Psalms No.5 The Goodness of God

I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually be on my mouth. My soul shall make her boast in the Lord.

The humble shall hear thereof and be glad. Oh, magnify the Lord with me and let us exalt his name together. I sought the Lord and he heard me and delivered me from all my fears.

They looked unto him and were lightened and their faces were not ashamed. The poor man cried and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his troubles. The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him and delivereth them.

Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man that trusteth in him. Oh, fear the Lord, ye his saints, for there is no want to them that fear him.

The young lions do lack and suffer hunger, but they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing. Come, ye children, hearken unto me. I will teach you the fear of the Lord.

What man is he that desireth life and loveth many days that he may see good? Keep thy tongue from evil and thy lips from speaking guile. Depart from evil and do good. Seek peace and pursue it.

The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous and his ears are open unto their cry. The face of the Lord is against them that do evil to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth. The righteous cry and the Lord heareth and delivereth them out of all their troubles.

The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken spirit and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivereth him out of them all. He keepeth all his bones.

Not one of them is broken. Evil shall slay the wicked and they that hate the righteous shall be desolate. The Lord redeemeth the soul of his servants and none of them that trust him shall be desolate.

Thanks be to God for his holy and infallible word. I'd be grateful if you'd have your Bibles open at Psalm 34 and indeed if what I have to share with you is to be fully understood then you need to keep looking down into this particular passage of scripture as I seek to explain and apply its teaching. Those of you with the AV may discover that in between the number of the Psalm and the first verse there is a word of explanation.

A Psalm of David when he changed his behavior before Abimelech who drove him away and he departed. Let me just read to you from the last few verses of 1 Samuel 21 which tells us about David's experience having been before the priest and when he moved into the land of the Philistines and uncommonly for David was very fearful and did something that seemed to belittle him. 1 Samuel 21 verse 10 and David arose and fled that day for fear of Saul and went to Achish the king of Gath in Philistia.

The servants of Achish said unto him is not this David the king of the land? Did they not sing one to another of him in Damsus saying Saul hath slain his thousands and David his ten thousands? And David laid up these words in his heart and was sore afraid of Achish the king of Gath. And David changed his behavior before them and pretended himself to be mad in their hands and clawed on the doors of the gate and let his spittle fall down upon his beard. Then said king Achish unto his servants, lo you see this man David is mad.

Wherefore then have you brought him to me? Have I need of madmen that ye have brought this fellow to play the madman in my presence? Shall this fellow come into my house? David therefore departed thence and escaped to the cave Adullam and when his brethren and all his father's house heard it they went down thither to him and everyone that was in distress and everyone that was in debt and everyone that was discontented gathered themselves unto him and he became a captain over them and there were with him about four hundred men. Now you need to have that in mind if you're going to fully comprehend this 34th Psalm and squeeze its meaning so that the juice is accepted and drunk in by you as we read through all of its teaching. It's a Psalm which speaks about the goodness of God, the goodness of God and here is David having gone through a very strenuous experience and having in some senses let himself down rejoicing nonetheless in a God who didn't and will not fail him.

The Psalm is very interesting not simply because it was written after David's experience before the priest and before the king of the philistines but also because it's very cleverly arranged. It has 22 verses and in the Hebrew language there are 22 letters and if you were to read this in the original you would find that every verse begins with the first letter then the second letter and then the third letter of the Hebrew alphabet right through to the last letter from say A to Z in English equivalent. This Psalm is written by David to show that the Lord is indeed a good God and his goodness is declared even in the peculiar brilliant fashion of David's poetic ability.

What's more the Psalm breaks down into two convenient passages from the first verse to the tenth. We read of the testimony of David, the testimony of David. He's talking to those who have gathered in the caves of Adullam and he is able to tell them something about the goodness and the faithfulness of God and what he has learned during the experiences through which he has just passed.

So the first 10 verses are scriptures which contain testimony and then the second part of the Psalm from the 11th through to the 22nd verses contain teaching and in the final few verses from say about the 18th to the 22nd including included in the teaching is application from the experience of David to all who are his listeners. So then with that in mind I direct your attention to the first part of the Psalm. Here I say is testimony.

I will bless the Lord at all times. Comes out again in the eighth verse. Oh taste and see that the Lord is good.

And in the tenth verse the young lions do lack and suffer hunger but they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing. All these verses are employed by David for him to be able to declare the goodness of the Lord despite the circumstances through which David has passed and there was the element of the nightmare in his experience. He is able to say that the Lord is good.

Let's just stop there for a moment or so and talk about this whole idea of testimony because very often in evangelical churches we invite folks to share what the Lord has done for them. We would say that unless a person has their own testimony then they have little claim to be Christian. You should be able to recite something of God's dealings in your own heart.

