'Sharing Christ's love in deed and truth.' Apostle John
Albany Presbyterian Church
Albany Presbyterian Church
Psalms 27 and 31 have focused on our experience of God’s strength in prayer. Psalm 34 focuses on what’s at the heart of that strength: our joy in The Lord. We talk a lot about joy in the Christian life. Joy is a fruit of God’s Spirit but do we really understand how God builds joy into our lives as we trust in Jesus? Joy does flow from our focus on Jesus as the acrostic reminds us: J - Jesus O - others Y - yourself. The questions is how does this joy in God continue and overflow into the lives of those around us? Psalm 34 shows us some great truths about this joy that does not fade or fluctuate for believers even in the trials of this life! I like what James Johnston says about Psalm 34: “Psalm 34 is an invitation, a happy, joyful invitation. God rescued David – now David wants you to praise God with him and trust God to rescue you too. He wants you to look, to taste, to see, to enjoy, to fear, to know God for yourself!” I like that because joy flows from our relationship with Jesus but it can be stifled if we try to hold it in. Proverbs 11:24 – “The generous soul will be made rich and he who waters will also be watered himself.” God is inviting each of us to really know and taste His goodness so that this joy will flow into the lives of others around us! The Psalm breaks down into two main sections. These are invitations from God to come to Him and find our joy in Him alone and we find some incredibly practical instruction on what this involves. In vv. 1-10 we’re invited to rejoice with David in God’s deliverance and vv.11-22 invite us to learn from him. As one man wrote, “the first half is a song and the second half a sermon.” We see David’s experience and expression of joy in worship and witness in the first section and we see David’s education of others in the second section. David praises God and points people to God in his life in the first part and then he prepares people for life in the second part! David says look at my life and listen to my praise in the first section and then learn from my instruction based on this in the second section. David pours out his heart in praise in the first part pointing us to God’s greatness in life before he then teaches us about the practical side of joy and walking with God’s presence in the second part. What do we learn from David’s song of joy this week before we look at his sermon about joy and knowing God’s presence next week? How does true joy grow in our lives and spread into the lives of those around us? The first key we see is in the first verse: “I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth. 2 My soul shall make its boast in the Lord; The humble shall hear of it and be glad.” The first principle of growing in joy is that we share our joy in the Lord with others. This is true whether we’re talking about worship, fellowship groups, discipleship ministries, or evangelism with the lost. When it comes to us as Christians the fact is our joy is not really complete until we share it with other Christians. This is what true Christian fellowship is all about. I used to say to my kids and they thought it was cute: “fellowship is two fellows on the same ship.” It may be cute but it’s true! Fellowship involves believers in Christ going in the same direction. The result is spending time with each other and serving with each other.” We share this deep joy of knowing the God of the universe and looking forward to eternity with Him together and so we must express our experience of Christ together in our meetings, phone calls, and prayer times. As we sing together in worship, and talk together in fellowship, and pray with each other what we’re doing is telling each other how great God is and what He has done! This is how our joy grows and spreads because this joy in Jesus is so contagious! Have’nt we been reminded of this during this two month period of social distancing and being unable to meet not only for worship but for Bible study and fellowship groups? What a breath of “fresh air” it has been to open the doors of the Church to meet and come together! How we’ve been reminded of what we can become too familiar with and grow to take for granted! This what vv. 1-10 are all about: David praises God and invites us to worship with him (1-3). Then he gives his testimony to God’s deliverance (4-7) and finally he pushes us to “taste and see” for ourselves (8-10). The point we see at the opening of the Psalm is that David could NOT keep his joy in The Lord to himself! Recently, we’ve seen restaurant restrictions loosened. Maybe we’ve missed going to our favorite eating establishment in town not just for take away to sit down and eat! Maybe you just had some food from your favorite spot and you want to drum up some business for the local café. If you were telling your friend to go to this eatery that you really love how would you do it? Maybe you would talk about that dish the way David does? You might tell them how great the food is and the atmosphere. You might try to wet their appetite by picturing their best dish! I’m getting hungry as I write this right now! Then you invite them to go with you the next time you’re going and then you’d give them one more push – “you’ve got to try this food it is out of this world – spectacular!” Some people even say – ‘you’ve missed out until you’ve had so and so’s fish and chips! You see, this sharing of our joy flows out into our witness to the lost as well. If we’re really experiencing God’s grace in Christ then we have to express it to others. The fact is they need to know the joy of Jesus but our joy as Christians is NOT going to grow or be what it is meant to be if we don’t share it! Philemon 1:6 “that the sharing of your faith may become effective by the acknowledgment of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus.” As we share what God is doing in our lives in Christ in witness and worship we realize more deeply the goodness of God and our joy is increased! They hear about our joy and we grow in it! Again, is’nt this true when it comes to Christian fellowship and worship! We were talking about this in Bible study the other day. Ephesians 1 calls us to “speak to each other in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs! Why? because there is incredible impact that comes when we worship together and hear each other singing about what God has done! If you’re having an incredible meal at your favorite restaurant you might say: “give me your fork – you’ve got to try this!” Why is this sharing so important? Because we enjoy the experience more when we do it together! This is why even though we may be glad that we can watch footy or our other favorite sport on TV or we parents are glad we can at least watch our kids play their sport from the car we would like to be able to do it in person. When we watch together we can turn to each other and say – “did you see that play!”
