Living the Good Life

Psalm 34 speaks about the good life. What do we mean by a good life? Out of all the world, we who live in the United States think we are competent to define the good life. We may say the good life is having a large house in the suburbs, a number of shining cars, good investments that bring in thirty percent a year total return, good health, lots of friends and parties every night or at least every other night. But what did Jesus say about those who think that is the best life? In Luke 12:20-21 he speaks about a rich man: “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your soul will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’” And Jesus adds, “This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God.” The good life of this country—meaning the lifetime quest for things—is not what Psalm 34 is teaching us.

Psalm 34 is a psalm of David. It is one of the fourteen psalms of David which have superscriptions describing the occasions of their composition. Psalm 34’s superscription reads, “Of David. When he pretended to be insane before Abimelech, who drove him away, and he left.”

Background

The background of this psalm is found in 1 Samuel 21. Saul desired to kill David, who was informed of this by Jonathan. David fled to Nob, where he met with the priest Ahimelech. Being hungry, he ate some showbread, and then Ahimelech gave David the sword that David had taken from Goliath when he killed him. From Nob, David fled to Gath, a coastal city of the Philistines. Gath was the hometown of Goliath, and the people of Gath recognized David as the one who had killed their champion. They took David to their king, and David now found himself in the lowest possible, most desperate condition. And we are told that he began to lean onto his own understanding in this situation. He feigned craziness, making marks on the doors to the gates and letting saliva run down his beard.

Despite David’s reliance on his own understanding, God helped him. Rather than killing him, the Philistines let him go and David found refuge in the cave of Adullam near En Gedi. As he reflected on God’s deliverance, he composed this psalm, and we read of David’s recognition of God’s deliverance throughout this psalm.

David Praises God

The first thing we find in this psalm is a resolution: “I will extol the Lord at all times; his praise will always be on my lips. My soul will boast in the Lord; let the afflicted hear and rejoice. Glorify the Lord with me; let us exalt his name together” (vv. 1-3). That is a resolution, a determination, a purposing on David’s part to bless the Lord and praise his glorious name for delivering him from Saul and the Philistines. And he says he will do so “at all times.” Why? David is recognizing that in both good and bad times, God is his God and he would help him. He always “works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (Rom. 8:28). At all times!

What is the center of his praise? It is not how David accomplished his own deliverance, what he did or did not do. No, David says, “My soul will boast in the Lord.” Paul harked back to this when he said, “Let him who boasts boast in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 1:31), and we must ask if we do this also. Watch your conversation and see if the center of your boasting is the Lord or yourself. Here David says, “My soul will boast in the Lord.” When we boast in the Lord, our speech becomes an encouragement to the afflicted and poor. In fact, David says, “Let the afflicted hear and rejoice.” But when we boast about ourselves, it only results in hopelessness for our hearers. No one can get any kind of comfort and encouragement as we recount our own accomplishments.

What else does David say? “Glorify” or magnify “the Lord with me.” David is saying, “Join with me! My God helped me when I was in lowest possible situation. I was totally desperate, lost, and miserable, but my God helped me. And now I am here to testify to you about God’s goodness. Join with me! Let’s all praise the Lord.” Let me tell you, when one person rejoices, it encourages all others to magnify and bless the Lord.

What does it mean to magnify the Lord? We know we cannot increase God’s glory, but we can recount it and tell others that God is glorious. In order to properly magnify the Lord, then, we need to study the word of God. We need to know about the infinity of God, the eternity of God, the self-existence of God, the omnipotence of God. We need to know that God created the whole universe and provides for it. We need to know that God is all-holy, a God of covenant, a God of faithfulness, a God of compassion, a God of unfailing love. We need to know that this God, our Savior and Lord, is for us!

When we begin to study the word of God and see who God is, then we can join with David in magnifying him. And God wants us to do that with others. There is no solo Christianity. We belong to the community of the people of God, and what happens to us affects everyone else in his or her worship and service to God. When we get together with other believers, we should always have something to say about the Lord, and we know we can do that because he is faithful and good, and his mercy endures forever. Our testimonies are good if they result in congregational praise of God.

