Sunday
Morning Bible Study
October 26, 2003
Psalm 34 – Deliverance from Fear
:1-8 David’s praise
:1 A Psalm of David, when he changed his behaviour before Abimelech
Abimelech – can be a proper name or the name of a dynasty (meaning
“my father is king”). Here it refers to one of the kings of the Philistines, a
man named Achish. We’ll talk about the
situation itself in a minute.
This Psalm is another acrostic, each verse starts with the next letter of
the alphabet.
:1-3 O magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt his name together.
God deserves our praise and gratitude.
All the time. No matter what our
current circumstances are.
Sometimes we are aware of reasons to praise Him. But sometimes we aren’t. He still deserves praise.
:4 I sought the LORD, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.
This is the main verse of the entire Psalm.
This is the reason for David’s praise.
sought – darash – (Qal) to
resort to, frequent (a place), to consult, enquire of, seek
delivered – natsal –
(Hiphil) to take away, to rescue, to deliver from enemies, troubles, death, sin
or guilt.
What was David afraid of?
David had some very real, very serious fears.
David had been running from Saul.
Saul was David’s father-in-law, his boss, and his king. From David’s victory over Goliath to his
victories on the battlefield, David had become famous. Even though David was a faithful servant of
Saul, Saul wanted David killed simply because he was jealous of David. Saul had already made several attempts on
David’s life, using David for target practice at dinner, even sending agents to
kill David when he went home at night.
(1 Sam 21:10-15 KJV) And
David arose, and fled that day for fear of Saul, and went to Achish the king of
Gath.
David was afraid of Saul. He was
afraid that one day Saul would catch him and have him killed.
{11} And the servants of Achish said unto him, Is not this David
the king of the land? did they not sing one to another of him in dances,
saying, Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands? {12} And
David laid up these words in his heart, and was sore afraid of Achish the king
of Gath.
David was afraid of Achish and the Philistines. After all, David is now hiding out in the
city of Gath, the hometown of
Goliath.
{13} And he changed his behaviour before them, and feigned himself
mad in their hands, and scrabbled on the doors of the gate, and let his spittle
fall down upon his beard. {14} Then said Achish unto his servants, Lo, ye see
the man is mad: wherefore then have ye brought him to me? {15} Have I need of
mad men, that ye have brought this fellow to play the mad man in my presence?
shall this fellow come into my house?
In order to keep from being killed by the Philistines, David pretends to
lose his mind. He acts crazy. He scribbles graffiti on the walls. He drools.
Some have suggested that this was a mistake for David, running to the
Philistines. Some have considered it a lack of faith in fleeing the land
of Israel.
He certainly had lots to be afraid of.
What are you afraid of?
Here are the ten worst human fears (with a three-way tie for third place):
1. Speaking in front of a group
2. Heights
3-5 Insects and bugs, financial problems and deep water
6. Sickness
7. Death
8. Flying
9. Loneliness
10. Dogs
Lesson
Prayer and fears
David handled his fears by seeking the Lord.
What does it mean to seek the Lord?
I like the idea in the definition of “frequent a place”. Kind of like
hanging out with God. It is often translated “enquire”, going to God and asking
for His advice and help.
For David, it certainly meant to pray.
The Bible says that we are to handle our fears and anxieties with prayer.
(Phil 4:6-7 NKJV) Be
anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with
thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; {7} and the peace of God,
which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through
Christ Jesus.
Paul uses three different words for prayer: “prayer” (prayer in general), “supplication”
(specific requests), and “thanksgiving”.
I find that it helps to spell out the specific requests,
to tell God exactly what you think you need.
I also believe that one of the keys to receiving God’s
peace in place of your fears is to learn to pray with thanksgiving.
I don’t think this means we are supposed to thank God for
answering our prayer exactly as we asked, but that we learn to thank Him for
listening and doing what He knows is best.
If I have truly put the situation into His hands and I truly believe He can
take care of it, then I can be thankful.
And that’s when I receive God’s peace to guard my heart.
For some of us, when we face fearful times we have a knee-jerk response in
that we seek out certain people to talk to or ask for help.
I think counseling can be a wonderful thing. I believe God uses counseling. But I wonder if for some of us haven’t quite
grasped this important concept.
Go to God with your problems.
I certainly don’t think I have this mastered yet. I find myself often overcome with fears. Yet
I’m also finding out that God hears when we pray. He delivers us from our
fears.
Sometimes He delivers us from the thing that makes us afraid, sometimes He
delivers us from the fear itself.
Here are some great nuggets by some men who knew how to pray:
“If I could hear Christ praying for me in the next room, I would not fear a
million enemies. Yet distance makes no
difference. He is praying for me.” (Robert Murray McCheyne)
“The prayer power has never been tried to its full capacity. If we want to
see mighty wonders of divine power and grace wrought in the place of weakness,
failure and disappointment, let us answer God’s standing challenge, “Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and
show thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not!’” (J. Hudson Taylor)
:5 They looked unto him, and were lightened
were lightened – nahar –
to shine, beam, burn; be radiant
This makes me think about Moses.
