I think
it's over in 1st and 2nd Kings. You remember when Elisha, the king of Judah, the king of
Israel, Elijah told everything that was going to happen. They
said, boy, the birds have been telling us. But he found out
that Elisha was doing it. So this big army came down and
surrounded Elisha's house. And he had a man serving named
Gehazi. Well, old Gehazi, he looked out there and seen that
great big army, and all those fellows, and their horses, and
their chariots, and their swords, and their shields. And he come
running out and said, Oh, Master, Master, Master, we're surrounded,
they're going to kill us. We're golders. What are we going
to do? What are we going to do? And
old Elisha just, Lord, opened his eyes. Opened his eyes that
he may see. And he walked outside and he
seen that big army, but literally, he saw An army of chariots, fire,
all the way around. And I said, we look like we got
an army that's going to beat us, but you just wait and see.
The Lord opened your eyes, and then you'll see that there they
was, there's somebody there waiting on us, watching us. And God's
hand is going to protect us all the days of our lives. He is. And then look verses 8 through
10. We won't ever be found wanting.
Look what he said. He said, Oh, taste and see that
the Lord is good. Peter said, Oh, taste, taste
the grace of God. We taste the grace of God. Taste
and see that the Lord is good. This is mean like, you know,
Christ said, I'm the bread of life. You taste Him. Taste Him. Taste His goodness. Taste His grace. Taste His mercy. Taste His blood. Taste His sacrifice. Taste His sin offering. Taste
Him and see that the Lord is good. And blessed is that man
that trusts in Him. And all fear the Lord, all ye
His saints. Fear the Lord, because there
is no one to them that fear Him. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall
not want. We shall not want. And he said, now here's what
we'll want. He said, the young lions do like to suffer hunger. They will, but he said, but they
that seek the Lord shall not want any good. Shall not want
any good. God, those that seek the Lord,
God will bless them. He said, I am the bread of life. He that cometh in need of me
shall never hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.
And I tell you what, we've tasted that the Lord is good, and also
you that haven't ever tasted that the Lord is good, taste
Him and see just how good He is. And I tell you, I can taste
Him. I can taste the grace of God.
I can taste the goodness of God. I can taste the Word of God.
You can taste it. And mmmmm good. Andy Griffiths,
you know he used to say about him, he had some cracker he advertised
and he'd take a bite of that cracker and say mmmmm that's
good. Well I tell you what, you taste
the Lord and just see how good He is. He's good. He's good. Our blessed Savior. Praise you
for giving us this time together to magnify you, exalt you, to
praise you, and to bless you. And we have more reasons than
we could ever number to do that. To bless you, to praise you,
and exalt you. Lord, you protect us, you preserve us, you camp
around us with the angels. And we don't want anything. All
that we want, you've provided. All that we've needed in this
world, all that we've wanted, all the spiritual things that
we've wanted, you've given us. And we bless you for it. Pray
again for those we mentioned at the beginning of the service.
God help us not to forget them. Be mindful of them. And when
we lay in our beds at night or before we go tonight, let us
call their names, let us call their needs before the Lord.
We ask these things in Christ's name. Amen. Amen. Thank you, Lord, for saving my
soul. Thank you, Lord, for making me
whole. Thank you, Lord, for giving to
me Thy great salvation so rich and free.