Psalms 34, we're going to look
at verses 1-10 and one verse in particular that caught my
attention. Psalms 34. Let's read the first
10 verses. And then we'll look at verse
7. I, says David, 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 unto him
and were lightened. Their faces were not ashamed.
This poor man cried and the Lord heard him and saved him out of
all his troubles. The angel of the Lord encampeth
round about them that fear him and delivers them. Oh, taste
and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man that trusts
in him. Oh, fear the Lord, ye his saints,
for there is no want to them that fear him. The young lions
do lack and suffer hunger, but they that seek the Lord shall
not want any good thing. The worst we're going to look
at is verse 7. The angel of the Lord encampeth
round about them that fear him, and he delivers them. Turn with
me to Exodus chapter 17. That will be our main text, so
keep your finger there if you would. in Psalms 34. But Exodus, turn with me to Exodus
chapter 14. Exodus chapter 14 and we'll start
in verse 17. Pharaoh, the Israelites are out
of Egypt and being pursued by Pharaoh. Pharaoh is pursuing
the Israelites. In verse 17, And behold, says
God, behold, I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians and they
shall follow them. And I will get me honor upon
Pharaoh and upon his host and upon his chariots and upon his
horsemen. And the Egyptians shall know
that I am the Lord when I have gotten me honor upon Pharaoh
and upon his chariots and upon his horsemen. Now look with me
at verse 19, and the angel of God, which went before the camp
of Israel, removed and went behind them. And the pillar of the cloud
went from before their face and stood behind them. And it came
to pass, I'm sorry, and it came between the camp of the Egyptians
and the camp of Israel. And it was a cloud and darkness
to them, but it gave light by night to these, to the Israelites.
So that one came not near the other all night. So this angel
of the Lord did this. He made sure that the Israelites
were protected, couldn't get through. Exodus chapter 23, and
verses 20 and 23. Exodus 23. Verse 20 and 23, behold, I send
an angel or the angel before thee to keep thee in the way
and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared. And verse
22, or I'm sorry, verse 23, for mine angel shall go before thee. And bring thee into unto the
Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hibbites,
and the Jebusites, and I will cut them off. Notice the phrasing,
notice the particular pronoun, the names, for mine angel will
bring you. And then he says, and I will
cut them off. Exodus chapter 33. Exodus chapter 33 verses 2 and 12 through 14. Exodus chapter 33 verse 2, And
I will send an angel, or the angel before thee. This is the
same phrase. And I will drive out the Canaanite,
Amorite, Hittite, Perizzite, Hivite, and Jebusite. Now look
at verses 12, 13, and 14. This is Moses, as I pray thee,
if I have, or Moses, verse 12, said unto the Lord, See that
thou sayest unto me, Bring up this people, and that thou not
let me know whom thou wilt send with me. Yet thou hast said,
I know thee by name, and thou hast also found grace in my sight.
And Moses said, Now therefore I pray thee, if I have found
grace in thy sight, Show me now thy way, that I may know thee,
that I may find grace in thy sight, and consider that this
nation is thy people. Now remember what we read in
verse two, remember what we read in Exodus 14, remember what we
read in Exodus 23, now look at this verse. And this is God speaking,
my presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest. Now is he talking about himself,
is he talking about the angel? Okay, hold on. Daniel chapter
3. Yes and yes. Daniel chapter 3. It's no fair Brandon, you can just
point and click. I saw you do that. You're there. Daniel chapter 3. Now you remember
these three rascals. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. They refused to bow to Nebuchadnezzar. They said in verse 16 of chapter
3 of Daniel, we're not careful to answer thee in this matter.
