Sermons
Summer In The Psalms Pt 7 - I Will Teach You The Fear Of The Lord
(upbeat music) Psalm 34, verses four through 10. I sought the Lord and He answered me and delivered me from all my fears. Those who look to Him are radiant and their faces shall never be ashamed. This poor man cried and the Lord heard Him and saved Him out of all His troubles. The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear Him and He delivers them. Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him. O fear the Lord, you His saints, for those who fear Him have no lack. The young lions suffer want in hunger, but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing. Pray with me, God, we praise You as a God who sees, as a God who hears, who is concerned and who provides and who rescues. You are He who raised us to life this morning. Sustained us with food for our bodies and light for our eyes. You are He who's our hopeless condition. And while we were still sinners, sent your son to pay the penalty for our sin, once for all, rescuing us from a hopeless eternity. Your son, the living water, the bread of life. God, against the backdrop of all you have done, it would not be right for us to ask for anything more. Yet, we are needy people. We pray for all of us in our church who are struggling with illness, broken relationships, broken body parts and pain, that you administer to us in a tangible way in which we would realize your presence, your healing, and would glorify your name. We pray for all those who have not yet believed in the name and the work of your son that they would change their minds. We pray for all of our young people and staff that are headed to camp this week, that they would believe in your son and return with a determination in their hearts to follow Him in their actions and their words. And most of all this morning, God, we pray that you would send your spirit over this place that our worship would be pleasing to you. And at the teaching of Pastor Patrick would be truthful to your word, that we might be restored and encourage this day and for all the days ahead. We pray in the name of your son, Jesus, amen. - Amen. Thank you, church, maybe seated. Thank you, Dr. G. Brothers and sisters, it's good to be with you today. I've been battling a bit of a cold, so hopefully my voice carries through the day it's the Lord's strength, not my own if we make it through. Our text this morning comes from Psalm 34. We're continuing our series of A Somewhere in the Psalms, looking at the gospel through the Bible's hymn book. And in Psalm 34, as you're turning there, it's been a joy to study this text, to apply it, however, it's gonna be challenging in some ways. Now, for those of you who have known me, maybe you've heard a story, I've given some indication that there was a time in my life as a pastor, I doubted my calling at a time when the church, my previous church, was in a time of great upheaval. And during that time, I thought, maybe I should do something else. Maybe I need to switch professions, do a new job, about four years in. Obviously, that didn't take place, I'm still here, but one of the crucial things that someone gave to me at that time was to read Christian biographies. So to read about other pastors, ministers, missionaries, and it really blessed my soul in a time of great dryness, 'cause I was able to see their experience and trust of the Lord, and then apply it to my life. And there's a book, the first book I got was "21 Servants of Sovereign Joy." John Piper put together 21 biographies of faithful believers, and it's a formative book for me because he gives us the application of each of these people's lives. And it was so crucial for me because in my experiences, I was able to identify what they wrestled with, but then apply their outcome to my life and continue faithfully in ministry. It was a great blessing. And so it gave me this question, certainly as you read Psalm 34, it's a simple answer, it's kind of rhetorical, do you have to have a personal experience to learn something? Well, no, even so, let's take the question further, can we apply another person's experience and have similar conclusions to our lives? Yes, the values and principles of another person's experience can port directly into our life, especially if those examples are from scripture. So even if today's sermon, as we looked at the text, you might doubt or be uncertain if that really can be true in your life, were to defer to their experience, certainly in scripture and say, "If that's true for them, it will be true for me." So this morning, our text is Psalm 34. And it's an invitation for us to follow the example of a life in trying times. And I can already anticipate some objections that are gonna rise up because I've said these objections while studying times, people's lives in times of trial. We might say it's not that simple. Can't be that simple just to do what the psalmist says. But God's not delivering me. I'm not seeing any fruit of him taking and changing circumstances in my life. Or the doubt might be, that might be good for that person, but God has never showed up like that in my life before. There's no pattern of that happening. So here lies our challenge this morning. Does God deliver the righteous from their turmoil? Does God genuinely protect those who fear him? Is God attentive