Heart of God: Psalm 34 Taste & See the Goodness of God (Steps to intimacy) 11/3/13

Transcription

1 Heart of God: Psalm 34 Taste & See the Goodness of God (Steps to intimacy) 11/3/13 Background: David pretending to be insane before the Philistine King I. An Attitude of Gratitude! 1. Praise the Lord even in the midst of crazy times, recognizing God s faithfulness even when we don t see the entire plan! I will exalt the Lord at all time! Will you exalt the Lord at all times? 2. Let the afflicted rejoice. Here David says even if you are afflicted praise God. Because even when you are afflicted God is with you! 3. Let all who are hopeless, (Afflicted) take heart! II. Taste and See the Lord is Good! (God the Redeemer) 1. John 9 taste and see the Lord is Good 2. David had experienced, Job had experienced 3. God is a God of redemption! How God has personally redeemed my life. 4. We have all sinned and fallen short but Jesus invites us to come and see (The resurrection) and taste the Lord is good! 5. Blessed are you who take refuge in the Lord! 6. The Rich man did not trust in Christ so he saw that God was good but didn t wasn t willing to trust! The Israelites heard that God was good but it was David who was willing to trust and experienced victory against Goliath! 7. **We can taste and see the Lord is good in our relationships (being pure), in our finances (Open up the flood gates), in our joy (peace that surpasses all understanding), 8. Have a pastry from Azucar as a model of taste and see! III. Fear the Lord IV. Seek The Lord 1. The Lions may grow weak and hungry (The Worldly strong) but those who seek the Lord will not be in need! 2. Jesus says in Matthew seek and you shall find. Knock and the door will be opened. We need to be continuing to seek out the Lord 3. What are you seeking to be your provider or your protector? 1

2 Manuscript Psalm 34 Good morning. Before David became a king he was in the service of King Saul. In 1 Samuel 21 we read that David was on the run from king Saul. Saul had been chasing David because he was jealous of David and had gone slightly insane. So king Saul had set out on this campaign to kill David. Now David realizing this started to run from Saul and he ended up having to run in the territory of his enemies the Philistines. Now this was slightly crazy because David had killed tens of thousands of the Philistines in battle. Remember, Goliath was a Philistine. So now David is on the run from Saul and he heads into the Philistine territory and at the front gate of the king of Gath, a Philistine king. Now I am not sure why David would do this because it seems like he was jumping out of the frying pan into the fire, for surely his enemies the Philistines wanted to kill David just as much as Saul did, perhaps even more. However, it happened and David was in Gath, a Philistine town and the Philistines recognized David. And they said, isn t this David who they sing about who has killed tens of thousands of Philistines. Once David learned that his identity had been discovered they captured David and he became extremely scared, obviously, and thought it was over. So, David came up with a plan that he would pretend to be insane and hope that the king would let him go. And it actually worked! God had his hand on David and the king set David free. Reflecting on this experience David realized that God was with him the whole time and God had his hand of protection on him from both Saul and the king of Gath. In response David wrote Psalm 34 to praise God for His faithfulness even in the midst of the craziest times. And it was because David went through these difficult times and was delivered from these difficult times that his relationship with God grew so intimate and deep. From David s experience we also can learn to grow in intimacy with God. Read with me Psalm 34:1-7. Now the first part of this Psalm is a praise of what God has done. David is committed to praise God in all times, meaning in all circumstances. David was committed to honoring and praising God not just when things were going great but even in the worst of times. In fact, most of the praise songs/psalms come out of God s deliverance from hard times. In Psalm 34:2 David gives an invitation for the afflicted to hear and rejoice. The New Living translation says let the hopeless hear and rejoice! How many of you feel afflicted or hopeless today? If so, then God has good news for you and that we can rejoice because of who God is and His faithfulness. In verse 4 we read that David sought the Lord, and He answered, and then God delivered him from all his fears. Look at that pattern: I sought the Lord, He answered, and then He set me free. First it began with seeking the Lord, and then there was an answer, and then the action. Now it is important to recognize that David is not saying that he rubs a genie bottle and God delivers him from all troubles and that he never faces troubles. That is not it at all. In fact in Psalm 34:19, David writes the righteous person may have many troubles but the Lord delivers him from them all. This is the same principle we studied last week that God allows us to walk through dark valleys in our lives but He is always with us and He will always guide us through the dark valleys and not necessarily always avoiding the dark valleys. The key principle we can learn from this first part of Psalm 34 is to have an attitude of gratitude/worship even in the midst of hard times. It is this mind set that keeps us focused on God and not our circumstances. Perhaps today you are experiencing a dark valley, a difficult time in your life, then I 2

