Good morning. I invite your attention to the
thirty-fourth psalm, Psalm number 34, a psalm of David when he
changed his behavior before Abimelech, who drove him away and he departed. I will bless the Lord at all
times. His praise shall continually
be in my mouth. My soul shall make her boast
in the Lord, the humble shall hear thereof and be glad. O 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, and 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 delivereth them. O taste
and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man that trusteth
in him. O 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." Let us pray. Our great and our glorious Heavenly
Father, in the mercy of your providence we have been blessed
with the opportunity to worship you this day. And in the grace
of your salvation, we have been given hearts that would do so.
And we pray that you be pleased this morning to accept all these
tokens of our worship, the hymns we have sung, the prayers we
breathe, the praise we offer, and now we pray the declaration
of your Son. blessed this word and the gospel
of your grace, through Jesus Christ your Son, we pray. Amen. The superscription of this psalm
identifies it as a psalm of David when he changed his behavior,
or actually pretended madness, before Abimelech who drove him
away, and David went The name Abimelech means father of a king,
or my father is king, and this name was probably a royal title
for the kings of Philistia, like Pharaoh was for the kings of
Egypt. There were two kings of Philistia
who bore this name. One was contemporary with Abraham,
and the other was contemporary with Isaac. Then there was a
son of Gideon who wanted to be king, so he named himself Abimelech
because he aspires to be king. Here, this Abimelech is in 1
Samuel 27 where the account is described. He is also named Achish. Now, David in the superscription
is said to have pretended madness when he changed his behavior.
He had gotten himself in quite a jam down in Philistia. He was
hunted by Saul, king of Israel, and so David sought refuge in
the camp of the Lord's enemies, the Philistines no less. And
now the Philistines were prepared to go to war against Israel,
and David is on the wrong side of the battle, and so he feigns
madness, pretends to be a madman. so that the friends of Abimelech,
king of Philistia, come and say, we don't want this madman going
with us. So the ruse worked, but it was a pretense of madness.
David in this psalm does not describe his pretended madness. In fact, he does not even seem
to make mention of it. I think there is something to
be learned from that. in that David would not describe
his pretended madness. Indeed, what he did to the contrary
was describe the salvation that Jehovah gave to him from that
pretended madness. Let us learn here to say very
little about the time we spent in the madness of sin when we
were allied with the Lord's enemies. Let us learn to say little about
the time we spent in the pretense of religion, when in our madness
we pretended to be what we were not, holy and righteous. I spent some time in religion
before the Lord saved me, and I remember testimony meetings
in religion. Every worship service should
be a testimony meeting. It's just that this morning I'm
giving the testimony. But if I had been lazy during
the week and had not prepared anything, I might have said,
let's have a testimony meeting. And anybody can stand up and
testify. And that's what they did. When I was in religion,
I did a bit of that. Let me tell you how it usually
turns out. Good old Gentleman A stands up
and he says, before I got religion, I was drunk every Saturday night. Let me tell you what I would
do, and he would go off to describe his drunkenness on Saturday night. And good old Gentleman B would
stand up and he'd say, Well, Gentleman A, yes, you were a
terrible sinner, but I was worse. Not only was I drunk, I was running
with wild women. And so he would describe what
he was doing in the madness of his sin when he pretended And
so good old Gentleman C. stands up, and he's got to go
worse. You know, I was drunk and running with wild women,
not only on Saturday night, but Friday night too. I was running
the liquor. And so, you know, testimony meetings
become bragging sessions, where they brag about what they were
before they turned over the new leaf or got religion or before
I got saved or walked the aisle or whatever it is, you know.
And the child of God does not do that. We do not dwell upon
talking about what we were before the Lord saved us. Rather, we
dwell upon what He has done in saving us, as David does in this
psalm. He therefore says, I will bless
the Lord at all times. This hymn is divided into two
parts, or this psalm, if you will. First is a hymn of thanksgiving,
verses 1 through 10, and we will look at that today. And then,
beginning in verse 11, there is a sermon of instruction. Come,
my children, and I will teach you the fear of the Lord. So
some other occasion you may look at that sermon of instruction.
