Psalm 34 | Taste, Fear, and Be Redeemed

This sermon was recorded at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota.

Good morning.

I'm so excited to have the privilege of preaching the word this morning.

I think this psalm that we're going to be taking a look at today, Psalm 34, is a wonderful way for us to begin the new year.

And it's truly a psalm that you can base your life around.

But before you turn to Psalm 34, here's what the description says we find there.

Says this.

This is a psalm of David when he changed his behavior before Abimelech, so that he drove him out and he went away.

This description, which is also known as a superscription, is based on an account that's recorded for us in the book of 1 Samuel.

So before we dig into Psalm 34, please turn with me in your Bibles to 1 Samuel chapter 21.

1 Samuel 21 · chapter mention

Let's start there.

And David rose and fled that day from Saul and went to Akish the king of Gath.

And the servants of Akish said to him, Is not this David the king of the land?

Did they not sing to one another of him and dance as Saul has struck down his thousands and David his ten thousands?

And David took these words to heart and was much afraid of Akish the king of Gath.

So he changed his behavior before them, and pretended to be insane in their hands, made marks on the doors of the gate, and let his spittle run down his beard.

Then Akish said to his servants, Behold, you see this man is mad.

Why then have you brought him to me?

Do I lack madmen that you have brought this fellow to behave as a madman in my presence?

Shall this fellow come into my house?

Verse one David departed from there and escaped to the cave of Adolam.

Amen.

Well, previous to this account, what we know is that Samuel tells us that David is on the run from King Saul.

Because over time Saul had grown jealous and suspicious and even afraid of David and wanted him assassinated.

So David is fleeing for his life.

He's scared, terrified even, and he's trying to find refuge in these various places in Israel.

And this brings us to the account that we find here in 1 Samuel chapter 21, where David's situation gets so bad to the point where he flees to the city, the Philistine city of Gath, which, if you remember, Gath is the hometown of Goliath.

1 Samuel 21 · chapter mention

But there's a problem that arises for David.

Instead of finding this refuge that David longs for, he's put into a dangerous situation.

Because the Philistine king's servants recognize who he is and they acknowledge him as a mighty warrior who has slain many Philistines.

They echo the same phrase that made Saul so jealous of David, they say, Isn't this the one that they sing and dance about?

That Saul has struck down his thousands, but this man, David, has struck down his tens of thousands?

And so they're worried that David could be planning harm to them and their king.

So they plan to bring David before the king, which will likely lead to his death because David is a great threat to them.

So David is filled with fear.

And as he's being brought there, what does he decide to do?

He pretends to be insane in their presence.

As they drag him before the king, he digs his nails into the doors on the town gate, he slobbers all over himself and looks crazy as saliva drips down his beard.

And then David is brought before the Philistine king.

And the king believes David's charade and seems upset or annoyed with his servant, saying, What are you doing?

Don't you see that this man is crazy?

I mean, just look at him.

He's disgusting.

Don't I have enough crazy people running around here?

What do you expect?

You want him to come to my house?

Just get him out of here.

And so David is then spared and sent away from the presence of Akish, the king of Gath, where he departs from the cave of Adullum.

Now, if you were to read this account by itself, you might be persuaded to think that David's acting skills are what saved him.

But David reveals later in writing Psalm 34 to us that the Lord is the reason that he was delivered from the Philistines.

The Lord is the one who deserves the praise and glory for David's deliverance.

In Psalm 34, David is trying to show us this that we are to fear, trust, and experience the Lord because he redeems his people in all circumstances.

So now if you aren't there already, turn with me in your Bibles to Psalm 34.

If you're using a Pew Bible, that's on page 463.

At the outset, there are a couple of notable things about this psalm that are worth mentioning before we dig in.

And they're both found in the superscription on Psalm 34.

As a reminder, here's what it says.

It says this is a psalm of David when he changed his behavior before Abimelech, so that he drove him out and he went away.

Some of you may have noticed a difference in the name of the king.

