A Taste of Salvation
Psalms 34
April 7, 2019
You are likely familiar with the 8th verse of this Psalm.
“O taste and see that the LORD is good.”
We actually have it painted over the top of our kitchen bar back in the fellowship hall.
And certainly you realize that it has nothing to do with food,
And everything to do with salvation.
It’s not uncommon for salvation to be spoken of in this type of manner.
Hebrews 6:4-6 “For in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame.”
That passage actually speaks of the tragedy of people who get a taste of the Lord and of His salvation and a taste of the word of God and the power of His coming, but who after a taste choose not to buy the platter.
And the end result is that after tasting and turning it down
They have rendered themselves impossible to save.
That is a tragedy, but you see there THE ANALOGY AGAIN OF TASTING the goodness of the Lord and allowing that to lead you to salvation.
Well, that is what we see taking place in this Psalm.
DAVID IS GIVING YOU A TASTE.
• David wants to give all those who have drawn near to him just a taste of the goodness that he has found with the Lord
• In hopes that they also will be moved not only to taste, but to take refuge in the Lord.
Now, this Psalm also comes to us with a context.
We read the subtitle which says:
“A Psalm of David when he feigned madness before Abimelech, who drove him away and he departed.”
• This is one of two Psalms that is inspired by that event.
• The other is Psalms 56 which we will read in a moment.
But in order to grab the context of the Psalm
TURN TO: 1 Samuel 21:7
• Just so you’ll know the story, David is not far off of his victory over Goliath which won him international fame.
• You remember the infamous “Saul has slain his thousands and David his ten-thousands.”
• It embittered Saul, and Saul wanted to kill him.
• Jonathon arranged a secret meeting with David and told him, I’ll go out to shoot arrows and if I shoot it past the boy and tell him the arrow is beyond him, go further, that is my signal that you need to flee.
• Well that, happened and David fled.
• He fled initially to Nob where he met Ahimelech the priest who fed him.
• But while David was there one of Saul’s spies spotted him (Doeg the Edomite) and reported it to Saul (incidentally inspiring Psalms 52)
So David fled, and here’s what happened.
Read: 1 Samuel 21:7-10
So David now has taken Goliath’s sword and fled to Gath.
There is a fundamental problem with that decision.
1 Samuel 17:4 “Then a champion came out from the armies of the Philistines named Goliath, from Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span.”
• So David has taken this sword, which he himself said was one of kind and easily recognizable.
• And David took that sword and fled to Goliath’s hometown.
• Probably not the smartest move David ever made.
Read: 1 Samuel 21:11-12
So David is in fear.
Now, hold your finger there for a moment and:
TURN TO: PSALMS 56
That is David’s heart having been captured by the Philistines.
Now back to 1 Samuel
David’s solution is to pretend insanity.
Read: 1 Samuel 21:13 – 22:2
So there’s the story that inspires the Psalm we’re looking at.
• This Psalm was written after David departed.
• It was written as those 400 men arrived.
• This is the message David had for them.
David is now with 400 men hiding in a cave but the song he sings
Is that all these men should take refuge in the Lord.
He encourages them to taste and see how good the Lord is
That they might also partake in His salvation.
This Psalm then is a taste of salvation.
Don’t be like the apostates of Hebrews 6 who taste and refuse to eat.
We’ll break this Psalm down into 3 points tonight.
#1 A PICTURE OF SALVATION
Psalms 34:1-7
What you get here is a testimony of David’s deliverance
That he received by the Lord from the hand of Achish.
• It was certainly just a temporal deliverance.
• It was a one-time event when God delivered David from physical threat and danger.
But to David it is an event
That is illustrative of God’s salvation of the soul.
It is a temporal salvation that reminded David of God’s eternal salvation.
It begins with David gathering those 400 together and making an announcement.
“I will bless the LORD at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul will make its boast in the LORD; The humble will hear it and rejoice.”
David begins boasting that he is going to continually praise God.
And the PRIMARY AUDIENCE that he wants to hear this boast
IS THE HUMBLE.
“I’m going to sing a song of praise to God,
And those who are humble are going to love it.”
• If you also are humble…
• If you also are at the end of yourself…
• If you also put no confidence in your own ability…
You’re going to love the song I’m about to sing.
And incidentally, that’s what the pretending insanity was a picture of.
IT WAS HUMILIATION.
• There is no doubt that of all the mighty things David did…
• Of all the times David portrayed might and power…
• He killed lions and bears and giants…
• Of all those slaying of ten-thousands that we hear about,
• THIS WAS THE LOW POINT.
How weak and foolish David must have looked.
How helpless he must have seemed.
