In what ways have you experienced the goodness of God in your life? And, in what ways are you longing to experience the goodness of God? When I think about the ways that I have experienced the goodness of God, I think of how he called me to himself, revealed the work of Christ on behalf, and opened my heart to receive and believe the message of the gospel for salvation at the end of a 48mph SUV bumper.
God has richly blessed me, not only with the gift of salvation, but he has also continued to set me free, one small step at a time, from the presence, and power of deep roots of sin and addiction. But I still long for more of the goodness of God; I long to see all of my kids follow Jesus, I long to see the church we planted become financially sustainable, and I long to see more ministries launched through this church that reach into the darkest places of the world. This is my experience of God’s goodness and my continual longing for more of his goodness. And this is the core of Psalm 34: Experiencing and longing for the goodness of God.
PSALM 34…
OF DAVID, WHEN HE CHANGED HIS BEHAVIOR BEFORE ABIMELECH, SO THAT HE DROVE HIM OUT, AND HE WENT AWAY. 1I will bless the LORD at all times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth. 2My soul makes its boast in the LORD; let the humble hear and be glad. 3Oh, magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt his name together! 4I sought the LORD, and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears. 5Those who look to him are radiant, and their faces shall never be ashamed. 6This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him and saved him out of all his troubles. 7The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear him, and delivers them. 8Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him! 9Oh, fear the LORD, you his saints, for those who fear him have no lack! 10The young lions suffer want and hunger; but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing. 11Come, O children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the LORD. 12What man is there who desires life and loves many days, that he may see good? 13Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit. 14Turn away from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it. 15The eyes of the LORD are toward the righteous and his ears toward their cry. 16The face of the LORD is against those who do evil, to cut off the memory of them from the earth. 17When the righteous cry for help, the LORD hears and delivers them out of all their troubles. 18The LORD is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. 19Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD delivers him out of them all. 20He keeps all his bones; not one of them is broken. 21Affliction will slay the wicked, and those who hate the righteous will be condemned. 22The LORD redeems the life of his servants; none of those who take refuge in him will be condemned.
Psalm 34 is both a song of joy (vv. 1 – 10) and message of instruction (vv. 11 – 22).2 The heading of the Psalm tells us that David wrote it shortly after his encounter with King Abimelech in 1 Samuel 21. In 1 Samuel 21, David is running for his life from King Saul. King Saul had been a father figure to David for many years but now he was hunting David to murder him because he was jealous of David’s military success and public popularity (1 Samuel 15 – 20).
So, David is literally running for his life from King Saul, and he winds up in the town of Gath, the hometown of the giant named Goliath whom David had previously killed with his own sword which is an act that left the memory of Goliath in disgrace.3 To make matters worse, David was carrying Goliath’s sword when he walked into town (1 Sam. 21:8 – 9).
So, to frame this up correctly: David is running for his life, and he winds up trying to hide in the hometown of an enemy whom he had killed and disgraced on the battlefield. I can’t imagine the amount of fear that David felt when he realized his predicament!
Speaking of fear, David mentions the word fear, trouble, and affliction no less than eight times in Psalm 34. David was deeply afraid because he knew that he had gotten himself into some deep trouble and he was about to face some really hard affliction if he didn’t do something drastic and if the Lord didn’t come to his rescue. Ultimately, David acts like a madman in 1 Samuel 21; he drools all over himself, he scratches weird things into the front gate of the castle and the king loses interest in David and kicks him out of town unharmed.
And David, to his credit, gives all of the credit to the Lord for delivering him, and not only that, but he also invites everyone to join him in singing with joy about God’s miraculous deliverance and then he also invites everyone to listen to his words of instruction. Ultimately, David knows that everyone desires to have a good, long, life without many troubles.
He actually verbalizes this in verse 12 when he asks, “What man is there who desires life and loves many days, that he may see good?” David is asking a rhetorical question that is meant to highlight the fact that all of us want to have a good and lasting life on this earth without a ton of trouble and affliction.
But he also knows that life here on this earth has been broken by the curse of sin and therefore, we will all experience trouble and affliction because of our own sin as well as other people’s sin against us. You know what it is like to experience trouble and affliction because of your own sin as well as the sin of others against you, right?
This is why David extends an invitation to everyone around him to sing with joy and to listen to his instructions. Ultimately, the Lord is extending this invitation to all of us. God wants us to know him, to see him, to taste his goodness, to fear him, and to rejoice in him because he is the one who “blesses and protects” all who trust in him.4
When we come to that place where we know God, where we see God, where we taste God’s goodness, where we fear him appropriately, and where we rejoice in him, what do we do? What do you do when you experience God’s deliverance in such a profoundly personal way like David did?
You do the same thing you do when you experience some really great food somewhere or when you drive through some really scenic country; you invite others to come experience the joy with you!5 This is why David invites us to sing with him and to listen to his instructions.
