Okay, this evening we're going
to take a look at Psalm 34. Psalm 34. I'm taking the title
for the message from the words that are found in verse 2. My
soul. Oh, my soul. That's who we really
are. Man has a body and he has a spirit,
but man is a soul. My soul. shall make her boast
in the Lord, and the humble shall hear thereof and be glad. We boast only in the Lord. We glory, as Paul said, God forbid
us a glory saved in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. Everything
and every spiritual blessing God has for guilty sinners It's
found in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why we make our boast
in the Lord. And that's what prompted me to
read there in Philippians chapter 3, when Paul said, I count everything
else lost, stung, and ruined, that I may win Christ and be
found in Him. I wanna be found in him. Where
do you wanna be found when the Lord comes back? In him, in him. I wanna be found in him. I like what the apostle says
in Ephesians chapter one, we bless him who had blessed us. We bless him who had blessed
us with all spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in the Lord
Jesus Christ. God apart from the Lord Jesus
Christ and him crucified, is a consuming fire. You don't want
anything to do with God Almighty apart from and in the Lord Jesus
Christ, do you? No way. No way. God's too holy and we're too
sinful. We come to God in Christ. We're justified in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Those, truly, this is the desire
of those who know, reverence, and love Him is to make our boast
in the Lord. Our desire in preaching is to
lift up Christ. He said, if I be lifted up, I'll
draw all unto me. We preach not ourselves, but
the Lord Jesus Christ. We don't preach ourselves, we
preach him. As Paul said, I'm determined to know nothing among
you, but Jesus Christ and him crucified. So our desire in preaching
the gospel is to lift up Christ. and point sinners to the Lord
Jesus Christ. Our desire in our worship is
to give him all the honor and glory due unto his name. You
can't overdo this. Can you give God too much glory?
No, you can't. You can't give him too much praise.
You can't give him too much honor. You can't believe him too much.
Oh, for grace to believe him more. for grace to believe him
more. Hold your place there and find,
it reminds me of this Psalm 115. You remember over here in Psalm
115 verse one? Turn over there. Psalm 115 verse
one. Not unto us, O Lord, not unto
us, but unto thy name give glory for thy mercy and for thy truth's
sake. Wherefore should the heathen
say, where is now their God? Our God is in the heavens. He
hath done whatsoever he hath pleased. Whatsoever the Lord
is pleased to do, that's what he does. Exactly, he does everything
he's pleased to do. His purpose shall stand and cannot
be changed. Now, let's go back to verse 1. We'll take a look here at verse
1 down through verse 10. David writes this psalm when he's in trouble, when
he's running from his own father-in-law, when he's fleeing for his life,
when he's been run out of Jerusalem. He said, I will. I will bless
the Lord. at all times, when I'm in Jerusalem
or whether I'm out in the wilderness running for my own life, I will
bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually
be in my mouth, my mouth. I will bless the Lord. Now, I
will. He makes us willing in the day
of his power. By nature, man has no will to
believe the gospel, no will to come to him. Man's will is not
free. Man has a will, but it's in bondage
to his nature. Left to ourselves, we will not
bless the Lord. But because we're made willing
in the day of his power, he says, I will bless the Lord. I will
bless the Lord. Here's a firm. Fixed resolve
of every believer, I will bless the Lord at all times and His
praise shall be continually in my mouth. I will and I shall. By His grace, by His grace, I
will bless the Lord. What does it mean to bless the
Lord? What means to believe Him? It means to believe Him. It means
to bow before His sovereign rule. It means to submit to his lordship. It means to worship him, to bless
the Lord. As David says in another psalm,
bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me. Bless
his holy name. And then he says, who forgiveth
all my iniquities. Think about that. He forgiveth
all our iniquities, all our iniquities. I will and I shall by His grace
praise the Lord and worship Him. Think about this, all we are,
all we have, all we know, all we ever will be is because of
Him. He's made us object of His love.
He made us trophies of His grace. His sovereign grace. When we
talk about love, it's sovereign love, isn't it? Sovereign mercy. I will have mercy on whom I will
have mercy. We say with the Apostle Paul, I am what I am by the grace
of God. I am what I am. And he said in
the rest of that verse, his grace, which was bestowed upon me, was
not in vain. But I labored more abundantly
than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God That's within
me. I labored, but it was his grace
in me that caused me to labor. And what a faithful servant the
Apostle Paul was. I mean, we've studied his record,
haven't we? All through the book of Acts,
all his epistles, all of his writings, how he was hated and
hunted and hounded and browbeat and whipped and chained and imprisoned,
and he kept right on preaching Christ. kept right on preaching
Christ. When are we to bless the Lord? When are we to praise him at
all times? You see that in verse one? At
all times, we are to trust him, believe him, and worship him
at all times. Before trials come, before trial
and trouble come, and in the trial and afterward, in bright
days and dark days, Trust Him at all times. Praise Him at all
times. When you're up, when you're down.