When he would spend time in God’s presence in the Tabernacle, he would
come out and his face would glow.
When we were in Russia,
some of the Russian kids kept teasing us that we looked too much like
Americans. We asked them what it was
that made us look like Americans. They
said it was our back packs and our smiles.
I really don’t think the smiles were because we were Americans. I don’t think Americans always smile. I think it is because we have Jesus.
Charles H. Spurgeon in training young ministers said to his students, “When
you talk about heaven let your face light up with a heavenly glory. When you tell about hell, your everyday face
will do.”
:7 The angel of the LORD encampeth …and delivereth them.
Who is the “angel of the LORD”?
This phrase “the angel of the LORD”, or literally, “the messenger of
Yahweh”, is a specific phrase used in the Old Testament to indicate a specific
person. He made many appearances to many different people. The actual Hebrew
phrase appears 58 times in the Old Testament.
He appeared to Abraham when he was going to sacrifice his only begotten son
on Mount Moriah
(Gen. 22).
He spoke to Moses out of the burning bush (Ex. 3:2).
He was the one who called Gideon to deliver the Israelites (Judg. 6).
He was the angel that David saw at the threshing floor of Ornan the
Jebusite on Mount Moriah, which led to the purchase of the property for the
Temple (1Chr. 21).
We believe that this “angel of the LORD” is a “theophany”, or an appearance
of Jesus in physical form before his birth. In some of the passages I just
mentioned, this “angel of the LORD” is actually called God (Gen. 16:13; Ex.
3:2-4).
Lesson
God’s Help
God helps those who fear Him.
Hezekiah and the Assyrians.
In Hezekiah’s day, the Assyrians were the big bullies on the block. They had conquered just about everything in
the world, and they had decided that Hezekiah’s kingdom was next. They started seizing city after city until
they were on Jerusalem’s
doorstep. They had the city
surrounded. Hezekiah called the people
to prayer. He asked the prophet Isaiah
to pray. God sent a word:
(Isa 37:35 KJV)
For I will defend this city to save it for mine own sake, and for my
servant David's sake.
The next morning the people in Jerusalem
had a surprise waiting for them:
(Isa 37:36 KJV)
Then the angel of the LORD went forth, and smote in the camp of the
Assyrians a hundred and fourscore and five thousand: and when they arose early
in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses.
One angel kills 185,000 Assyrians in a single night.
Illustration
Sometimes God’s rescues are a little more subtle. I remember a time back in 1975 when I was
driving my Volkswagen van with a load of folks to go to a Bible Study at
Calvary Chapel of Costa Mesa. If you
know anything about Volkswagen vans, you know that when you have a van full of
people, you need lots of room to brake.
They don’t stop on a dime. It was
a Thursday morning and we were going to go to Pastor Romaine’s study. I had a couple of pastors in the van with
me. We were driving on the 5 freeway
south, about to get onto the 55 freeway.
Suddenly the traffic stopped and I knew I was going to have a
problem. It all happened too
quickly. All I know is that somehow we
stopped. We didn’t even hit the car in
front of us, though it felt like we hit some kind of a cushion. I still wonder how many angels got bruised
that day. I’m sure many of you have
stories just like that.
Do you need help? Do you fear God? He wants to help.
:9-14 Fear the Lord
:9 O fear the LORD, ye his saints
David now begins to describe an important element of his deliverance.
Jesus said,
(Mat 10:28
KJV) And fear not them which kill the
body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to
destroy both soul and body in hell.
Jesus wasn’t talking about being fearful of Satan, He’s talking about
fearing God.
David has had lots of fears – Saul and the Philistines.
But now he points to the one place where fear is healthy – a healthy fear
of God.
:14 Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it.
Lesson
Practical righteousness
Righteousness is not just about being a “goody-two-shoes”. There’s a real, practical side to
righteousness. We don’t say evil things,
we say good things. We don’t do evil
things, we do good things.
This all flows from a fear of God.
If I get a clue as to who God is, it ought to affect my behavior.
:15-22 Righteousness and deliverance
How can I get God to hear me when I pray?
:15-17 The righteous cry, and the LORD heareth
There is a principle in scripture that a “righteous” person carries weight
with God in prayer:
(James 5:16 KJV)
Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye
may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
And at the same time, when we have sin in our lives, we have a problem in
prayer.
When a husband is abusing his wife, his prayers are hindered:
(1 Pet 3:7 KJV) Likewise, ye
husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife,
as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life;
that your prayers be not hindered.
When we let enjoy sin in our heart, our communication with God is cut off:
(Psa 66:18 KJV) If I regard
iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me:
(Ps 66:18 The Message) If I had been cozy with evil, the Lord would
never have listened.
