We Will Bless the Lord at all Times

Well, if you would turn again in your copy of God's word to Psalm 34, we'll be in verses one through eight this morning. Now, I'm so thankful to preach. I'm going to ask you to please be in prayer for those who are out in vacationing. And Brother Chris had a wedding. He had a fantastic time. Please be in prayer for him as he returns today there in service. This is the Grace Live Church of the Shoals and always it is my pleasure to preach the word of God. This is a word that the Lord has been ministering to my life for the better part of three, four months. Let's read this word together.

Psalms 34, one of David, when he changed his behavior before Bimalick so that he drove him out and he went away. Verse one, 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 here and be glad. O magnify the Lord with me and let us exalt his name together. I sought the Lord and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears. Those who look to him are radiant. Their faces shall never be ashamed. This poor man cried and the Lord hurt him and saved him out of all of his troubles. The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him and delivers them.

O taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him. I'll bless the Lord at all times. We're going to learn about what that means to bless the Lord at all times. I want to show you our four main points of truth this morning. David was the example of a praise and worship leader. Even in his days before he was king, he was a worshiper. Before he was a warrior, he was a worshiper. And even over and above and before he was a shepherd, he was a worshiper. And this comes out of his heart when he was in trial and crisis. Today we're going to look at what it means to praise.

And we're going to look at what it means to proclaim a third truth. We're going to look at the purpose of our praise. And finally, we're going to look at a pleading, pleading with others to praise. So let's just go ahead and dive into the message. In background, I want to talk about this very first line. If you look in your passage of Scripture, it says of David. When he changed his behavior before Abimelech so that he drove him out and he went away. And to understand this entire passage, we have to understand the context. David is writing of a great victory.

And unless we go back and understand about this victory, we don't understand what it means to praise the Lord at all times. So I'd like to read the passage that this comes from. This is out of the book of 1 Samuel. I'll read this. And David rose and fled that day from Saul and he went to Achish, the king of Gath. And the servants of Achish said to him, "Is not this David the king of the land? Did they not sing to one another of him in dances? Saul has struck down his thousands and David his ten thousands." And David took these words to heart and was much afraid.

And Achish, the king of Gath, so he changed his behavior before them and he pretended to be insane in their hands. He made marks on the doors of the gate and let his spittle run down his beard. Then Achish said to his servants, "Behold, you see that the 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?" So if you understand what happened, David is captured. I want you to look at the full host of what's going on in David's life. David has been anointed king. He has already slayed Goliath.

He has slayed over ten thousand Philistines. And he is by far the greatest warrior that Israel has ever known at this point. Saul becomes jealous. Saul kicks him out of the kingdom. But before he attempts his life, he tries to kill David several times. He even gives David's wife to another. And this verse that we see has to be couched in the context of what's going on in his life. I will bless the Lord at all times. I think if you had an entire army out to kill you, it may be hard to praise the Lord. If you are on the run living in mountain caves, it may be hard for you to praise the Lord.

And if you are captured by the enemy of whom you slayed their greatest warrior Goliath. I don't know if you know this, but David actually humiliated Goliath completely. Not only did he kill him, but he decapitated Goliath. That's gory, but that's right from the Bible. And that was the greatest humiliation that could possibly be. And he does that, and in so doing, he says, "My God is greater than your God." And David was well known. In fact, he was more well known and feared than he realized. Now would you have a hard time praising the Lord if you were captured by an enemy that had designated you as their most wanted? Think about that.

"He was captured and brought before this king." This king, Achish, is also referred to as Abimelech. Actually if you read Psalms 34.1 at the very beginning, it refers to Abimelech. But this is the same person. The term Abimelech means son of the king. So Achish had a title, Abimelech. So I want you to see a few things about this praise. So I want you to see that David's praise was an imperfect praise. We'll see two things about this praise. Do you know David was a sinner? And therefore his praise was imperfect. Now there's been debate about King David's behavior before Abimelech.

I don't know if you know about this, but throughout the centuries theologians have argued about whether or not David was in sin for lying and deceiving the king. The Bible does say, "Thou shalt not lie." And David is captured by the Philistine army. He's killed their hero. They want to kill him. They bring him before the king. And he acts like a madman. He starts drooling. He starts foaming at the mouth. He starts carving on the doors and the gates. And he's pretending. He's faking. He's pretending. Now if we're a fan of Americans' action movies, we would think this is a scene right out of an action movie. It appeals to us.

