Entrust Yourself To The Lord And See His Goodness (Psalm 34)
Pastors, if they want to truly work at the hearts of the people, must attempt to throw gasoline upon the idols of the day. Then they hand the people lighters and tell them they must destroy the idols of their hearts. Sometimes this is a joyous occasion. And at other times a person is told to destroy the idols of their heart and there is an uprising. It happened to Gideon, and it happens today (Judges 6:30).
The message today is about entrusting ourselves to the Lord. That sounds positive enough, but when you think about what this means it is a call to entrust yourself to the Lord and not others. This is a call to entrust ourselves to the Lord and not the idols of our day.
The context of this Psalm is 1 Samuel 21. David was surrounded by trouble on every side and was in an impossible situation. He was running from Saul and in the land of the Philistines, where he had a reputation for killing Philistines. His trouble was so bad that he chose to run from Saul and to the King of Gath, where his reputation was presented to the King.
“And David rose and fled that day from Saul and went to Achish the king of Gath. And the servants of Achish said to him, “Is not this David the king of the land? Did they not sing to one another of him in dances,
‘Saul has struck down his thousands, and David his ten thousands’?”
And David took these words to heart and was much afraid of Achish the king of Gath. So he changed his behavior before them and pretended to be insane in their hands and made marks on the doors of the gate and let his spittle run down his beard. Then Achish said to his servants, “Behold, you see the man is mad. Why then have you brought him to me? Do I lack madmen, that you have brought this fellow to behave as a madman in my presence? Shall this fellow come into my house?”” (1 Samuel 21:10-15 ESV)
And with that, David was able to escape. God provided for David, a rather unconventional way of escape. He pretended to be insane, complete with drool in his beard, and was able to leave unscathed. And Psalm 34 serves as a lesson of praise from the life of David.
Entrust yourself to the Lord and see the goodness of God.
And here is where things get interesting for us today. The people in America today are entrusting their selves to politics rather than the Lord. We see this repeatedly. This idol of politics is believed to be able to solve the problems of personal finances, education, mental health, murder rates, the war spirit, and just about everything else under the sun.
While some of you will look at this and say, “Dwain, you’re being silly. We are just being good citizens and being involved in politics.” To which I would respond, “How often do you break God’s Law while being “involved in politics”. How often do you lie or slander someone because it will appease your idol?
I’m not saying that we should be uninvolved in politics. I am saying that politics has its place. It is a took that we use, but when the tool becomes all encompassing it becomes an idol that needs to be put in it’s rightful place.
In his book “Christendom in Dublin”, G.K. Chesterton rather famously wrote about Vladimir Lenin’s famous quote, “Religion is the opiate of the masses.” Chesterton contended from history that he was completely backwards.
“Once abolish God, and the Government becomes the God. That fact is written all across human history; but it is written most plainly across that recent history of Russia; which was created by Lenin…Lenin only fell into a slight error: he only got it the wrong way round. The truth is that irreligion is the opium of the people. Wherever the people do not believe in something beyond the world, they will worship the world.”-G.K. Chesteron
We are to entrust ourselves to the Lord and see His goodness. All other idols will fail, a huge government that makes a million promises is included in this.
Entrust Yourself To The Lord And Praise Him Together (Psalm 34:13)
W have every reason to bless the Lord. We should be giving thanks and praising the Lord at all times. The goodness of God in our lives is cause for rejoicing! But really, the goodness of God alone is worthy of rejoicing in and being thankful for.
The Lord is both good and good to us. And David understood that in an incredible way after being rescued from hardship. God rescued him from his dire situation and it turned into overwhelming joy at the thought of God’s goodness toward him.
An understanding of the goodness of God and His goodness toward us should cause us to sing out in praise. And it does.
I love to hear this church sing. I love to hear the people of God singing God’s praises together. And the sound is wonderful because we have, in our midst, a group of people that understand they have a lot to be thankful for. So we sing of God’s goodness together.
God is Himself good, so we have much to sing about. He is righteous, just, and gracious. And He acts righteous, just, and gracious in the world. He holds the world together in His goodness. And He has acted graciously toward us.
