Tonight, I will bless the Lord at all times, from Psalm 34 verse 1. King David exemplifies a lifestyle of worshipping the Lord regardless of circumstances. Another Old Testament character named Job will also be seen to worship God in the most severe trials of life. You and I can bless the Lord and gain the benefit of knowing One who is faithful in all of our situations and we will receive strength for our souls as we listen to the Word of God.
Psalm 34 verse 1, we'll read it. “I will bless the Lord at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth.” The verse that the Lord was speaking, was the first part, which is I will bless the Lord at all times. The word “all” is the word that we are going to really look at tonight, the emphasis is going to be on the word “all.” A lot of times, people bless the Lord sometimes when they are happy, they bless the Lord sometimes when they get a reward. A lot of people, don’t bless the Lord when they get a reward. So, we are going to see what this all means, what are the times that God wants us to bless him? what are the times we are supposed to bless the Lord and why? Who is the Lord? why do we have to bless Him? First of all, the Lord God is Almighty and He has everything in His power, He is worthy. Whether He does anything for us or not, we have to still bless Him. The next thing that we are going to see is, what are the times that we have to bless Him, good times and bad times, and we are going to look at all times; we have two different times, one is good times and the other one is bad times. And we are going to ask ourselves a question, do I bless the Lord at all times; when I go through the trouble, do I bless Him? When I am happy, do I bless Him? We are going to look at that and then when do I bless the Lord? is it going to be during good times or bad times? And we have to evaluate ourselves and we just have to look back and see, what are the times I really blessed Him? Do I bless Him during happy times or do I forget Him when I am happy? Or do I bless Him during bad times too? What am I doing we are going to ask ourselves the question. And the third question is, is it possible to bless the Lord at all times? That is a hard question for most of us, is it possible to bless the Lord at all times? So, the word that we need to re-underline is the word “ALL” and then why should we bless the Lord at all times? So now we are going to see two people from the Bible who blessed the Lord at all times. There are people who blessed the Lord at all times, God’s people. A few others who did not bless the Lord during certain times, and we are going to focus on just two characters as the Lord gave me yesterday, one is King David, and David is the one who is actually writing the psalm, Psalm 34. He says, “I will bless the Lord at all times and His praise shall continually be in my mouth.” Did David really follow that or is he just saying that? Was David saying it just to say it? I will bless the Lord at all times, or was he really meaning it while he was saying it, did he show it with his experience that he was following what he said. We are going to look at it, during what circumstances he actually blessed the Lord. When he wrote the Psalm, we see that in my Bible actually, it says David when he went before Abimelech, when he changed his appearance around that time he wrote the Psalm. So we can clearly see that, he didn’t write the psalm when he was king. He wrote the psalm when he was really wandering, when he was being hunted down for his life, he was wandering from place to place. So, David was going through bad times. He is blessing the Lord during bad times and he is saying, “I will bless the Lord at all times which means bad times. And then we see that David, was a true worshipper of God, who is worshipping God during that time, and we are going to read about that from I Samuel chapter 21 verses 10 to 15.
10 And David arose and fled that day for fear of Saul, and went to Achish the king of Gath.
11 And 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 dances, saying, Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousand?
12 And David laid up these words in his heart, and was sore afraid of Achish the king of Gath.
13 And he changed his behaviour before them, and feigned himself mad in their hands, and scrabbled on the doors of the gate, and let his spittle fall down upon his beard.
14 Then said Achish unto his servants, Lo, ye see the man is mad: wherefore then have ye brought him to me?
15 Have I need of mad men, that ye have brought this fellow to play the mad man in my presence? shall this fellow come into my house?
When we see this, we can just imagine what David really went through, to what extent he actually went through because he was being so hunted for his life. He went through a period of wandering, running, and hiding, He went before the king, it also says that king Achish is Abimelech. This is not like an ordinary small king, this was a big enemy to the children of Israel. He couldn’t be in his own land and he is over there, in the hands of the enemy. He is writing the psalm, I will bless the Lord at all times when he was being hunted down, he was like a mad man going, so he knew even though he was afraid, he trusted in the Lord, as we saw in the previous time, what time I’m afraid, I will trust in the Lord. That’s why if you read the psalm further down, he will say, how he trusted in the Lord, how he called on the Lord, and how the Lord delivered and all those things. This is David’s circumstance, so he is going through a wandering life, when his brothers, his family members, they have their own family, they are with their wives and their children. He was the only one who was anointed. The moment he got anointed, he had to run, keep running, and running and running. He didn’t have a peaceful ordinary life, normal life. But during this time, look at his heart, he says, I will bless the Lord at all times. Even during this time, I will bless the Lord at all times.
