1/26/2012 8:23:49 AM
SPIRITUAL DIARY
My Worship Time Focus: Fear and Trust the goodness of the Lord
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Psalm 34
Message of the verses: “1 ¶ «A Psalm of David when he feigned madness 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. 2 My soul will make its boast in the LORD; The humble will hear it and rejoice. 3 O magnify the LORD with me, And let us exalt His name together. 4 I sought the LORD, and He answered me, And delivered me from all my fears. 5 They looked to Him and were radiant, And their faces will never be ashamed. 6 This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him And saved him out of all his troubles. 7 The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear Him, And rescues them. 8 O taste and see that the LORD is good; How blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him! 9 O fear the LORD, you His saints; For to those who fear Him there is no want. 10 The young lions do lack and suffer hunger; But they who seek the LORD shall not be in want of any good thing.
“11 ¶ Come, you children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the LORD. 12 Who is the man who desires life And loves length of days that he may see good? 13 Keep your tongue from evil And your lips from speaking deceit. 14 Depart from evil and do good; Seek peace and pursue it. 15 The eyes of the LORD are toward the righteous And His ears are open to their cry. 16 The face of the LORD is against evildoers, To cut off the memory of them from the earth. 17 The righteous cry, and the LORD hears And delivers them out of all their troubles. 18 The LORD is near to the brokenhearted And saves those who are crushed in spirit. 19 Many are the afflictions of the righteous, But the LORD delivers him out of them all. 20 He keeps all his bones, Not one of them is broken. 21 Evil shall slay the wicked, And those who hate the righteous will be condemned. 22 The LORD redeems the soul of His servants, And none of those who take refuge in Him will be condemned.”
In his introduction to Psalm 34 Dr. Wiersbe reveals that this psalm is an acrostic psalm, but with the omission of the Hebrew letters waw and with an extra pe in the beginning of verse twenty-two. He writes the following at the end of his introduction: “Out of his experience in Gath, David shared in this psalm four instructions for his own followers (1Sam. 22:1-2), as well as for us today, to help us keep out of the tight situations and live a life that pleases the Lord.”
David wrote this psalm because of his experiences of acting “crazy” when he fled to the Philistines in Gath, and this story is found in 1Samuel 21:10-22:1.
Bless the Lord (vv. 1-3): “I will bless the LORD at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth. 2 My soul will make its boast in the LORD; The humble will hear it and rejoice. 3 O magnify the LORD with me, And let us exalt His name together.”
Before I begin to comment on these verses from Psalm 34 I want to go back to the 30th of June in 2010 to pick up my comments from the verses in 1Samuel where this 34th Psalm is written from. “David was more in fear of Saul than in trust of the Lord and that is probably why he ran to the Philistia city of Gath.”
“These verses are from Psalm 34:9-16 and point out that David began to know what fearing the Lord was about while he was in that situation in Gath. I read or heard somewhere recently that David felt badly that he did not trust the Lord while in this city of Gath, and he relied on his own ways to get out of this situation instead of trusting the Lord.”
It seems that because of David’s fear of Saul that he ran to Gath, yet if he would not have feared Saul, but feared the Lord he probably not have gone there in the first place. Again we see Romans 8:28 come into play for God worked it out for David’s good and through David’s experiences there he wrote two psalms that people can learn from. In no way am I faulting David for doing going to Gath for I am sure that I have struck out on my own out of fear of something when I should have been trusting the Lord.
David was probably telling his men of his experiences while in Gath and the result was this psalm. David uses words like bless, exalt, boast, and magnify in order to lift up the name of the Lord. The word LORD is used sixteen times in this psalm.
We see in this psalm that the Lord answered David’s prayer (vv. 4, 15), He provided for his needs (vv. 9-10), delivered him from trouble (v. 17), and He protected him from danger (v. 7). It is no wonder that David was praising the Lord. Dr. Wiersbe writes “Knowing who we are in Christ and who the Lord is ought to make us want to bless the Lord.”
Seek the Lord (vv.4-8): “4 I sought the LORD, and He answered me, And delivered me from all my fears. 5 They looked to Him and were radiant, And their faces will never be ashamed. 6 This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him And saved him out of all his troubles. 7 The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear Him, And rescues them. 8 O taste and see that the LORD is good; How blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him!”
As we look at these five verses we see a threefold witness of what the Lord does for His own. We see in verses 4-8 that He saves us and in verse seven we see that He keeps us and in verse eight we see that the Lord satisfies us. When David sought the Lord the Lord saved him from his fears (terrors) that we within him and the Lord also delivered him from the troubles that he was in and were around him. Dr. Wiersbe points out that seeking the Lord is the same as looking unto Him and when we look at Him by faith we will see that the Lord “shines upon us” (Psalm 4:6 & Numbers 6:22-27). Numbers 6:22-27 are very familiar verses, especially to the Jews: “22 ¶ Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 23 ‘Speak to Aaron and to his sons, saying, ’Thus you shall bless the sons of Israel. You shall say to them: 24 The LORD bless you, and keep you; 25 The LORD make His face shine on you, And be gracious to you; 26 The LORD lift up His countenance on you, And give you peace.’ 27 "So they shall invoke My name on the sons of Israel, and I then will bless them.’”
That is the positive side, if we are walking with the Lord, however if we are not and are walking in unbelief are faces will be ashamed and not aglow like the face of Moses in Ex. 34:29.
David speaks of the angel of the LORD in verse six and the angel of the LORD is none other than the pre-incarnate Jesus Christ who came to the children of Israel on different occasions in the OT. We see that He came to Joshua right before the children of Israel were about to conquer the Promised Land. He came to the parents of Samson before he was born.
We see in verse eight that the Lord not only saves and keeps but He also satisfies and in his commentary on this subject Dr. Wiersbe writes the following: “It was a great blessing for David to be delivered from Gath, and it was a greater blessing for him to be protected by the Lord after he fled, but the greatest blessing was drawing nearer to God and enjoying His presence, not just His gifts. David found God’s Word sweet (119:103), and he rejoiced in the goodness of the Lord. ‘Good’ is an important word in this psalm (vv. 8, 10, 12, 14).”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: What I think is most important to me as I have read this first part of Psalm 34 was to be satisfied with the Lord and not have to be so concerned about the gifts that the Giver gives to me, but getting to know the Giver of the gifts is much more important. David knew this wonderful truth and we can see it in many of the psalms that he wrote.
My Steps of Faith for Today:
1. Be satisfied with only the Lord and not so concerned about the gifts that He has given me.
2. Continue to learn contentment as I walk with the Lord.
3. Have the desire in my heart that whenever I meet the Lord that He will say to me “Well done.”
1/26/2012 9:58:29 AM
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