This is what you're saying we've got to do. We've got to bow down
to you, bow down to your laws, bow down to your worship. But
the believer says there's nothing more important than worshiping
God. We're not going to do it. And
I won't say anything about what's going on today, in today's laws
and governors overstretching, overreaching. He says, no, we're not going to
be careful. So when you play this flute, we're not going to
bow down. So when, verse 19, Nebuchadnezzar
the king was full of fury in the form of his visions which
changed against these three, therefore he spake and commanded
that they should heat the furnace one seven times more than it
was once to be heated. So hot that it killed all those
that were hanging on to these three, getting ready to cast
them into the furnace. Verse 23, for these three men, Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego fell down bound in the midst of the burning
furnace. Then Nebuchadnezzar, the king,
was astounded and rose up in haste and spake and said unto
his counselor, did we not cast three men bound in the midst
of the fire? And they said unto the king, true, O king. And he
answered and said, lo, I see four men loose, walking in the
midst of the fire, and they have no hurt. And the form, the form,
an angel, the angel, of the fourth is like the Son of God." What was He there for? Their
protection. As He was the Israelites. Daniel
chapter 6. Daniel chapter 6. We've got our
friend and brother Daniel. Daniel chapter 6. In verse 22,
He's thrown in the lion's den. And the king couldn't sleep because
he liked Daniel. But he was tricked into making
this decree which cannot be changed, the Medes and Persians and all
that. And then it said, Daniel, unto the king, O king, live forever.
The king woke up the next morning. He says, Is your God, whom you
serve continually, able to deliver thee? And he says, verse 22,
My God has sent His angel and has shut the lion's mouths, that
they have not hurt me, that they have not hurt me. for as much
as God views Daniel in Christ. Now, back to our text in Psalms
34. This particular one verse, the
angel of the Lord. Now, it says that he does a few
things. I've just got three points. It says that he does a few things.
The first thing is that he encamps around about them that fear him
and the second thing is that he delivers them. That's all
I've got. But let's look at this a little bit deeper. encampeth
round about those who fear Him or His people. This angel and
these other examples of the angel is none other than our Lord Jesus
Christ as He often did in the Old Testament. He appeared in
angelic form. Jacob Russell, we know who that
was. This man, this angel, these angels,
this one angel, is more than a guardian angel. He's more than
an angel that watches over his people. He does certainly watch
over his people. It is as some old writers, as
a matter of fact, most old writers in chapter 34 and verse 7, the
angel of the Lord, they call this the angel of the covenant.
The angel of the covenant. And as such, He, this angel,
answers sufficiently to our needs. For by himself he put away our
sin by the sacrifice of himself. Hebrews 9, 26. And again, so
Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many. Hebrews 9 and
verse 27. So this angel, this Christ, must
honor this sacred covenant with God for us at all costs and with
all protection. So again, our text says, the
angel of the Lord encampeth round about them. He encampeth. That
means to pitch a tent, to pitch a tent or to set up camp on our
behalf and for our eternal protection. On every side, you know, if you
want to think about the The Western shows, you know, where they circle
the wagons, however you want to think it. It says He encamps,
and that means He pitches a tent, sets up camp. On every side,
He and the Lord of hosts are set up to conquer our foes, to
thwart Satan's attacks, and to render us without harm. Do we hear this this morning? Do I understand this? lay hold of this. We are encircled
by our glorious Sovereign so that none or nothing can touch
us without His permission." Well, you said, well, Stephen was serving
the Lord and then he got stoned. It was with the Lord's permission.
You're telling me that what happened to Stephen, and there's no such
thing as chance, there's no such thing as luck, you're telling
me what happened to him or to Paul or John when he was exiled
in Patmos, you're telling me that's not according to God's
sovereign will and pleasure? Nobody can get through this ring.