David says, if you look just as foolish and helpless to the world
Then you’re going to love this song.
And so he asks the humble to come and join him in this song.
(3) “O magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt His name together.”
• We’re about to have a worship service.
• Gather around all you humble who have no strength of victory,
• I’ve got a song to sing you and we’ll all sing it together.
And it begins with this picture of salvation.
(4) “I sought the LORD, and He answered me, And delivered me from all my fears.”
We already read Psalms 56 where David cried out to God.
• He was afraid of Achish.
• He was afraid of Saul.
• He had nowhere to go, and no power to deliver himself.
• He had to resort to the humiliating tactic of faking insanity.
But, when He sought God, God “delivered me from all my fears”
• God turned the heart of Achish…
• God had Achish send him away…
• And now David stood in safety.
AND DAVID ISN’T ALONE IN THAT.
This has been the testimony of so many saints throughout the ages.
David speaks about them in verse 5
(5) “They looked to Him and were radiant, And their faces will never be ashamed.”
David there speaks of all the humble throughout the ages
Who also called on God,
And God brightened their faces and lifted their heads.
This isn’t just a one-time thing.
This is who God is all the time to His people.
And David says, “That’s exactly who He was to me!”
In fact (6) “This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him and saved him out of all his troubles.”
What a great deliverance I received from God!
There I was…
• A refugee forced to flee from my own country…
• A man carrying the sword of a champion I had killed in his own hometown…
• I was exposed…
• I was interrogated…
• I was helpless to be delivered…
• All I could do was cry out to the LORD.
• And He saved me!
To which David sings:
(7) “The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear Him, and rescues them.”
Now this is a very important verse in this Psalm.
It is David’s first announcement of God’s salvation.
“The angel of the LORD” is what we call a Christophony.
It is a pre-incarnate appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ.
• We see Him speak to Joshua outside of Jericho.
• We see Him in the fiery furnace with those 3 Hebrew boys.
This is Jesus that David is talking about.
And notice the importance of the phrase “camps around”
That is to say that we find refuge “in Him”
He surrounds us, we are in Him.
Make sense?
And David says those who are surrounded by Him are rescued by Him.
And this blessing is for “those who fear Him”
Now here David ISN’T just talking about this recent deliverance
He received in Gath.
• David is talking about the salvation of God.
• David is talking about how the angel of the Lord surrounds those who fear Him
and rescues them from danger.
That is salvation.
And David says that is who God is.
HE IS A SAVIOR.
And He has PROVEN THAT AGAIN to me
With this latest incident of deliverance.
He camped around me
He delivered me
I took refuge in Him
He saved me
And my testimony of salvation is just another story
In the long list of stories of how God saves those who fear Him.
So it is A PICTURE OF SALVATION
What God just did for me, is but a brief testimony of the nature of God to save.
#2 A PETITION FOR SALVATION
Psalms 34:8-14
Now, after David revealed that story to the men,
He now calls them to taste this great salvation for themselves.
THIS IS EVANGELISTIC
(8) “O taste and see that the LORD is good; How blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him!”
That is David telling these men that God is a savior.
• He will surround those who fear Him.
• He will surround those who take “refuge in Him”
And that is precisely what David tells these 400 they need to do.
And so the command:
(9-10) “O fear the LORD, you His saints; For to those who fear Him there is no want. The young lions do lack and suffer hunger; But they who seek the LORD shall not be in want of any good thing.”
THIS IS INTERESTING
We just saw that God saves those who take refuge in Him.
But David DOESN’T SAY, “So take refuge in Him!”
What does David say?
“O fear the LORD”
So here’s our first picture of understanding.
If you were to ask, HOW TO TAKE REFUGE IN HIM,
The answer David would give is that you should “fear the LORD”
If you do that, David says, “there is no want”
It hearkens back to that song of the shepherd:
Psalms 23:1 “The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want.”
And this is naturally peculiar.
David says, “young lions do lack and suffer hunger”
• That is the strongest and most powerful creatures around us…even they suffer
want.
“But they who seek the LORD shall not be in want of any good thing.”
And if you noticed, the command just changed again.
• First it’s “take refuge”
• Then it’s “fear”
• And here it’s “seek the LORD”
To David those are interchangeable terms.
To him they all mean the same thing.
And this is worth looking just a moment.
Any time you talk about fearing the LORD, most people are familiar with the statement that “the fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom.”
But what does that mean?
Well let me show you how it is used.
Proverbs 1:7 “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; Fools despise wisdom and instruction.”
• So obviously to fear the LORD there is to not despise instruction.
• It is to not be resistant to being told what to do.