We think that is very cool. It kind of appeals to this action movie mentality. But there are some very serious theologians and many well-respected who said, "He's lying." Is it wrong for him to lie in that context? Now others say that when you go to war with someone else, deception is another strategy. For instance, even in the Hebrews, if you look at the case of Rahab, remember the case of Rahab? She was living in Jericho. The Israelites were heading into their territory. Rahab took two Hebrew spies. She hid them in her roof. She lied to the men of Jericho who came looking for these two Hebrew spies. She lied and she hid them.

And she said they left and they went one direction. She actually sent them the other way. And the Bible recognizes her actions as being done of faith. She is listed in the Hall of Faith for her belief. Now primarily she believed that the Lord was God and he was going to win in Jericho. Some have argued that her actions, even though sinful, she acted in faith. What about if you have an undercover police officer? Could he be in sin for lying and pretending to capture someone else? Regardless of that issue, I'd like to take that issue and just put it off to the side. The real issue is that David was a sinner.

Scripture tells clearly that we all have sinned. So regardless of where we might stand on this issue, I'm going to say that his praise was imperfect. And today when you came here and you sang songs to the Lord and praised God, you praised him imperfectly. In fact, at this time David was a man after God's own heart. But just a few decades later, a few decades later, we would find out that David would take another man's wife. He would have her husband killed. Now he paid dearly. I do not mean to imply lasciviousness, that because we're sinners we can live any way we want to live. That's not the case.

The Bible says that those who are like David, David was a man after God's own heart. Therefore he was a great repinter. And although your praise is imperfect, if you're born again today, you'll be on a path of what theologians call progressive sanctification. That means your praise will be more pure today than it was tomorrow. David was a master repinter. And even in his sin, he was blessing the Lord at all times. I want you to see that this was not only an imperfect praise, but this was a providential praise. This was a providential praise. What that means is David was praising the Lord during very, very difficult times.

I want to ask you a question. I want to see if you know this. Do you know the difference between thanksgiving and praise? These are two terms that go together. But I want you, what is the difference between thanksgiving and praise? In short, we could say that thanksgiving, we are, you could say it's associated with what God does. Praise is associated with who God is. We're going to have thanksgiving in less than a month, towards, I guess, two months now, the end of November. And it's a time when we get together and we thank God for His blessings. But praise is where we come before the Lord and we ascribe to Him the greatness of who He is.

And David was providential. And I want to say something more specifically, if you're taking notes. Praise is necessary when terrible things happen. Praise is necessary when terrible things happen. Let's look what David's going through. He's anointed his king. In fact, everyone in the Philistine country knew he was anointed his king. In his younger days, he was a simple shepherd. And after his anointing, he begins working in Saul's court as a musician. David realized that he had a gift. He worshipped the Lord playing a harp. And he was very good at this. And he was recommended. And he's playing for Saul.

And Saul would have these demonic fits literally possessed by an evil spirit. And David would play his harp and it would call Saul down. You could think of him as a bivocational minister because he would perform in the court. And he's doing this as an act of worship. And then he would put his harp down and he would go and he would tend to his family's sheep herding business. But then David killed Goliath not before he was ridiculed by his brothers. He becomes a national hero overnight. He develops a close relationship with the king's son, Jonathan. This relationship is strained by his father's repeated attempts to kill David.

He is then warned to leave by Jonathan. So he leaves. You may not know this story, but David went to Abiathar, which is a local priest in a region. He went to the region. He got food. He actually had stored Goliath's sword in this temple as a testimony of what God had done. He grabbed that sword and he grabbed provisions and he ended up leaving. And he hid out. King Saul finds this out. He ruthlessly killed the priest and everyone in the village. Now think about the emotional toll that would have taken on David. He would have been very heartbroken. He would have been very hurt. He would have been very sad.

But David in the midst of this realizes that it was the Lord who delivered him from King Saul. It was the Lord who delivered him from Goliath. It was the Lord who delivered him even from King Achish. So I want you to see that David praised even when things were difficult. I want to ask you a question. Can you praise the Lord during your hardest days? Simply think back to difficult days. This is actually something the Lord has got to work within you. I'm not talking about empty praises. Simply singing praise songs. I'm saying from the depths of your heart. Can you sing songs rejoicing?

Can you look at how great God is when you see how terrible things are? The second major truth, proclamation. Let's read Psalms 34 too. My soul makes its boast in the Lord. Let the humble hear and be glad. W.S. Plummer says that to boast in the Lord is enjoyable and commendable. And it is our joy to make our boast in the Lord. You know we live in a day when people boast in so many things. People boast about the cars they drive. People boast about the houses they have. People boast about the shoes they wear. People boast of their watches and their clothing. And this is 24/7 nonstop. People are boasting through social media.