to the cries of his people? Does God rescue those who are his? I think all of those will be answered this morning in the text. I think Psalm 34 gives us no doubt that God does all of those things. And it's my hope that all of you will join in the psalmist's love of God and exalt his name together with him. And so Psalm 34, we're gonna break down into four parts. Now I sent this little half bake being sick on some medication, so you don't get the final, but I'm just gonna go with what I sent anyways, all right? We turn it on Thursday, it got better, but we're going back, all right, just so you know. First point, praise the Lord. Very simple, in times of trial, praise the Lord. Two, the fear of God drives out the concerns of the world. Three, during trials do good. And lastly, during trials do good and take refuge in God's promise. Now, if you look at Psalm 34, notice even before verse one starts, we get a little bit of a description. The C.S.B. and the N.I.V. and the E.S.V. all stated a little differently, but it's generally the same. I'll read it here from the C.S.B. It says this Psalm, concerning David, when he pretended to be insane in the presence of Abimelech and drove him out and he departed. So that's the context. So this Psalm is directly connected to 1 Samuel chapter 21, 20 and 21, kind of splits between the two, where David is on the run from his father-in-law Saul, who is jealous after his notoriety, fame, and influence and wants to end his life. And fleeing that danger, he goes to Israel's enemies. He fies himself with the Philistine king, Akish in the city of Gath and the priest, Abimelech, are growing suspicious of David. Maybe David is trying to find something out, and so the suspicion grows, is about to lead to his death, and David pretends to be insane, riding on doors, and instead of killing him, they think it's better to shoe him away, for he'll be a greater distraction if he does that. And so David flees. So that's the interesting context for Psalm 34. David's in great need, he needs deliverance, he is delivered through some of his own actions, but he attributes everything to God. And so we're gonna see what he attributes as deliverance too. That's what Psalm 34, that's the context taking place in this. And so this comes after everything is done, and we read in Psalm 34 verse one, I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise will always be on my lips. I will boast in the Lord. The humble will hear and be glad, and here's the invitation, proclaim the Lord's greatness with me, let us exalt his name together. And when you read this, it's pretty simple and straightforward. I read an all-encompassing invitation by the Psalmist. I don't read any exceptions given to his readers that would exclude anybody from joining in the praise of God. And that may be afflicting to some in this room. That may be the last thing you want to do at the moment, is to praise God in the midst of heartache and hardship. That feeling that may be uncertain, I want to set it aside for a second. 'Cause you're not alone. In this trial, certainly in David's trial, he displays what is right and proper for all people everywhere to do when they're in great need of deliverance, to praise God, to boast in the Lord, to be humble and proclaim the Lord's greatness. And so are you interested in replying to the invitation with enthusiastic, yes, I'm ready to praise God in my trial. Or are you wanting to give a polite maybe, which is really just a no in disguise? Not there yet, I'm not ready. See, feelings get in the way of doing the right thing, do they not? That's because feelings are fickle, this side of eternity. They can change instantly when you get bad news or when someone gives you like a weird compliment, throws your day completely off. I remember being in high school and youth group and we would always go to the beach and have a bonfire in the evening, be a great time on Saturday night, so it was pretty regular. And I remember one time in particular, having fun playing games, body surfing, doing these things. And then from the back of my mind, a thought, a memory, a responsibility comes creeping up to the forefront. I got a major report due on Monday and I hadn't started. The rest of the day of hey, old friends, I didn't have fun. I had a fake smile on. That feeling affected me for the rest of the day and the next day and whatever grade I got on that report. Feelings are not something to depend upon because they're not dependable this side of eternity. Joy can turn to gloom, interest can turn to distraction. Feelings though are good indicators of where our mind and our desires are, but they're not dependable. We need something more significant to depend upon. Something always faithful, always sound, always reliable. And I believe the psalmist's invitation to praise God in the midst of trials is bringing our eyes to the one thing that is dependable always and is true and is good forevermore. And so the psalmist is proclaiming in the midst of trial the first step out of them is to praise God. And so will the psalmist cease praising God if we refuse to join him in this moment? No, his activity is set. Our resolve, however, is being evaluated. In the following 19 verses, there is a confident expectation for God to deliver his people despite their circumstances. Are you there? When you