And when you analyze a testimony it seems to me that it it breaks logically down into into three separate though related parts. First of all there's adoration. The person who comes as so often we've heard from this pulpit and talks about God's goodness and God's salvation thanks the Lord for saving them.

They can't understand it that God should put his hand upon them and they rejoice in that fact. And the best testimonies are ones which have a sentence or so in which they extol the Lord. Adoration.

But then and obviously by definition of the word testimony there is what you could call retrospection. Going back into your own experience reflecting upon what happened in the past because this is to be retrospective. Looking inwardly at your own circumstances and saying this is what the Lord did for me.

This is what I used to be like. But let me share with you what the Lord has delivered me from. Adoration.

Retrospection. And there's also commendation. Because God has done so much for me.

Because the Lord Jesus has bled and died and become my Savior and I understand this. He has given me his Holy Spirit. He has transformed my life.

I want to commend him to everyone else. It seems to me however you look at the concept of testimony to be an adequate rehearsal of what God has done. There must be those three vital ingredients.

Adoration. That looks upward to the goodness of God. Retrospection.

Looking inwardly into what the Lord has done in our lives. Commendation. Looking outwardly towards other people.

Now here's a classic example then in Psalm 34. Did you notice that? Of how to give your testimony. Because David indulges in these vital ingredients.

Lifting them out and parading them before us. Here's adoration. The first three verses.

I will bless the Lord at all time. His praise shall continually be in my mouth. And then the second verse.

And then into the third when he invites others to engage also in praising God. Oh magnify the Lord with me and let us exalt his name together. David has now reached the point where independent and irrespective of all his circumstances he reckons he can worship the Lord.

I will bless him at all times. His praise shall continually be in my mouth. And that's got some anticipation of the New Testament hasn't it? Here's Paul writing to the Philippians.

Rejoice in the Lord always. And again I say rejoice. Mature is that brother.

Mature is that sister who can praise the Lord irrespective of their circumstances. I would not claim that maturity myself. I'm working towards it.

I'm hoping one day I'll get there. But honesty compels me to say that sometimes when things happen in my life which I don't like, I am not the best person. As an illustration of this concept of praising the Lord.

But it's toward that that I'm aiming. And here David has arrived. He says my soul shall make her boast in the Lord.

And then he says the humble shall hear thereof and be glad. Seems to me a slight contradiction there at first. The humble person doesn't generally like the boaster.

And when you think of boasting spiritually in the context of the Bible, immediately your mind goes to the Pharisee who went into the temple. You remember in the company of the publican. And this religious man walked right down to the front and he prayed to the Lord.

I thank God that I am not as other men are. I fast. I tithe.

I pray. And so he goes on exalting the ego. It was Augustine who said that that wasn't so much a prayer as a letter of congratulations addressed to himself.

And that was so. He was boasting. And that sort of spiritual boasting of course is obnoxious.

It's sickening to the person who listens. But when David talks about boasting, it's not in his own achievement that he's parading. Rather the idea is that again illustrated by the Apostle Paul when he says I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

He's boasting in his God. He's boasting in his Savior. And so is David here.

And we have three verses of beautiful adoration which are the springboard, the launching pad of David's testimony. But not only does David praise the Lord, not only is there the upward look, there is also the inward glance. For in the fourth verse and also the sixth, David reviews his personal circumstances.

I sought the Lord and he heard me and delivered me from all my fears. The sixth verse is almost a repetition but he describes himself a little more carefully. This poor man cried and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his troubles.

That word poor man and the word humble in verse two are exactly the same in the original. David is here referring to himself as one who is afflicted. One who is poor.

And yet David was a king. David had an army. Not I admit a very good one at that stage but nonetheless he had men who would follow him.

In Jerusalem he had riches. He had prestige. And yet as far as he's concerned when he stands before the Lord he says I'm a poor man.

Because you see when pressures come they transcend class barriers. You'll get the person of influence, the person of wealth, who will go under with undue pressure. As well as those who are not so well off materially, as well as those who are not so influential.

And ultimately we all come to the end of our resources. There occurs a time in our life if we're Christian as we look back upon it when we appreciated our poverty and when we had to cry to the Lord. This poor man cried.

I sought the Lord and he heard me. And he delivered me. There was the problem for David.

The rebellion led by that long-haired son Absalom. That spoilt teenager if ever there was one who created so much problem for David. There was this unwholesome business of David feigning madness in front of the king of the philistines and allowing the spittle to fall down his beard as though he was a madman.

David clawing at the door to try to indicate that he was insane so that in no way would the philistines put him to death. That was the extent of David's dilemma. He was a man under tremendous pressure.

He was at his wits end. But he's able to say at that time when I cried to the Lord, when I didn't know what to do myself, I sought him and he heard me and he delivered me from all my fears. See how comprehensive is David's testimony.

He saved him out of all his troubles. Verse six. And that's why David is adoring the Lord.