When you're happy and when you're sad. In everything, give thanks. This is the will of God in Christ
Jesus concerning you. I was reading through the book
of Job recently and ran into this familiar verse. Man is born
of woman. Few days, full of trouble. Is that your experience? Our
Lord said, in this world you shall have tribulation, but be
of good cheer, I've overcome. I've overcome. That's our hope.
That's the reason we can praise him and bless him and worship
him. He's overcome. His praise shall continually
be in my mouth. You know why it's in his mouth?
Because it was in his heart. That which is in the well of
the heart, That which is in the well of the heart, and we often
point to our chest, that which is in the well of the heart comes
out through the bucket of the mouth. When God's made us new
creatures in Christ, and we know that salvation's all He's doing,
what do we say? Well, I thank myself for what
I've done. No, we say, thank you, Lord. We're saving such
a wretch as I am. When God gives a new heart and
regeneration, That new heart always speaks true and right
and glorious things about the Lord Jesus Christ. He saved me. He saved his people by his grace. Therefore, he says, this praise
shall continually be in my mouth because he's made me a new creature
in Christ. He's given me a new heart that
loves things that I did not love before. Now, because of that,
verse two, my soul shall make her boast. We boast, not in the
flesh. We don't boast in what we have
done. We boast in what he has done for us. That's the difference
between salvation by works and salvation by grace. Those who
believe that salvation is by their works, they always boast
in what they have done, what they have accomplished. We always
boast in what he has done for us. And there's totally night
and day difference in those two things. My soul shall make her
boast in the Lord. We glory only in the Lord. And
talk about the Lord Jesus Christ, the righteousness that He's provided
for us. Blessed is that man to whom the
Lord imputed righteousness without works. The redemption we have in the
Lord Jesus Christ, in whom we have redemption through His blood,
the forgiveness of our sins. We boast in Him. And the humble,
those who are humbled by his grace, shall hear and they shall
be glad. Now it grieves me when I hear
those who are religious and lost talk about everything they have
done for the Lord. That grieves me. But when I hear
those who are humbled by the grace of God, when I hear those
talk Those people who are humble talk about what the Lord has
done for us. That makes me glad. That makes
me happy. I want to hear what He's done
for me. I don't want to hear about what I have to do for Him. I want to hear what He has done
for me. He's done all things well, hasn't He? I've never heard
a believer complain. Now notice how I said that. I never have heard a believer
complain. about a sermon that gave too
much honor and glory to the Lord. Well, I've never heard a sinner,
a believer complain about preaching God too high or man too low. Preaching God too big and man
too small. We preach God absolute sovereign
and we preach man as absolute nothing. His best state Vanity. Now, I've never heard a believer
complain that we gave too much honor to God and a base to flesh. I've heard people complain, but
not believers. Not believers. I'm always glad
to hear about Him. God says of the Lord Jesus Christ,
this is my beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased. Hear Him. I want to hear about Him. To
you who believe, He is what? He's precious. See what he's
saying here? I will bless the Lord at all
times. His praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul shall
make a boast in the Lord. And those who are humbled, they
hear that message. He said, my sheep hear my voice.
I know them and they follow me and they'll be glad. They'll
be glad. We do rejoice in the Lord always. And again I say, let us rejoice. We are the true Israel which
worship God in the Spirit. Rejoice in Christ Jesus and have
no confidence in the flesh. Look at verse 3. O magnify the Lord with me, and
let us, let us, let us right now, Let us, as assembled believers,
let us exalt his name together. Isn't that why we're here? To exalt his name, to hear about
him, to magnify his mercy, to magnify his grace. Let's exalt
his name. His name, wonderful, counselor
of the mighty God, the everlasting Father. God has given him a name
which is above every name, that at that name every knee should
bow, every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to
the glory of God the Father. Neither is there salvation in
any other name given among men whereby we must be saved. The
Lord Jesus Christ, let's exalt his name. He has a lot of names. has a lot of names. They all
exalt him. They all exalt him. Exalt his
name. He's worthy. He's worthy of it,
isn't he? He's worthy of it. This is why
we're commanded to meet together and not to forsake the assembly
of ourselves together, to publicly preach the gospel and to worship
him, that we might exalt his name together. And think about
this. The Lord said we're Let's see,
how does that go? Where two or three are gathered
together in my name, I'm in the midst of them. Think
about that now. Think about that. That makes
you say, well, David, I was glad when they said to me, let's go
to the house of the Lord. Let's go to the house of the
Lord to magnify his name, to praise his name, to exalt him.