use the word hope, do you use it as merely a synonym for wishfulness? I wish for this to happen. See, the scriptures describe hope as confident expectation, not a wish. And so what we'll read from the psalmist won't leave us wondering how to arrive at a solid foundation in the midst of trials. He's going to guide us into it. Here are the steps. And that first step is accepting the invitation. Praise God with me. Exalt his name together. And so do you want to praise God in the midst of severe trials? Do this. And here, let's look at first point two, the fear of God drives out the concerns of the world. If I'm going to praise, praise comes out of a heart that we read in these next four verses. Dr. G read this, let's read it again. Verse four, "I sought the Lord who answered "and rescued me from all my fears. "Those who looked at him are radiant with joy. "Their faces will never be ashamed. "This poor man cried and the Lord heard him "and saved him from all his troubles. "The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him "and rescues them. "Taste and see that the Lord is good. "How happy is the person who takes refuge in him. "You who are his holy ones fear the Lord "for those who fear him lack nothing. "Young lions lack food and go hungry, "but those who seek the Lord will not lack any good thing." Now how many of you when I read this started singing it a little bit? I sought the Lord, okay, you got that? You already know what the last song is gonna be today. That's where we're headed. But the Psalmist declaration in this is his testimony. This is what he did. This is the description of his action in his time of great need. This is his road map for us. And so as he waits on God for deliverance, notice the activity in his waiting. Look at the verbs, he sought the Lord. He looked for him. He turned over rocks. He cried out in humility. He experienced God. He took refuge in him. He hid in him. How he did those things is not described. But they were done. It's almost as if waiting on God is an exercise in obedience. More on that in the next point, but I wanna focus on the highest activity of the heart in the Psalmist. It's the fear of God. Look back at verse four, God rescued him from his what? His fears. How did he do that? Well, skip to verse seven. The angel of the Lord encamps around who? Those who fear God. Verse nine clarifies it even more. Fear the Lord. For those who fear him lack nothing or lack no good thing. And so what is the Psalmist proclaiming? The fear of God drives out the concerns of the world. It mutes them by comparison. One is greater than the other and the lesser fades. And so what is the fear of the Lord or fear of God? Well, our vernacular use of the word fear merely denotes being scared or frightened or having a heightened awareness of danger. Those are accurate, but incomplete when defining the fear of God. The Proverbs would say the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Jesus will say in the gospels, don't fear the one who can kill the body. Instead, fear the one that can kill the body and the soul. Put simply, and borrowing a little bit from Narnia, God is not safe, but he is good. Or see us Lewis, not Narnia. But I think we need a good picture to describe the fear of the Lord. It's hard to articulate. It's better witnessed. Look with me in Isaiah chapter six, verses one through five. The prophet experiences being in the presence of God and we pick up what fear is in these verses. In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a high and lofty throne. And the hymn of his robe filled the temple. Seraphim were standing above him. They each had six wings. With two, they covered their faces. With two, they covered their feet. And with two, they flew. And one, called to the other. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of armies. His glory fills the whole earth. The foundations of the doorway shook at the sound of their voices. And the temple was filled with smoke. And then I said, woe is me, for I am ruined because I'm a man of unclean lips and live among a people of unclean lips. And because my eyes have seen the king, the Lord of armies. Isaiah's depiction and response is profoundly troubling. In one capacity, he's describing an amazing sight. Something wonderful to behold. Something majestic, awe-inspiring that would captivate anybody for centuries. Yet his personal response is to cower and humble fear. The angel's voices are shaking the foundation of the temple, declaring in the superlative that God is holy, holier and holiest. In response, Isaiah is acutely aware of how wretched he truly is. This God is the source of all that is good and he is in sinful rebellion against him. Almost describing the same fire that is warming him and drawing him in can quickly consume him and destroy him. That wonderful example is a depiction for us to try to behold and to have our hearts be formed after. But another example of the fear of the Lord that may be a little bit more accessible to us is a dangerous hike. My favorite hike that I've ever done and done multiple times, about four times I've done it is to hike half dome in Yosemite National Park. It's a 16 mile hike, a couple thousand feet of elevation gain. And there's some difficult parts along the journey, but the last 150 yards is potentially deadly. You actually sail