These hosts that the Lord oversees for our benefit and He Himself
is interested in what He has done for us and He will see it
through. He began a good work, He'll finish it until the day
of Christ Jesus. It can't be. The enemies of grace
cannot cannot work through this encampment. It can't be done
unless he allows it. And that's why we see we have
sickness and death and issues that we fear and tremble, and
that's human nature. We have the flesh. Job, what
an example. What did Satan say? God, you've got a hedge about
him. You better believe He's got a hedge about Him, and so
does everyone who trusts in Christ here this morning. So if we are
assaulted, or if we are attacked, or if we are in a time of trial,
our foes must fight through this encampment, and they can't succeed,
or they are allowed in by God's chastening hand, yet it's all
for our good and His glory. And it's easy for me to say,
because right now everything is fine. But look at this. Look at how
it's worded. The Lord, the angel of the Lord
encamps. That's present tense. This watch is a permanent watch
set all around us. We are truly hedged about by
one who can never be conquered or dominated. No enemy of grace
or no enemy of Jehovah can touch us. It was said by the Lord in
the book of Acts, is it hard for thee to kick against the
pricks, says our Lord, to establish His rule and reign among men.
He was talking to the Apostle Paul before he was an Apostle. He was just Saul of Tarsus. Turn
with me to 2 Kings. I love this passage. I asked
Melinda where it was at. She told me, so I'm going to
look at it. 2 Kings. Chapter 6. I'm sure you're familiar
with the story. The Syrians are getting ready
to attack again. In verse 14 of 2 Kings 6, Therefore sent he thither of
the king horses, chariots, and great hosts, and they came by
night and compassed the city about. And when the servant of
the man of God was risen early and gone forth, behold, a host
compassed the city both with horses and chariots, and his
servants said unto him, Alas, my master, how shall we do?"
I'd been just like him. I'd been looking for any place
to run or hide. And Elisha, He answered, fear
not. There you go. Don't fear. Do
not fear. For 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, open my servant's eyes that he may
see. And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man and he
saw, and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots
of fire, round about Elisha, the Lord is also called the Lord
of Hosts. He's also called the Captain
of Hosts. If we could, and I'm serious,
if we could just, by faith, look and see everywhere we are encamped,
everywhere we are surrounded by blood. the death angel, whatever
form, whatever form it takes, human or other, it can't enter
in. We are under the blood. It's not just here, everywhere
we look, and it moves with us. We are encamped by the angel. or by the Covenant Angel, the
Angel of the Covenant, by the Lord Jesus Christ. We are totally encompassed. The
Angel or our Christ, our Savior, our Mediator, our Covenant Bearer
has us circled on all sides, all the time, in every situation
and in every circumstance. May we walk by faith and see
this, my dear brethren. I was thinking of something to
say, but I'm going to delete it. I'll edit my own self. And if we want to talk about
it later, we can. But I thought it was very interesting. But
it deals specifically with this. Anything, or at any time, God has to allow things to even
get close to us. It can't get close to us unless
comes through that encampment, and if it's coming through that
encampment, He's allowing it. We have a fixed watch, a permanent
protection, all sentineled by our captain of our salvation,
our sweet and supreme Lord Jesus Christ. But there's a second
thing in this text. He says, the angel of the Lord
encampeth round about them that fear Him, and delivers them,
and delivers, plural, and is in the process, he's currently
delivering us. And I got to thinking about this,
and I use a silly example because this is the best thing I could
come up with. Let's say we're hiking and we're walking, and
there's places in southern Illinois, there's swampy areas, and there's
quicksand in certain parts of this country, not in foreign
lands, and let's say you fall in. And if it's true quicksand, you're
probably not getting out. What difference does it make?
It does. If you're up to your knees and
somebody comes and pulls you out, you're delivered. If you're
up to here, right below your nose, and you're delivered, you're
still delivered. The intensity, the human intensity,
is what we struggle with. I want to go through a trial,
but I want to go just up to my ankles. Right? You know what
I'm saying? So I'm not discounting the intensity of the deliverance,
but I'm telling you, He says He'll deliver us. And if it's
through death, like our brother Don is going through, and he
said it's the most beautiful walk, it is. But it may not be ten years from
before. I don't want to go. So whatever
the intensity of the trial, the difficulty, the curse, the trouble,
the enemy, it still delivers. We're still delivered. So notice
again in our text it says He delivers them. We, I believe
we little know how many times we have been delivered. And that
word means rescues or it means to be snatched out. That's what
it literally means. To be snatched out from danger.
