And please turn with me to Psalm 34, and we will read the whole psalm together. Psalm 34, let us hear God's own word. Of David, when he changed his behavior before Abimelech, so that he drove him out and he went away. I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul makes its boast in the Lord. Let the humble hear and be glad. O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together. I sought the Lord, and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears. Those who look to him are radiant, and their faces shall never be ashamed. This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his troubles. The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him and delivers them. Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him. O fear the Lord, you his saints, for those who fear him have no lack. The young lions suffer want and hunger, but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing. Come, O children, listen to me, I will teach you the fear of the Lord. What man is there who desires life and loves many days that he may see good? Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit. Turn away from evil and do good. Seek peace and pursue it. The eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous and his ears toward their cry. The face of the Lord is against those who do evil to cut off the memory of them from the earth. When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles. The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all. He keeps all his bones, not one of them is broken. Affliction will slay the wicked, and those who hate the righteous will be condemned. The Lord redeems the life of his servants. None of those who take refuge in him will be condemned. So far the reading of God's Word. Well, in recent weeks, I've been thinking a good bit about suffering and about affliction and about the misery that can beset God's people in this fallen world. And maybe you have too. And one of the verses that kept coming back to me was what we find here in Psalm 34, verse 19. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all. And I wonder how often we actually think of life in those terms. Many are the afflictions of the righteous. I think often as Americans we would prefer to read this verse as if it said, many would be the reflections of the righteous, but the Lord delivers us from them all. But of course it's not what the verse says. And it doesn't say many are the afflictions of righteous people in general. It says many are the afflictions of the righteous one. And what that means is, everyone who is righteous, in the terms of the Psalter, that means everyone who is a disciple of God, everyone who is a follower of God, everyone who is a true believer in Jesus Christ, everyone will see many afflictions. And though I hope to get to good news, the bad news is, that means it includes you and me. Many are the afflictions of the righteous one. We would wish it weren't true. But if we're honest, and if we've lived some years, we know it is true. There are small afflictions, and there are great afflictions. But we all, in life, see affliction. and David wrote this psalm as a careful reflection to help Christians, to help God's people think about suffering, to think about affliction. He wrote it sometime after he had gone through a particularly difficult time of affliction. He didn't write it in the midst of affliction. There are psalms that are written, it feels like, in the midst of affliction, when people are at their lowest and suffering and crying out to God, filled with emotion. We see that in a psalm of David, Psalm 55. At verse 2, David cries out to the Lord, attend to me and answer me, I am restless in my complaints and I moan. And then in verses 4 and 5, my heart is in anguish within me, the terrors of death have fallen upon me, fear and trembling come upon me and horror overwhelms me. Some of us have felt that at moments in our lives, when all we can say to the Lord is I hurt so much I don't know what else to say. But Psalm 34 is written after the pain of suffering to some extent has passed for David. This is a psalm of careful reflection on suffering. This is a psalm written when he has some emotional distance from the worst of suffering when it's occurring. And so it's a psalm that I hope will be of help to us as we look at it. I hope to have three sermons on this psalm. And it's a psalm worth looking at very carefully because it is such a careful reflection on the part of David about suffering. He doesn't say everything that can or should be said about suffering, but he says really important things here that I hope will help us. And we see the care that has been given to the writing of this poem, remember the psalms are poems, in the structure that the psalm has. That's why, in a somewhat professorial manner, I have given you a handout about this psalm. And if you look at that handout, I hope you immediately notice a few things about it. This psalm is what's called an acrostic psalm or an alphabetical psalm. And if you look at that handout, you can see that on the left-hand side, most of the verses begin with a letter of the alphabet that I've indicated in bold print. This means the poet is really pausing to think carefully about the structure he's given to this poem. He's not just whipping this off, but he's very carefully reflecting on what he's saying. In Hebrew, the alphabet has 22 letters, as I'm sure you all know. And one of the interesting things David does here is he leaves out one of the letters. And he does that very deliberately. It's not like a child in grammar school who maybe just forgets one of the letters. By leaving out one of the letters, he gives to this poem a center, a central verse. And I showed that there by giving a line break. It's that the center is that verse, Listen, and come, O children, to me. I will teach you the fear of the Lord. Here's the center of what David is saying. We'll come back to that. But you also notice that the psalm begins and ends without a letter. That too draws our attention. David has bracketed this psalm to draw our attention to the beginning and the ending. We'll come back to that too. And you notice I put in italics words that are repeated by David. A number of words repeat, important words repeat over and over again. I didn't italicize and and the and those words. I'm looking at the critical words here. And all of this says how carefully David put this together. how reflective he is in this, how much he wants to communicate to us about what he's learned about suffering, that we might be helped. And he's given it this careful structure so that we'll slow down as we read it, so that we'll read it with care and with reflection, that we'll meditate on it, that we'll let it wash over us again and again to find ever deeper truths to help us. And so what do we find as we begin to look at this psalm? Well, the first thing we find is that he's dealing with a very specific problem. I was so pleased that last week Reverend Voss preached from Psalm 56, because Because that's another psalm occasioned by exactly the same problem that David is talking about here in Psalm 34. In fact, we find a number of psalms that David wrote looking back to this period in his life, which was a period of such struggle and such difficulty for David. Part of the difficulty for David was he had gone through a period in his life where things seemed so good. 1 Samuel 16, we read that he was anointed king of Israel by Samuel. 