the dome and so a glacier came over. It's smooth, a big piece of granite over and you hike up the side and they've put cables going up the side, but you reach inclines of 45 to 50 degrees at certain points and there's two by fours, two by fours every 10 yards is where the cables go. End year's grip, but you better stay on the trail. Many times I've hiked it, I went with a friend and he got up all the way, hike that, we leave at five in the morning, we get to the base of the cables and he's turned around twice. Out of doubt, uncertainty, and the fear of going up half dome. Another time I went with a former leader that I had in youth ministry and him and his son were about to hike up and they saw a now gene bottle fall out the side of the backpack and it slid down and on either side it slides and then it shoots you out of some cliff. You take that hike seriously, don't be flipping about that hike. In fact, I wrote this in the very next day in the news someone died on that hike trying to beat a storm down and she slid to her death. It's a fun hike, it's an enjoyable hike, but take it seriously, for there is death. There is an opportunity to not be safe. And so our fear of the Lord is attributed to these expressions and these experiences living between the tension of God being loving and good father wanting to provide and protect and oversee his children, yet on the same side he is also a righteous king ruling over his creation. The fear of God is living between the tension of these two things and by comparison other fears, other concerns fade when the fear of the Lord is built up in our heart, enlivened in our mind and practiced in our obedience. The Psalmist insists the repetition that the fearful are delivered, the fearful are cared for, those who fear lack no good thing. That might raise a question then. In verse 10, when he says that those who fear lack nothing, does that mean that God's people will always prosper? No, rather those who fear God recognize fundamentally that their relationship with God will satisfy them completely. Those who fear God are completely satisfied. God is good, but he is not safe. But like I made mentioned before, feelings are interesting. How many of you are interpreting the fear of the Lord merely as a feeling here? Certainly that's part of it, but that's insufficient as well. The fear of the Lord isn't something just felt, it's something practiced, it's something believed. Look with me in the next verses. Verse 11, important number three, during trials, do good. So the Psalmist elevates the fear of the Lord, but then verse 11, he says, "Come children, listen to me. "I will teach you the fear of the Lord. "Who is someone who desires life, "loving a long life to enjoy what is good? "Keep your tongue from evil, your lips from deceit, "turn away from evil and do what is good, "seek peace and pursue it." The lesson from the psalmist for us to apply is very simple, do good. We might get a specific reason for our trial. That may come or it may not, but the general answer for everybody in the midst of trial is very simple, do good. Now that may set off a sensor in your head that I'm conveying doing good as a way of earning the deliverance that God is promising, but the text conveys nothing of the sort. Each instance of activity by the psalmist is met with what God has done or with his favor or his promises. Nothing is connected to the psalmist and his earning of anything, but the response from those who fear God is acting in submission to his good will. Notice the psalmist makes an unbreakable connection in verse 12, he asked the question, "Who wants to live a long good life? "Who wants to enjoy the good life?" And he connects it to verses 13 and 14, which are, live a good life. The good life we long to enjoy goes hand in hand with the good we do. They are connected. There's no way to separate the two. And so fearing God looks like simple obedience in three areas. So in the midst of trial, here are the three areas he would like for you to do good in. First, guard your speech. Guard what you say. Be intentional, be intentional and honest and transparent with what you choose to communicate. Avoid deception or manipulation, letting your words reflect the integrity that is being built up within you in the midst of trial. Guard your speech. Two, choose righteousness. Identify where you're tempted to compromise and turn away from that which God has declared good. Choose not to transgress it. In place of that, seek opportunities to do good to others. Live out your kindness, compassion, justice and the other fruit of the spirit. Excuse me. Lastly, pursue peace. As children of God strive for reconciliation, strive to increase understanding, seek harmony in our relationships and our interactions with people. Don't wait for peace to magically appear. God is using us as instruments to be peacemakers in the world. In the midst of trials, do these good things. Guard your speech, choose righteousness, pursue peace. This is the next step. This is how we fear God. This is how we learn and grow in our fear of the Lord. And so this is God's way for his people to live a blessed life. Consider the Apostle Peter who will take these exact verses, port them into his epistle and then book in them. So I wanna read you, what are the bookends? What's the commentary that the Apostle Peter gives to these exact verses and way of life? Well, in his section, and if you look in your Bible in 1 Peter chapter three, it's suffering for righteousness sake. Let's read verse eight, what does he say? Finally, all of you have unity of mine, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart and a humble mind. Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless. For to this you were called that you may obtain a blessing. For whoever desires to love life and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil, his lips from deceit. Okay, so that's the quote, just telling you it's there now to skip down to verse 14. But even if you should suffer for righteousness sake, you will be blessed. For it is better to suffer for doing good if that should be God's will than doing evil. You and I were called to bless others and by doing so we will be blessed. And so even when persecuted, mistreated, despised, passed over or forgotten, suffering for doing good is a blessed life. The good we long to enjoy goes hand in hand with the good we do. I'm not the messenger, excuse me, I'm not the originator, I'm just the messenger of this truth. Hard as it may be, it's still the truth in the midst of trial. Do good. Let's use David's life as an example for this truth. When was David blessed and a blessing to others? Was it when he was a king on his rooftop and not at war with his troops? Or was it when he was facing a Goliath, a giant named Goliath or on the run from his enemy, hiding in caves, sparing that very enemy's life? When was it? It was the latter, not the former. What does that convey to us? Well from King David's life, we see firsthand that his trials were God's loving instrument, keeping him from a life of sin and of greater burden. Is a good life one that is free from external forces, giving us heartache and hardship? Not necessarily. A good life is one that delights in God and that can happen in the midst of suffering or without. Often though, God uses suffering in trials to bring us to that conclusion in reality. But doing good is only one side of the coin in the midst of trial, is it not? I think the weightier one is the second. During trials do good and take refuge in God's promise. Verse 15, the eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous and his ears are toward their cry. The face of the Lord is against those who do evil to cut off the memory of them from the earth. When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles. The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. Goodness is a reward, but beyond that, the true summit of this psalm is God's benevolent grace, directed at his servants, brothers and sisters, his eyes are towards us always. He already sees our plight. He knows about it more than we do and is attentive to our pleas for deliverance. God is not distant. God is not indifferent. He is near, but on the contrary, the wicked who do not fear God, get an equally personal expression, his displeasing face glaring at their soul, concerning their rebellion. Which one do you find yourself in? Do you find yourself longing to hold on to the promises of the Lord that his eyes and ears are attentive to you or do you think his face is glaring at you? This is a promise to hide in. Like a child running to their parent for comfort after falling down, we run to God hiding, taking refuge in his promises that we will not be condemned, but rather delivered. In our trials, we know God's attention and affection truly are ours. It may be a paradox to us, but it's not to God that his providence permits us to suffer so that we experience a greater depth of his love. We may find that odd, but God sees it as good. Read with me the next couple verses as this almost concludes. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of all of them. He keeps all his bones, not one of them is broken. Affliction will slay the wicked and those who hate the righteous will be condemned. The Lord redeems the life of his servants. None of those who take refuge in him will be condemned. The purposes of God are ripening fast every hour. The complexity of our days, the hardship and heartache will one day be rolled smooth. Deliverance is coming in this life or the next. But until that, two things will be true. We will face affliction, but God will join us in it. And so what is God's plan of deliverance for his people? When we get to the gospels in the New Testament, Jesus will declare, come to me all who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest. What is the burden plaguing people according to Jesus? When Jesus looks at you and I and considers our life, what is the burden that he beholds most? Is the uncertainty of a future? Is it the lack of respect that you get in their workplace? Is it the financial situation you find yourself in? Are those the greatest burden to Christ that he is most concerned with? No, it has never been the greatest concern even then. His greatest concern is the life lived in the fear of the Lord free from sin and the consequence of death. And eternal death. And so how will the Lord deliver his people? What is the psalmist proclaiming for us almost as a prophecy to look forward to Christ? The atoning death on the cross of the spotless lamb. Notice in verse 20, there's a connection here, no bone will be broken. The psalmist