3 encourage you to praise God, not because you feel or don t feel God s presences or that you are happy about your difficult time but because of God s promise that He is with you and that He is bigger than your circumstances. And that He promises to deliver you in His time and even redeem those difficult times in your life. It is for this reason that David says I will praise God at all times and for the hopeless and the afflicted to rejoice! David was just captured by his enemies and then set free, but even in the midst of being captured he praised God. I know it is crazy hard to praise God in the midst of hard times, but I encourage you to intentional seek to do so. Again, not because you are happy that you have hard times, but because you have a faithful God that is with you in the midst of hard times. This is why we read in 1 Peter 4:13, But rejoice inasmuch as you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed. What the apostle Peter is saying is that we need to rejoice because God s glory is going to be revealed. Having an attitude of praise develops an intimacy with God fostering our understanding that God is faithful even when we cannot see or understand. Continue reading with me Psalm 34:8. Here we see God s invitation to come and taste and see that the Lord is good. This is the heart of the Psalm, an invitation to step out on faith and experience God in an intimate fashion. David s relationship with God was not based on tradition or what his parents or his ancestors experienced. Nor was his relationship based on what he learned about God from his elders, but rather David s relationship was based on what he had experienced with God. David was captured by a Philistine king and he thought it was over, but he then experienced God s power and deliverance. Yet this wasn t the first time David experienced God s power and faithfulness. We read that when David faced Goliath, the giant, David said God has given me strength to defeat lions and bears and with that same strength He will give me strength to defeat you. David was able to praise God because he had experienced the goodness and faithfulness of God; he had tasted God and seen that God was good. Have you tasted and seen the goodness of God? Have you stepped out on faith and actually experienced God? Or is what you know simply what has been told to you? Because the difference is incredible! In John chapter 9 there is the account of a man who was born blind. Jesus came up to him and put some mud on his eyes and told him to go and wash and he would be healed. So the man went and washed his eyes and he went home seeing. This was a miracle that Christ healed a man born blind. Then the Pharisees heard about this and said, this wasn t the man who was born blind he only looks like him. But the man said, no it is me! I was blind but now I can see. So they asked him who healed him. And the blind man said Jesus is the one who healed me. But the Pharisees were upset at Jesus so they asked the man who was healed what they thought of Him and He said He was a prophet. At this they all got angry at the man and told the man that he was a sinner and that Jesus was a sinner. At this point the man said, look, I don t know for certain who He is, all I know is that I was blind and now I can see. And later when Jesus came up to him and said Do you believe in the Son of Man. The man said tell me who He is so that I can believe in Him, and Jesus said, It is I. The man said, Lord I believe and worshipped Him, which is another divinity verse for Jesus. The point is that the man believed because he had tasted and seen the power of God and the goodness of God. It wasn t because he had great theology about who Jesus was. Not that good theology is 3