He's looking upwards and offering praise because when he looks inwards retrospectively he sees in his own life the great deliverance that God has achieved. Now if you're in that circumstances the large number of our congregation here is this morning. In as much as you've known God's power in your life, what do you want to do? What do you want to share it with other people? You want to commend this great God to those who also might desperately be in need.

So David in the fifth verse and from the seventh to the tenth verses gathers his thinking and he says what's happened in my life by extension can apply to anyone else. And so in verse five he says that those who look to the Lord, really that's in the future tense, those who look to the Lord they will be lightened and their faces will not be ashamed. And literally the translation is their faces shall not be red with shame.

Why do you sometimes blush? Because you've done things that are wrong. Some of us have an inbuilt ability to show just how guilty we are because when someone points the finger we blush. And the idea here is of a man who might be ashamed as David was ashamed because of all his misdoing brought in front of the presence of the Lord.

He might well shrink from the Lord. He might well blush but rather than showing indications of guilt he reveals that he has been forgiven because the Lord God is the God of salvation. And this is what David is indicating later on from the seventh through to the tenth verses.

And of course in the New Testament you get the same idea don't you? The blood of Jesus Christ God's son cleanses us from all sin. I would blush to stand in the presence of God. I was confessing the other Thursday evening in the presence of the Lord on the natural level.

I'm afraid. I'm terrified. My God is a consuming fire.

My God is all holy. My God is all pure. And I have broken his commandments.

I have taken the gifts that he has entrusted me with and dragged them down to the level of the gutter. And in his presence I might well blush. But when you cry for salvation the Lord hears.

And this is what David argues as I say from the seventh verse onwards. Oh taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man that trusteth in him.

There's salvation in God my friend if you will respond to his love in your life. Says David again, oh fear the Lord ye his saints for there is no want to them that fear him. And he thinks about those young lions marauding in the desert in the scrubland of Judea.

Those young lions, the king of the jungle, the princes of the jungle, well they do like. There are times when they don't have enough to eat. The law of the jungle is a very cruel, a very crude law that the weakest go to the wall.

And there's no guarantee for any animal of his breakfast let alone his lunch and his tea the following day. It all depends on whom he can stalk, whom he can win in battle. But says David, as far as those who trust the Lord are concerned there's no lack.

They that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing. There's salvation in the Lord. There's security in the Lord.

There's sustenance, there's food in the Lord. That's what David's testifying to you see. And so he invites people to enjoy what he has enjoyed.

He adores the Lord. There's the upward look, oh magnify the Lord with me. There's the inward look as he testifies to God's grace.

This poor man cried and the Lord heard him. There's the outward look. He's concerned that others shall experience what he has known.

So he says, oh magnify the Lord with me. Oh taste and see that the Lord is good. So then there is the testimony of David.

But come through just briefly and consider the teaching of David from the 11th to the 22nd verses. And recall indeed you're bound to from the introduction of the 11th verse the situation as it obtained when David wrote this psalm. He's got young men with him.

They've come from Jerusalem. They've come from all over where the towns and the villages where they are not supporting Absalom. And they have made their way to the cave of Adullam where David has set up his headquarters.

They're not trained men. They're people with potential. And David is going to have to make them into soldiers.

And ultimately he will do this. They will become a crack regiment fighting against Absalom on the side of David. But David's concerned not just about their military ability but about their spiritual welfare.

And so he gives the invitation. And his mother and father were present at the same time which is quite interesting. And he says, come ye children hearken unto me.

I will teach you the fear of the Lord. And he asks the question, which man of you desires life and loves many days? Let him listen to what I have to say and I will do him good. And as David gives his instruction he tells us what he's learned of the Lord.

And he defines what behavior pattern people ought to employ who trust the Lord God as Savior. From the 13th to the 14th verses, for example, he speaks of what you might well summarize as being the manward attitude. How are men to behave who will know God's blessing? Well, they are to keep their tongue from evil and their lips from speaking guile.

And verse 14, they're to depart from evil and to do good. They're to seek peace and to pursue it. In a word, they're to control the tongue.

They are to discipline their actions. And that advice is so important that when Peter writes the epistle that bears his name, 1st Peter chapter 3 verses 10 and 11, he quotes this teaching of David. This is what the Christian is to do.

He is to keep his tongue from evil. He is to eschew all forms of malice. And he is to do good and thereby win the blessing and the benediction of God.

David, what have you learned through your horrific experience before the priest of Bimelech, before the king of the Philistines, before your son Absalom? I've learned, says David, to control myself, to keep God over my tongue and to stop indulging in evil. So if 13 and 14th verses indicate the manward aspect of David's teaching, the 15th through to the 18th verses, they tell us about the Godward way in which David is now instructing those who listen to him. References made to the eyes of the Lord, verse 15, and to the ears of the Lord, the latter part of verse 15, and to the face of the Lord, verse 16.

