Expository Sermon on Psalm 34
by Maylan Schurch
Bellevue Seventh-day Adventist Church 7/27/2024
©2024 by Maylan Schurch
(To watch this entire worship service, click the link just below:)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gy5PvOZgAXk
Please open your Bibles to Psalm 34.
A couple of weeks ago I preached a sermon on Psalm 25, and called it “Alphabetic Asks.” That’s because Psalm 25 was an “alphabet acrostic” Psalm. That’s where the first verse of the song starts with the word that begins with the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet. The second verse of this Psalm starts with the word that begins with the second letter of the alphabet, and so on down through the Psalm.
Well, Psalm 34 is also an acrostic alphabet psalm. But while Psalm 25 focused on some things the psalmist was asking the Lord, this Psalm has a different focus.
This Psalm mentions fear several times, but as I studied through it, its verses actually contain several “fear- faders.”
This is another Psalm of David, so I called this sermon “David’s Favorite Fear-faders.”
What are you afraid of? And does that fear, or do those fears, become so powerful that it’s hard to get through the day? Or through the night?
Recently some nearby neighbors were going to take a vacation, and they asked us to keep an eye on their house. They said that nobody should be coming over there while they’re gone. But one afternoon Shelley and I saw a white pickup pull slowly to a stop in front of their house. Somebody got out, and took a few steps toward the neighbor’s house, and then paused. We happened to be outside at the time, and I think the person had observed us watching him. So he got back in his pickup, drove down to the end of our cul-de-sac, turned around, and roared past our house.
I had taken a couple of pictures of the pickup, so I texted them to our vacationing neighbors, and they said they didn’t recognize the vehicle. That was a little disturbing to us. So this white-pickup driver wasn’t expected at that house, and therefore probably shouldn’t have been there. We don’t know the whole story, of course, but it was just a reminder that things are uncertain nowadays. You just never know.
And this makes Psalm 34, to me anyway, a very comforting one. What steps did David take – and what steps does he advise us to take – to fade our fears? Well, let’s take a look.
Psalm 34:1 [NKJV]: A Psalm of David When He Pretended Madness Before Abimelech, Who Drove Him Away, and He Departed.
Isn’t that interesting? In the Hebrew Bible, that is part of verse one. That is inspired Scripture – it wasn’t added in recent years by a Bible scholar who was simply trying to guess the context. If you remember the story – which we won’t have time to go into – David and his followers were staying with a foreign king by the name of Abimelech, and Abimelech wanted to go attack the Israelites. David had been pretending that he didn’t care much about Israel, especially King Saul, whose soldiers were chasing him all around the country, but he suddenly realized that problems would come up if Abimelech wanted David and his men to actually join forces against Israel. So David pretended like he’d gone crazy, and Abimelech kicked him out of the country.
Anyway, this Psalm was written on that occasion, or probably just after it. David doesn’t say anything about this crazy-man event in the Psalm itself, but gives an interesting context for this Psalm.
Now let’s continue with the rest of verse one.
Verses 1 – 3 . . . 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.
This is classic David, isn’t it? He seems always ready to burst into praise to the Lord, and he wrote many songs like this to help other people sing along with this praise.
But now comes the fear part.
Verse 4: I sought the LORD, and He heard me, And delivered me from all my fears.
If you like to take down sermon points, here comes Sermon Point One.
What’s the first of David’s favorite fear-faders? (Actually, will have to ask David in heaven, when we get there, whether he even did have favorite fear-faders, but this one shows up not only in his Psalms but in his actions throughout his life story. Here’s Point One:
Seek the Lord.
David was always seeking the Lord.
Verse 4: I sought the LORD, and He heard me, And delivered me from all my fears.
Now, as I mentioned, the word “fear” shows up a few times in this Psalm. I printed the chapter out in Hebrew, and looked at all the “fear” words. But I discovered that this “fear” right here in this verse is a different Hebrew word for “fear” than in the rest of the chapter. This is the word megorah. It only shows up a few times in the Bible, and it means “terror” or “horror.”
One of the few times this word is used in the Old Testament is in Jeremiah 20, verses three and four. Jeremiah has the unpleasant duty to prophesy to the nation that they will be taken captive by Babylon. Naturally, nobody wanted to believe him, so he took quite a bit of ridicule for this. They finally locked him up in some stocks, and the next day they released him from those stocks.
Jeremiah 20:3 – 4 says this:
And it happened on the next day that Pashhur brought Jeremiah out of the stocks. Then Jeremiah said to him, “The LORD has not called your name Pashhur, but Magor-Missabib. For thus says the LORD: ‘Behold, I will make you a terror to yourself and to all your friends; and they shall fall by the sword of their enemies, and your eyes shall see it. I will give all Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall carry them captive to Babylon and slay them with the sword.
So even though Jeremiah is being persecuted, he didn’t change his message. He still says that the Lord is going to send the nation into Babylonian captivity.