1 Samuel 17, we read that he defeated Goliath. We remember Pastor Gordon's recent sermons on David's great triumph over Goliath. And then in chapter 18 of 1 Samuel, we read about how David had conquered the Philistines and had been given the king's daughter, Saul's daughter, in marriage. It seems like his life is just going so well. But then we read in those chapters that Saul's jealousy turns against him. And Saul tries to kill him. And David has to flee for his life and has to hide out in the wilderness. And even in the wilderness, he's not safe. So he has to flee to the Philistines, the very people he had been fighting. And it's so dangerous for him in Gath, one of the capital cities of Philistia. It's so dangerous for him there that he has to pretend he's insane. He claws the walls and he drools. And the king of Philistia, here in Psalm 34, called Abimelech, but that's just really a title, like king. Abimelech means, my father is king. So Abimelech, the king whose name is Achish, utters one of the great political comments of all time in my mind. He says, get this David out of here. Don't I have enough madmen around him? Have you ever watched the evening news from Washington and sort of wanted to say that to the television? But here's David, the mighty man of God, the sweet singer of Israel, the man after God's own heart, king, conqueror, now in such danger that he has to pretend to be a madman. And when he flees from Gath, he has to live in a cave, the cave of Adullam. And what do we read about those who came to David at the cave of Adullam? 1 Samuel 22, verse 2. And everyone who was in distress, and everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was bitter in soul gathered to him. And this reminds us that while this psalm comes out of the experience of David, out of the heart of David, it is an experience that really is the experience of everyone. Everyone has known affliction. Everyone has known trouble. And David is setting this scene, the problem of this fallen world. And he calls us then to reflect on the reality of that affliction and the need to turn to the Lord. One of the images that recurs in this psalm is David's use of his mouth. I think David is very intentional about this. I think maybe he regrets on some level that when he was in Gath, the only thing he appears to have done with his mouth is to drool. My children always like that part of the story. There he is pretending to be insane and drooling and seeming out of control of himself. And now in this psalm, he's almost reconsecrating his mouth to praise the Lord, to teach the truth, to be a man of prayer. We'll come back to these things as we look at this psalm. But here's the problem, you see. David in terror, that's what he wants to make clear to us. Look at verse 4 of Psalm 34. I sought the Lord, and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears. That word really could be better translated, delivered me from all my terrors. Delivered me from all my dread. David is in a terrible place here. of fear and dread. And now after the Lord has delivered him, after he's had the time to reflect, he thinks about what God has provided for him. What God has provided for him. And we see two things in particular this morning that God has provided for him. And the first is in that final verse, verse 22, as the problem David faced is really given us in the title of this psalm, so the provision of the Lord, part of the provision of the Lord that he celebrates, is to be found in that last verse. The Lord redeems the life of his servants. None of those who take refuge in him will be condemned. It's a beautiful promise, isn't it? But it's a promise that takes on even more depth as we think about it in relation to David and his affliction. David's life was on the line. Saul wanted to kill him. The Philistines almost certainly wanted to kill him. He felt that fear of dying, of loss, of abandonment. And yet at the end of this psalm, he comes to a place where he can say, the Lord redeems the life of his servants. The life of his servants is not lost, but it is ransomed, it is rescued, it is bought back. And here David directs our minds to the ransom of our Lord Jesus on the cross. How are we bought back? How are we promised life? How are we guaranteed that we will triumph over the afflictions and trials of this world? It's only in the work of Jesus Christ. It's not in our work. It's not in our accomplishment. But it's in the provision that God gives to us in our Savior. God redeems the life of His servants. None of those who take refuge in him will be condemned. How David wanted a refuge. He tried to find refuge in the wilderness. He tried to find refuge in Gath. He tried to find refuge in the cave of Adullam. But none of those places was safe. But the Lord became his safe place. The Lord became his protector. The Lord became the one who surrounded him with love and care, and therefore he was not condemned. Saul condemned him. Achish would have condemned him. But the Lord does not condemn him. The Lord ransoms him. The Lord redeems him. The Lord provides a refuge for him. And what a beautiful provision of life this is for David and for everyone who is suffering. This is the promise that life ultimately will conquer death. And God's provision is not only life, but it's also a lesson that we need to learn. And we see that here at the center of this psalm in verse 11. What is the lesson God would teach us? What is the lesson that God would have us learn in the midst of suffering and after suffering may abate? Verse 11 says, Come, O children, listen to me. I will teach you the fear of the Lord. It's interesting that that's the central thought in this psalm. I will teach you the fear of the Lord. You know, in the midst of suffering, we might have thought David will say, I will teach you the love of the Lord. Or we might have thought David would say, I will teach you the trustworthiness of the Lord. But David says here, and those things, of course, are true. Those things, too, are lessons we need to learn and be growing in. But why the fear of the