First Samuel tells us that it's Akish, the king of Gath, while when it's recorded for us in Psalm 34, it says that the king is Abimelech.

So maybe you're wondering, are these two different people?

What's going on here?

Is there a contradiction that we're finding here?

But there is not a contradiction.

You can be assured because Abimelech is simply a title for a Philistine king.

Just like Pharaoh isn't the name of Pharaoh, it's a title.

So you can be assured first that you can trust your Bible.

The second thing to understand about this Psalm is, and this extends to all psalms, is that the superscriptions where it says, you know, for example, here, of David when he changed his behavior before Abimelech, that's actually a part of the inspired text of Scripture.

That's not something added by your Bible translators to know who wrote it or when or what was going on at the time.

If you were to pick up a Hebrew Bible, for example, that superscription is actually labeled as verse 1.

While the first line that says, I will bless the Lord at all times, his praise shall continually be in my mouth in the Hebrew Bible, that would actually be verse 2.

So just know that the superscriptions you see here in all the Psalms are actually a part of God's word.

In this account, David has experienced a trying and difficult and scary time in his life.

But here in this first section, David is found praising God for his deliverance and invites all of us to join in with him.

So follow along as I read verses one through three.

David says this I will bless the Lord at all times.

His praise shall continually be in my mouth.

My soul makes its boast in the Lord.

Let the humble hear and be glad.

Oh, magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together.

Amen.

At the start of this psalm, we get this picture of David as a sort of worship leader, who leads his congregation into praise of God with a solo of his own, in verses 1 through 2.

And then he invites the congregation to join in with him.

He tells us that he makes his soul boast, his soul boasts in the Lord, and then he turns to his audience and says, Now you do the same thing.

Magnify the Lord with me.

Let us exalt his name together.

David's heart is absolutely swelled up with praise towards God for who he is and what he has done.

And there's at least one theological truth that we can take from David's example.

It's this that the heart that is swelled up in praise toward God blesses God's name continually and praises him continually.

And so this reminds us that praise and worship of our God and our Almighty King is not something to be reserved simply for the Sunday morning or the weekday Bible study.

No.

Worship of God because of who he is and what he has done should be the continual response from the mouth of the believer and in his life.

And if you think about it, this is a natural reaction when you witness something great.

For example, if you're at a restaurant and you try an amazing food, you stop and you savor it and you say, Oh my goodness, this is so good.

You have to try this.

Will you try this with me?

Take a bite.

And then you invite others to join in with you in savoring its goodness.

Right?

And this is the attitude that David wants us to have towards our God.

Right?

David wants us to join in in boasting and praising our God because of his amazing character.

And this leads us straight into verses 4 through 7, where David answers the question of why we should join in with him in continual praise of God.

David answers the question of why by giving his own personal testimony of how the Lord delivered him from all of his fears and troubles.

Look at verses 4 through 7 with me.

David says, I sought the Lord, and he answered me, and he delivered me from all of my fears.

Those who look to him are radiant, and their faces shall never be ashamed.

And the angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him and delivers them.

Here again, David tells us why God deserves continual praise.

Because the Lord hears, answers, and delivers his people when they cry out to him.

Notice the way that David structures his testimony here.

First, David speaks from his own experience in verses 4 and 6.

Verse 4, he says, I sought the Lord and he answered me and delivered me from all of my fears.

And then verse 6 speaks in the third person.

David doesn't try to present himself as a strong or impressive person.

He presents himself as needy, afraid, desperate, but heard by God and delivered.

Then in verses 5 and 7, David broadens these truths out to all of us.

Verse 5, those who look to him are radiant, and their faces shall never be ashamed.

Verse 7, the angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him and delivers them.

David is showing us that this isn't just his testimony.

It's not just his story.

This is God's consistent pattern toward those who place their ultimate trust in God.

The words that David says here are so comforting for us as believers.

Again, verse 7, David says, the angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him and delivers them.