David’s Testimony

What is David’s testimony? Look at verse 4: “I sought the Lord and he answered me; he delivered me from all my fears.” David is not speaking about theory. That is not theological speculation. No, David is expressing personal, experimental religion. In verse 6 we read, “This poor man called and the Lord heard him; he saved him out of all his troubles.” In other words, David is saying, “That is why I am praising God and asking you to join with me in praising him. God heard my prayers and delivered me from all my fears and troubles. He is my Savior and your Savior. Let’s worship him!”

The salvation of the Lord means deliverance from all fears—fear of the future, fear of enemies, fear of death, fear of people, fear of flying, fear of hell, fear of condemnation, fear of Satan, fear of demons—all fear! Oh, let me tell you, our God delivers us from all our fears. That ought to cause us to worship him and praise him.

“This poor man called,” David says. The Bible has a lot of good things about poor people. “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 5:3). The poor man is a person who realizes he is nothing and that his help must come from God. In Luke 1:53 we read, “He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty.” God hears the prayer of the poor. He saves the poor from all their troubles. “This poor man called…”

A poor man does not trust in himself. The problem we face in the United States is that we are not poor. Our wealth makes us arrogant, and rather than believing and embracing the doctrine of sin and depravity, we say, “I’m okay, you’re okay.” We think we are all good because we are rich. We think we do not need a God to save us. But no one receives any help from God until that person comes and confesses that he or she is a sinner, rotten to the core, a rebel. When we cry out to God in that condition, he saves us.

1. Look to God

In verses 5-22 David teaches certain principles to which we must pay attention. First, in verse 5 he says, “Those who look to him are radiant; their faces are never covered with shame.” That is an unchanging principle David learned from his experience with God.

What happened when Moses spent time in God’s presence? His face became radiant (Ex. 34:29, 30, 35; 2 Corinthians 3:13). Why? Moses was looking to God. Do you remember what happened in Numbers 21? The people began to murmur and speak against God, and God sent fiery serpents among them. When the serpents bit the people, many of them died, so finally the Israelites told Moses they were in trouble. And the Lord told Moses to make a brazen serpent and lift it up and tell the people—everyone who was downcast, in pain, and dying— “Look and be saved!” And in the midst of all their shame and misery and pain and wretchedness, the people lifted up their faces, looked to the brazen serpent, and they were healed.

In John 3:14-15 Jesus spoke about his crucifixion, saying, “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.” That is a principle we can count on. Everyone who looks to him will become radiant, and we will remain radiant. The shame, the misery, the fear, and the gloom are driven away by the glory of God being reflected in your face. As Paul says in 2 Corinthians 3:18, we are being changed from glory to glory as we reflect upon the Lord Jesus Christ.

We can count on this principle. It doesn’t matter what you are suffering from or what your misery is. The word of the Lord tells us when we look to him, our faces will become radiant, and we will never be covered with shame. Isn’t that a great blessing? When we trust in Jesus Christ, all our shame, confusion, and fear will be gone. Our face will shine with the brightness of the Lord and we will go from glory to glory. The Christian life is a life of ever-increasing joy and peace.

2. Find Security in God

The second principle speaks about our security. In verse 7 David says, “The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, and he delivers them.” I believe in angels of the Lord. The Bible says they are ministering spirits to us. Remember how fearful Jacob was when he returned home, knowing Esau was coming, possibly to murder him? But in Genesis 32:1 we read, , “Jacob also went on his way, and the angels of God met him. When Jacob saw them, he said, ‘This is the camp of God!’ So he named that place Mahanaim.”

