‘I WILL BLESS THE LORD AT ALL TIMES’

Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on November 21, 2021 under 2021 |

Bethany Bible Church Thanksgiving Sunday Message; November 21, 2021 from Psalm 34

Theme: Thanks belong to God who always delivers those who trust in Him.

(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).

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Thanksgiving is something that is crucial to our Christian faith. I’m not talking just about the holiday, by the way—although that’s very important too. Rather, I’m talking about the whole idea of an ongoing attitude of genuine gratitude and thanks. It’s truly good to give thanks.

In order to prepare our hearts for the holiday, and to set our minds upon a higher kind of thanksgiving, a great place for us to go to in the Bible is Psalm 34.

Let’s read it together:

A Psalm of David when he pretended madness before Abimelech, who drove him away, and he departed.

I will bless the Lord at all times;
His praise shall continually be in my mouth.
My soul shall make its boast in the Lord;
The humble shall hear of it and be glad.
Oh, magnify the Lord with me,
And let us exalt His name together.

I sought the Lord, and He heard me,
And delivered me from all my fears.
They looked to Him and were radiant,
And their faces were not ashamed.
This poor man cried out, and the Lord heard him,
And saved him out of all his troubles.
The angel of the Lord encamps all around those who fear Him,
And delivers them.

Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good;
Blessed is the man who trusts in Him!
Oh, fear the Lord, you His saints!
There is no want to those who fear Him.
The young lions lack and suffer hunger;
But those who seek the Lord shall not lack any good thing.

Come, you children, listen to me;
I will teach you the fear of the Lord.
Who is the man who desires life,
And loves many 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.

The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous,
And His ears are open to their cry.
The face of the Lord is against those who do evil,
To cut off the remembrance of them from the earth.

The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears,
And delivers them out of all their troubles.
The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart,
And saves such as have a contrite spirit.

Many are the afflictions of the righteous,
But the Lord delivers him out of them all.
He guards all his bones;
Not one of them is broken.
Evil shall slay the wicked,
And those who hate the righteous shall be condemned.
The Lord redeems the soul of His servants,
And none of those who trust in Him shall be condemned (Psalm 34:1-22).

This morning, let’s let this psalm give us the structure of our worship time together. Let’s think about key portions of it. And let’s also stop along the way and direct our thanks to God through prayer and song.

As we do so, we’ll learn together from this psalm of David that thanks truly belong to God our Savior; who always delivers those who trust in Him.

* * * * * * * * * *

Let’s begin by considering the background of this psalm. You’ll notice that it’s introduced with these words: “A Psalm of David when he pretended madness before Abimelech, who drove him away, and he departed.” That points us back to 1 Samuel 25:10-15. And that means that David wrote this psalm after thinking about one of the biggest mistakes of his life.

Though God had anointed David to become king, this story occurred back at a time when he hadn’t yet sat upon the throne. He was on the run from King Saul; who was jealous of God’s plan for David, and who sought to murder him. David ran away with some of his soldiers to a town called Nob—where the priest Ahimelech (not to be confused with ‘Abilmelech’) ministered in the tabernacle of God. Ahimelech the priest was alarmed to see David and asked what he was doing there. And perhaps out of fear, David lied to him. David said that he was on a secret mission from King Saul; but was in such a hurry that he didn’t have time to grab a weapon or any food for his men. The priest gave him some of the sacred bread of the tabernacle, and also gave him the sword that David had taken years ago from Goliath. But one of Saul’s servants spotted David there; and it resulted in King Saul’s army attacking the town of Nob. Ahimelech the priest, and eighty-five of the other priests in that town, were put to death at Saul’s command.

But David’s dangerous folly didn’t end there. In desperation, he ran from Nob to the king of Gath—the enemies of the people of Israel. That was the town from which Goliath himself was born. The king of that town was a man named Achish (although in our psalm, he’s referred to by his royal title, “Abilmelech”). David must have thought that he could hide there from Saul. But the people of that town took one look at David and told King Achish;

“Is this not David the king of the land? Did they not sing of him to one another in dances, saying:

‘Saul has slain his thousands,
And David his ten thousands’?” (1 Samuel 21:11).