That phrase, those who fear him, is the key to our deliverance and our comfort.

This fear of the Lord that David speaks of is not a sort of terror, but rather a reverent fear that acknowledges the holiness of our God.

A type of fear that puts God in his rightful place in our lives.

And so the question is not whether we will fear, but the question is what we will fear most.

If you think of David's situation, he had all the more reason to be afraid.

David was being hunted day and night, and every waking moment he probably wondered if today was going to be the day that Saul catches him and kills him.

His fears were very real.

And like David, every believer in this room knows what it's like to live with a certain type of fear, myself included.

Some of you fear for loved ones who are battling cancer or friends.

Some of you carry the fear of wayward children who have wandered from the Lord.

Some of you fear the reality of miscarriage or infertility.

We all have fears and uncertainties in our lives, every single one of us.

But David wants us to know that the fears of this world begin to shrink when the fear of God is more.

When we fear God more than we fear the things of this world.

So fear the Lord, knowing that he works everything for the good of his people and his own glory.

And this is exactly why Jesus commands of us in Matthew 16: don't be anxious about your life.

What will you add by worrying of what you will eat and what you will drink?

Jesus doesn't deny us that our needs exist, but he redirects our fears and he points us to trusting in God, who knows what we need and sovereignly rules over every detail of our lives.

The fears of this world are brought to nothing when you fear the sovereign, all-knowing, all-powerful, ever-present God more than the fears of this world.

This is the comfort that David offers to us.

The concerns of this world are opportunities to praise God because of his presence with us.

Now in this next section, verses eight through fourteen, David teaches us what it means to fear the Lord, and he invites us to experience the Lord's goodness for ourselves.

Look at verses eight through ten with me.

David says, Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good.

Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.

Oh, fear the Lord, you his saints, for those who fear him have no lack.

The young lions suffer want and hunger, but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.

So previously, David called us to worship and praise God for his deliverance.

He gives us his own testimony of how the Lord delivered him from his fears and saved him from his troubles.

And now we see David not just inviting, but commanding us to experience God in the same way.

Here we find one of the most beloved praises in all the Bible.

Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good.

But why does he use this analogy of tasting?

Have you ever wondered that?

What's the significance behind it?

Why not just say, meditate on God?

Right?

Think about God and know that He is good.

Right?

Our belief is is of knowing, right?

We know who God is and therefore we grow in love for Him.

But when we think of this analogy of tasting, trying to describe the amazingness of something can only go so far.

Right?

I could try to describe to you, close your eyes and imagine with me my favorite food.

A nice medium rare steak when it's properly seasoned, with a nice crust on the outside, and a nice, juicy, tender inside.

But tasting something is a matter of personal experience.

When you taste something truly amazing, you savor and behold its goodness.

And that's David's point.

He can try to tell you all about how God is gracious and how He can deliver you from all of your fears like he delivered David, but he wants you and even commands you to come and taste and experience the Lord's goodness for yourself.

Trust in Him when difficult circumstances come your way, like David did.

Because those are your opportunities to experience God's promises in their fullness.

In verse 8, it also seems as though David is making an intentional comparison.

He's comparing how God tastes to those who trust him with how David tasted before Abimelech.

Let me work that out.

In the superscription of Psalm 34, it says that David changed his behavior before Abimelech.

But the Hebrew word for behavior is the same word as taste in verse 8.

So it could be read like this.

You could translate it this way: that this is a psalm of David when he changed his taste before Abimelech.

And then David commands us to taste and see that the Lord is good.

In the presence of Abimelech, David had a certain taste when he acted insane.

And similarly, but differently, God has a certain taste to those who trust him.

David was disgusting before Abimelech.

But the taste that God has draws those who trust him even closer.

David wants you to experience that taste.

David then goes on to tell us an incredible but sort of confusing promise.

In verses 9 and 10, he tells us that those who fear the Lord have no lack in verse 9.

And then in verse 10, he gives a picture that the young lions suffer want and hunger, but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.

