The Psalms compose a fascinating book of the Bible. There are 150 Psalms in the Old Testament. You’ll find them just about in the middle of your Bible. They are written like poems; you’ll recognize them there in verse form. Most people assume, I think, that all the Psalms are about praise. They call Psalms the praise—book of the Bible, and it’s true that many of them are Psalms of praise. But not all of them are. Not nearly all of them! You’ll also find testimonies of thanks here for the good gifts of life. And you’ll find the confession of sins; and lessons in wise living; and also a good many cries of pain in lives that seems to be falling apart; and even some deep cries of complaint because life seems so very unfair and God seems so far away. These Psalms are so fascinating because they are so real. They are so in touch with all the experiences, emotions, and the ups and downs that life inevitably involves. They cover the whole range of life’s experiences. There is no experience in life that you won’t find reflected in some way in the Psalms. I think of the Psalms as a reflection of the very soul of life. Now, the fact that there is a book like this in the Bible, the fact that the Holy Spirit of God saw fit to lead people to write this kind of literature, tells me that God really does understand me. He really does understand my life. Yes, it’s a very earthy book about all the stuff that life involves. And it helps me feel a part of the world—wide and centuries—long body of Christ when I sing and pray the same things that thousands and millions of believers have sung and prayed before me. So, for the next five weeks, I’d like to explore five of these Psalms with you. I’ve selected these five very carefully to reflect different experiences and emotions in the Christian life. And I want to begin today with this 34th Psalm that we heard just a few moments ago. This is a Psalm that King David wrote. He wrote many of the Psalms, though not all Psalms are David’s. There are other authors involved too. You see, it’s important that we become familiar with this personal story of David’s life behind this Psalm, That is so important because (well, let me put it this way), if you are going through troubles in life, who is in a position to help and encourage you…someone who has never experienced trouble, or someone who has gone through it, and has grown beyond it. If you have lost your job and are feeling deep anxiety, who can understand you and help you better than someone who has gone through that very experience? If you are facing surgery, someone who has also been there can encourage you the most. If you’re dealing with cancer, for instance, you’ll find that there is a deep bond between cancer patients. They understand each other. You see, there is a principle of life here — people who have gone through tough times are best able to help those who are going through tough times. And that’s why this Psalm is so special. Here’s one sufferer who has been rescued and is in a position to help and encourage others. Here is someone who has called to God and been delivered so he’s in a position to encourage the rest of us who are calling to God today. That’s the way the Bible is written. It’s a very personal book. It has all kinds of biographies and personal stories in it; so that when we open the Bible we are able to walk right into their stories. You see, we all come before God with our own stories. Every life is a story. I have mine, you have yours—all kinds of stories. Our stories include the growth and joys, the pain and trouble, the strengths and weaknesses inherent in all our living. We all have them. And David does. And here he is inviting us into his story. The subtitle for this Psalm tells us which part of David’s story is in view here. It says, “When he pretended to be insane before Abimelech, who drove him away, and he left.” That’s really quite a story; let me tell you about it. It’s found in I Samuel 21. David had been anointed by Samuel to be king of Israel, but he was not yet on the throne because Saul was still the sitting king. Saul had become very jealous of David because David had wracked up some very impressive military records. As a matter of fact, people were chanting “Saul has slain his thousands; but David his ten thousands.” So Saul, in his jealousy, and out of his evil heart, determines that he will kill David. And so it is necessary for David to become a fugitive for fear of his life. He lives in caves, hiding out with friends, and is constantly on the move from one area to another. At one point he even moved into a city by the name of Gath, which happened to belong to their enemies, the Philistines. He apparently thought he could live there undetected. It went OK for awhile, but then some fellows recognized who he was and went to Achish, the king there, and reported his presence. So David was summoned into the presence of King Achish. It must have been terribly frightening, for King Achish could easily betray him, or sell him to Saul for ransom to make some peace with each other. It was a terribly precarious situation. So guess what David did! He pretended to be insane. Here’s how I Samuel 21 describes the situation, “So he pretended to be insane in their presence; and while he was in their hands he acted like a madman, making marks on the doors of the gate and letting saliva run down his beard.” (I Samuel 21:13) Well, King Achish wanted none of that, so he said, “look at him, why did you bring him to me, do I need another madman around me?!” So he freed David. David escaped and went back into the hills and the caves to continue hiding from evil King Saul. He had narrowly escaped with his life. Now, this Psalm is associated with that event in David’s life. But, mind you, he didn’t write this Psalm while he was living undetected in Gath, and he didn’t write it while he was disguising himself as an insane fellow, and I’m sure he didn’t even write it as soon as he arrived back in the cave to hide. It took a while. This is one of those Psalms that is written some time later, in retrospect, after he’s had ample time to reflect on the whole experience. It’s a Psalm written, we say, while looking through the rear—view mirror. And then his message here is “I have been rescued!…Yes, I really have been! I am a rescued person!” Let me just show you the three parts of this Psalm and then together we’ll look at some of the big things we can learn from David here. He begins the Psalm with three verses of praise to God. “I will extol the Lord at all times, his praise will always be on my lips….Glorify the Lord with me; let us exalt his name together.” Then there is a break in the Psalm and he changes his mode. It’s like he stops there and says, “Now let me tell you why I feel that way, why I am so eager to praise God and have you join me in that….” And so he looks back, in retrospect, on that whole experience. Time has passed now; he’s reflected carefully on it all. And so he tells his story in terms of what was happening inside him. If you want to know the story on the outside then you have to point to his disguise, Saul’s threat, being hauled before the king. That’s all on the outside. But if you want the story from the inside, here it is. He says I sought the Lord for help; I cried to him in my fears; I called to the Lord out of my troubles. That’s what I did. And then he tells the story of God’s rescue. “He answered me; he delivered me; he saved me out of all my troubles.” So that’s the second section of the Psalm. And then in the third section he turns toward all the rest of us who will ever be reading this Psalm in the midst of our life experiences, and he says, “Come, listen to me and I will teach you the fear of the Lord; come, taste and see that the Lord is good; come, and you trust him too!” He turns toward his family, his friends, toward all who will be worshiping with him in Jerusalem, and all the rest of us down through the centuries who find life tough, and he gives encouragement to us. You see, David’s word can speak to all kinds of experiences.
- I spoke with a friend the other day whose daughter—in—law has been diagnosed with advanced cancer.
- I spoke with a young father who is very concerned about the welfare of his young son.
- I had a conversation with a friend who lost her job, very unexpectedly, and she doesn’t know where to turn.
- And a young widow whose husband died prematurely of a completely unexpected heart attack.
- And some friends whose retirement funds have been eaten up in our economic trouble and they don’t know what they’ll do.
- And another friend who learned that an associate was killed in a car accident the other morning.