:18 The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such
as be of a contrite spirit.
broken – shabar – (Niphal)
to be broken, be maimed, be crippled, be crushed (fig)
If I’m a sinner, does that mean that God won’t hear me when I cry to Him?
He will hear us if we are broken over our sin.
Isaiah records:
(Isa 57:15 KJV) For thus saith the high and lofty One that
inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place,
with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of
the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.
:19 Many are the afflictions of the righteous…
Lesson
Lots of trouble
Doing the right thing and living a life that pleases God doesn’t keep you
from going through trouble.
(1 Pet 4:12 KJV) Beloved, think it not strange
concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing
happened unto you:
(2 Tim 3:12 KJV)
Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer
persecution.
Don’t count on a trouble free life – Count on a God who delivers you
:20 He keepeth all his bones: not one of them is broken.
I’m not sure David is promising that we’ll never break any bones if we
believe in the Lord. The odd nature of
this verse gives us a hint that there’s something more going on here than meets
the eye.
The apostle John records that when the soldiers went to hasten the deaths
of the prisoners on the crosses, they didn’t have to break Jesus’ legs like
they did with the other two men.
Instead,
(John 19:34-36 KJV) But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced
his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water. {35} And he that saw it
bare record, and his record is true: and he knoweth that he saith true, that ye
might believe. {36} For these things were done, that the scripture should be
fulfilled, A bone of him shall not be
broken.
David once again finds himself talking about Jesus.
:22 The LORD redeemeth the soul of his servants: and none of them that
trust in him shall be desolate.
As we said in the beginning, this Psalm is an acrostic, with each verse
starting with the next letter in the Hebrew alphabet. Except there is one letter missing between
verses 5-6, and so the acrostic actually ends in verse 21 (one short of the
alphabet), and that makes this verse actually stand out more in the Hebrew. This is a special verse.
redeemeth – padah – to
ransom, redeem, rescue, deliver
This is the word used in the book of Exodus to describe what God did during
the night of the Passover. It was decreed that the firstborn of every family
would die. Yet if a family believed in God’s deliverance, they would sacrifice
a lamb and put the lamb’s blood on the doorposts of the house. That night as
the angel of death went over the land, the angel “passed over” those houses
that had lamb’s blood. These firstborn sons of the Israelites had been
“redeemed”. Their lives were spared because the lamb took the place of the son
(Ex. 13:15). They had been rescued with
lamb’s blood.
that trust in him – chacah –
(Qal) to seek refuge, flee for protection
desolate – ‘asham – (Qal)
to be or become guilty; to be incriminated
(Ps 34:22 The Message) God pays for each slave’s freedom; no
one who runs to him loses out.
David was not a perfect guy. At this
time in his life I kind of get the idea that he’s painfully aware that he’s got
some flaws.
But he’s found out that seeing God’s deliverance is not just about living a
righteous life. It’s important to live a
righteous life, but it’s even most important to run to the Lord for safety.
God knows how to “redeem” your soul.
He’s paid the price for your sin.
His Son was the Lamb of God, who came to take away the sin of the world
by dying on the cross.
Sometimes we aren’t the “righteous” person we ought to be. Sometimes we
sin.
Illustration
There was a little boy visiting his grandparents on their farm. He was
given a slingshot to play with in the woods. He practiced in the woods, but he
could never hit the target. Getting a little discouraged, he headed back for
dinner. As he was walking back he saw Grandma’s pet duck. Just out of impulse
he let the slingshot fly, hit the duck square in the head, and killed it. He
was shocked and grieved. In a panic, he hid the dead duck in the wood pile,
only to see his sister watching. Sally had seen it all, but she said nothing.
After lunch the next day Grandma said, “Sally, let’s wash the dishes.” But
Sally said, “Grandma, Johnny told me he wanted to help in the kitchen. Then she
whispered to him, “Remember the duck?” So Johnny did the dishes. Later that
day, Grandpa asked if the children wanted to go fishing and Grandma said, “I’m
sorry but I need Sally to help make supper.” Sally just smiled and said, “Well,
that’s all right because Johnny told me he wanted to help. She whispered again,
“Remember the duck?” So Sally went fishing and Johnny stayed to help. After
several days of Johnny doing both his chores and Sally’s he finally couldn’t
stand it any longer. He came to Grandma and confessed that he had killed the
duck. Grandma knelt down, gave him a hug and said, “Sweetheart, I know. You
see, I was standing at the window and I saw the whole thing. But because I love
you, I forgave you. I was just wondering how long you would let Sally make a
slave of you.”
Has Satan been using your guilt to make you his slave?
God too sees your sin. He knows all
about it. He’s waiting for you to get to
the point where you’ll come to Him and confess it. He’s waiting for you to get tired of having
Satan beat you up.