People are boasting on television. What is that which makes you most proud? For David, he was most proud in what God did for him. Not what he did for God. Three things I want us to note about this proclamation. David's proclamation was unique. His proclamation was unique. Look at verse 2 of 34. My soul, my soul makes its boast in the Lord. I'm so thankful that Brother Chris recently unpacked this word heart. He taught us what the New Testament word for heart means. This is a word that often times comes together, heart and soul. But I wanted to research this word soul.

Richard's Expository Dictionary Bible Word says that the soul in the Old Testament is that part of human beings that is unique and precious. It's not uncommon for me to ask my students at college where I teach, I ask them to raise their hand if they believe they have a soul. And through my years of teaching, about 13 years, I would say 99.5% of all college students that I've polled believe they have a soul. Now most of them can't tell you what their soul does. Most of them can't tell you what their soul is responsible for, but they believe they have one.

And the Bible says in the Old Testament that the soul is what makes you unique and precious. This word implies that our inner life is encapsulated by the soul. Like the heart, it is the seat of your emotions, but it is what makes you uniquely you. So although there is some overlap between the words soul and heart, we will use this word soul to describe that part of you that is unique. And David praised the Lord and he boasted in the Lord and his boast was unique. But his boast was also proud. His proclamation was proud.

Look at what it says, "My soul makes its boast." What that means is from the depths of his heart and his soul, there arose a unique boasting. And this boasting was in the Lord. Notice what he said. He did not credit outsmarting King Achish with his own wisdom. You know, if the movies portray someone through cunning getting out of a predicament such as this, they would get all the glory. If you hear of a case where a person performs some great feat, they receive media attention. They receive followers on their social media accounts. David, however, said his boast was in the Lord and he gave all of this credit.

He did not say it was through my own wisdom that I thought of this idea to pretend to be mentally ill. I think David would have said this. That's an idea that never could have come from me. I think that's what David would say. I never would have thought to pretend like I was a madman. God gave me that. The fact that I'm not dead is a miracle. So David had a proclamation. He had a boast that was unique. It was proud. The right kind of pride. The third thing I want you to see about this proclamation. This proclamation had a target audience. It was for the humble. This proclamation was for the humble. I'll read the verse again.

My soul makes its boast in the Lord. Let the humble hear and be glad. When you have a testimony of something that God does in your life, there's probably some people that can't hear it. Have you ever found that? Have you ever found that when you're so excited about what God has done in your life, the only people that can really hear that are people who can identify with weakness. You see the arrogant don't care much for a testimony. In fact, the arrogant don't know that they need delivering and they can't relate.

The people who appreciate my testimony, the testimony of me and my wife and how we got saved and how the Lord has led us through trials and tribulations, the people that appreciate that are people who've been through trials and tribulations. What we've been learning here at Nola Baptist Church is that our trials are for the church. The reason why you go through a difficult season in life is so that someone in the church will be strengthened by the grace the Lord works in your life. He taught that lesson through some very difficult hardship seasons.

He and my wife and my family went through and through that I came to Brother Chris and I showed the church and through a testimony that the Lord allowed us to go through a great loss for each of you. And when God allows you to go through a difficult time, it is for me that I gained something from what the Lord does in your life. That the only way we enjoy a testimony is if we're humble. Because we have to realize that apart from God's grace we cannot gain any victory. Right now you're going through a difficulty most likely. And the only way you get through that difficulty is God's deliverance.

Now you might engineer some solution to that apart from his will. But what I'm talking about is God orchestrated deliverance because that produces praise every time. Well I want us to see that David had a praise and he had a proclamation. But there is a purpose, third major truth. There is a purpose. David had a purpose for his praise. He blessed the Lord at all times for a purpose. Let's read verses three through seven. Verses three through seven. "O magnify the Lord with me and let us exalt his name together. 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 heard the Lord hurt him and saved him out of all of his troubles. The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him and delivers them. O taste and see the Lord is good." What is the purpose of David's praise? It is to magnify the Lord. Not just to magnify the Lord but that others would magnify the Lord with him. Remember David is a praise and worship leader. He is saying would you please magnify our great God with me. I'm praising the Lord in my trial and in my victory. You join in with me. Isn't that what we should do in the church?

