PSALM 34:1-2 - PART 1 - BLESSING, PRAISE AND REJOICING FOLLOWING DELIVERANCE
[1]. INTRODUCTION TO PSALM 34
We are going to consider the first 2 verses of this most glorious Psalm today. This Psalm is really uplifting in great comfort. Let us enjoy these verses.
Every so often in the bible the Holy Spirit enlightens a passage that just enfolds us. These are precious episodes. We will never approach the uplifting heights the two disciples encountered on the Emmaus Road when they claimed, “Did not our hearts burn within us when He opened unto us the scriptures.” Nevertheless sometimes God makes His word glow with joy and assurances. I pray that in these 8 or so messages based on Psalm 34 that the Lord might just open to us a shining light on just one small portion of His inspired word.
Even the world could recognise the uniqueness of the Lord. The word of God is just so powerful and it is featured here once more in this account – {{John 7:45-46 The officers therefore came to the chief priests and Pharisees and they said to them, “Why did you not bring Him?” The officers answered, “NEVER DID A MAN SPEAK THE WAY THIS MAN SPEAKS.”}} Well you never heard Jesus speak when the officers were sent to arrest Him but you can hear Him speaking to you in His very living word, the bible. Have nothing to do with people or organisations who claim the bible merely contains the word of God for they have mutilated it. They will never, ever hear the Lord opening his word to them. The only word they will hear is, “Depart from Me for I never knew you.” God’s word testifies to itself – (NASB) – {{Hebrews 4:12 “THE WORD OF GOD IS LIVING AND ACTIVE and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”}}
The very word of God that men despise, and with the devil’s enthusiasm, criticise and pull apart with scorn, it will be the very word of God that will judge every man and especially at the great white throne. I would tell young Christians to engross themselves in Psalm 119 to understand the variety of the great truths there relating to the word of God. There are 22 verses in this 34th Psalm which is an alphabetic Psalm, and we speak about that later on.
[2]. THE SETTING OF THE PSALM
What is the setting of this psalm? Look at the title. [[“A Psalm of David when he feigned madness before Abimelech, who drove him away and he departed.”]] It was written after he had departed from the Philistine king. So it resulted from deliverance! Being delivered caused his heart to well up in praise and song. A true poet knows that best.
There are some outstanding deliverances in the bible such as Israel departing Egypt, and the Apostles being released from prison in Acts 5, and Daniel being kept from the mouths of hungry lions, but two I want to say something about are Mary Magdalene and the man known as Legion. This is about all we know of Mary of Magdala’s background – {{Mark 16:9 “Now after He had risen early on the first day of the week, He first appeared to Mary Magdalene FROM WHOM HE HAD CAST OUT SEVEN DEMONS. She went and reported to those who had been with Him, while they were mourning and weeping,”}} (I know some say this chapter was not in the original).
All throughout the gospels, you will not find a more devoted lady than Mary Magdalene, and that goes back to her deliverance from demonic possession. Once there was an unnamed woman who poured perfume over Jesus’ feet after washing them with her tears. This woman was a sinner. There was indignation from the Pharisees over this so Jesus told a parable. To the owner of the house, Simon, a Pharisee, the Lord said this – {{Luke 7:45-47 “You gave Me no kiss but she, since the time I came in, has not ceased to kiss My feet. You did not anoint My head with oil, but she anointed My feet with perfume. For this reason I say to you, HER SINS WHICH ARE MANY, HAVE BEEN FORGIVEN FOR SHE LOVED MUCH BUT HE WHO IS FORGIVEN LITTLE, LOVES LITTLE,”}} Those who were forgiven much, love much. Note John Newton.
Mary of Magdala was forgiven much, so she loved much. I love this quote from Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges, speaking of the unnamed woman with the alabaster box of perfume – [[ “Her love and her forgiveness were mingled with each other in mutual interchange. She loved because she was forgiven; she was forgiven because she loved. Her faith and her love were one; it was “faith working by love”, and the love proved the faith. Spiritual things do not admit of the clear sequences of earthly things. There is with God no before or after, but only an eternal now.
The life of conventional respectability excludes flagrant and open transgressions; cold selfishness does not take itself to be sinful. Simon imagined that he had little to be forgiven, and therefore he loved little. Had he been a true saint he would have recognised his debt.” ]]
The second example is Legion, the name meaning “many”. A full strength Roman legion had 6 000 men, so this man carried many demons. He was delivered. Luke mentioned this – {{Luke 8:33-35 “The demons came out from the man and entered the swine and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake, and were drowned. When the herdsmen saw what had happened, they ran away and reported it in the city and out in the country, and the people went out to see what had happened, and they came to Jesus and found the man from whom the demons had gone out, sitting down at the feet of Jesus, CLOTHED AND IN HIS RIGHT MIND, and they became frightened.”}}
Legion had been delivered from a raving maniac to a man clothed and in his right mind. That is what salvation does; it liberates a person making that one right in all aspects. The story ends with this - and he went away, proclaiming throughout the whole city what great things Jesus had done for him. That was love, great love from a man who had been forgiven much, and delivered from great terror.