includes this because the psalmist is making it tethered all the way back to Exodus chapter 12. The Passover where the spotless lamb was to be sacrificed and the blood to be spilled, but there was a requirement that the bones of that lamb were not to be broken. No marrow be eaten. So the psalmist is looking back. Yet the Apostle John looks at this and says, that was a, this is a prophecy of Christ as well. Who on the cross was killed, but no bone was broken. Jesus is the deliverance for all people and has always been God's plan because the greatest burden for all of God's people has been our rebellion. A life stricken by death. And so it was and is a prophecy of Christ. The final Passover lamb who bones were not broken and whose blood was shed for the atoning of sins, freeing them from the slavery of death. Do you see that as the greatest burden of your soul? The sin that we incur in the pain that comes along with it. But brothers and sisters, we just read, we are no longer punished because of that. Christ was. Who else has lived a life that can profess that their love of God in the midst of trials led to greater joy than a life lived without those trials? I know many of those people. One in particular that affected me most, actually in reading that book, 21 Servants of Sovereign Joy was a missionary by the name of David Brainard, who lived in the 1700s. Powerful missionary. He was only saved for eight years before his death and he was on the mission field for four years. He was attending Yale to become an ordained minister in New England, but because of his radical passion for the Lord and the faculty's Luke warmness, he was actually expelled at one point. And so he went to go beyond mission field, but as he was setting out to be a missionary, he contracted what came to be known as tuberculosis. And for the four years of his life, constantly convulsing, throwing up blood, living a life of great torment and anguish, so much so there'd be days, if not weeks, where he could not leave his bed, despite still being on the mission field. And he wrote in his diary, and the only reason why we know about him is because he died in Jonathan Edwards' home. His daughter took care of him. And then he later published his diaries in 1749. And from that time on, missionary after missionary, great missionaries, William Carey, William Wilberforce, although read him as well, not a missionary, looked to David Brainerd for great encouragement and direction for their life in the midst of hardship. Why do I quote and say all those things to you? 'Cause despite his physical suffering, spiraling into loneliness and doubts and struggling to even love the people of his mission, he would have a greater passion to finish his race well. And so despite all his suffering, he called his pain and his plight, his pleasing pain. Read with me from the quote from his diary near the end of his death. When I really enjoy God, I feel my desires of him the more insatiable. And my thirsting after holiness, the more unquenchable. Oh, for holiness. Oh, for more of God in my soul. Oh, this pleasing pain. It makes my soul press after God. Oh, that I may never loiter in my heavenly journey. Praise be to God for someone who can testify the same thing that the psalmist. In the midst of trial, praise God. In the midst of trial, fear God. In the midst of trial, don't cease doing good. And above all things, above all things, take refuge in his promise to set the captive free. And so this morning, as we conclude our sermon, we get an opportunity to take refuge in the promise of God by taking communion together. We come to this table, commemorating all that Christ has done on our behalf. That he was sent into the world, according to the promises of the Old Testament. That he draped himself in humanity, becoming flesh and blood like us. That he would bear the wrath of God on our behalf, freeing us from death. That he lived a perfect life in our place, imputing righteousness on us and our sin onto him. And he confirms the new and eternal covenant, a gracious covenant of reconciliation by the shedding of his blood. With the affirmation, it is finished. It is completed. This promise is yours to behold and to take refuge in. Brothers and sisters, as the communion elements are passed, I pray that you check your heart. Take refuge in the Lord by confessing the sin that has been done, but that has been forgiven. And to take great joy in the promise that you are his forevermore. There is a gluten free option. You can raise your hand if you need it as you come by, but please hold off on the elements until everyone has them and Pastor Daniel will lead us through at the conclusion of the song. Will you pray with me before we take it? Our Lord and our God, would you prepare our heart to take this meal? Would you give us eyes to see and ears to hear what is most true about this preparation that your son has completed something on our behalf that we will always hold on to? The greatest deliverance ever provided for a people out of sin and eternal death. Help us to confide in you with our actions, our thoughts and our desires, trusting that you have forgiven us. And would you please restore our heart and soul to the joy that you have set before us? You praise in Christ's name, amen. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) [MUSIC PLAYING]