And by implication from the context, the presence of the Lord, verse 18, the Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart. Ah, says David, it's not just a question of you seeking the Lord, but the Lord is directing his attention towards you. His eyes are upon the righteous, his ears are open to their cry, the face of the Lord is against their enemies, and the presence of God is confirmed in the circumstances of those who trust him.

Sometimes in the Bible you come across what theologians refer to as anthropomorphic language. That comes from the word man, anthropos. Men have various characteristics.

All men have eyes, all men have ears, all men have lips, all men can feel and touch and relate to ordinary individuals. Now David uses language that his followers in the caves of Adullam can understand. And he says, God's like that, fellows.

The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous. In the fifth verse, he talked about a man seeking God. They look unto God and are enlightened.

But here in the 15th verse, he's saying that God was looking at them all the time himself. The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, his ears are open to their cry, the face of the Lord, the presence of the Lord, it's directed towards those who will come before God. Do you realize that yourself? I remember one of the saddest experiences I ever had in my life was at a place called Chittagong.

Chittagong is in Bangladesh. It's one of the larger towns in that country. It's a port.

In fact, I think it's the only major port that they've got. And I went there to the shrine. It was actually a Muslim shrine, which is very peculiar because Muslims tend not to have shrines and images.

But there was a shrine dedicated to a rich man who claimed to have had magical and supernatural powers. And when I went into this shrine alongside a lake which was supposed to be filled with holy water and also had holy turtles who had to be fed with bananas if you're going to get your prayers answered. I saw a number of men praying to Allah and they were doing almost everything but hurting themselves physically.

They'd been there for hours. There was the effigy of this man in the mausoleum in the sanctuary that had been built in his honor and they were praying to Allah through this man. The representation of their God could be seen.

It had eyes. It had ears. You could see the outline of the personality, at least of the physique of the man who was now dead.

And all the crying and all the tears in the world plus all the banana feeding of the turtles didn't improve the circumstances of those pitiful people. But David tells us that the God whom Christians worship has eyes that see and ears that hear and a presence which relates to ordinary folk. Here is human language employed by David to describe the fact that God is a God who relates to those who call upon him.

So the 18th verse, the Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart and save as such as be of a contrite spirit. Two minutes and then I'm through. What have you discovered from Psalm 34? The first 10 verses, there is a testimony to the goodness of God.

Adoration, I will bless the Lord at all times. Introspection, I sought the Lord and he heard me. Commendation, oh taste and see that the Lord is good.

From the 11th verse through to the 18th, David's teaching how men are to behave before God. They are to flee from evil and do good. How God behaves before men, his eyes are upon them, his ears are open to their prayer, his presence relates to their situation.

So David gathers the whole of his teaching and the whole of his testimony together in the final four verses. You can imagine him with these outlaw types, these vagabonds, these deserters from Absalom's troops who have come together in the cave at Adalim. And David, the teacher, is saying, look fellas, there'll be many afflictions.

There'll be many problems if you're following me, but this I guarantee you in the name of God, he'll deliver us out of them all. He keeps all his bones, not one of them is broken. David is not here saying that his men won't suffer physical injury, but he's saying that if they're in a right relationship with God, spiritually they will have absolute security.

In the 21st and 22nd verses, David relates the case of those who are the ungodly and substitute the word condemnation for the word desolate at the end of both those verses, and you'll understand what he's saying. The end of the evil is condemnation. Verse 22, the Lord redeemeth the soul of his servants, but none of them that trust in him shall be condemned.

What's David teaching? Something that's anticipated, that he's anticipating from the New Testament. There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. David testifies to what God has done.

David teaches his men about his understanding of God, and he says in conclusion, ultimately those who trust the Lord shall know deliverance, if not always physical, certainly spiritual. And David says, I know because I've experienced it myself. Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good.

Have you tasted that yourself, my friend? Have you trusted Jesus Christ as your personal savior? Have you entered into a relationship with God, which ensures that his eyes are upon you, his ears are open towards you, his arms around about you, and whatever your experience might be, he'll never let you go. And Absalom, and Achish, and all those who might misunderstand you, shall never work to your spiritual harm, because ultimately your security is bound up in the promises of God. The psalm and the goodness of God may have done us all good this morning.

We thank you for that divine prescription of good through Jesus Christ directed toward us. Father, forgive us, because sometimes at our extremity, we behave madly like David, with a spittle running down his beard, clawing at the walls, feigning insanity, unable to cope. But we bless you, you delivered him from all that.

You placed him in a cave, and you revealed yourself to him, and in turn he testified to other men and taught them of the way that you drew alongside him. Help us to do the same. May our religion be an experimental one that we ourselves, therefore, have entered into.

May we be able to say to everyone, oh, taste and see, the Lord is good, and I know, because I sought him, and I found him, and he delivered me from all my fears. Amen.