Oh no! Recognized again! And that’s when David did something that must have been a cause for deep embarrassment and sorrow to him later. We’re told;

Now David took these words to heart, and was very much afraid of Achish the king of Gath. So he changed his behavior before them, pretended madness in their hands, scratched on the doors of the gate, and let his saliva fall down on his beard. Then Achish said to his servants, “Look, you see the man is insane. Why have you brought him to me? Have I need of madmen, that you have brought this fellow to play the madman in my presence? Shall this fellow come into my house?” (vv. 12-15).

Now; David was able to make his getaway. God mercifully spared the life of His anointed king. But it wasn’t because David deserved it. Later on, he found out that his panicky efforts had resulted in the destruction of the town of Nob and many of the priests who lived there. He had acted in desperation, and out of a foolish lack of faith in God.

And doesn’t that sound like you and me? Haven’t we acted foolishly over and over? Haven’t we made our hard trials and difficult situations in life worse by our stupidity and sin? The truth of the matter is that we deserve no mercy from God at all. And yet, He has provided mercy for us through His Son Jesus. And when we cry out to Him, He rescues and delivers us.

So; that’s the background of this psalm. David wrote it in an attitude of repentance—and in gratitude that God had shown undeserved mercy to him. And there’s something else that you need to know about this psalm. When David wrote it, he wrote it in an unusual format. It’s an acrostic—meaning that each verse starts off with a different letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Twenty-two Hebrew letters makes for twenty-two verses in this psalm. It’s a psalm that you might think of as ‘the A-B-Cs’ of thanking God for His saving mercy. And the reason David wrote it as an acrostic was because it was meant to be memorized and hidden in the heart. David didn’t ever want to forget the important lessons of God’s mercy that he learned from this experience.

This, then, is a Thanksgiving Psalm of praise to our God—who always shows mercy to undeserving sinners like you and me who have made a horrible mess of things—the God who nevertheless graciously delivers us when we cry out to Him by faith. He even saves the worst sinners who cry out to Him for mercy. This is a good psalm that points us to the highest kind of thanksgiving we could offer—to the highest Recipient of our thanks that there is—for the highest cause of thanks that there could ever be.

* * * * * * * * * *

Now; I could conceivably preach a sermon to you this morning with twenty-two points. But you wouldn’t be very thankful if I did. Instead, I think it would be better to just highlight the basic divisions of this psalm. There are three. Verses 1-3 give us a ‘doxology’ of thanks; verses 4-10 give us a ‘devotional’ of thanks; and verses 11-22 give us a ‘doctrine’ of thanks.

So; let’s begin with…

1. A DOXOLOGY OF THANKS.

A ‘doxology’ is simply a formal expression of praise and thanks to God. And that’s what we find in verses 1-3. Looking back at the terrible mess he had made of things—and at the embarrassingly foolish way he had acted in not trusting God as he should have—David wrote;

I will bless the Lord at all times;
His praise shall continually be in my mouth.
My soul shall make its boast in the Lord;
The humble shall hear of it and be glad.
Oh, magnify the Lord with me,
And let us exalt His name together (vv. 1-3).

He begins with a wonderful resolve of heart. He said that he will ‘bless’ or ‘thank’ Yahweh—the promise-keeping God of Israel—at all times, and in all situations. God’s praises would be in his mouth non-stop. (And I suspect that he might even have thrown a sideways glance at us and said, “And if I had done that in the first place, dear folks, I wouldn’t have gotten into the troubles I had gotten myself into!”)

He’d learned his lesson. No longer would he trust in his own clever tactics to get himself out of tight situations. His boast would be in the Lord—and it would be to the Lord that he would turn in his troubles from then on. He would want us to learn that lesson, too. He said that those who are humble—that is, those who aren’t proud, but who instead know that they are completely dependent upon God’s help—would hear this song of praise and be glad for it. And do you notice that he gives you and me an invitation? He said in verse 3, “Oh, magnify the Lord with me”; that is, let’s speak about this great help-giving God and make our appreciation and worship of Him become as big in our hearts as He Himself is! “Let’s exalt His name”—that is, His character, His nature, His power, and His wonderful works—“together”.