But what’s interesting to me is that when Jeremiah says, “‘Behold, I will make you a terror to yourself and to all your friends;” that word “terror” is the same word for fear here in Psalm 34:4. David says, “I sought the Lord, and he answered me; he delivered me from all my – terrors. Horrors.”
You know what that says to me? It says that no matter how intense my personal fears might be – no matter how terror-filled or horror-filled my heart is – if I seek the Lord, God will deliver me from those terrors or horrors.
What does that mean? Does it mean God will always, instantly, make those intense fears vanish? Who knows? The Lord knows what’s best. He did not make Jeremiah’s persecution vanish. Jeremiah was kept in a dungeon for quite a while. But in Daniel’s case, the Lord sent an angel into the lion’s den to close the lions’ mouths so that Daniel was almost immediately delivered from his terror and horror.
So we leave the results up to God, but the important thing is to seek Him. How do we seek the Lord? A good way to find out is to read through Bible stories like the ones in David’s life, and find out how he sought the Lord. When you “seek” someone or something, they aren’t normally where you can spot them right away. You need to go looking.
How do you go looking for God? You look into the Bible, and immerse yourself in those stories. If it’s been a while since you’ve opened your Bible, what I suggest to people is that they simply read the stories. Choose one of the Gospels, and just read the life of Jesus. Read about the people who sought Him out. Zacchaeus climbed a tree to get a look at Jesus. Blind men sitting beside the road Jesus was traveling on – even though they couldn’t see – they heard Him approaching and called out to Him for mercy. The Samaritan woman didn’t know she was seeking the Lord until she had a few minutes conversation with Him, and then He told her that He was the Messiah.
And on and on, throughout Scripture.
Another way to seek the Lord is to open your eyes and look carefully at what you see in nature.
Every single day, one of our church members sends me a photo and devotionals he or she has written, and I upload them onto the Daily Photo Parable page on our church website. Most often these blogs are scenes from nature, and the church member who took the photo has done some thinking about how the photo portrays some truths about God or the Bible. (Toward the end of this sermon I’ll show you an excellent example of one of these blogs.)
And one of the Bible truths you find as you read is that God promises that the seekers will find Him. I’m going to read Jeremiah 29, starting with verse 11. You’ll recognize the first part, but then I’ll keep reading, and you’ll discover another wonderful promise.
Jeremiah 29:11 – 14: For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. I will be found by you, says the LORD . . .
Notice how Jeremiah says to seek the Lord? Call upon Him, and go and pray to Him, searching for Him with all our hearts.
And as we seek the Lord, according to what David says here in Psalm 34, God will deliver us from those terrors and the horrors that occupy our mind. He might not make the bad things go away right away, or maybe it will take a long time, but He will deliver us from the terrors we feel.
In fact, back here in Psalm 34, David goes ahead and gives a couple of examples about how the Lord responded to those who sought Him.
Psalm 34:5 – 6: 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.
Now let’s look at another “fear-fader” David tells us about.
Verse 7: The angel of the LORD encamps all around those who fear Him, And delivers them.
Here’s the second sermon point.
What’s the second of David’s favorite fear-faders?
Seek the Lord, and remember His protectors.
Notice what verse 7 does NOT say. This verse does not say, “The angel of the Lord stands ready to help those who fear God.” It says “The angel of the Lord encamps all around those who fear Him.”
In other words, the angel is not just standing in one spot, so that you might be protected while you’re facing him, but your back might be in danger. No, the angel somehow surrounds you, if you’re one of those people who fear God.
Second Kings 6 tells a story about how the prophet Elisha and his servants were in the village of Dothan, and the king of Syria sent an army to surround the city. The servant was filled with both terror and horror, until Elisha prayed that his servant’s eyes would be opened, and then the servant saw the angelic armies of the Lord.
Verse 7: The angel of the LORD encamps all around those who fear Him, And delivers them.
We need to pause a moment and take a look at the word “fear” in this verse. This is another Hebrew word for fear, the most common one. This is not terror or horror. The Bible says we should fear the Lord, but we need not feel terror or horror about Him.
No, this fear is kind of very deep respect we should have for God. God has our future in His hands. God has the responsibility to provide the universe with eternal safety, and once the affairs of planet Earth are all wrapped up, God will not allow anyone into His universe who will endanger it.
Because when we talk about fearing the Lord, we need to remember that Proverbs 9:10 says that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. (Again, that is not the terror or horror fear, but the more common one.)
And First John 4:18 reassures us this way: “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear . . .”
Back to Psalm 34 to find a third of David’s favorite fear-faders.
Verse 8: Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good; Blessed is the man who trusts in Him!
What’s another of David’s fear-faders?
Seek the Lord, remember His protectors, and discover His goodness.
How do you find out whether or not God is good? David mentions two ways right here: taste and see.
We have to keep in mind that this is an alphabet acrostic Psalm. So David is writing along, trying to stay in line with the alphabet, and he gets to this verse. He needs a word which starts with the Hebrew letter “t.” Actually, Hebrew has two letters with the “t” sound. The word “taste” is the word ta-am. So David puts it down, and goes on from there.