Today we look at this hymn of thanksgiving, and that's what
we're going to title this message, a hymn of thanksgiving. In this
hymn of thanksgiving are three things. A resolve to bless Jehovah. The psalmist says, I will bless
Jehovah. So there is a resolve. I am resolved
to bless Jehovah. Then there is an account in verses
4-7, an account of Jehovah's deliverance. And third, there
is an exhortation to a proper relationship with Jehovah. So
those three things in verses 1-3, verses 4-7, So let's look first of all at
this resolve to bless Jehovah. I will. I am resolved to do something. What is it? I will bless Jehovah,
and I will do so in four ways. In the louder part of verse 1,
I will do so by praising him. In verse 2, I will do so by boasting
in him. In the first part of verse 3,
I will do so by magnifying him, and in the latter part of verse
3, I will do so by exalting him. I will bless the Lord in those
four ways, praising, boasting, magnifying, and exalting. But
look at verse 1, I will bless the Lord at all times. What is
it to bless the Lord? Well, it is the opposite of a
curse. You bless something and you curse
the other. To bless someone is to praise
and salute him. I will bless the Lord. I will
praise him and I will salute him. Observe first that the object
of the saint's blessing is the Lord. That is to say, I will
praise him, I will exalt him, I will salute him for who and
what he is and for what he has done. I will praise him alone. All that pretends to be who and
what he is, I will curse everything that is given credit for what
he alone can do." Now, this is what a saint does. I will bless
Jehovah. Now, what a contrasted Jehovah
saint to the world's religionist, who in his fallen state will
bless himself. Why is that? When the serpent
beguiled our first mother, It was with the promise that you
may be like God, and we've been wanting to be like God ever since.
Here, you may be like God. She took the fruit, her husband
wanted to be like God too, so he took the fruit, and we've
been eating the fruit ever since, and all of us have this insane
desire to be like God. It controls our lives. We therefore
say, I will bless myself. Because God is worthy to be blessed,
and I would be like God. I would bless myself above Jehovah. How does he do that? Go to the
book of Isaiah chapter 14, and let me show you how man blesses
himself. Now, what we here are to read
is descriptive of the King of Babylon, who is identified as
Lucifer, who in reality portrays every one of us. in our fallen
state, in our natural state. You want to see who and what
we are and what do we aspire to be? Here it is in Isaiah chapter
14. Look in verse 13. The Lord says,
You have said in your heart, I will ascend into heaven. Now my friend, that is what man
in religion is wanting to do. I will, of my own will, ascend
into heaven. It even comes forth in the songs
they sing when they sing, for example, I'm pressing on the
upward way. New heights I'm gaining every
day. Still paying this, I'm onward
bound. Lord, plant my feet on higher
ground because I want to live above the world and therefore
I will ascend into heaven. I will be no mere earthling.
I'm much better than that. I'm going to be better than all
that this world is. There is a reason why our Lord
prayed, do not take them out of the world. We should be in
it, but we want to be above it all. Second, I will exalt my
throne above the stars of God. The stars of God would be His
angels. morning stars that sang for glory
at the dawn of creation. I will be above the stars of
God. Angels are servants of God sent
to minister to the heirs of salvation, but we would make them our servants. Why, a man in religion even claims
he can exorcise spirits from people because he has more power
than they do. I will also sit on the mouth
of the congregation on the farthest sides of the earth." That is
to say, I will be in for all. I will be the king, king of my
life and king of my heart and king of my mind. It's all about
me, and that is man in his religious state, is it not? Fourth, he
says, I will ascend above the hearts of the clouds. I will
be the chief of men. Years ago there was a boxer who
made quite a name for himself by always saying, I am the greatest. I am the greatest. And a lot
of people resented that. Do you want to know why? Because
they thought they were the greatest. He kept being the greatest. I'm
the greatest. I will ascend above the heights
of the clouds. I will be the chief of men. Saul of Tarsus
in this lost state said, you want to know what a Hebrew is?