In fact, let’s do that very thing right now! This would be a good time for us to sing Hymn #139 together—“Great Is Thy Faithfulness”—as an expression of our thanks to Him!

* * * * * * * * * *

So then; David has invited us to join him in a ‘doxology’ of thanks. Now; let’s go on to consider …

2. A DEVOTIONAL OF THANKS.

A ‘devotional’ in this sense is the expression of thoughts or experiences that help us to turn our attention to God and His goodness. The first part of this ‘devotional’ section is found in verses 4-7. It contains a set of ‘testimonies’:

I sought the Lord, and He heard me,
And delivered me from all my fears.
They looked to Him and were radiant,
And their faces were not ashamed.
This poor man cried out, and the Lord heard him,
And saved him out of all his troubles.
The angel of the Lord encamps all around those who fear Him,
And delivers them.

The first testimony is personal in nature. He had made a terrible mess of things by his doubts and desperate actions; but he finally came to his senses and ‘sought’ the Lord. And the Lord heard his prayer and delivered him out of all his fears. The second testimony is more general in nature. He speaks as if on behalf of all who do the same thing—all the people who cry out in faith to God in their time of trouble. They won’t end up with a gloomy look of sorrow on their faces—as if God had let them down. Instead, they end up beaming with joy. The third is a testimony that is particular in nature. Perhaps it’s his own testimony, or perhaps that of someone else who had been in the same kind of situation. They were poor and needy; but they cried out to the Lord and He heard them and saved them. The testimonies of those who were in times of deep trouble and sorrow—and who cried out to the Lord—and who were rescued by Him—are many. If we’ll listen for them, we’ll find that they stack up one upon another.

There’s a reason for this. David said that the angel of the Lord encamps all around and rescues those who reverence and trust God. This may be a reference to the angels of heaven—the glorious ministering spirits from God who the Bible tells us are sent to minister to those who inherit salvation. But it may also be an Old Testament reference to the Lord Jesus Himself in pre-incarnate form. He personally loves and protects His people. In either case, those who cry out to God clearly have stories to tell of His gracious deliverance and salvation.

This would be a good time to stop and open the worship service up for us all to publicly offer up one-or-two-sentence prayers of thanks to God for the ways He has heard us and delivered us.

* * * * * * * * * *

The second half of the ‘devotional’ section of this psalm is found in verses 8-10. David wrote out an invitation to us all to heed these various testimonies; and to, like those who gave those testimonies, also put our trust in God;

Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good;
Blessed is the man who trusts in Him!
Oh, fear the Lord, you His saints!
There is no want to those who fear Him.
The young lions lack and suffer hunger;
But those who seek the Lord shall not lack any good thing.

Now; you might hear those words and think, “But I know people who have trusted God; and yet, they ended up suffering terrible trials and difficult circumstances. Lots of God-fearing, reverent, holy people have gone hungry or suffered need. Some have even died. How was that supposed to be ‘blessed’?” And of course, that would be true. Crying out to God—trusting in Him—reverencing Him and His holy way—doesn’t guarantee that we will never experience any trials or troubles or needs. But what it does mean is that our trust will be kept on our sovereign God throughout those trials; and that our ultimate satisfaction and fulfillment will no longer depend upon outward, temporal circumstances. We will find God Himself to be with us through the trials and times of need. We’ll remember that He will only allow things to come into our lives that perfect our love for and trust in Him. And in the midst of it all, we will find Him to be our ultimate source of good and blessedness.

And what’s more, along the way, we’ll also find that He does in fact meet our needs.

The apostle Peter quoted from these words once when he wrote to a group of Jewish Christians who were suffering terrible persecution. He told them that God was refining their faith through the trials that they were going through. And in 1 Peter 2:1-3, he told them;

Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious (1 Peter 2:1-3).