Can't we proclaim our victory over difficult circumstances so that people see the excellencies of God? You might write this down. The purpose of David's proclamation is to engage believers in seeing the excellencies of God. I will repeat that. The purpose of David's proclamation is to engage believers in seeing the excellencies of God. There's four characteristics of this proclamation designed to edify God. There's four characteristics. First, I want you to see out of verse four David's proclamation is heartfelt. It's heartfelt. Look at verse four.

"I sought the Lord and he heard me, he answered me and delivered me from all of my fears." Can you listen to the vulnerability of King David? Can you imagine the greatest military hero in the world making this statement that the Lord delivered me from my fears? We have a hard time finding valiant men who will even admit that they have fears, let alone that God delivered them. For men, this is the hardest thing I think to be vulnerable and to say, "Yeah, I'm scared. I was scared, but God delivered me from all of my fears." You know, David could go toe to toe with a 13-foot giant.

He could victoriously defeat this giant, but he could also be transparent and honest about his fears. He could say, "You know, I was afraid when Saul tried to pin me against the wall with the spear." That happened. He said, you know, David could say, "No, I was afraid when the entire Hebrew army had me on their most wanted list, even though I was the Lord's anointed." David could say, "You know, I was afraid when I ran for my life and I hid out in caves all alone." After a while, you know, David had a band of men that gathered to him. These were many relatives. These were people who agreed and thought that King Saul was wrong.

But then he had the weight and the pressure of leading this group of men. Now, it's not just him hiding out. It's several hundred men. He had those fears. He said, "The Lord delivered me out of all my fears." I have something written in my Bible that the Lord showed me several months ago as I was studying this. And I want to read this for you. "He delivered David from his fears and from the situations that brought about those fears." Now, that has rocked me to my core. I will say that again. God delivered David from his fears and from the situations that brought about those fears.

So, if you have a situation today that is causing you fear, the Lord is greater than your fear and the Lord is greater than that situation. Does that make sense? And scripture says that the Lord will deliver you. And it could be that the Lord is teaching you to praise him in the midst of that difficulty, even on the other side of victory. David had to praise God before he killed Goliath. David had to praise God before he was delivered from King Abimelech. He had to praise God when he was hiding out in the wilderness in Philistine country. I want you to see that this proclamation that edifies is not just heartfelt. It's infectious.

Look at verse 5. This is infectious. "Those who look to him are radiant. Their faces shall never be ashamed." Remember the story of Moses coming down from the mountaintop after he had met with the Lord? Scripture said that he had a Shekinah glory. He had the glory of God on his face. People were so disturbed by this that he would have to cover himself. And sometimes when we are meeting with the Lord and we are overjoyed with his presence, sometimes people don't understand that. We might even feel as though we might have to not cast our pearl before swine. We have to share certain things only with certain people.

You can imagine David saying that the Lord delivered him with such joy that he was radiant. Listen to what Plummer says. "Among all the redeemed in glory there is not one who looks back on earth and sees on earth there was any mistake in the divine conduct toward him. The Lord doeth all things well." What the theologian Plummer is saying is that nobody in heaven looks back on earth and says, you know God gave me a raw deal. No one in heaven is complaining about their trials. In heaven we are so enraptured with the Lord's glory that that's all that matters. We ought to practice that even now.

When things are difficult we ought to be so overwhelmed and overjoyed with how good God is. I think that when we do it will be infectious. Those who look to him are radiant, their faces will never be ashamed. Third characteristic of praise that edifies God is it's life changing. It's life changing in verse 6. Listen to this. "This poor man cried and the Lord hurt him and saved him out of all of his troubles." I must admit I have a hard time seeing David as poor. Even before he was king he was the Lord's anointed. There was only one anointed. That meant he was God's man.

Eventually he would have great wealth but at this time when this psalm is written he saw himself as a man in great need. This is the poverty he's talking about though. It's the same poverty that Brother Chris is preaching about when he says, "Blessed are the poor in spirit." He was poor in spirit. He was poor in his heart and he was poor in his soul and that meant he did not have arrogance. He was broken and destitute like a beggar before God. And so this was life changing praise. Even though he was the giant slayer and the Lord's anointed he sees himself as a poor man.

This praise, this proclamation that edifies is not only infectious and life changing but it's miraculous. Now listen to this. It says, "The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him and deliver him." David is saying that the angel of the Lord is camped out around me. Brother teaches that angels are ministering spirits, that angels do help the born again believers but there is debate in this verse throughout the ages. Some scholars suggest that the angel of the Lord is talking about Christ and other scholars suggest that this is a specific angel such as Gabriel or Michael.

