PSALM 34:7-8 - PART 3 – ANGELIC PROTECTION AND DELIVERANCE, PLUS TASTE AND SEE
We are looking at this amazing Psalm today and continuing our thoughts from last time.
For those new, this is an alphabetic Psalm, that is, each new thought begins with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet. These thoughts are made into verses (stanzas) in our English bibles. There are 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet so there are 22 verses in the Psalm.
David gives his testimony in this Psalm, but he draws in the people to the great truths he found in the LORD. The verses alternate – David speaking of himself, THEN “us” or “plural” referring to the people who are believers. We will now read the first 8 verses –
{{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.”
Psalm 34:3 O magnify the LORD with me and let us exalt His name together.
Psalm 34:4 I sought the LORD and He answered me, and delivered me from all my fears.
Psalm 34:5 They looked to Him and were radiant, and their faces shall never be ashamed.
Psalm 34:6 This poor man cried and the LORD heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles.
Psalm 34:7 The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear Him, and rescues them.
Psalm 34:8 O taste and see that the LORD is good. How blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him!}}
The verses where David speaks of himself are 1-2, 4, 6. The verses that include the people, the believers, are 2-3, 5, 7-8. In the last message we stopped at verse 6, so I now want to comment on verses 7 and 8.
[1] ANGELIC PROTECTION AND DELIVERANCE
{{Psalm 34:7 “The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear Him, and rescues them.”}}
This is a very powerful and reassuring verse. I think it is easy to forget the part angels play in ministering to us. They certainly do, but some ministers and pastors overlook the fact and neglect this great truth; some dismiss it. For a moment we will consider two verses – {{Hebrews 1:13-14 “To which of the angels has He ever said, “Sit at My right hand until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet”? ARE THEY NOT ALL MINISTERING SPIRITS sent out to render service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation?”}}
I like to cite an example that happened to me more than once. I used to do a lot of wood chopping then I was a kid and in my teens because we had a slow combustion wood stove. I recall on a couple of occasions that the axe head glanced swiftly off the wood and rushed past my leg just missing my shin. In fact, the thought came to me later on that the axe was directed away miraculously. In some of the serious falls I have had from ladders and in the rainforests, it was like a protection was around me even though I did have some damage to myself. I was wonderfully delivered.
We will look at a few verses here – On the occasion of Jesus’ temptation where the devil misapplied an Old Testament verse of angelic protection, at the end of all that we read – {{Matthew 4:11 “Then the devil left Him, and behold, ANGELS CAME AND BEGAN TO MINISTER TO HIM.”}} Does the same happen to us today, or are we supposed to look to the Holy Spirit who is the Comforter? I truly believe it applies to both. The truth of Psalm 34:7 is still applicable.
If our eyes could be opened we’d see the air around us teeming with evil spirits but they can do us no harm. Satan and his demon hosts might be the spirits of the air {{Ephesians 2:2 “in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to THE PRINCE OF THE POWER OF THE AIR, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.”}} but we are surrounded by the Lord’s powerful and ministering angels.
Regarding the verse Satan tried quoting, it is here found in {{Psalm 91:10-12 “No evil will befall you, nor will any plague come near your tent. HE WILL GIVE HIS ANGELS CHARGE CONCERNING YOU TO GUARD YOU IN ALL YOUR WAYS. They will bear you up in their hands lest you strike your foot against a stone.”}} That is the 100% pure word of God. What the devil did was to adulterate the verse. Here is what is recorded – {{Matthew 4:6 and said to Him, “IF You are the Son of God throw Yourself down for it is written, ‘HE WILL GIVE HIS ANGELS CHARGE CONCERNING YOU’, and ‘On their hands they will bear You up, lest You strike Your foot against a stone.’”
What is missing? Well, 4 English words are missing, “IN ALL YOUR WAYS.” Satan will add and subtract from scripture to destroy the meaning. How delightful that the angels keep us in all our ways. Not one way will be missed. How it must grieve our ministering angels when we wander off the path and fall into sin. In those cases we are keeping our own ways, not adhering to God’s ways, those ways reinforced by the angels.