This would be a good time for us to offer up a testimony of God’s faithfulness. Let’s give our thanks to Him as we sing Hymn #210, “Praise to the Lord, the Almighty”.

* * * * * * * * * *

So; David has given us a ‘doxology’ of thanks; and also a ‘devotional’ of thanks. And now, he brings it all together into a teachable moment. In verse 11, and all the way to the end of the psalm, we find …

3. A DOCTRINE OF THANKS.

A ‘doctrine’, in this sense, is a piece of instruction—a lesson. And that’s what David now offers to us. The lesson is very clear … and very practical. In verses 11-14, he says,

Come, you children, listen to me;
I will teach you the fear of the Lord.
Who is the man who desires life,
And loves many 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 (vv. 11-14).

If we are trusting God as we should, then we won’t feel compelled to do the kind of things that David himself had to (sadly) admit that he did. If we desire life and good days, then we’ll keep ourselves far away from evil talk. We won’t try to work things out through lies, or try to get by through speaking evil of others. We’ll leave wicked tactics behind. Instead, we’ll seek peace with others—even our enemies. In fact, we will go out of our way to pursue that peace.

And why? It’s because of the way God works.

The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous,
And His ears are open to their cry.
The face of the Lord is against those who do evil,
To cut off the remembrance of them from the earth (vv. 15-16).

This is another part of this psalm that the apostle Peter drew from later in order to encourage his persecuted brothers and sisters in Christ. He urged them to be careful to stay holy in the way that they responded to those who were persecuting them; telling them,

Finally, all of you be of one mind, having compassion for one another; love as brothers, be tenderhearted, be courteous; not returning evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary blessing, knowing that you were called to this, that you may inherit a blessing. For

“He who would love life
And see good days,
Let him refrain his tongue from evil,
And his lips from speaking deceit.
Let him turn away from evil and do good;
Let him seek peace and pursue it.
For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous,
And His ears are open to their prayers;
But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil” (1 Peter 3:8-12).

If that’s how God operates—that is, with His eye upon the righteous, and His ears open to their prayers—then the surest way to ultimate blessedness is to keep ourselves in the kind of condition of life and heart that God will bless. That way—even in the times of deepest trial and need—we can cry out to God and be sure to be heard by Him. As David went on to promise;

The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears,
And delivers them out of all their troubles.
The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart,
And saves such as have a contrite spirit (vv. 17-18).

Now; David doesn’t engage in false advertising in this psalm. He admits the truth that we considered a moment ago. Even those who walk righteously before God will have times of suffering. But there still remains an overcoming and prevailing reason for thanks to God;

Many are the afflictions of the righteous,
But the Lord delivers him out of them all.
He guards all his bones;
Not one of them is broken (vv. 19-20).

By the way; does that reference to ‘bones not broken’ sound at all familiar? Those words were literally and prophetically fulfilled with respect to our Savior as He hung on the cross. When the Roman soldiers went to break the legs of the other criminals who hung near Jesus in order to hasten their deaths, they didn’t break His legs. And that was because our Lord had already given up His spirit on our behalf … and rose from the dead three days later. You can look at the Lord Jesus as the ultimate example of the fulfillment of the promises of these words from David. He is the one who gives eternal thanks to the Father for having delivered Him from death; so that He ever lives to be the Savior of all those who cry out to the Father in His name.

As David promise at the end of this psalm;
Evil shall slay the wicked,
And those who hate the righteous shall be condemned.
The Lord redeems the soul of His servants,
And none of those who trust in Him shall be condemned (vv. 18-22).

* * * * * * * * * *

So; as we come to the Thanksgiving holiday, let’s respond faithfully to the promises we find in this Psalm. Let’s give our deepest thanks and praise to God our Savior, who has given us the gift of His eternal salvation through faith in Jesus. Let’s cry out to Him in our times of trial—trusting in His mercy and grace. And let’s say with David, “I will bless the Lord at all times!”

This would be a great time to declare the cause for our thanks.

Let’s close by singing together from Hymn #408, “How Firm a Foundation”.