The next thing we will see about David is when David became the king what did he do? This was like, his bad times he blessed the Lord. But what happened when he had good times? Did he change because a lot of people when they get promoted, when their social status changes they don’t want to be thankful to the Lord in front of people. They are ashamed of the Lord, the very Lord who took them up and they do not bless the Lord. We are going to see what David did and if we see II Samuel chapter 6 verses 12 through 22
12 And it was told king David, saying, The Lord hath blessed the house of Obededom, and all that pertaineth unto him, because of the ark of God. So David went and brought up the ark of God from the house of Obededom into the city of David with gladness.
13 And it was so, that when they that bare the ark of the Lord had gone six paces, he sacrificed oxen and fatlings.
14 And David danced before the Lord with all his might; and David was girded with a linen ephod.
15 So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the Lord with shouting, and with the sound of the trumpet.
16 And as the ark of the Lord came into the city of David, Michal Saul's daughter looked through a window, and saw king David leaping and dancing before the Lord; and she despised him in her heart.
17 And they brought in the ark of the Lord, and set it in his place, in the midst of the tabernacle that David had pitched for it: and David offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the Lord.
18 And as soon as David had made an end of offering burnt offerings and peace offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the Lord of hosts.
19 And he dealt among all the people, even among the whole multitude of Israel, as well to the women as men, to every one a cake of bread, and a good piece of flesh, and a flagon of wine. So all the people departed every one to his house.
20 Then David returned to bless his household. And Michal the daughter of Saul came out to meet David, and said, How glorious was the king of Israel today, who uncovered himself to day in the eyes of the handmaids of his servants, as one of the vain fellows shamelessly uncovereth himself!
21 And David said unto Michal, It was before the Lord, which chose me before thy father, and before all his house, to appoint me ruler over the people of the Lord, over Israel: therefore will I play before the Lord.
22 And I will yet be more vile than thus, and will be base in mine own sight: and of the maidservants which thou hast spoken of, of them shall I be had in honour.
We see, King David over here, now his wandering days are over, he is in the palace. He is in the palace, what he is doing is, he is doing the same thing that he was doing before. There was no change, in his relationship with God because that’s what he practiced every day. So when he became the King, it didn’t change. His wife was telling him, “look you are king! Is this how you behave? And he is saying, “I’m behaving (like) this before the Lord! So he had the Lord always in front of him. So when he worshipped with his heart, his soul, and his body, everything was geared toward the Lord and he never withheld anything from the Lord. His emotions, his voice, and his music, it was completely for the Lord. So David was a worshipper in good times and in bad times. This was a good time, where he is bringing the ark, he could have had the people dance, and sing praises and he could have, majestically came on a horse or he could act very dignified, but he said, this is the Lord who brought me up. So we have to ask ourselves a question, do we feel embarrassed to worship the Lord in front of so-called people in the palace? Do we feel embarrassed to worship the Lord in front of so-called honorable people? If the Lord is going to put us in the palace, will we still worship the Lord in the same way? Will our hearts be like a child and will we still worship the Lord? Will our relationship with the Lord change? So he here is the man that we see, when he was running for his life, he was a worshipper of God. Now, he is in the palace it never changed, he was still a worshipper of God.
So, the third thing we are going to see is, blessing the Lord during bad times, now he is having good times, bad times, good times - in every believer’s life that’s how it’s going to be, to make us more dependent on the Lord, to go from strength to strength. So, that’s why Jesus said a parable, he says about the sower and the seeds, he says, some seeds, what happens is, they fall on the land where the cares of the world and the riches they choke. For one person, it could be the cares of the world that can take away the love of the Lord and for somebody else, it could be riches. So we have to know ourselves really well. how am I during my good times and how am I during my bad times? Being a worshipper of the Lord, am I the same way throughout? Is my heart set on the Lord? My affections, do they change? When I am like very happy am I forgetting the Lord. So we are going to see the third thing, that we see in David’s life is blessing the Lord during his bad times that when his child died.
We are going to read that from II Samuel 12 verses 19 and 20
19 But when David saw that his servants whispered, David perceived that the child was dead: therefore David said unto his servants, Is the child dead? And they said, He is dead.
20 Then David arose from the earth, and washed, and anointed himself, and changed his apparel, and came into the house of the Lord, and worshipped: then he came to his own house; and when he required, they set bread before him, and he did eat.
Praise the Lord! Now, David is actually going through a period of mourning, where you actually see the baby, he had the child, and then the child got sick and the child died. Even though it was a result of the sin, he went through that, but he repented, and you see that the heart that worshipped the Lord never stopped even here.
Amen!! Worshipping the Lord is a lifestyle and the Lord has given us this glorious opportunity, while we are on this pilgrimage in this world, to lift high the name of Jesus.
Gracious heavenly Father, thank you, Lord, for that precious word. Oh, how we need Your word to learn not only to live according to Your commandments but rejoice in You Lord all the way!! In Jesus' Name, we ask you, Amen!