To be delivered means to be rescued. You know what that is. You understand
rescue. If you don't understand that, you understand being snatched.
You know, my dad, six foot whatever, how many times I was a little
kid and get in trouble, just literally snatched me up, pulled
me out. Drowned in, pulled me out. Delivered. Oh, we don't know how many times
we've been truly delivered from worldly harm, Satan's grasp,
or our own fleshly appetites. Sometimes we don't know what's
best for ourselves. We think we do, and then our
spouse or our brother or our friend in Christ will say, is
that right? Think about what you're saying.
Think about what you're getting ready to do. That's just my opinion. But we encourage one another
to communicate to one another. But we know the whole matter
of the thing is that the Lord's angel, His covenanted angel,
the Lord Jesus Christ encamps around about us and He will deliver
us. Only a total superior or a complete
sovereign can easily and successfully deliver His sheep. And we are
in much need of rescue, my brethren, on a daily basis. We are so weak
We're so sinful, we're so insignificant, we're so helpless. Matter of
fact, that's one reason why we're called sheep. Sheep. Sheep are gregarious. Goats like
to roam around by themselves. But sheep, we need one another. We have to have one another.
But in case we go wandering, The Lord goes and there's these
99 sheep doing what they're supposed to be doing. But then you got
that one. There's better food over here.
I'm going to move my whole family away from the gospel or this
or that or whatever. I'm going to do all these different
things that I just feel like I can do. I'm going to do this
and do that. And it goes, it's greener pastures
over here. Or greener pastures over here.
And Dolores, I gotta go get him again. Some old riders say that he breaks
one of the legs so he can't run away again and throws it off
and carries it back. And that's, oh, we're just so
weak. That's us. We need daily rescue. Jesus paid it all. Jesus rescued
us all, His sheep, His people. Jesus delivered or truly snatched
us from this vile world. He is our Great Physician, our
Glorious Shepherd, our True Balm in Gilead, our Ever-Glorious
Jacob's Ladder, our Ark, our Dayspring, our Kinsman, and of
course, our Covenant Angel. Third point, in closing, for
whom does He do all these things and more for? The angel of the
Lord encampeth round about them and delivers them. Who's them?
It's in our text. That fear Him. That fear Him. That word, that Hebrew phrase,
that fear Him, or as the Hebrew states, to live with a sense
of reverential awe of. It's not a slavish fear. It's
not, you know, like Tim would say, he's got a message called
whips and biscuits. That's what preachers do today.
They'll either reward you, you can listen to some biscuits,
or you do what I say. I'm your righteousness. I'm the
rule of your rule of life. And then when the next pastor
comes in, oh, we've got to relearn all this. That's what works.
It's crazy. It works. It's always this and that. But
the grace of God is ever the same. That's why it's called
the everlasting gospel. It never changes. So whom does
He do all this and more for? Those who have been given a heart
and a mind and a soul to sense reverence toward our Lord Jesus
Christ and this comes not by our efforts or our works or our
supposed goodness or even our ineffectual decisions but it
comes only by the grace of God by the accomplishments of the
Lord Jesus Christ and by the enabling or workings of God the
Holy Spirit. So I close and I ask myself this
and I ask you this do you Do I fear or reverence Jehovah God? Do you know who you do or you
don't? Do we honor and submit to the blessed son? I think as Isaiah said, who will
go? I said, Lord, send me. That's what we do. That's what
you do. I'll honor you and I'll submit
to the Blessed Son. Do we desire the sweet and tender influence
of the Holy Spirit that says peace and whispers peace? Do we have that? Do we reverence
the Father, submit the Son, and desire the sweet influences of
the Holy Spirit? Oh, to be under the shadow of
our Lord's wing and to be encamped round about by the covenant angel
or the Lord Jesus Christ. To God be the glory. Scott, would
you close us please?