Thus we have the same for David in Psalm 34 where it says he escaped from Abimelech’s presence for pretending to be insane. The word Abimelech means a ruler’s title such as King or Pharaoh, but the name of this wicked Philistine leader is Achish.
As far as possible it is good to know the background of a Psalm, and in this case the background is given to us. [[“A Psalm of David when he feigned madness before Abimelech, who drove him away and he departed.”]]
The account of this is written in {{1Samuel 21:10-15 - Then David arose and fled that day from Saul, and went to Achish king of Gath, but the servants of Achish said to him, “Is this not David the king of the land? Did they not sing of this one as they danced saying, ‘Saul has slain his thousands and David his ten thousands’?” David took these words to heart, and greatly feared Achish king of Gath, so he disguised his sanity before them and acted insanely in their hands, and scribbled on the doors of the gate, and let his saliva run down into his beard. Then Achish said to his servants, “Behold, you see the man behaving as a madman. Why do you bring him to me? Do I lack madmen, that you have brought this one to act the madman in my presence? Shall this one come into my house?” 1 Samuel 22:1 “David departed from there and escaped to the cave of Adullam.”}}
David was in mortal fear of his life as he was fleeing from Saul. When in desperate circumstances people often can not think rationally and sometimes engage in “out of character” actions. Those who have been in that dark place of desperation know. It is like being in an abode of no comfort, no way out, and no way to plan anything. The world crushes in. The whole body becomes numbed and fearful. The writer has been there and knows the injustice and desperation that such situations throw at us. David knew what that was like more than once.
At the time of writing David had two enemies. One was Saul and the other were the Philistines. In fleeing from Saul, from one enemy, he ending up coming before the second enemy. We know David as a man of faith in God, and you know, often in desperate situations, we are reduced to nothing except the cord of faith in a faithful God. It is when faith latches on to faithfulness. It is when we hold to the promises of the bible.
David finished up in the presence of the Philistine ruler in Gath, a man named Achish and that was real desperation, because David was identified there as the killer of “ten-thousands” of Philistines. Can you picture him there escaping Saul only to fall into the hands or mercy of Achish? Trapped, desperate, fearful, all alone – what would happen to him? David pretended to act insanely and was expelled from Achish’s presence. That deliverance was the cause of the Psalm being composed and it was probably done in the cave of Adullam.
David was so overwhelmed by thankfulness and gratitude that his spirit cried out in rejoicing to the Lord. Then the Holy Spirit composed this psalm through him. He would bless the Lord; praise Him continually with his mouth; his soul would release its thankful boast. Great the deliverance, and great would be the response. True praise comes from a heart that knows.
Do you know what two words deliverance is married to? One is gratitude and the other, thankfulness. Those who are not thankful after deliverance are truly reprobate souls, nasty, and far from God. I am going to share something I have no evidence for – it is just partly based on observation and opinion. Going back to what we had earlier, that those who have been forgiven much, love much, I do wonder if those who are saved early, say as children, and in Christian homes are a bit different in thought and attitude from those who were deep, dark sinners and got saved later in life. These deep sinners know their deliverance is very great and so their thankfulness and gratitude is also very great. Those saved young may not know the depths of forgiveness and deep thankfulness.
Have you ever needed the Lord’s deliverance? We must never forget that we are in a battle, and the sides are clearly divided – light and dark (always the great contrast of the Bible). Good and evil. Citizens of heaven, and the unsaved of earth. Clearly – you belong to God, or you belong to Satan. Righteousness, and unrighteousness. You can not share the camps. It is one or the other.
As Christians we also need daily deliverance, even when we are not even aware of it. Look at this part of the so-called Lord’s prayer – {{Matthew 6:13 “Do not lead us into temptation, BUT DELIVER US FROM EVIL, for Yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.”}} The word rendered as evil here, Strong’s suggests is the evil one, that is, Satan. The word deliver implies a rescue from what is destructive. We certainly need deliverance from all evil and its destructive force.