Lord here? That's a word that the psalmist has used any number of times. The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him. O fear the Lord, you his saints, for those who fear him have no lack. Come, O children, listen to me, I will teach you the fear of the Lord. Why the fear of the Lord? Well, I think at least in part, David is saying we have to come to recognize how great, how glorious, how awe-inspiring our God is. Before we can fully appreciate his love for us and his ransoming of us, we need to take with great seriousness how awesome he is. how in charge he is. He, after all, is the one who brought this whole world into being. He is the one who, in response to the rebellion of Adam and Eve, plunged it into misery. He is the one who governs it day by day. He is the one who has promised salvation. He is an awesome God beyond our imagining in his holiness and power and wisdom. And we have to be sure that we don't take him for granted, that we don't diminish him, that we don't minimize him. And in the midst of suffering, what is the question that everybody asks? Why is this happening? That's the question. Why does this have to happen? Why are there many afflictions of the righteous? And while the Bible gives broad answers, it never really answers why I have to undergo this affliction now. But the answer is, God knows what he's doing. We may not know, we may not understand, we may find it almost unbearable to submit to his will. But he knows what he's doing. Think of what we read in Psalm 147. It's interesting how these elements of suffering and God's sovereignty are combined. In Psalm 147, verse 3, He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. He determines the number of the stars. He gives to all of them their names. Great is the Lord and abundant in power. His understanding is beyond measure. The Lord lifts up the humble. He casts the wicked to the ground. In verse 11, but the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him, in those who hope in his steadfast love. That's amazing, isn't it? He heals the brokenhearted and he determines the numbers of the stars. Why are those two things put together in Psalm 147? Because it reminds us how tender and personal and individual and close his care is for his people at the very same time that he's created all the stars of the universe. And that's why his understanding is immeasurable for us. We don't grasp it. We don't understand it. But if we have to have a beginning of wisdom, It's through the fear of the Lord. And that's a lesson, David says, we have to learn that the Lord is to be feared. Not feared in the sense of a new terror replacing the old terror, but in the sense of recognizing his greatness and his glory at the very same time we recognize his covenant love for us. It's interesting that in this psalm, the word God is never used. Our God is referred to only as the Lord. His covenant name. His covenant name that we sometimes have rendered Jehovah and that is, more properly, Yahweh. his name that speaks of his covenant love for his people, that name is repeated in this psalm 16 times. 16 times in 22 verses, we are reminded that this awesome creator God is also the intimate covenant God who calls us to trust him, to rely upon him, to rest in him. And David is saying here that if we begin to learn to fear the Lord, then even in the face of suffering, we can begin to live before him. Live out our lives, not with full understanding, not with all our whys answered, but with a confidence in his purpose and in his plan and in his way. Verse 12, what man is there who desires life and loves many days that he may see good? Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit. Turn away from evil and do good. Seek peace and pursue it. Here's the path of the simple life laid out before God's people. See the good, speak the truth, seek peace. There's the life he would have us pursue, even in a fallen world, even in the midst of suffering. See the good. God himself for us is our first good, this psalm teaches us. See him and see the good that he brings to us and the good that he calls us to live out. Speak the truth. It's interesting how often in the Psalter we are reminded to avoid the lie and to speak the truth. This is a world in which there are so many lies, in which there is so much deceit. We always need to hear the truth, the truth about our God, the truth about His Christ, the truth about our need, the truth about God's redemption. We need to speak the truth, and we need to seek peace. Peace with one another. Peace with God. How much that must have resonated with David as well. Saul didn't seek peace. Achish didn't seek peace. They sought war and destruction and death. David holds up before the people of God this goal, this standard of seeking peace with God and with our neighbor that he might be glorified. This teaching at the heart of Psalm 34 so resonated in the hearts of God's people through the centuries that this part of Psalm 34 is extensively quoted in 1 Peter. The Apostle Peter thought about this psalm as he was writing his first letter. He thought about the wilderness experience of God's people. He thought about the suffering of God's people. And he thought about the call to live for God despite suffering. And so when we think about the many afflictions of the righteous, the place to start is with the provision of God, the provision of life. The provision of the lesson of learning to fear God, the call to live before Him, seeing the good, speaking the truth, seeking peace. And then we can begin to experience that deliverance of God from suffering in our own lives that David has experienced. We want to go on looking at this psalm next week and the week after because there is so much here beyond this beginning of our meditation to help us as in the face of life. We know not only the many afflictions of the righteous, but we know also how he delivers us from them all. That word deliver is interesting. It's the word to snatch away. The Lord comes of a sudden for us to help us in the midst of our distress. And our hope needs to be then that he is our refuge and that none who take refuge in him will be condemned because of the work of our Lord Jesus Christ. May that confidence be with every one of us. Amen. Let us pray. O Lord, our God, your saints have known great suffering. And even our own Savior wondered about what was happening to him when he cried out, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? But your word reminds us that you are the creator God. You are the covenant-keeping God. You are the redeeming God. and you have given your own Son that we might be delivered from all our troubles. Help us to look to him. Help us to rest in him and find our joy and our life in him. Hear us, for we pray in his name. Amen.