Psalm 34:1-10, Exodus 34:29-35, 2 Corinthians 3:4-9, Mark 7:31-37.
A). O YE HIS SAINTS.
Psalm 34:1-10.
David was ‘on the run’ from king Saul. Mistakenly thinking that he might find refuge with the Philistines, he only escaped from their clutches by feigning madness (cf. 1 Samuel 21:10-15). Then he hid in a cave.
Knowing that David was in this place, his family came to encourage him. A company of some four hundred men in humbling circumstances also resorted to him (cf. 1 Samuel 22:1-2). The fugitive’s response was a combination of thanksgiving, witness, evangelism, and wisdom teaching (Psalm 34).
Psalm 34:1. For us to “bless the LORD” is to tell forth His goodness. What we say reflects Whose we are. What we speak about should reflect who we are in Him. To “bless the LORD” is to bow the knee in worship and praise.
The words which we speak effect our attitudes and behaviour. When we speak positively about the things of the LORD, good things can happen. The converse is also true: when we ‘speak up’ bad things, that is often just what we get! David determined that the praises of the LORD should constantly be in his mouth.
Psalm 34:2. The ‘sweet Psalmist of Israel’ sought to honour God in what amounted to a public act of praise. This Psalm is not addressed to the LORD, but to the congregation. They are “the humble”: the poor, the lowly, the weak, and the afflicted. “Those in distress, those in debt, and the discontented” (cf. 1 Samuel 22:2).
Psalm 34:3. David’s testimony calls for a response, and participation.
Psalm 34:4. This encourages the once-fearful. “The LORD delivered me from all my fears.” Negative fears are the opposite of faith, and destructive to our peace and well-being.
Psalm 34:5. This could be the choir’s response to the voice of the soloist. The once-shameful respond with their own observation. “They looked to Him, and lightened were: not shamed were their faces.”
We are reminded of the glory of the LORD, reflected in the face of Moses. The idea of “being radiant” is echoed in Isaiah 60:5 (NRSV), as the people thrilled at the prospect of the abundance of the nations flowing to Zion. Also in Jeremiah 31:12 (NRSV), as they beamed with satisfaction at the goodness of the LORD.
We are also reminded of “the glory of the Lord in the face of Jesus Christ” (cf. 2 Corinthians 4:6). When we look to Him, the light of the LORD is reflected in our lives.
Psalm 34:6. Those in distress find their encouragement here. “This poor (humble) man cried…” This is answered prayer - even where prayer is scarcely articulated. “The LORD heard the cry of the children of Israel” in Egypt (cf. Exodus 3:9). The LORD hears, and saves, and redeems us from trouble.
Psalm 34:7. The angel of the LORD is in the midst of the camp, surrounding those who have a right kind of fear - reverence and godly fear - toward the LORD. He is there to protect, and deliver.
Psalm 34:8. It is good to wake up in the morning with a word of worship in our mouths. It is good to speak well of the LORD throughout the day. It is good to lie down at night in praise and thanksgiving. Come, says David, “taste” His goodness with me.
We “taste and see” the goodness of the LORD when the words of the LORD have their rightful place in our lives (cf. Psalm 119:103). Along with the good word of God, we also have a powerful foretaste of things to come (cf. Hebrews 6:5). Peter encourages us in our desire for “the sincere milk of the word” which we have already tasted (cf. 1 Peter 2:2-3).
When we first believe, we savour the things of God, and put our trust in the LORD. We feast with Him in our day to day living. We draw nourishment from the table of the Lord, and all that the sacrament represents to us.
When the LORD blesses us, He adds something to us. He saves us from our sins, and redeems us from the full penalty of the law. He sends seasonable weather, and our crops are given increase. He grants health, wealth, wisdom, status, success - and children. The LORD protects us, and delivers us - and gives us “the peace that the world cannot give” (cf. John 14:27).
Building upon his own recent experience of deliverance and answered prayer, David became an encourager. The Father of our Lord Jesus Christ comforts and consoles us not only for our own benefit, but so that we might ‘pass it on’ (cf. 2 Corinthians 1:3-4). The fugitive had just called upon his congregation to “taste and see” (Psalm 34:8) in order to comprehend - and apprehend - the goodness of the LORD.