I'll show you. I am the Hebrew of the Hebrews,
the chief of men. And he says, I will be like the
most high. Notice, I will, I will, I will,
I will, I will. A five-point I willer. A five-point
free willer he would be. And the reason why we know he
doesn't have free will is because he can't do this. Because that's
what he wants to do, and if he had free will, that's what he
would be. But he believes of these things.
He praises himself. The saint says, I will bless
the Lord, and natural man says, I will bless myself because I
will be like God. When should you do it? Oh, how
about at all times? How about at all times? He is
worthy to be blessed all the day, Psalm 71, verse 8. He is worthy to be blessed every
day, forever and ever, Psalm 145, verse 2. He is worthy to
be blessed always for all things, Ephesians 5, verse 20. His praise
shall continually be in my mouth, the psalmist continues, continually. Therefore, by Jesus Christ, let
us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God that is the
fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name at all times." Even when things go rough for
you, when the children of God in the book of Acts, chapter
5, were imprisoned for preaching Christ, they praised Him that
they were counted worthy of such treatment. I will bless the Lord
at all times. His praise shall continually
be in my mouth. And while we were talking about
the past, I happened to call my wife by the other woman's
name. It's a mistake I made one time. I learned that time, don't
even think the other name. If you never think it, it never
comes across your lips. shall continually no other name
shall come across my lips." Why is that? How can you make sure
that no other name comes across your lips? My soul shall make
its boast in the Lord. The mouth will praise and bless
what the soul will boast. Why is that? Out of the abundance
of the heart. the mouth speaks. It's always
true. If your pastor preaches Christ
to you all the time, it's because he boasts of Christ in his heart. And if a man boasts of his religion
or his sect or his denomination or his creed or his confession,
it's because that's where his boast in his heart is. We express
with our mouths what we boast in our hearts, where my boast
shall be in the Lord. I shall boast of his person.
I will boast of the person of my God as being above every other
person." Now, the religionist boasts of his own person in his
heart. He is of those who will stand
and pray thus with himself. Notice, he prayed with himself.
He was praying to himself, and he said, God, I thank thee that
I am not like other men. The religionists will boast of
his own person. We boast of the person of Christ. We boast of Jehovah's works,
for we confess, You will establish peace for us, for you have also
done all our works in us." Isaiah 26, verse 12. Notice, you have
done our works in us. We may have performed them, but
He worked them. These are His works. This is
the work of God that you believe in the name of His Son. He saved us and ordained us unto
good works, which God prepared before Him that we should walk
in them. The only works of which we boast
are His works, and yet the religionist will boast of his own works. He boasts of the works of righteousness
which we have done. He likes to boast not about what
the Lord has done for me, but what I have done for the Lord. How many tracts he passed out.
How many times he read through his Bible last year. He wants
to make sure everybody knows these things, how long he can pray.
He wants everybody to know what time he gets up in the morning
and begins to have his quiet time. He boasts of these things.
They make him look good in the eyes of religion. And the child
of God says, no, I will boast of his works, of Christ's only. And we boast of Jehovah's righteousness. And his righteousness is Christ,
and we say, I will make mention of your righteousness of yours
only, Psalm 71, verse 16. How can I boast of my righteousness?
I have none, except that of Christ, imputed unto me. And yet the
religion is of those who trusted in themselves that they were
righteous. The Savior boasts of Jehovah's
holiness. What is Jehovah's holiness? It's
Christ. He's the righteousness and He's
the holiness. I cannot boast of any holiness
because I have none. I have never had a righteous thought,
never uttered a righteous word, never performed a righteous deed. I'm devoid of holiness from the
crown of my head to the sole of my feet. I cry out, O wretched man that
I am. someone needs to save me from who and what I am. I boast
of his holiness. I boast of him who is made unto
us wisdom from God, and righteousness, and sanctification, or holiness. Christ is my holiness, and yet
the religious will boast of his own holiness, as when he says,
Get away from me, I am holier than thou. He likes to speak
about how he is growing in sanctification. He's progressing and getting
better and better. He might even, one of these days, become entirely
sanctified, perfectly holy, not the child of God. He boasts of
Christ. The humble shall hear of it and
be glad. Now let me ask you, is there
anyone here today that's been made glad by what I said? Anybody?