• So fearing the LORD is closely associated with humility.
Proverbs 9:10 “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.”
• So fearing God is not only about humility and being able to receive instruction,
• But ultimately it is seeking knowledge of Him who is holy.
This is naturally difficult because God is holy meaning
What you learn there will not be immediately appealing to your flesh.
But fearing Him means hearing it anyway.
So fearing the LORD then is equated with humility,
And with desiring righteousness.
Job 28:28 “And to man He said, ‘Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; And to depart from evil is understanding.'”
• There we see fearing the Lord to be equated with departing from evil.
• That is a spirit of repentance.
Psalms 111:10 “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; A good understanding have all those who do His commandments; His praise endures forever.”
• There fearing the LORD is equated with doing His commandments.
• So it is the concept of obedience.
So take the issue of fearing the LORD
And we see that it has to do with humility, seeking righteousness,
Turning from sin, and submitting to obedience.
Now why do I want you to see that?
Let me read you one more passage.
Matthew 5:3-6 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. “Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.”
Do you see those same attitudes there?
“poor in spirit” – humility
“mourn” – repentance
“gentle” – submissive obedience
“hunger and thirst for righteousness”
Those are those same attitudes equated with fearing the LORD.
David also equates it with taking refuge in Him.
So what David is calling these men to do is
• To turn from their trust in self,
• To leave their arrogance behind,
• To embrace humility and submission,
• And run to God.
Quit trusting in your own strength, and your own intellect
And take refuge/fear the LORD.
No lion is strong enough to fully deliver himself, how much less are you.
You need the LORD
That’s David’s message.
And as you can see it is the consistent message of salvation.
And then he tells these men exactly HOW TO DO THIS.
(11-14) “Come, you children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the LORD. Who is the man who desires life And loves length of days that he may see good? Keep your tongue from evil And your lips from speaking deceit. Depart from evil and do good; Seek peace and pursue it.”
Here he says it, “I will teach you the fear of the LORD”
That is, “I’ll show you what it means”
And for a little added motivation he asks,
• Do you want life?
• Do you want length of days?
• Do you want to see good?
Then you need to fear God.
And here it is:
“Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit. Depart from evil and do good; Seek peace and pursue it.”
So David says, “I’m going to teach you what it means to fear God.”
And then he gives them this list.
Now, ON ONE HAND, it already makes perfect sense.
We’ve read:
Psalms 15:1-2 “O LORD, who may abide in Your tent? Who may dwell on Your holy hill? He who walks with integrity, and works righteousness, And speaks truth in his heart.”
We’ve read:
Psalms 24:3-6 “Who may ascend into the hill of the LORD? And who may stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, Who has not lifted up his soul to falsehood And has not sworn deceitfully. He shall receive a blessing from the LORD And righteousness from the God of his salvation. This is the generation of those who seek Him, Who seek Your face — even Jacob. Selah.”
So David telling us to fear the LORD
And then telling us to be mindful of His holy expectations makes sense.
But remember, we aren’t just talking about being afraid of God.
• We are talking about taking refuge in Him.
• We are talking about seeking Him.
And David says to do that
“keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit.” (be honest)
“depart from evil and do good” (love righteousness)
“seek peace and pursue it” (that would be peace with God)
And we’ve seen that before too:
Matthew 5:8-9 “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.”
SO LET ME JUST ZOOM OUT
AND MAKE SURE WE ALL SEE THE BIG PICTURE HERE.
To fear the Lord is the exact same mentality
That is expressed in those beatitudes.
And that is also what it means to take refuge in Him.
And this is what David is asking his men to do.
• You need to take refuge in the LORD
• You need to fear Him
And what this means is that you
• Humble yourself and repent of your sin
• Submit to His will and obey Him.
• Pursue righteousness with a pure heart
• And pursue peace with God.
This is the very path of salvation.
• Do this if you desire life.
• Taste and see how good God is.
• I feared God (took refuge in Him; sought Him) and it was worth it
• You do it!
David is evangelizing those men
And telling them to run to God for salvation.
There’s one more point here.
#3 THE PROMISE OF SALVATION
Psalms 34:15-18
Now first here we see a very striking contrast.
(15-16) “The eyes of the LORD are toward the righteous And His ears are open to their cry. The face of the LORD is against evildoers, To cut off the memory of them from the earth.”
That is a serious contrast.
• God is for the righteous and He is against the wicked.
• He answers the cry of the righteous and He cuts off the wicked.
That is true.
(17) “The righteous cry, and the LORD hears And delivers them out of all their troubles.”
But here comes a very important distinction.
Because after all, we are all aware that WE ARE NOT RIGHTEOUS.