The reason I say that can be kind of confusing, though, is if you think of David's situation, he's clearly lacking some crucial things right now.

I mean, right?

He clearly lacks safety, he's fearful of his own safety, and and he clearly lacks a home.

So how can he say that those who fear the Lord lack no good thing?

How does that make sense?

I think the point David is making is that those who fear God have everything they need to do God's will.

And the believer understands that their relationship with God, with the Lord, is the only thing that they fundamentally need.

And so it doesn't mean that we'll never, if you just trust the Lord, you'll never face any difficult things in this life.

But instead, we can trust God in all circumstances because He is the only thing we truly need.

David then paints a picture of even young lions suffering, want and hunger.

This example of young lions is that they're ferocious, right?

They're strong creatures.

They're the top of the food chain.

And in the animal kingdom, they're an example of self-sufficiency.

They can usually get what they want when they need it.

But David tells us that there are inevitable times when they come up empty.

And by contrast, the believer never comes up empty when your fear and your trust is in the Lord.

And the reason that the believer never comes up empty is that the Lord never leaves them nor forsakes them.

Alright, Psalm 23.

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.

In God we have everything that we need.

Now in verses 11 through 14, David speaks like a father to his children, or like a teacher to his students.

Look at verses 11 through 14 with me.

He says, Come, O children, listen to me.

I will teach you the fear of the Lord.

And David asks the rhetorical question, What man is there who desires life and loves many days that you may see good?

And the answer is, everyone does.

So here's what it means to truly fear the Lord, he says.

Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit.

Turn away from evil and do good.

Seek peace and pursue it.

Here, David describes the fear of the Lord not simply as an emotion to feel, but as a matter of obedience to our God.

Like a child who desires to respect his father by following his commands and his wishes, so the believer is to live in a way that demonstrates reverence and an acknowledgement of God's holiness.

To live with the fear and trust of God is to live lives of upright obedience before our God, for him in all circumstances of life.

And that's even when we're persecuted and hated, like David was.

But even if you do live in fear, right, and obedience to God, this doesn't mean that life will suddenly become easy.

That's not what we're promised as believers.

And this leads us to the final section of this psalm, we're here reminded in this section that the Lord redeems his people.

So far, David has led us in praise for God's deliverance from our fears and troubles, and through his own experience, he invites us to taste and experience the Lord's goodness.

He teaches us how to fear the Lord, to seek him with trust, and to live obediently as those who lack no good thing.

And this call to fear the Lord requires that we, as God's people, live upright lives by turning away from evil and doing good along with seeking peace.

But if you think again of David's situation, even though he was a man that was after God's own heart, and he lived an upright life in many ways, he was still unfairly hated and persecuted.

And the same goes for us.

Even if we live upright lives in the fear of God, that doesn't mean that all of our troubles will cease.

But there is assurance, believer, that if you trust the Lord with your life, you will never be put to shame, ultimately.

Now, as David brings this psalm to a close, he brings everything together with an amazing picture of God's redeeming and loving care for his people, and his righteous and just anger towards those who do evil.

Let's look at verses 15 through 18 together.

David writes, The eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous, and his ears 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.

Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all.

Here again, David gives us comfort by telling us of God's tender and loving care for his people.

And these truths David comforts us with stem from his own experience of the Lord's deliverance.

And there's a parallel that we see here.

In verse 6, David speaks of his own situation.

He said, This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all of his troubles.

And now David invites us and extends that truth to us.

When he says in verse 17, when the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles.

What amazing grace we receive from our God.

Amen.

In all the circumstances and troubles that you face, the Lord sees you, the Lord hears you, the Lord is near to you, and the Lord will ultimately rescue you.

So put your trust in the Lord.

Taste and see that in your troubles his promises are true, and that God will keep his word.

If you take a quick look at verse 20, it says, He keeps all of his bones, not one of them is broken.

We see this verse fulfilled as a promise to find our ultimate redemption in Christ.