If there is, I dare say we have found a humble person. because
the humble rejoice when Christ is exalted and man is put down.
The humble shall hear of it and be glad. These humble are those
who are poor in spirit. He's called the poor man in verse
number six. These are poor in spirit. These
have acknowledged their own spiritual worthlessness and they trust
in Christ alone for salvation. They shall hear of it Because
every saint says, Come and hear, all you who fear God, and I will
declare what He has done for my soul." Now, come in here,
I'd like for you to hear that, what He has done for me. They
will be glad when they hear Christ praised, and they will be repulsed
by the vaulting of the ungodly. Oh, magnify the Lord with me,
verse 3, and let us exalt His name together. Here we have a
parallelism. Both lines mean the same thing.
What is it to magnify the Lord with me? It is to exalt his name
together with me." Humbled individuals here and there become congregated
saints praising Christ. My wife and I used this verse
as a theme for our wedding, on our wedding programs. There it
was, O magnify the Lord with me and let us exalt his name
together. And it was our hope and our intention,
desire, that the rest of our lives would be lived worshiping
and praising Christ together. Second, in verses 4 through 7,
we come to an account of Jehovah's deliverance, in which the psalmist
speaks of seeking Christ and of being heard and delivered
by Him. Verses 4 and 6 are being made radiant or enlightened and
unashamed by Christ in verse 5, and of Christ encamping around
him and delivering him, the psalmist says in verse 4. I sought the
Lord, and he heard me and delivered me from all my fears." Jehovah
may be sought through prayer by any sinner, because he promises,
any sinner, call out to me and I will hear you. You may seek
me in prayer. He may be sought through prayer
even by one allied with the enemies of his people and living in the
pretensive madness that David was at this moment experiencing."
David is living in pretended madness before Abimelech on the
wrong side of the battle, or at least of an army getting ready
to go to battle against the Lord's people. David is on the wrong
side of the battle, and he calls out to the Lord for deliverance.
Is that not where we all called out to the Lord for the first
time? Where were you the first time you called out upon the
Lord? You were on the wrong side. That's why you needed to call
out unto the Lord. You were in the pretense of religion
and the madness of sin. You better call out unto the
Lord. That's the time to do so. I sought the Lord and He heard
me. Jehovah will be heard by all who prayerfully seek Him,
for He promises that before they call, I will answer, and while
they are still speaking, I will hear. No man who ever sought
Jehovah sincerely in prayer was ever turned away, who truly and
sincerely sought Him. And all who seek Him will be
heard, and all who are heard will be delivered from all their
fears. For he himself has said, I will never leave you nor forsake
you, so that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, I will
not fear. What can man do to me?" Well,
he can malign your good name. No, he can't, because I don't
have one. He can tell folks how bad you
are. No, he can't, because he doesn't know. He can kill you. Is that all? Well, is that not enough? Well,
the Lord said, fear not those who can kill the body, but afterward
can do you no evil. He can desecrate your body after
you're dead. I won't feel a thing. He's delivered
me from all my fears. And we can say, what can man
do to me? I sought the Lord, he heard me,
he delivered me from all my fears. They looked to him and were radiant
or enlightened, and their faces were not ashamed. And every humble
person may experience what the psalmist has just described about
himself. I'm saying to you, my friends, seek the Lord, he'll
hear you and deliver you, and make your face radiant. Verse
6, This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him and saved him
out of all his troubles. Who is this poor man? Some say, well, David points
the finger to himself, and he says, I am an example of what
I've been saying. This poor man sought the Lord,
and the Lord heard him and saved him. Well, that's true. Or it
may be that David is speaking these words or singing these
words in the congregation, the saints, and he sees some brother,
and he says, you know what? This man, this man cried out,
and the Lord heard him. We remember that. This one did. Let me suggest to you a third.