Now look at verse 4. I sought the Lord. Now that's
a right and good thing to do, to seek the Lord. Now I know
men left to themselves won't do it. He said, our Lord said,
no man can come to me except the Father which sent me. But
it's a right and good thing to do, especially for his people. To seek the Lord. Seek the Lord. I sought the Lord. And He heard
me. And He delivered me from all
my fears. I sought the Lord and He heard
me. I sought the Lord by prayer.
I sought the Lord by faith. Look over at verse 17 across
the page. The righteous cry and the Lord
heareth and delivereth them out of all their troubles. If
the Lord hears our prayers and the Lord delivers our prayers,
wouldn't it be the right thing for us to do to seek the Lord
for help, for mercy, for grace? Seek the Lord at all times, you
people. Pour out your heart before him.
God is a refuge for us. And he heard me and delivered
me from all my fears, all my fears. Look at verse 19, Psalm 34. Many are the afflictions of the
righteous. We are afflicted in many ways,
but the Lord delivereth him out of all of them. He's our deliverer. I sought the Lord and he heard
me, delivered me from all my fears. Now look at verse five. They looked unto him. To whom
do we look for salvation, for deliverance? We look to the Lord. He's the only one who can deliver
us. They looked unto Him. Remember what our Lord said in
Isaiah 45? He said, look unto me and be
ye saved, all the ends of the earth. I am God, beside me there
is none other. They looked unto Him. This is
a look of faith. That's how we look to the Lord.
As we see Him revealed in the Word and described in the Word
by faith, we look unto Him who's the author and finisher of our
faith. They looked unto Him and they
were lighted or enlightened and their faces were not ashamed.
the glory of God shines in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And because he's commanded the light to shine out of darkness,
to shine in our heart, that we might see the glory of God in
the face of the Lord Jesus Christ. Because he has enlightened our
heart, he's revealed himself unto us. Therefore, we're not
ashamed. That's why the Apostle Paul said,
for as much as in me is, I'm ready to preach the gospel to
you who are at Rome, For I'm not ashamed of the gospel of
Christ. The gospel of Christ is the power of God and the salvation
to everyone that believes. I'm not ashamed of the gospel.
Ashamed of Jesus, can it be? A mortal man who's ashamed of
thee? Ashamed of these whom angels
praise, whose glories last through endless days? We can't be ashamed
of him. He's not ashamed to call us brethren. I think of that verse over there
in 2 Timothy when Paul writes from prison. You remember what
he writes to young Timothy? He said, Timothy, don't be ashamed
of me or the gospel. Don't be ashamed. And then he
says, I know whom I have believed, and I'm persuaded he's able to
keep that which I've committed unto him against that day. I
know whom I have believed. Therefore, we have no need to
be ashamed. Now, I'm ashamed of me, but I'm not ashamed of him. He's
the almighty, all-sufficient God, my Savior. I'm not ashamed to own him as
my Lord and as my King. Look at verse 6, this poor man
cried. This poor man cried and the Lord
heard him and saved him out of all his troubles. Now we have
examples, many examples in Scripture of poor, needy sinners seeking
the Lord, blind Bartimaeus and many others, a woman with the
issue of blood. Now I thought about this. The publican in the temple cried
out for mercy. But I thought about probably
the best example of a poor man crying unto the Lord and the
Lord heard him and saved him out of all of his troubles. What
about that thief on the cross? That man was in trouble, wasn't
he? Convicted of murder and robbery. The Roman government. Strung
him up on a tree and nailed him. Nailed him right next to the
Lord Jesus Christ. You reckon that was an accident?
How did he end up there on a cross right next to the blessed Savior? Lord, remember me when you come
in your kingdom. That's what he cried, wasn't
it? This poor man cried and did the Lord hear him? Whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. My soul,
I'm going to call. Lord, remember me when you come
in your kingdom. And the Lord saved him, didn't
he? Our Lord said, this day you'll
be with me in paradise. That's pretty good deliverance,
isn't it? They took that man's body down from the cross. But his soul went to be with
the Lord forever. And that dying thief rejoiced
to see that fountain in his day, and there may I, though vile
as he, wash all my sins away. The Lord saved him. You reckon
that dying thief would say anything other than salvation is of the
Lord? Oh, no. What would he say? Bless the Lord, O my soul. My
soul shall make her boast in the Lord. I will bless the Lord.
I will magnify the Lord. That's what that dying thief
rejoiced to see. And that's what we rejoice to
see too, isn't it? Look at verse 7. The angel
of the Lord. The angel of the Lord encampeth
round about them that fear him. We can look at this in a way that I think the primary
reference is to the angel or messenger of the covenant. That
word angel is messenger. The angel of the Lord here I
think is in reference to the Lord Jesus Christ. The angel
of the Lord that we've studied about in the Revelation. The
eternal messenger of the covenant, the Lord Jesus Christ. He encampeth
round about them that fear him, and he delivers them. Remember,
our Lord said to those disciples, the risen Lord, before he ascended
to glory, what did he say to them? He said, no, I have all
power in heaven and earth. Go ye, therefore, and preach
the gospel to every creature. And then he said, And remember,
I'm with you always. The angel of the Lord encampeth
round about them that fear Him, and delivers them. He delivers
them. Call His name Jesus, He shall
save their people, His people from their sin. I'm not counting
how many times we've read in this psalm that the Lord delivers
His people. He encamps round about them.
The foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, the Lord
knoweth them that are His. He encamps round about them that
fear Him. And He delivers them. He delivers
them by His power, by His grace. Now look at verse 8. The Lord Jesus Christ has assured
you that everlasting covenant Look at verse 8. Oh, taste and
see. Taste and know that the Lord
is good. Blessed is the man that trusteth
in Him. You remember Psalm 62, it says,
trust in Him at all times, ye people. Pour out your heart before
Him. God is a refuge for us. Trust
in Him at all times. Blessed is that man that trusteth
Him. O taste and see, the Lord is
good. Now, let me give you a homely
illustration. You can have a beautiful Thanksgiving
dinner spread out all over your table. And you can look at it,
and you can smell it, and you can walk around the table and
think about it. But you'll never experience the goodness of it
until you eat it, until you taste and see that, boy, that's a good
meal. That's what he's saying right
here. Experience God's saving mercy. Oh, taste it. Taste it. Experience it and see and know
that the Lord is good. The Lord is good. Everything about him is good.
Everything about him is good. He is the only one that is good.
You remember that young rich ruler came to him and said, good
master, what must I do to inherit eternal life? And he said, why
do you call me good? There's none good but God. He
is the only one that is good. There is none righteous, no not
one. None of us are good, but the Lord is good. Taste and see,
experience in your heart that the Lord is good. One old preacher of the past
said, we really only believe something when we have experienced
it. Isn't that so? We only really believe it when
we have experienced it. Now, an experience is not salvation. You can have experience, religious
experience, and that's not salvation. But salvation by the grace of
God is certainly something that we experience. I mean, we experience
the brokenness of heart. We experience the conviction
of our sin. We experience God's mercy unto
us. Lord, be merciful to me, the
sinner. We experience his revealing of
Himself unto us, and we taste and see that the Lord is good. And that causes us to do what?
Trust Him. To trust Him. To believe Him. To bow to Him. Now look at verse 9. Oh, fear
the Lord. Fear the Lord. Ye His saints, Now, who is a saint? I know certain religious organizations,
they make people who have died in the past, and they bring up
different evidences of some old person who has supposedly performed
so many miracles, and they make that person a saint. Every believer is a saint. Every
believer is a sinner sanctified by the Lord Jesus Christ. So
we can say every believer is a sinner and a saint. I'm a sinner in myself, but I'm
sanctified in Christ. He is my wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption. Oh, fear the Lord, ye His saints.
He's made us sons of God. Now watch this, verse 9, the
second part of verse 9. There's no want. There's no want to them that
fear Him. The Lord is my shepherd. What's
the rest of that? I shall not want. I shall not
want. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall
not want. for righteousness, I shall not
want for peace, I shall not want for restoration, regeneration,
reconciliation. There's no want to them that
believe him. Those who fear him are those
who believe him. Those who believe him. When Abraham
took Isaac up on the mountain to sacrifice him according to
the commandment of God, and Abraham raised that knife up and was
ready to cut the throat of Isaac, And the angel of the Lord stopped
his hand, and he said, now I know you fear me. He believed God. He believed God. This thing of
fearing God is believing him. Believing him. The young lions,
look at verse 10. I'll quit with this. Young lions
do lack, and they suffer hunger. But they
that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing. My God shall supply all your
need according to his riches in glory through the Lord Jesus
Christ. Those that seek the Lord shall not want for any good. And the word thing has been added,
but it's okay. My God shall supply all your
need. In Him dwells all the fullness
of a Godhead bodily, and you are complete. Complete in Him. Think about this. Everything
God demands of the sinner, everything God demands, His law honored,
righteousness established, sin put away. Everything God demands
of a sinner, the Lord Jesus Christ has fully provided. Only that which God provides
will God accept. Come ye children, verse 11, hearken
unto me and I'll teach you We've been made sons of God. He said,
come unto me, all you laboring, heavy laden. I'll give you rest.
Come, you children, hearken to me, and I'll teach you the fear
of the Lord. The fear of the Lord is the beginning
of wisdom, isn't it? The fear of the Lord is the beginning
of wisdom. Let's see if I can find that. He sent redemption unto his people.
He commanded his covenant forever, holding reverend in his name.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. A good understanding
have all they that do His commandments. His praise endureth forever,
forever. Oh, taste and see, the Lord is
good. My soul shall make her boast
in the Lord, the humble shall hear thereof and be glad.