[3]. LET US MOVE TO THE PSALM. BLESSING, PRAISE AND REJOICING – VERSES 1-2
Psalm 34:1 I will bless the LORD AT ALL TIMES. His praise shall CONTINUALLY be in my mouth. Psalm 34:2 My soul shall make its boast in the LORD. The humble shall hear it and REJOICE.”
As in a lot of David’s experiences, he writes with a summary statement at the beginning, something like a chapter synopsis. Then he expands on that to develop the main theme. The Psalms were all songs of course, and so many of them skilfully constructed, but they were based on real experiences. It is not the skill alone that produced them, but the guiding hand of the Holy Spirit.
I like writing poems very much and I know that skill is required in their construction and that comes from my background in education I suppose. However, it amazes me how a poem will come together in a way that when I look back, I can say, “How did I possibly do that?” Well I did not do that. The Spirit put His hand on the poem. That is the spiritual aspect, and lifts the poem from a piece of writing in the world to something anointed by God. It will be the same in any man’s true ministry, and that principle applies to whatever the Lord has led His/her servant to do for Him.
All scripture is inspired by God and in these Psalms, the outcome is man’s God-given ability “taken over” by the touch of the Holy Spirit. That is why there is a huge magnificence in the scripture that elevates it to a place of anointing and inspiration that no other writing has. Holy men spoke through the anointing of God.
Psalm 34 is an Alphabetic psalm, so called because their successive verses, or successive parallel series, begin with the successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet. Some of these formations are perfectly regular, others are more or less defective. These poems are of an acrostic formation, in which the first letter of the word that begins a line or a couplet or even a strophe, follows the succession of the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet. 22 letters; 22 verses.
In the two verses above there are certain words I have highlighted with capital letters. These are ever so important. Blessing the Lord at all times is a challenge. Yes, it can be done as a ritual without meaning, but for it to be genuine, it must come from deep in the heart and from a vibrant relationship. It only happens when there is close walking with the Lord where all is always fresh. For the great psalmist of Israel, praise and blessing feature constantly in his writing.
Praise that is continually in my mouth is the next one highlighted. How can we praise when there is nothing for which to praise? I have been at small meetings in the past when someone taking a study group has invited people to write down 10 praise points. I suppose the reason for that is to draw awareness to matters for praise, but I think praise comes from the Lord in our lives and from what the Spirit directs us to in the bible.
“He who praises God for mercies shall never want a mercy for which to praise. To bless the Lord is never unreasonable.” (Charles Spurgeon)
The third one is the humble rejoicing. It is the humble, the poor, the discards, and those who do not place themselves on platforms, humble in spirit, are more ready to rejoice. Pride kills rejoicing.
{{Philippians 4:4 “Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice!”}} {{1 Thessalonians 5:16 “Rejoice always.”}} The two shortest verses in the New Testament feature rejoicing. It is said that {{John 11:35 “Jesus wept,”}} is the shortest verse in the New Testament, but in the original Greek, the shortest is 1 Thessalonians 5:16. It has 14 Greek letters whereas John 11:35 has 15 letters.
{{Psalm 30:5 “for His anger is but for a moment; His favour is for a lifetime. Weeping may last for the night, but a shout of JOY COMES IN THE MORNING.”}} On the night of trial Jesus wept in the Garden, but on the morn of resurrection, there was rejoicing with shouts of joy.
In the Jewish captivity in Babylon, this is recorded – {{Psalm 137:1-4 “By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down and wept when we remembered Zion. Upon the willows in the midst of it we hung our harps. There our captors demanded of us songs and our tormentors mirth, saying, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion.” Psalm 137:4 How can we sing the LORD’s song in a foreign land?”}}
Those captives were in a truly sorrowful situation. How could they sing of joy when sadness clothed them every day? How could they sing of their homeland when it had been cut from them? Are there hypocrites in the work of the Lord, pretenders who speak of Him and not know Him? Yes there are, ones who speak what their hearts honestly do not know, and pretend experiences they have never had. Sunday after Sunday they do that. Where there is truth, there will always be corresponding error. The captives were being honest to themselves. They were miserable and did not pretend joy.
In verses 1 and 2 of Psalm 34, David knew what true deliverance was, and that set his heart on fire and it expressed itself in poetry and song. That is why we can praise God with a knowing heart and bless the Lord from first hand experience. Verse 2 ends this way – {{“The humble shall hear it and REJOICE.”}} That is the secret, and there can be no other avenue. Those who have humbled themselves before the Lord, identify with the praise of the psalmist. The aloof and the proud and conceited, will never know the joy and praise that comes from a relationship found in a man in right connections with his God.
NOTE: This year my email had to change because the mail server was abolished by the ISP. My new email is MycenaPink@gmail.com