He's pointing to the ideal poor man. Who is the ideal poor man? The Lord and Savior Jesus Christ
is the ideal poor man, the ideal humble man. Did he ever cry out
to the Lord? Was he heard? Was he delivered?
This poor man, Jesus Christ, in the days of his flesh, where
he had offered up prayers and supplications with vehement cries
and tears to him who was able to save him. Behold him in the
garden, this poor man, this humble man. Why, even his disciples
will now not stay awake with him. He goes off and prays by
himself, sweats, as it were, great drops of blood. with tears
in his eyes, crying out to my God, if it be possible, let this
cup pass from me, but nevertheless, thy will be done. Behold this
poor man on the cross of Calvary just a few short hours later,
and this poor man on that tree with vehement cries and tears. My God, my God, why have you
forsaken me? Behold this poor man! who cries
out to the Lord with vehement cries and tears, and the Lord
heard him and delivered him." Now, if he did that for Christ,
he'll do it for you. Just cry out to him. He hears. This poor man cried, he was heard,
and the Lord delivered him. And then we read in verse 7 that
the angel of the Lord encamps all around those who fear him
and delivers them. Now who's the angel of Jehovah? Christ. Christ is this angel of the Lord.
That's the title he gave to himself in the burning bush when Moses
saw him there on Mount Horeb. Moses saw Christ in the bush,
the angel of Jehovah. He's called the angel of the
covenant between Jehovah and his people in Malachi 3, verse
1, because it is Christ who announces unto us the good news of the
covenant. He encamps all around his people. He delivers them if he encamps
around them, for the angel of Jehovah's presence saved them,
Isaiah 63, verse 9. Ask Daniel. in that lion's den, as he is
thrown in there to be destroyed because he dared disobey the
king by praying. And here is Daniel put in the
midst of mortal enemies, wild, hungry lions. And the king approaches
that den the next morning Knowing he's done wrong in putting this
man in there, and he says, Daniel, are you with me? Are you okay?
And Daniel says, the Lord sent his angel down and shut the mouths
of the lion. I think he's done that for me
a few times. I think I know for sure that the angel of Jehovah
encamps around his people. Ask the three Hebrew children.
thrown into a fiery furnace because they will not bow down to idols. And behold, the king, as he stares
into that furnace, he said, Did we not throw in three? Yes, we
did, O king. There are four, and the fourth
looks like the Son of God. Well, that's what he came to
do. He encamps around his children,
those who fear him. They pulled him out of the furnace.
Not a hair was singed, not a garment was burnt. The Lord encamps around
his people. He has encamped around me a few
times in the furnace of affliction. They that fear him will find
that his angel encamps around him." Now we come to the third
and final point, verses 8-10, an exhortation to a proper relationship
with Jehovah through four things. First, tasting him, trusting
him. fearing Him, seeking Him. Tasting and trusting in verse
8, fearing and seeking in verses 9 and then 10. Oh, taste and
see that the Lord is good. What do we mean? My wife and I may go to a restaurant
and order a meal, and we are not very observant of rules of
etiquette. Not all of them, in that we are
not above eating off of each other's plate, my invitation. And so perhaps I've ordered some
steak that, oh, this is good. And so I take my knife and my
fork and I cut a little piece of that meat, and then I turn
my plate to my wife and say, here, honey, taste and see if
this is not good. Now she knows what I mean by
that. What if she instead takes my whole plate, lifts it up,
and then sets it down and eats everything in my plate? And I'm
going to say, honey, I said, taste it. And she said, I just
did, in the biblical sense of the word. Because what I meant
to say was, Sample it. I even cut the little piece I
wanted her to have. I didn't mean for her to take
it all. When I said, taste it, I really meant sample it. Don't
take it all. When the psalmist is all taste
and see that the Lord is good, he's not saying, sample it. No. Take the whole plate. When you come to the Lord's table,
Oh, taste and see that it is good. How do you do that? Take
the whole loaf of the bread of life. Take the whole bottle of
that wine that makes merry the heart of man. Take the whole
cruise of the milk of the sincere word. Take the whole jug of that water
of life. Drink deeply and forevermore