Psalm 34:9. Now he addressed them as “saints” (sanctified ones). Yet some of these people had only just turned up in David’s life, and were a mixed band of humble folks (Psalm 34:2): the poor, the lowly, the weak, and the afflicted. If the Septuagint heading to the Psalm is to be believed, they were “those in distress, those in debt, and the discontented” (cf. 1 Samuel 22:2).
Preachers are sometimes well advised to address their hearers as believers rather than assuming that everyone needs converting. It is probably better to give people the benefit of the doubt, rather than sitting in judgement on their souls. As John Calvin once said, ‘The Lord alone knows who the elect are.’
David advised the saints to “fear” the LORD. The better translation is “revering Yahweh” - not so much being afraid of the God of Israel as respecting Him, trusting Him, obeying Him, and singling Him out for praise and worship. He is, after all, the one true God (cf. Deuteronomy 6:4-5; Isaiah 45:5; 1 Corinthians 8:4).
This type of “fear” - if we may still call it that - is the antidote for the dread fears and terrors of Psalm 34:4. It reaps a result. When we trust the LORD in this way, we “have no want.”
Psalm 34:10. When we respect the LORD aright, we will “seek” Him (cf. Psalm 105:4; Isaiah 55:6). Good results follow (cf. Matthew 6:33). He sends seasonable weather, and our crops are given increase. He grants health, wealth, wisdom, status, success - and children.
Those who trust in their own strength - even like the “young lions” of the illustration here - will know lack, and hunger. When we “seek” Him, we shall “lack no good thing.” This reminds us of Psalm 23.
B). A REFLECTED GLORY.
Exodus 34:29-35.
In discussing the nature of the resurrection body, the Apostle Paul comments, ‘There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon’ (1 Corinthians 15:41). In the Epistle to the Hebrews, we read that Christ Jesus is ‘worthy of more glory than Moses’ (Hebrews 3:3). In our text, Moses only had a reflected glory (Exodus 34:29).
This passage (Exodus 34:29-35) is the conclusion of the Sinai covenant, which began at Exodus 19:1. Moses had been up into the mountain to receive the terms of the covenant, only to come back down again and find that the people had already broken it (Exodus 32:7-8). Ignorance is no excuse in any court of law: and if we do not obey what we do know, we shall never advance beyond the wilderness in which we are trapped by our sin.
Symbolic of the broken covenant, Moses shattered the tablets of stone on which were written the words of the LORD (Exodus 32:19). Yet he also interceded on behalf of the people, arguing that if the LORD destroyed His own people, then the Egyptians would have occasion to dishonor His great name (Exodus 32:11-12). We are thankful that the LORD does not pour out upon us the full measure of His anger; and that in our Lord Jesus Christ we have a sacrifice, and a mediator greater than Moses.
It is said that the LORD spoke to Moses ‘face to face’ (Exodus 33:11). Perhaps we should read this as a metaphor, since the LORD later says, ‘no man shall see my face and live’ (Exodus 33:20). Yet we do understand that the LORD did allow Moses to see something of His glory (Exodus 33:21-23).
Which all brings us to our present chapter, in which the LORD reveals Himself as He really is, with a recitation of some of His attributes (Exodus 34:6-7). If you want to see God’s glory (Exodus 33:18), then go to the Scriptures ‘for therein shall you find eternal life, and these are they that testify of Jesus’ (John 5:39). The LORD graciously renewed His covenant, forbidding Canaanite worship (Exodus 34:14), and re-establishing the ten commandments (Exodus 34:28).
London’s great Baptist preacher of the Victorian era, Mr. C. H. Spurgeon, once commented that he could well have believed that a certain person of his acquaintance was truly holy. That is, until that person told him that it was so! What is amazing, as Moses came down from the mountain, is that he was unaware that his face was, literally, “sending out horns of light” (Exodus 34:29).
There was no doubt an echo here of the dazzling brightness of the earlier Sinai encounter, consequently causing alarm to Aaron and to all Israel with him (Exodus 34:30). How unready we are to encounter even reflected holiness when we are stricken with our own sense of guilt! So Moses calmed them, and “told them in commandment all that the LORD had told him in the mount” (Exodus 34:31-32).
The Apostle Paul goes some way to explaining the significance of the veil over Moses’ face (Exodus 34:33-35). It was because of the blindness of their eyes, and the hardness of their heart (2 Corinthians 3:14-15). Hearing the word of God with unchanged heart does no good to the hearer: in fact, it can be downright dangerous, as it calls for a responsible response.