I want to come to this notion of “guardian angels”. It is a common term. This is taken from encyclopedia.com – [[“An old tradition says that guardian angels are appointed to children at the time of their birth. The seventeenth-century mystic Amos Komensky (1592–1670) declared that each child has an angel "given to him by God and ordained to be his guardian, that the angel might guard him, preserve him, and protect him against all dangers and snares, pits, ambushes, traps, and temptations.
Those men and women who claim to have seen their guardian angels generally describe them as appearing youthful, commanding, beautiful of countenance, and often majestic and awesome. Manifestations of light often accompany them, which lend to the grandeur of their appearance and the feelings of profound reverence that permeate those who encounter angelic beings.”]]
It does not work like that. Children do not have those guardian angels. There is no biblical support for that idea whatever.
Looking again at verse 7 – {{Psalm 34:7 “The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear Him, and RESCUES them.”}} David’s own personal experience was one of deliverance and being rescued from Achish’s hand. David was in fear of his life, and deliverance from this Philistine ruler was slim, but David feared the Lord more than he feared any earthly situation, and his trust rested in God alone. Consequently the Lord delivered him BECAUSE God’s will for David still had years to run. This was not the first time the Lord’s deliverance had been realised in David’s life.
How then are we to understand situations when we don’t see God’s deliverance for His people? Is this Psalm verse wrong that speaks of rescue? Job penned these words – {{Job 13:15 “Though He slay me, I will hope in Him. Nevertheless I will argue my ways before Him,”}} and he understood God’s will transcended his own personal desire.
Daniel was delivered from a lion’s mouth, yet Paul was not delivered from a Roman prison. Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego were delivered from a blazing fiery furnace, but Stephen died from stoning by a satanic mob. Some missionaries were delivered from tricky and dangerous situations, yet others of them were eaten by greedy cannibals in the South Pacific Islands.
What did Jesus pray at Gethsemane? {{Luke 22:42 saying, “Father, IF YOU ARE WILLING, remove this cup from Me, yet not My will, but Yours be done.” Luke 22:43 Now an angel from heaven appeared to Him, STRENGTHENING Him.}}
Those two verses contain the answer to our question I believe about Psalm 34:7. The prayer Jesus uttered was in accordance with the will of God and that is the basis of all circumstances and feelings. It must be in accordance with the will of God. Jesus prayed for the removal of Calvary, but it was God’s will for that, and Jesus knew that also. Those who claim He was in despair not knowing the outcome, have dismissed the divinity of Christ, and fail to see what Jesus was actually praying. He was requesting the Father ACCORDING TO THE WILL OF THE FATHER.
[2]. JESUS AND DELIVERANCE
Was the Lord delivered AT Calvary? That is a deep question. We just looked at His plea to be delivered FROM Calvary itself, but that did not happen according to the will of the Father. Psalm 22 is a deep prophetic psalm, the prayers and strong emotions of Jesus on the cross.
Our key verse from Psalm 34:7 states that the angel of the Lord rescues the righteous from trouble. The encamping angels deliver them. When I asked about the Lord’s deliverance at Calvary, on the cross, what did it mean? Consider these verses from the Psalm – {{Psalm 22:19 “But You, O LORD, be not far off. O You my help, HASTEN TO MY ASSISTANCE.” Psalm 22:20 “DELIVER my soul from the sword, My only life from the power of the dog.” Psalm 22:21 “SAVE ME FROM THE LION’S Mouth, and from the horns of the wild oxen You answer me}}
{{Psalm 22:1 “My God, my God, why have You forsaken me? FAR FROM MY DELIVERANCE ARE THE WORDS OF MY GROANING.”}}
It is unthinkable that the Lord was not delivered in His passion. Deliverance was not FROM the suffering of Calvary, but THROUGH the suffering. {{Romans 4:25 “He who was delivered UP because of our transgressions, and was raised because of our justification.”}}
Jesus prayed for deliverance FROM the power of the sword, but His deliverance was the absolute defeat OF the power of the sword. In another way, His death conquered death forever. That was great deliverance, and His prayer was answered fully. From death to deliverance in resurrection.