We read about these angels of God throughout the Bible. In Isaiah 37:36 we are told how one angel came and killed one hundred and eighty-five thousand soldiers of Sennacherib when he came against King Hezekiah. And do you remember the story of Elisha? Because Elisha was supernaturally receiving military secrets of Aram and disclosing them to the king of Samaria, the king of Aram sent armies to Dothan to arrest him. When Elisha’s servant saw all the soldiers surrounding the house of Elisha, he ran and asked his master, “Oh, my Lord, what shall we do?” Elisha reassured his servant that not only were they surrounded by the armies of Aram, but they were also surrounded by the angels of the Lord. And then he prayed, “O Lord, open his eyes so he may see,” and the servant’s eyes were opened to see the armies of God, and he believed (2 Kings 6:8-17). It is the truth, brothers and sisters. God’s angels are ministering spirits for us, and they are protecting us.

Psalm 91:11 tells us, “For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways; they will lift you up in their hands so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.” Do you believe that? If you are a child of God, you will be protected. How many times in your life have you or your children been protected from harm? You must recognize that God sent his angels to help you. We must believe that “the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world” (1 John 4:4). The angel of the Lord, with the heavenly host, encamps around us. Do you think our enemies can break through this encampment? It is impossible. We are safe and secure, and we will live as long as God wants us to live in this world. No one can touch us. No one can destroy us. We are secure in Christ, secure in the Father, kept by the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and surrounded by angels who are upholding us, supporting us, and taking care of us.

3. Experience God

In verse 8 David says, “Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.” This is personal, experimental religion, not something theoretical or mechanical. This is tasting the Lord, trusting in him, and experiencing him to be our God and Savior. This is personally knowing the one who gives us life and joy and peace, the one who goes before us, behind us, and surrounds us, and the one who is for us and who changes us from the inside out. Taste him and see that he is good!

The Bible says God’s word is sweeter than honey. We are told Jesus Christ tasted death for us, and as a result we now can taste him as our life and Savior. Jesus Christ is the way, the truth and the life for us. We taste life through him and experience true deliverance, true forgiveness of sins, true fellowship with God, true love, true joy, and true protection of our God.

I must ask you: Have you ever tasted him? You know, we can read many books about honey—book after book—but we will never experience real honey until we taste some. In the same way there are many people who can write books about theology and who can even preach great sermons, but we must ask, “Preacher, have you tasted him to be your Savior?” The Bible presents us with an experimental religion—not one of mental assent but one of real trust in God Almighty.

4. Fear the Lord

We find a fourth principle in verse 9 and 10: “Fear the Lord, you his saints, for those who fear him lack nothing. The lions may grow weak and hungry, but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.” What does it mean to fear the Lord? In Proverbs 9:10 we read “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” The fear of the Lord is submission to the Lord of the covenant. It is absolute surrender in will, in mind and in desires, to the Lord of the covenant. And as a result of our submission, we obey him.

And here David says that such a person who fears the Lord lacks nothing, no good thing. Isn’t that wonderful? If we fear the Lord, then we lack nothing. We lack no good thing. In Psalm 23:1 we read, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want,” and in Psalm 84:11 we read, “For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor; no good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless.”

5. The Good Life

Not only that, there is a principle of good life. In verse 12 David begins, “Whoever of you loves life…” and the Hebrew word for life is chaim . David was speaking about a long life, but from the perspective of the New Testament we understand that good life means eternal life. The good life, biblically, is not having a big house in the suburbs and shining cars and investments and a party every night. Why do I say that? Because no matter how much you have, you are going to die. Your soul will be required of you this night, God told the rich fool. Good life, therefore, is eternal life.

And so David says, Come, children, let me teach you something. What is it? This is a subject that is of extreme importance: the fear of the Lord. Now, does the university teach you the fear of the Lord? No. Harvard, which was founded as a school for training ministers of the gospel, used to do this, but it does so no longer. A number of other sophisticated institutions of higher learning in this country used to teach the Bible and about the fear of the Lord, but they do not do so any more. What about churches? Do most churches teach this profound subject called fear of the Lord? No. In general, most churches say, “Come and be entertained. We have great programs designed to make you feel happy. Our sermons are getting smaller and smaller and smaller. Come, let us make you happy.” They are not teaching the fear of the Lord.