We think first of our salvation. We think of what wretches we were before God saved us. And we are pulled into singing and praising the Lord for the gift of His Son and the salvation that we have in Him. That God sent His Son to live and die for us is an incredible gift that can never be overlooked. And it is a gift that the Christian will always be thankful for.
We also have been placed within our families that we love so dearly. We were given mothers and fathers that loved and cared for us. And then we were given a wife that we cherish and spend our lives with. And then children came from that bond. What gifts God has given to us!
And we have been given homes. What a blessing it is to have a place to rest our head! What a blessing it is to have a place where our family can come together and cooperate together as a household!
God is good. And He is good to us. Therefore, we have much to sing about.
Entrust Yourself To The Lord And See His Goodness (Psalm 34:4-10)
This psalm comes from David’s own experience. David was in the middle of the desperate situation described above and God delivered him.
No matter where David turned, he was going to be amid people who wanted him dead. And everyone had the ability to kill him. David cried out to the Lord and God answered him and delivered him from all of his enemies (Psalm 34:4). Yes, his deliverance came in a most unconventional way, but God’s deliverance is often that way. But it was obvious that God answered his prayer and delivered him.
This lesson from David’s personal experience led David to proclaim that God’s people are truly blessed. They are shining and not shame covered (Psalm 34:5). And just as David was a poor man who cried out and was saved, the same thing is true of other believers (Psalm 34:6). In fact, David states that God delivers his people through an army of angels that encamp around them. David’s experience led David to proclaim the goodness of God in the believer’s life.
“Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good!
Blessed is the man that takes refuge in Him!”
(Psalm 34:8 ESV)
David’s experience leads him to call upon God’s people to entrust their selves to the Lord. The New Testament helps us to understand that this verse is about more than just dipping our toe in the water a little bit (1 Peter 2:3, Hebrews 6:5). Though it may not be what we would call “saving faith”, based on the context of those verses. There is obviously something more going on than dipping in our toe to see if we like it. Based upon his experience, David is calling upon us to entrust our lives to the Lord and see that He is in fact good. And the one who does that will find that God is for them, a refuge. He will be a place of incredible safety and security for them through all of life’s struggles.
“Fear the Lord” is another way of saying the same thing again (Psalm 34:9). Entrust yourself to the Lord’s care, not the care of others. Entrust yourself to the Lord and find that you have “no lack (Psalm 34:9). Entrust yourself to the Lord and find that God provides for you the safety and security that you so desperately need and long for.
This is not a health, wealth, and prosperity message. But it is a message built upon the understanding that God cares for His people. Listen, David was in a horrible situation. And David saw in that situation the love and grace of God. God provided a way of escape for him. All of his needs were met in that moment, and not a moment sooner.
So, David paints a picture for us. He wants us to understand this text a bit clearer. Pictures generally help with that. And this picture is of a young lion that hunts ferociously and still ends up hungry. We’ve seen these lions as we watch nature documentaries. You know, the young lions who are kicked out of the Pride to go it alone. They hunt and fight ferociously, but still end up starving and dying. David is saying plainly and loudly that God’s people are not like that. They “lack no good thing” (Psalm 34:10 ESV)
David’s own experience is to teach us to entrust ourselves to the Lord.
Some of the struggles in our lives are from our own making. Others are brought to us from beyond our control. And others are a combination of the two.
For example, sometimes financial struggles come from our own making. But sometimes they are outside of our control. Sometimes they are due to the wicked actions of others. The Scriptures repeatedly discuss the wickedness of greedy people and the problems they give to the poor. And, we could look at our bank account and see that we made major mistakes and were treated poorly by others.
Our response is not to hope for a government bail out of our finances. Our response is to entrust ourselves to the Lord and look for a way out of the mess we are in. David looked for a way out. He acted insane and trusted the Lord would save him from his enemies. We should look and think through the way out, entrust ourselves to the Lord, and work toward getting out of our financial struggles.
When we consider our own health struggles. We use the means that God has given us, which in our case is doctors. And we entrust ourselves to the care of the Lord. We pray for our doctors and for our health and move forward.
Entrust Yourself To The Lord And Live Righteously (Psalm 34:11-18)
David now calls the children to listen to him. It is another lesson from his experience (Psalm 34:11). He is going to teach them what it means to entrust their selves to the Lord. Those who entrust their selves to the Lord live a certain way. They walk in righteousness.