4 bad, it is essential, but it can t be the only foundation of our faith! We have to have a personal relationship and encounter with the living God, for eternal life is to know God not to know about God! Does that make sense? Jesus is giving us the same invitation today. Come and taste and see that the Lord is good. Don t simply keep your relationship head knowledge to where you know about God in your head. Jesus is inviting you to taste and see that He is good. He wants you to trust in Him with your relationships. Let me give you some examples God is asking you to taste and see His goodness and faithfulness. For instance, many of you who are single are thinking it is okay to have sex outside of marriage and Jesus is saying taste and see that my way of purity is better. That if you stay pure before marriage and within marriage you will be blessed. Many of you are living in financial uncertainty and fear and God is saying trust in me with your provisions and not your jobs. It is one of the main reasons God commands us to give the first 10% of our income to Him, because He wants us to trust in Him as our provider. In fact, in Malachi 3:10-12 God says put me to the test give me your tithe and I will pour out blessings upon you. In other words, taste and see that you can trust me with your finances and wellbeing. Many of you are finding your self worth and your identity in your careers and jobs and God is calling us to not place our self-worth and identity in our performance but in Him. He says taste and see and know my peace that surpasses all understanding, a peace that is not rooted in your performances but in what He has accomplished on the cross! Have you tasted and seen? If not God is inviting you to taste and see today that He is faithful and good, better than anything you or this world can offer! Blessed are those who take refuge in Him! God is a God of redemption. My life has had hard struggles where I grew up with a low self-esteem. I had to deal with a past of drug addiction, but God has redeemed those hard times, the mistakes I have made in my life. As I have turned over those mistakes to God, He has been faithful to heal me and restore me. When I am going through hard times today, it is not my knowledge of the Greek or Hebrew that holds me secure it is my experience with God as a faithful God, knowing even when I don t understand how God is going to redeem the situation but trusting He is able to redeem the situation. I have tasted and have seen God is good! When was the last time you have tasted and seen the goodness of God? I am reminded of the account when Jesus had a rich ruler come up to Him and say what must I do to have eternal life. Jesus said, sells your possessions and follow me. Jesus understood the man was trusting in his possessions for his salvation and not God. Jesus wanted the man to taste the goodness and faithfulness of God. The sad thing is that the man went away sad and never experienced the goodness of God. He was scared to trust God. Don t let that happen to you! Taste and see, step out in faith and see that goodness and faithfulness of God. For blessed are those who take refuge in Him! The biggest key to experiencing intimacy with God is to step out on faith see Him move in your life. Continue reading with me Psalm 34:9. Here we see the admonishment to fear the Lord. Now it is important to understand that when the Bible speaks about fearing God, it is not referring to a warning to not go near to God because He might strike you down but to trust and submit to Him because He is a mighty God. It is an encouragement to recognize that God is not some cooler version of you but is Holy and sovereign. He is bigger than all things and the creator of all things. He is bigger than your problems. 4

5 Proverbs 1:7 states, The Fear of the Lord is the beginning of all wisdom. Psalm 145:19 says, He fulfills the desires of those who fear Him; He hears their cry and saves them. The point being is that God wants us to turn and trust in Him as the living sovereign God, and not some dead weak god. Do you fear God? Or do you see God as a weak and impotent god who doesn t care about what happens to you or what you do? Do you fear that God will let you down? Or do you trust in God that even if you are led through a dark valley God will be there with you and will use the situation to draw you closer to Him? Because your view of God will dictate your relationship with God! Fear God! Let s be honest, I think we fear man more than God. Proverbs 29:25 says fearing people is a dangerous trap. One of the key downfalls of king Saul was that he feared man more than God. God had told Saul to destroy an enemy of Israel and not taking any plunder from the battle but destroy it all. But Saul did not listen and instead of destroying the plunder he took it with him and said, Oh I will dedicate it to the Lord which was another way of justifying his sin. When the prophet Samuel asked Saul why he did this sin, Saul said that he was afraid of the men (1 Samuel 15:24) so he gave into them. So in response God said that I will rip away the kingdom from Saul. For Saul cared more about pleasing men than pleasing God. Jesus says the same thing in Matthew 10:24-28, when He warns us to fear God more than man because God is ultimate control of our eternal destiny. Scripture tells us to not fear earthly calamities (Luke 21:25-28). To not fear punishments (Hebrews 10:27), or troubles. The Lord said, "Fear not for I am with you" (Isaiah 41:10). Do not fear about your worries or insecurities (Philippians 4:6,7). I have experienced personally and witnessed the fear of people s approval over God s approval and have missed out on experiencing God s goodness and blessing. Many times I have been too scared to share the good news of Jesus because I was too scared what people may have thought of me, consequently I missed out seeing God move and transform lives. I was more concerned with not looking stupid then standing up for Jesus who was tortured and crucified naked, publically humiliated and giving up His life for me! This fear has robbed me of God s blessing too many times. Here we read to Fear the Lord, for those who fear God and not people lack nothing! Let me ask you, what do you fear? Do you fear missing out on the approval of people, your friends, and family more than God? Do you fear the loss of your job or money more than honoring God? Do you fear rejection from people more than the rejection of God. Jesus says in Matthew 10:32-33 Whoever acknowledges me before others, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before others, I will disown before my Father in heaven. Psalm 86:11 should be our prayer! Then we read in Psalm 34:10 that lions may grow weak and hungry but those who seek the Lord will lack no good thing! In other words, the strong and rich and those who are the kings of this jungle will even grow weak and hungry but those who seek out the Lord will lack no good thing. This is the same principle we read last week in Psalm 23. Jesus is our great provider and even though we may not have everything we want, for that would not be a good thing Jesus promises to give us all that we need to glorify His name and further His kingdom. Jesus says in Matthew 6:33, seek first His kingdom and His righteousness and all things that we need will be provided for us! And when we seek out Christ, not for our selfish desires but to further His kingdom we receive His peace and provision. In Matthew 7:7-8 we read, Ask and it will be given to 5