But let me tell you, you can only have the good life if you learn what it means to fear the Lord—what it means to control your tongue, as David says. We must realize that no one can do that by one’s own strength. Try to control your tongue. What happens? Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. The only way we can control our tongues is to be filled with the Holy Spirit. And he can control our tongues, isn’t that true? Then David says, “Turn from evil and do good.” Again, that means fear of the Lord. When we really learn the fear of the Lord, we will control our tongues, we will turn from all evil, and do good. Part of the fear of the Lord is to discern the will of the God and do it, and David adds, “seek peace and pursue it.”

What is the kingdom of God? It is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. You cannot have peace without righteousness. That is the good life. Don’t tell me about your money or your health or your power, influence, and position. Don’t tell me the rich and powerful people of the world are having a good life. The good life is lived by those who have learned the fear of the Lord.

6. God Sees and Hears Us

The sixth principle is found in verse 15: “The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their cry…” You know that you cannot have your eyes on your children all of the time, and sometimes they even get lost, isn’t that true? And when that happens, we panic and all that. But isn’t it wonderful to know that the eyes of our God are upon us continually—directing us, protecting us and taking care of us? Do you believe that? And not only that, David says God’s ears are open to our prayers. You see, God doesn’t have to hear our prayers. He knows everything because his eyes are on us. And yet he also turns his ears to hear our prayers. That is a principle that we must bank on. Each one is seen and each one is heard.

In verse 19 David says, “A righteous man may have many troubles,” You see, the psalmist is realistic. In Acts 14:22 Paul and Barnabas said, “We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God,” and in 2 Timothy 3:12 Paul says “In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.” But what else does David say in this verse? “A righteous man may have many troubles, but the Lord delivers him from them all.” This is absolute, comprehensive, total deliverance—from all fears, from all troubles, and from all difficulties. It is so complete that in Luke 21:18 Jesus Christ said not even one hair of a disciple shall perish. The good life is eternal life. Not even one hair will perish.

7. He Bears Our Guilt

Finally, the seventh principle is found in verses 21 and 22: “Evil will slay the wicked; the foes of the righteous will be condemned. The Lord redeems his servants; no one will be condemned who takes refuge in him.” Did you notice David’s use of the word condemned? It means to bear one’s guilt. The wicked shall bear his guilt on the last day because he refuses to be a poor man and look unto God. He refuses to seek the Lord and so he will bear his guilt that day. But now David makes a great pronouncement: “The Lord redeems his servants; no one will be condemned who takes refuge in him.” In other words, we shall not bear our guilt. Do you know why this is possible? It is because someone else did bear it. In Romans 8:1 we read, “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus…”

Let God Deliver You

Friend, are you living the good life David is speaking about? Have you taken refuge in Jesus Christ? Have you looked up to the brazen serpent that was lifted up? Do you know what your condition is, that you are bitten by serpent and dying? Whether you know it or not, that is your condition, and the only way you can have the good life is to believe on the crucified one. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.

Do you have fear—fear of the future, fear of employment situations, fear of how a pregnancy will turn out, fear of enemies? Are you losing sleep, wondering what will happen to you next? I challenge you to believe the words that David wrote: “I sought the Lord, and he answered me; he delivered me from all my fears.” I challenge you to pay attention to the counsel he gives: “Those who look to him are radiant; their faces are never covered with shame.” How can God make us radiant? He will remove these fears from us. As John Newton wrote, ” ‘Twas grace that taught my heart to fear, and grace my fears relieved.”

Why don’t you hand over to God all your fears? If you do so, you will instantly be relieved of all your burdens. It’s up to you. If you want to carry your own burden, go ahead, but that is unbelief, rebellion, and self-help. God helps the poor, the weak, the lost, and the sick.

God did not forget David when he was in his lowest place. And as he reflected on God’s mercies as he stayed in the cave of Adullam, David encourages us to look unto God and trust in him for our deliverance. May we even this day join with David in saying, “I will bless the Lord at all times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth.”