from the springs of eternal life and the wells of salvation. Take
every bit of that bowl of honey taken from the rock. When you
come to the Lord's table and He says, taste, what He means
is, take it all. Actually, it means experience
it. Honey, that roast on your plate
looks good. Well, I'll never know how good
until I taste it. or sample it, I should say, in
the modern sense of the term, but our Lord says, you think
it's good here, take it all. Experience it. How do you taste
the Lord? Put him on. Put him on. Be found
in him, have him found in you. Let his nature be your new nature. Oh, taste and see that the Lord
is good. Blessed is the man who trusts
in Him, and this promise is realized when one obeys the command to
believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Years ago, in the very early
seventies, I was in the Jesus people, affiliated with a commune,
and we used to have little stickers that said, and we passed out
little flowers that said, Try Jesus. Try Jesus. And we would tell people, you
know, listen, You've tried drugs, you've tried alcohol, you've
tried free love, you've tried smoking dandelions, you've tried
everything there is. Try Jesus. We don't say that. No, no, no. No, no, no. Put him
on. Take all that he has. And blessed
is the man who trusts in him. Believe on him and you'll be
saved. Don't just sample him. Believe him, trust him, put all
your hope and confidence in him, and O fear the Lord, you his
saints. Now you have tasted, you have
trusted, which indeed are the same thing, but now you are told
to fear the Lord because there is no want to those who fear
him. All who fear Christ in the sense of reverently trusting
in him may say with the psalmist, I shall not want. I shall not lack. Anything in this world. All my
needs are met through Jesus Christ, whom I am tasting for now for
the rest of my life. I fear Him, the psalmist. In verse number 11, we'll say,
Come, you my children, listen to me, and I will teach you the
fear of the Lord. Here is a fear that must be taught. This is
not dread. You don't teach dread. The dread
of Christ comes naturally, the dread of judgment comes naturally. True reverence must be taught.
Therefore fear him, there is no want to those who fear him.
Now, the young lions lack and suffer hunger, but those who
seek the Lord shall not lack any good thing. How are young
lions made to be lacking? Well, they go to hunt in the
pride. And the young lions are swift
of feet, and off they bound after the prey. And the whole rest
of the pride is running along with them. And eventually, perhaps
the young lions, quickest on their feet, they're able to jump
onto the prey. They're able to hurt the prey.
They bring the prey down. And then they begin to think
about how good it's going to be to sink our teeth into this
prey. and eat till we are full. And
then the king of the pride shows up, and with his growl he runs
them away, because young lions must not eat until the old lion,
the king of the pride, has eaten first. And so young lions, who
have had a great part in bringing down the prey, have to sit there
and watch the old lion eat drooling at the mouths, thinking about
how good this is, and hoping that when that old lion is through
there is at least a bone left. Young lions do lack and suffer
hunger, but those who seek the Lord shall not lack any good
thing. The King of Kings, the Lion of
the Tribe of Judah, will ascertain that none of his lions ever suffer
lack. None of them. That may include
young lions like you. That may include, shall we say,
mature lions like you. Come on together. If I'm not
wrong, I think I heard this morning someone intimate that he was
an old lion because he said fifty was young. The silver-haired
gentleman who was here before, he may come too. The young, the
mature, we old ones. Fifty son to me too, brother.
We old ones. We that are now so old we can
barely walk. The Lord brings us to the table
himself. He says, none of my lions shall
suffer like at my table. None of them. Now, just taste
and see. if what I have not told you is
true. O God our Father, we would bless you at all times,
your praise would continually be in my mouth, our souls would
make our boast in you, and humble souls like us rejoice when we
hear that. Be pleased, we pray, to hear
our prayer and save our poor unworthy souls, and we will give
you all the praise and glory. May we feast upon you. and taste
your goodness for all eternity. May none of us ever suffer lack,
and hear our prayers when you cry it unto you, and we will
give you all the praise and the glory, for in Jesus' name we
pray, amen.