It's a prophetic verse that speaks of Christ, the righteous and innocent one who died to save his people from their sins.

We see it fulfilled in John 19 here, where it says, When Jesus is up on the cross after he had perished, but when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs.

But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water.

He who saw it has borne witness, his testimony is true, that he knows that he is telling the truth, and he knows that he is telling the truth, that you also may believe.

For these things took place that the scripture might be fulfilled, not one of his bones will be broken.

This points us to the ultimate redemption, the promise of redemption that God gives to us in this psalm.

Redemption in Christ.

We'll come back to that in just a minute, but let's take a look first at verses 21 through 22, and then we'll finish up.

David says, Affliction will slay the wicked, and those who hate the righteous will be condemned.

And the Lord redeems the life of his servants.

None of those who take refuge in him will be condemned.

This whole psalm, everything that we've read, describes a righteous one crying out to God, facing many afflictions, yet being heard, protected, and delivered, and ultimately redeemed.

So this is true of David as he fled and trusted the Lord, but it is also true of Jesus, who is the true and better David.

As God incarnate Jesus fully entered our human experience.

In the Garden of Gethsemane he cried out in anguish and on the cross, and then he faced unjust hatred and far greater afflictions than David did.

Yet he was without sin and he trusted the Father completely.

God heard him and delivered him, not by sparing the cross from him, Jesus, but by raising him victorious from the dead.

Redeeming the righteous sufferer and his people.

And the example is that because God keeps his promises perfectly towards his beloved Son, we can trust and experience that he will do the same for us.

If not in this world, then in the next.

Again, none of us is promised an easy life as believers.

In David's difficult and scary situation, he sought the Lord, and the Lord delivered him out of all of his fears and all of his difficult life circumstances at that point.

But when we think of the examples I named before, cancer, wayward children, infertility, miscarriage, or any other life circumstance that is thrown at us, the reality is that we might not be delivered from those troubles in this life.

But David's point in this psalm is that he wants you to find your ultimate refuge in the Lord, even in life's most troubling circumstances and trials.

David wants you to find your ultimate refuge in God like he did when he was in Abimelech's courts, fearing for his life and wondering if he was about to die.

David wants you to find your ultimate refuge in God, just like the Apostle Peter did when church history tells us he was crucified upside down on a cross for the sake of the gospel.

And similarly like Job did when everything he loved was taken from him, and he still trusted the Lord.

And David wants you to find your ultimate refuge in God, just like the Lord Jesus Christ did.

When he cried out to the Father with tears of blood in his eyes in the garden, begging him to take away the cup of wrath that was to be poured out on him.

But instead humbled himself and willingly went to the cross to take upon himself our sins.

So none of us are promised an easy life as believers, but the ultimate promise is that in the end the Lord redeems the life of his servants, and that none of those, not one who take refuge in him will be condemned.

So even in life's most terrifying and agonizing circumstances, fear, trust, and experience the Lord and his goodness because he redeems his people in all circumstances.

Let's pray.

Oh Father, we are so grateful for your goodness.

We have to admit that we don't always do this.

We don't always bless your name and the praise of you as not continually in our mouths in all that we do.

But Father, we know that you have revealed yourself in your word.

And so, Lord, help us to continually come to you in times of trouble and truly taste and see that you are good.

Help us to be like David, who in the midst of his difficulties and struggles, he cried out to you.

And he knew that you would save him out of all of his troubles, that you are his ultimate refuge.

And he promises us the same thing.

That those who fear him will be delivered.

Lord, help us to live with good conduct as we wait for you, as our living hope.

One that we are eagerly waiting for as our citizenship is in heaven.

From it, we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Help us to find our refuge in you no matter what.

We thank you, Lord, and we pray that these truths will become more and more clear to us.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

That concludes this sermon from Faith Evangelical Free Church.

Our mission is to declare the Word of God and disciple believers into mature, devoted followers of Jesus.

You can learn more by visiting our website at faithfree.com.