If this is true with food and sport – how much should it be with God! “our delight in God and joy in what He has done grows when we share it with others” This is what David is doing – I will bless the Lord at all times and His praise shall be continually on my mouth. The humble will hear it and be glad!” Yes we’re glad we could listen to sermons on the website or by CD but we want to be together because when we’re together something different happens – we sing, talk, pray, and tell what God has done and we grow in joy! “Our joy grows as we share our love for God together in our families and Church families! The second principle of growing in joy is in V. 3 - "Oh, magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt His name together." The point here is that after sharing God’s joy we see His greatness together. This is what we mean by magnifying His name. David blesses God and magnifies Him. Since God can’t be made any greater what does it mean to bless Him or magnify Him? It means that in sharing Him we see His greatness together and praise Him for who He is. This means The Lord is so awesome that our joy in Him spreads as we share and talk about Him! This is what puts the spotlight on that greatness so that together we magnify Him. This is why David calls us together to magnify God and exalt his name together! We boast in God sharing who He is and then we bless His name in praising Him. It’s not like God needs affirmation. No! The point is that we see that greatness together in our boasting in Him and we bless Him together seeing His greatness and praising Him for it. This is so essential because our joy then is grounded in who He is and grows together as we seek Him! The world rejects him and but they forfeit the joy that only comes in Christ while believers see the truth of God together and our hearts are aligned more and more with this ultimate reality and grounded in Him. This leads us to the next truth about growing in joy. We grow as we solidify our hopes in God alone. Sharing leads to seeing God’s greatness and this leads to solidifying our belief in Him. We see this in V. 4 - “I sought the Lord, and He heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.” David boasts in God sharing his joy – David calls us to bless God together seeing His greatness but then he backs up his boasting and blessings with solid experience from His own life about what The Lord had done! “His boasting was NOT empty words.” David shares personal, specific testimony that points others to his reason for joy in God and calls them to believe. The Hebrew word for sought means to inquire of God. David sought God’s direction in this difficult time in his life and The Lord helped him. More than likely David wrote this Psalm when Saul as after him in 1 Samuel 21. David went to Gath, the hometown of Goliath with Goliath’s own sword in his possession. It was a time where David could have been extremely afraid but God had set him free. Psalm 34 is the psalm he wrote after he was set free! David wants us to see this is true for all those who fear him just as it was for him: 5 They looked to Him and were radiant, And their faces were not ashamed. 6 This poor man cried out, and the Lord heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles. 7 The angel of the Lord encamps all around those who fear Him, and delivers them.” The fourth key to the experience and expression of true joy in The Lord is there in V. 5 – “they looked to Him and were radiant and their faces were not ashamed.” The key here is to shine for The Lord in the way we live. This is the picture here. The Lord’s joy was seen in there expressions. We’d say today about someone: “it was written all over their face!” The joy of the Lord grows and can be seen in our faces - in our attitudes. Is the joy of Jesus shining through you? When we carry around fears for our jobs, future, and don’t give them to God it will affect us physically. One way of stating this verse is this: “Look to the Lord and shine, don’t let your face be ashamed!” David says I’ve found it to be true and many other believers have also: when we turn to God in troubles the joy Christ gives us will be seen on our faces. It’s not just clean living that gives a person a “clean” appearance! No our joy that shines through comes from walking with God. Sharing the Lord together leads to seeing the Lord’s greatness together so that our hope is solidified. All of this is important because it leads to a transformation in the Christian’s life and the local Church as a whole. This is how joy grows and spreads in our lives, our church, and effects the community! This leads us to final key we see here: Savor The Lord and call others to do the same! V.8-10 tells us "Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good; Blessed is the man who trusts in Him! 9 Oh, fear the Lord, you His saints! There is no want to those who fear Him. 10 The young lions lack and suffer hunger; But those who seek the Lord shall not lack any good thing.”
God’s blessings in Christ
Pastor Ben