When this Psalm verse says that the angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear Him, and RESCUES them, we need to understand this is in accordance with the will of God in a believer’s life. It is so important to understand that in this whole subject of deliverance.
I do want to speak more on Luke 22:43 “saying, “Father, IF YOU ARE WILLING, remove this cup from Me, YET NOT MY WILL, BUT YOURS BE DONE.” Luke 22:43 Now AN ANGEL FROM HEAVEN APPEARED TO HIM, STRENGTHENING HIM.}} It was in the deepest of emotion that Jesus was not left alone. It tells us that an angel came to strengthen Him. Not the Holy Spirit who is God, but a sent angel came to strengthen Him. Those of you who read content in context might realise that certain commentators allude to the fact that these verses are not found in all ancient manuscripts. I won’t enter into that but it seems certain that it was in the original.
The words penned by Barnes in explaining this verse are beneficial to read – [[Strengthening him - His human nature, to sustain the great burden that was upon his soul. Some have supposed from this that He was not divine as well as human; for if he was "God," how could an angel give any strength or comfort? And why did not the divine nature "alone" sustain the human (one)? But the fact that he was "divine" does not affect the case at all. It might be asked with the same propriety, If he was, as all admit, the friend of God, and beloved of God, and holy, why, if he was a mere man, did not "God" sustain him alone, without an angel's intervening? But the objection in neither case would have any force. The "man, Christ Jesus," was suffering. His human nature was in agony, and it is the "manner" of God to sustain the afflicted by the intervention of others; nor was there any more "unfitness" in sustaining the human nature of his Son in this manner than any other sufferer.]]
I also believe we can take from this, the fact that in all circumstances God will not leave us without comfort. He has given to us the Holy Spirit, the Comforter and Helper, but let us not dismiss Psalm 34:7 for I believe there is a part angels play in comfort and deliverance even though we do not see them as in visible appearance (well, not normally. We can not dismiss the way God chooses to work). One part of the “Lord’s Prayer” so-called is this, “Deliver us from evil.” I believe we are justified in saying “Rescue us from evil.” It is the angel of the Lord who encamps who rescues us from evil. Angels are God’s ministering spirits. Of course we can’t be too definitive for the Lord Himself, and the Holy Spirit also rescues and delivers us.
[3]. TAKE UP THE CHALLENGE
{{Psalm 34:8 “O TASTE AND SEE that the LORD is good. How blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him!”}}
Can we say in careful language, “Give God a go?” Many testimonies concern people who have searched for satisfaction and meaning in their lives and have walked down all sorts of paths but in the end “found God”, or more to the point, God found them; claimed them for His own. That is true for the unsaved, for those who seek will find, and the one who genuinely searches for the Lord, will be found by Him. We could say in this verse 8 – “O seek and FIND that the Lord is good.”
However let us address professing Christians. Many who claim Christian allegiance are good sleepers. They are contented as jellyfish are in a current, just moving along with it and content with their lot. This is their attitude – “Leave the status quo as it is. Don’t rock the boat. Let sleeping dogs lie.” Those abatements are used in the world to mean don’t stir the pot, or upset the order of things. Just leave it all as it is, go to sleep, and drift along. (The exact opposite of what President Trump is doing).
Is that a Christian attitude to be a non-committal jellyfish? Well, we should not go around looking for trouble but we should be obedient to the bible. We need to consider the commandments and the instructions given to us, and verse 8 here is one of these. The verse tells us “to taste” but what does it mean to do that?