Did you ever have a food that you thought you hated, or thought you would hate it if you tried it, and later you discovered you got to like it?
For me, one of these foods is eggplant. If you prepare it and season it right – and Shelley does – eggplant is good. Another food is cottage cheese. When I was a kid, my dad made cottage cheese at a local dairy. Since I had actually seen cottage cheese made, it disgusted me, and I didn’t eat it for years. But later, I discovered that it was really very good. (I shouldn’t have it now, because I’m trying to watch my salt intake, but this was one of the foods I totally changed my mind about. I tasted and saw that cottage cheese was good.)
Do you know what I think David is trying to tell us here? I think David knew that God does not simply want us to be content with thinking or deciding or resolving that the Lord is good. God wants us to taste and see.
So how can you discover God’s goodness by tasting and seeing? Well, you can literally taste the food at our Kelsey Creek Park potluck after church, and thank the Lord for its raw materials, and for the talent its cooks have used to transform it. (I mean, the Lord could have chosen to give us nourishment in large, tasteless gray capsules we’d have to swallow.)
And you can literally see the goodness of God as you look around you at the park, and if you go up to the barns and look at the animals. “All things bright and beautiful, all creatures great and small, All things wise and wonderful. The Lord God made them all. Each little flower that opens, Each little bird that sings, He made their glowing colors, And made their tiny wings.”
And of course there are many other ways to discover God’s goodness besides using just those two senses. He would appreciate it of you reach out to Him and involve Him in your daily life more than you may be doing right now.
I’m going to look at just one more of David’s favorite fear-faders. Let’s start with verse nine.
Verse 9: Oh, fear the LORD, you His saints! There is no want to those who fear Him.
Here comes the last sermon point – Sermon Point Four.
What’s one more of David’s fear-faders?
Seek the Lord, remember His protectors, discover His goodness, and use “follow-through” fear.
What do I mean by “follow-through” fear? David will tell us in a minute, but I want to pause to mention that the word “fear” in verse nine is – again – not the terror-or-horror word, but instead it’s the most common word for fear.
But let’s let David tell us how to follow through on our healthy fear, our healthy respect, for the Lord.
Verses 11 – 14: 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.
Notice that? These are ways we can follow through on that fear of the Lord which make us deeply respectful of His will.
Control your tongue, David suggests.
Depart from evil, he says. But it’s important not to leave a vacuum. That must’ve been why David immediately says “Do good.” Jesus tells the parable in Matthew 12 about a man who had an evil spirit driven out of his house, but when the house was swept and clean with no replacement, then several other spirits worse than the first arrived and took up residence.
So depart from evil, and do good. And finally verse 14 says, “Seek peace, and pursue it.”
There’s a difference between seeking and pursuing. Seeking is looking around to see if you can find something or someone you lost, but pursuing is a more muscular approach. Pursuing means you’re running after something, in other words, seeking it energetically. The Olympic athletes aren’t just hoping for their medals–they’re pursuing those medals.
And that’s what we’re supposed to do with the peace God wants for us. That peace is the Hebrew word shalom.
A little over a week ago I asked Amber and Russell Jurgensen if I could have permission to use one of their most recent Daily Photo Parables in a sermon. As I mentioned earlier, every day one of our church members, on a rotating schedule, sends me a photo he or she has taken, and also a devotional thought they have prepared to go along with it. You can find these Daily Photo Parables by going to our church website, bellevueadventist.org, and just clicking on the picture that says “Daily Photo Parable.”
(Here’s the direct link:https://bellevueadventist.org/steering-required/
The Jurgensens have the Thursday blog slot, and a week ago this past Thursday I put up a photo Amber had taken. I’d like to ask the audiovisual team to project that photo for us now.
Now that you’re watching the photo, I’m going to read Russell’s commentary on it. I think it’s a perfect illustration of the follow-through which David insists we do.
Here’s what Russell says:
“The freeway heading to Spokane is very straight in a few areas. As I was driving with both hands on the wheel, I was surprised when a large urgent message popped up on the dashboard, “STEERING REQUIRED” accompanied by a steering wheel shake! Dash messages do occasionally pop up, but over several years’ time of owning this vehicle, I had never seen this message. Making it more amusing was the straight road ahead, of which my wife took the accompanying picture. There actually wasn’t much steering required and definitely no emergency. Evidently, I hadn’t needed to make any steering adjustments for a while and the car felt a need to remind me to drive. I imagine that would be a good reminder for someone who is falling asleep or distracted.
“Maybe in our spiritual lives we sometimes let things follow the easy course and do not really make conscious effort to guide it. Or when the way is not so straight, we might be just navigating the terrain and not thinking about the general direction. It could be a good idea for a message to pop up reminding us to be proactive in setting our direction.
“I hope your spiritual road can be straight whenever possible. Let’s remember to steer in those times too.”
Isn’t that great? I think that’s a perfect illustration – a perfect parable – of what David and the rest of the Bible say about living a life for God. God’s power is there to move us along, but we need to make choices. And the gentle nudging of the Holy Spirit will guide us if we’re listening.