6 you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. Again, this is in line with the principle of Taste and See that the Lord is Good! Continue to read with me Psalm 34: Here we see that David not only encourages us to fear the Lord but highlights what it is to fear the Lord. He says it is to keep your tongue from evil and to seek peace and the pursue peace, other versions say to work to maintain it. I love this because it shows our partnership with God. Now, I understand that this is not saying we earn our salvation, but it does show we have a role to play in the peace that we have. We are to seek out the peace of Christ and then pursue that peace. Listen to Hebrews 12:14 & Galatians 6:7-10. Here we see that we will harvest what we plant either righteousness, that is God s peace, or death and destruction from the sinful nature. Continue reading with me Psalm 34: Look at all of the verbs in that passage. Each one is encouraging us to trust in God, to come and see, to taste and see that the Lord is good. We read that He hears us when we cry out (17), that He is close to the broken hearted (18), that he saves those who are crushed in spirit (18), that the Lord delivers those who are in trouble (19), and rescues His servants who take refuge in Him! Look at how each of these promises is not that you will not suffer hard-times, for that was the case you would not need to be delivered or rescued but rather that God does deliver us and rescue us. We have the promise that all who place their trust in Him shall never be condemned. We read the same promise in Romans 10:9-11. Brothers and sisters, David was a man on the run when he wrote this Psalm. He had experienced the deliverance of God but not the total deliverance of God, as that was to come in the future. But even in the midst of the craziness of life David learned to praise, trust and fear God because He was able to taste that the Lord was good. It was this personal relationship with God that delivered, rescued, and strengthen David. This is God s invitation for you today to Taste and see that the Lord is good. You can praise Him in all circumstances for He is worthy. You can fear, that is to trust, in Him in all circumstances for He is faithful and sovereign. My brothers and sisters, taste and see that the Lord is good! Amen! 6

7 Scriptures for Psalm 34 1 Peter 2:1-3 Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. 2 Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, 3 now that you have tasted that the Lord is good. 1 Peter 4:13 But rejoice inasmuch as you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed. Malachi 3:10-12 Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this, says the Lord Almighty, and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it. 11 I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not drop their fruit before it is ripe, says the Lord Almighty. 12 Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land, says the Lord Almighty. Proverbs 1:7 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction. Psalm 145:19 He grants the desires of those who fear him; he hears their cries for help and rescues them. Proverbs 29:25 Fearing people is a dangerous trap, but trusting the Lord means safety. 1 Samuel 15:24 Then Saul said to Samuel, I have sinned. I violated the Lord s command and your instructions. I was afraid of the men and so I gave in to them. Matthew 10:24-28 The student is not above the teacher, nor a servant above his master. 25 It is enough for students to be like their teachers, and servants like their masters. If the head of the house has been called Beelzebul, how much more the members of his household! 26 So do not be afraid of them, for there is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known. 27 What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight; what is whispered in your ear, proclaim from the roofs. 28 Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell. 7

8 Matthew 10:32-33 Whoever acknowledges me before others, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven. 33 But whoever disowns me before others, I will disown before my Father in heaven. Psalm 86:11 Teach me your way, Lord, that I may rely on your faithfulness; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name. Matthew 7:7-8 Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. Hebrews 12:14 Work at living in peace with everyone, and work at living a holy life, for those who are not holy will not see the Lord. Galatians 6:7-10 Don t be misled you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant. 8 Those who live only to satisfy their own sinful nature will harvest decay and death from that sinful nature. But those who live to please the Spirit will harvest everlasting life from the Spirit. 9 So let s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don t give up. 10 Therefore, whenever we have the opportunity, we should do good to everyone especially to those in the family of faith. Romans 10:9-11 If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by confessing with your mouth that you are saved. 11 As the Scriptures tell us, Anyone who trusts in him will never be disgraced. 8

9 Scripture for 11/3/13 Psalm 34:1-7 Psalm 34:19 1 Peter 4:13 Psalm 34:8 Malachi 3:10-12 Psalm 34:9 Proverbs 1:7 Psalm 145:19 Proverbs 29:25 1 Samuel 15:24 Matthew 10:24-28 Matthew 10:32-33 Psalm 34:10 Matthew 7:7-8 Psalm 34:11-14 Hebrews 12:14 Galatians 6:7-10 Psalm 34:15-22 Romans 10:9-11 9