It does not bring comfort to the heart
To hear that God saves the righteous and cuts off the wicked.
BUT IT IS TRUE.
Good people go to heaven, bad people go to hell.
That’s true.
John 5:28-29 “Do not marvel at this; for an hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs will hear His voice, and will come forth; those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life, those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment.”
Romans 2:5-11 “But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who WILL RENDER TO EACH PERSON ACCORDING TO HIS DEEDS: to those who by perseverance in doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life; but to those who are selfishly ambitious and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, wrath and indignation. There will be tribulation and distress for every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek, but glory and honor and peace to everyone who does good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For there is no partiality with God.”
What David says is true, but it is not comforting.
But let me remind you of the beginning.
David was very clear at the beginning about who was going to like this Psalm.
Remember?
(2) “My soul will make its boast in the LORD; the humble will hear it and rejoice.”
David didn’t say that the “righteous” will hear it and rejoice.
David said it was the humble who would love this truth.
That is why it is important to realize that
The thrust of this Psalm has not been about you being righteous.
This Psalm is about you fearing God and taking refuge in Him.
(humble, repentant, seeking righteousness)
THAT’S BEEN THE MAIN POINT.
And that is still where David is.
(18) “The LORD is near to the brokenhearted And saves those who are crushed in spirit.”
David introduces that not only does God save the righteous,
But He also saves those who are humble and crushed in spirit.
AND HERE’S WHY.
SUCH AN IMPORTANT PASSAGE:
(19-22) “Many are the afflictions of the righteous, But the LORD delivers him out of them all. He keeps all his bones, Not one of them is broken. Evil shall slay the wicked, And those who hate the righteous will be condemned. The LORD redeems the soul of His servants, And none of those who take refuge in Him will be condemned.”
Now it is important that you know who this passage is about.
That question has actually been answered in the New Testament.
John 19:32-36 “So the soldiers came, and broke the legs of the first man and of the other who was crucified with Him; but coming to Jesus, when they saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs. But one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out. And he who has seen has testified, and his testimony is true; and he knows that he is telling the truth, so that you also may believe. For these things came to pass to fulfill the Scripture, “NOT A BONE OF HIM SHALL BE BROKEN.”
Who are these last 4 verses about?
Jesus
There in verse 19 where we see the word “him”,
You need to change that to a capitol “H”.
This is about Jesus.
• He is the righteous one that the LORD delivers.
• He is the righteous one with many afflictions.
• He is the righteous One whom God did not allow any of His bones to be broken.
And that is significant because
You had to bring an unblemished lamb to God for sacrifice.
You couldn’t bring one with a broken leg.
And all those who hate Him will be condemned as it says in verse 21.
So now, we know that when we are talking about the righteous
We are talking about Jesus.
• And God’s eyes are toward Him.
• And God’s ears are open to His cry.
• And God delivers Him out of all His troubles.
• He is afflicted by the world, but God delivers Him.
• And not one of His bones is broken.
That’s the righteous Jesus.
Who are we?
(22) “The LORD redeems the soul of HIS SERVANTS, and none of those WHO TAKE REFUGE IN HIM will be condemned.”
• We are those who fear the LORD.
• We are those who take refuge in Him.
• We are those who humble ourselves and seek His righteousness with a pure heart.
• We are those who repent of our sin and seek peace with God through Him.
• We are those who trust in Him.
• We are the poor man…
• We are the helpless man…
• We are the insane and the broken and the crippled…
And so we trust in Christ.
We take refuge in Christ.
We fear Christ and hold Him in awe.
And when we take refuge in Him, we are promised redemption.
Do we share in His afflictions? Yes
But we also share in His deliverance.
1 Corinthians 15:20-23 “But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep. For since by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, after that those who are Christ’s at His coming,”
• When we take refuge in Adam (that is in our flesh and abilities) we are
certainly condemned.
• But when we humble ourselves and forsake our abilities and take refuge in
Christ, we are Christ’s and we are raised with Him.
We share in His afflictions, and we share in His deliverance.
And David says that “none of those who take refuge in Him will be condemned.”
Romans 8:1 “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”
THAT IS THE PROMISE OF SALVATION.
And that is what David preached to these 400 men.
When David appeared in Gath and saw how much danger he was in, he had to throw himself on God’s mercy and David watched God deliver.
And David says, “That’s not the only time He has done that.”
That’s what God does for the humble one who fears Him every day.
And by sharing that story David gave his mean: A TASTE OF SALVATION
“O taste and see that the LORD is good; How blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him!”
Don’t lean upon your own goodness or abilities.
Humble yourself and run to Christ.