The idea that comes out plainly here from David is that the person who desires to see the goodness of God wash over their lives will be the person that lives before the Lord. It is the person that has entrusted their selves to the Lord, therefore they live righteously before Him. The people who entrust their lives to the Lord will not speak evil (Psalm 34:12). They will do good (Psalm 34:14). And they will seek peace and pursue peace in their life (Psalm 34:14).
The truth of the matter is that the person who has entrusted their selves to the Lord, the person who fears the Lord and not the world, will have a life that is marked by that. They will understand that God cares for them and they don’t need to take upon their lives the ways of the world in order to be kept safe. They have a guardian. They have a person that watches over them. They have one that hears their prayers (Psalm 34:15, 17-18). But it is not so for those who walk in unrighteousness (Psalm 34:16). The Lord is against the unrighteous and His judgment will fall upon them.
If we truly entrust ourselves to the Lord, we will not walk in the ways of another “god” in order to get our deliverance. It may be acceptable to lie, cheat, steal, and endorse those who do such wickedness in order to get what we want but this is not how those who entrust their selves to the Lord behave.
This is what is truly difficult in our day. And this is also why I bring up politics as an idol that we ought not trust in. Democrats have basically embraced the sins of Romans 1 as their Party Platform with an addition of baby killing on top. To entrust myself to democratic politicians is like making a deal with the Devil these days. But when I look at the Republican Party, I see similar things taking place. The Republican Party also has its own growing rainbow coalition, and not the Noahic Covenant kind. But there is a willingness among Conservatives to slander people on the other side of the aisle to get what they desire. And here is the point, if you are willing to behave in that manner, then it is not the Lord you are trusting. You aren’t entrusting yourself to the Lord in those moments. You are entrusting yourself to the political party.
Those who entrust their selves to the Lord should be involved in politics, but more as an outside actor not beholden to the Donkey or the Elephant. He should be viewing politics from God’s Word and attempting to change the world as the Lord would have him to do.
But this also applies to other things as well.
If I entrust myself to the Lord, then I will not be a person who takes advantage of other people for my monetary gain. I will be honest in my business dealings even if other people are not. I will entrust myself to the Lord.
Entrust Yourself To The Lord And Be Redeemed (Psalm 34:19-22)
It is not that believers face no struggles, for they face a lot of them. And oftentimes it seems as if we face more struggles. But through it all, we find the Lord to be faithful (Psalm 34:19). And in the end, the righteous are not broken (Psalm 34:20).
I see this over and over with believers. They are probably the only group of people that you can talk to today that will tell you that through suffering and struggles their lives got better. As God showed Himself to be faithful amid their suffering, they found Him to be a marvelous Savior and glorious Lord.
But in a more ultimate sense, this text is about the Righteous One, Jesus Christ. He was not broken. This is what John tells us in his gospel.
“For these things took place that the Scripture might be fulfilled: “Not one of his bones will be broken.”” (John 19:36 ESV)
We understand that Jesus’s bones were not broken because the Passover Lamb was to have no broken bones (Exodus 12:46). Jesus suffered immensely for us. He was the perfect Passover Lamb, slain so that God’s wrath would pass over us. This serves as a reminder for us. Though we suffer immensely, we are delivered through Him!
The Christian is never completely torn asunder, for even in death we will find ourselves restored in the presence of the Lord. But it is not so with the wicked. Affliction will destroy the wicked. Those who hate believers, and there are many of those folks today, will find their selves under God’s judgment (Psalm 34:22). But the Lord redeems His people (Psalm 34:22).
Those who entrust their selves to Christ are redeemed. A thousand struggles will buffet them in this life, but they have a Redeemer. They have a glorious salvation that they rest upon and in Him they are made whole.
Conclusion
We are to entrust ourselves to the Lord and see His goodness. All other idols will fail, but the Lord will not. Those who entrust their selves to the Lord will see His goodness.
I mentioned politics at the beginning because that is where a lot of idolatry happens in our day. But we can entrust ourselves to a lot of different things. There are a lot of places we can go wrong there. And here is the point. We need to be people who entrust ourselves to the Lord, not the idols that we can so often come up with. Entrust yourself to the Lord.
R. Dwain Minor