The Gospel of John teaches us that Jesus’ glory is native to Himself: ‘We beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father’ (John 1:14). When Christ returns we also will reflect this glory (1 John 3:2). It is a glory which is nurtured in the meantime when we spend time with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ and in the power of His Spirit (2 Corinthians 3:18).
C). THE GLORY OF THE GOSPEL.
2 Corinthians 3:4-9.
Paul is confident that the Corinthians ARE his letters of recommendation (cf. 2 Corinthians 3:2). This trust towards God is mediated through Christ Himself (2 CORINTHIANS 3:4). There is a denial of self-sufficiency, and an acknowledgement of the all-sufficiency of God (2 CORINTHIANS 3:5).
Paul and his companions knew this sufficiency of God on a personal level. The Apostle could say, as we might all say, ‘I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me’ (cf. Philippians 4:13). In our present passage he spoke of God’s enabling for the ministry (2 CORINTHIANS 3:6).
Paul was also confident in the Lord for the development of the congregations put in his care (cf. Philippians 1:6). Christian people can be sure of the sufficiency of God when we seek to live a life of holiness in the midst of an unsympathetic world. The same God who says – ‘Be ye holy; for I am holy’ (cf. 1 Peter 1:16) - also empowers us to fulfil the commandment.
The mention of the new covenant presupposes that the earlier writings have become old (2 CORINTHIANS 3:6). This is not to deny that the Old Testament had a certain “glory” (2 CORINTHIANS 3:9), but rather to emphasise that the New Testament has a greater glory. The ‘letter of the law’ only served to condemn us, as it revealed our total inability to keep the law - “the letter kills” (cf. 2 CORINTHIANS 3:6): but the giving of the New Testament is accompanied by the engrafting of God’s word upon our hearts by the Holy Spirit (cf. 2 Corinthians 3:3) - and “the Spirit gives life” (2 CORINTHIANS 3:6).
"We are not sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves;" says Paul in 2 CORINTHIANS 3:5, "but our sufficiency is of God."
Paul then goes on to contrast the ministry of the New Testament with that of the Old; the glory that shone in Moses’ face with the glory of the Spirit (2 CORINTHIANS 3:7-8).
The law ushered in death, but the Spirit brings righteousness and life (2 CORINTHIANS 3:9).
Before the gospel liberates us, we are like the deaf man who was brought to Jesus in Mark 7:32, who also had an impediment in his speech. Until Jesus touches us, we cannot hear or comprehend the message of salvation: but after He has opened our ears, and loosed our tongues, then we not only understand and embrace the Gospel for ourselves, but are also motivated and empowered to proclaim it to others.
D). HE HAS DONE ALL THINGS WELL.
Mark 7:31-37.
Jesus was heading towards the Sea of Galilee (Mark 7:31). The next people He met were the friends of a deaf man who had such an impediment in his speech that it sounded like his tongue was tied up in knots. They brought him to Jesus, begging that Jesus would put His hand on him (Mark 7:32). Just as it is good to pray for our children even when they are not with us in the place of prayer, so it is good to bring the needy to Jesus for prayer.
Jesus took him aside and put His fingers in the ears of the man, spat and touched his tongue (Mark 7:33). Again, a spiritual battle was going on, perhaps inside the man himself. Jesus sighed (cf. Romans 8:26); and spoke forth in His own tongue what was in His heart: “Be opened” (Mark 7:34).
That Jesus thus spoke from the Faith within His own heart is demonstrated in the book of Hebrews, where the author places an Old Testament saying in the mouth of Jesus: ‘I will put My trust in Him’ (Hebrews 2:13). Jesus trusted in His Father, even when the whip was to His back (read Isaiah 50:6-9). So yes, when Jesus sighed and spoke that word, it was an act of faith: and thus, He is the forerunner of our faith (Hebrews 12:2).
The effect was immediate. The man’s ears were opened, and his tongue was loosed, and he spoke plainly (Mark 7:35). Notice the order: when a person’s ears are opened to hear the word of God, then their tongue is loosed to give Him praise.
By now, Jesus could not keep who He is and what He was doing secret, try as He might. The more He commanded silence, the more widely the news was spread (Mark 7:36). No wonder the people were astonished. It was the fulfilment of prophecy: ‘The ears of the deaf’ are unstopped, and ‘the tongue of the dumb’ sings (Isaiah 35:5-6). “He has done all things well. He makes both the deaf to hear and the mute to speak” (Mark 7:37).