Paul said, “For me to live is Christ,” and to live like that means tasting the goodness and presence and challenges of God. In other words living up to commitment, an attitude lacking in the hazy mist of Christianity today. Take God at His word, and take His hand and walk along life’s highway tasting the goodness of the Lord for those who love Him. Leave your non-committal attitude and behaviour behind, and surrender to the Lordship of Christ and walk in His goodness. Then you will be tasting the goodness of God.
In Psalm 34:8, the second part of the verse speaks of the blessedness of the man who takes refuge in the Lord. Two lines of a popular Christian song of the 1960s are “Needing a friend to help me in the end; Where could I go but to the Lord?” That is the secret. Taking refuge is a fundamental need of human beings for security and happiness and fulfillment. We all need it. The Psalms are full of verses that speak of refuge in the Lord; our Rock; our true fortress, and so much more.
God is a very present help for those in trouble. That man is blessed for taking refuge in the Lord. Think carefully about these wonderful verses, especially any of you who are in trouble – {{Psalm 46:1-3 “GOD IS OUR REFUGE AND STRENGTH, A VERY PRESENT HELP IN TROUBLE. Therefore we will not fear though the earth should change and though the mountains slip into the heart of the sea; though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains quake at its swelling pride. Selah.”}} These years in the 2020s are more and more insecure and uncertain, so it is Psalms like 46 we need to appreciate deeper and deeper.
(a). Before I close Psalm 34:8 I want to say something about taste. Here is part of a parable Jesus told about the nation that was rejecting His message – {{Luke 14:22-24 The slave said, ‘Master, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room,’ and the master said to the slave, ‘Go out into the highways and along the hedges, and compel them to come in that my house may be filled for I tell you, NONE OF THOSE men who were invited SHALL TASTE OF MY DINNER.’”}}
“Taste and see that the LORD is good.” Generally, Israel refused to taste of the banquet set before the nation by the Messiah when He came, and so His message of invitation has gone out to the Gentiles so they can taste the goodness of the Lord. How grateful we ought to be. In an illusion to this Paul speaks of the future restoration of Israel – {{Romans 11:12 “Now if their transgression be riches for the world and their failure be riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their fulfillment be!”}}
(b). The second point I want to make is the diet of mankind including Christians. Consider these verses – {{Job 6:6-7 “Can something tasteless be eaten without salt, or IS THERE ANY TASTE IN THE WHITE OF AN EGG? My soul refuses to touch them. They are like loathsome food to me.”}} Job could not stand tasteless food such as the white of an egg, the albumen. Yet the world devours its tasteless food. It thrives on its egg whites while God’s invitation is neglected – “TASTE AND SEE THAT THE LORD IS GOOD.”
If only many people would turn from the worthless lives they live and seek the Lord and taste the goodness of the Lord, then many would find true fulfillment. AND for Christians – {{Matthew 5:13 “YOU ARE THE SALT OF THE EARTH, but if the salt has become tasteless, how will it be made salty again? It is good for nothing anymore except to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men.”}} Have your lives become tasteless? Are your lives of no use for the Lord who died for you? {{Mark 9:50 “Salt is good but if the salt becomes unsalty, with what will you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves and be at peace with one another.”}}
Do not become unsalty in this compromised world. We can not affort to be in that state. Maybe you belong to a traditional church that holds its Catechisms and Confessions but is dead to the Lord, and is bland and unsalted, no more than egg whites. You must turn from that.
(c). The third point concerns the words of sweetness. There is nothing like the word of God to satisfy the longing soul with the rich desserts of life. God words contained throughout the bible are the richness of the soul and the sustenance of life. Any Christian who neglects the instruction and sweetness of the bible has let himself and herself down.
Here is the verse – {{Psalm 119:103 “HOW SWEET ARE YOUR WORDS TO MY TASTE! Yes, sweeter than honey to my mouth!”}} Christian, has your taste been neutralised by the world’s standard, or rendered useless by your priorities that are not including the bible? What sweetness are you missing out on? Please do not let this persist. Come back to the word of God and taste the goodness of the Lord in the sweetness of His word!