So I'm going to say, you know, it doesn't really matter because Jesus is the Lord of Gabriel and Michael and Jesus is the Lord of all angels. Scripture says he's the leader of the armies of the host of heaven. What that means is the angel of the Lord encamped around believers does so at the direction of Jesus and Jesus is over it all. And this was a miraculous deliverance. Almost the miraculous deliverance that the Lord does for us is not that our trial immediately goes away. The miracle happens within our hearts when we see ourselves the way we are and we see God in his loving state.

When he changes our hearts to make us praise him and love him and when he makes our relationship with our loved ones sweeter when he makes our relationships and dealing with people in the world more Christ like that is the greatest miracle. The greatest miracle is when he resurrects a dead sinner out of his or her sin and brings them into glory. Glory of a new relationship. Again Plummer says no matter how great their foes or how great their own weakness however feeble their hopes or however alarming their case those radiant praise filled believers know from where their help comes from.

And I want to rephrase that and add to that no matter how bad your situation is no matter how great your own weakness is have you ever been frustrated with your own weakness have you ever been frustrated that you can't pray like you like you need to read the Bible like you need to. This great scholar is saying that God is greater than our even our own failures even our own weaknesses. Why don't you do this in prayer.

Why don't you take those things which are most upset about that that you're most concerned about maybe you take those weaknesses that you have been worried about maybe you praise God for how much bigger he is over your own weakness maybe you praise him for his strength that his power is made perfect in your weakness because that's what scripture says instead of getting frustrated in our weakness we must give thanks to God because he allows your weakness and sometimes he doesn't snap his finger and take our weakness away because he wants to show how big he is through our weakness.

The last thing I want you to see today and the last point will be closing. I want you to see a pleading and I will conclude today with the words of David in verse 8 O taste and see that the Lord is good blessed is the man who takes refuge in him. So our fourth our fourth final point is our conclusion and I charge you like David taste and see how good God is. Would you test him and begin praising him for his greatness. You may not be converted to the Lord today. Perhaps you have never come to a point when you've seen your great sinfulness entrusted the cross of Christ.

But would you repent of your sin and believe upon the Lord Jesus today scripture says that those who look to him are radiant. If you look to him in your sinfulness he can make you radiant by the blood of the lamb. The precious blood of Jesus is sufficient to cover any sin. There's no sin you've committed that is far greater than what he can forgive. He longs to forgive sinners. Would you taste and see the Lord is good today. Just a few more closing thoughts. There's two kinds of trials. There's individual trials and there's collective trials. You think of this as a private trial and a public trial.

A private trial is when God brings one believer through pain and hardship and difficulty. I would like to talk to you about the second kind which is a corporate trial. Sometimes God brings an entire group of people through difficulty. God may bring an entire family through a trial. That would be corporate. God may bring an entire church family through a trial. God could even bring an entire community through a trial. You see great natural disasters like hurricane Katrina and God literally thousands of people experiencing the same trial. Think about the church at Smyrna.

We're learning this in our small group Bible study that Smyrna was a church in Revelation and they felt that they were so weak. But the Lord actually said no you're strong. That their trials had made them quite strong and I bet you a nickel. If we could go to the church of Smyrna and worship with them we would be overwhelmed at their praise. We would be encouraged. We would find their praise to be infectious. Because I believe that they like David were men and women after God's own heart and they had an infectious praise. I have come to be very fond of something Brother Chris does.

He has been taking the Sermon on the Mount and he's been breaking it down, paraphrasing it. I found myself doing the same thing with this and I will conclude with this. The prayer of this broken and poor man was fervent and earnest. I was an afflicted, lowly and needy man who cried out to God. I cried out humbly in my fears and he saved me out of every trouble, distress, tribulation, adversity and anguish. And I love to share this deliverance. If I have yet to receive my deliverance I continue to praise because I know he who has called me is faithful.

I can experience the sweetness of his deliverance even and in the thick of my trial and I will praise him even before I see victory. If you would bow with me, I want to challenge you to praise the Lord. I want to ask you just to search out your heart and ask the Lord if you have this type of praise. Are you praising the Lord in your difficult season? You have the kind of heart. You can experience the sweetness of his deliverance even in the thick of your trial. Can you praise him even when you don't see victory? This is the hardest thing for a believer. We would praise God even on the other side of victory.

Let's pray, Father God, we ask you for this heart. We know that it is only you that can create this heart within us.