#1: DAVID’S INVITATION TO SING WITH JOY (VV. 1 – 10)
In this invitation to sing with joy, David simply invites us to worship with him (vv. 1 – 3), and then he shares his own testimony of God’s deliverance in his life (vv. 4 – 7), and then he invites us to come and to experience God for ourselves (vv. 8 – 10).6
David’s heart is constantly overflowing with songs of praise that brag of God’s goodness and faithfulness and he wants everyone to join him in magnifying and exalting the name of God together (vv. 1 – 3). This is not the picture of boring, dead, or timid singing. The image I get here is of someone singing loudly with all of his or her energy because they have just been delivered from a near death experience.
This kind of deliverance, the kind of deliverance where you know beyond a shadow of a doubt that you were about to die but then God reached down and rescued you, this is the kind of deliverance that has moved David to this loud, exuberant, joy-filled song. David explains that in his darkest hour of need, in his greatest moment of fear, he sought the Lord, he called out to him for help, God delivered him miraculously, he heard David’s cries and he saved David out of all his troubles and anyone else who looks to God will experience the same kind of deliverance and will never experience the shame of being left alone to die in their fear because the presence of God surrounds everyone who trusts in him (vv. 4 – 7).
What David wants, more than anything else, is for you and me to experience this same kind of deliverance and joy. This is why he invites us to “taste and see that the Lord is good”; he knows beyond a shadow of a doubt that you and I will be blessed if we find shelter in the presence of God, if we fear or respect him more than anyone or anything else in all of creation (vv. 8 – 9).
Even the lions who are at the top of the food chain will eventually be hungry and needy but if you and I trust in the Lord, we will never be left in need of anything of eternal value (v. 10). No wonder David invites us to sing for joy! But he doesn’t just invite us to sing for joy, he also invites us to listen to his instructions.
#2: DAVID’S INVITATION TO LISTEN TO INSTRUCTION (VV. 11 – 20)
Instructions aren’t just mere opinions. Instructions are communicated as truths that are meant to be learned and applied. David’s instructions are meant to help us to learn about the fear of the Lord (vv. 11 – 14), and to learn why we should fear the Lord (vv. 15 – 20).7
Fearing or respecting the Lord more anything or anyone else is something that has to be taught and learned. Because of sin, we do not naturally fear or respect the Lord above all else. We are weak and sinful and prone to wandering off into self-sufficiency and self-gratification.
This is why David invites us to learn the fear of the Lord (v. 11) and then he describes what the fear of the Lord looks like in a person’s life. He essentially says that if you really want to experience a long and happy life, then you must fear God by resisting and rejecting evil and deceptive thoughts and words as you commit to doing what is right and good by pursuing peace in every situation (vv. 12 – 14).
But why should we fear God this way? David says that we should fear God by resisting what is evil and by pursuing what is good because God sees everything, and he hears the cries of the righteous and he will set himself against the wicked and wipe their memory from the earth (vv. 15 – 16). God loves to hear the cries of the righteous, he loves to deliver them from their trouble, he is always near to those who hearts have been broken and he is in the business of saving those who have been crushed (vv. 17 – 18).
Not only does David testify here of the way that God delivered him from his afflictions without a single broken bone, but he also makes a prophetic announcement about the coming Christ who would endure many afflictions but would come out the other side of the cross with an empty tomb in complete and unbroken victory over Satan, Sin, and Death (vv. 19 – 20); even the Apostle John realized that all of what David says here was fulfilled in the work of Christ at the cross and the empty tomb (John 19:36).
CONCLUSION…
In conclusion, this Psalm, is meant to make our hearts sing with joy, to make our minds ready to learn, and to bring us to a point of decision. The final thing David says is that there are only two ways of living: fearing or not fearing the Lord (vv. 21 – 22).8
This is why he ends with these words in verses 21 – 22: 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. There are only two ways to live: Wicked, afflicted, and doomed for all of eternity, or Righteous, serving God, and finding shelter in God for all of eternity. The only one who freely chose the right path and lived it perfectly is Jesus.
When you and I submit to Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we accept his perfect righteousness, we confess and repent of our own unrighteousness and then we live to serve God with every ounce of our energy as we find shelter in the shadow of the bloody cross, in the doorway of the empty tomb, in light of the promise of the hope of heaven. This is what it means to experience the goodness of God – to taste and to see that God is good!
My prayer is that every one of you hearing this message, would come to this place of absolute trust in the work of our crucified, risen, and returning Savior. I pray that you would experience the terrifying fear of imminent death and eternal separation from God apart from trusting in Christ but that you would also experience the simultaneous joy of deliverance in the cross, the empty tomb, and the promise of heaven.
I pray that you would “taste and see that God is good” and that you would be prompted to sing with joy and always be ready to learn in the shadow of a bloody cross, in the doorway of an empty tomb, in light of the hope of heaven. Amen!
1 Unless otherwise specified, all Bible references in this paper are to the English Standard Version Bible, The New Classic Reference Edition (ESV) (Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers, 2001).
2 James A. Johnston, The Psalms: Rejoice, the Lord is King, Vol. 1, (Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway, 2015), 347.
3 Ibid.
4 Ibid.
5 Ibid., 349.
6 Ibid., 349 – 352.
7 Ibid., 352 – 355.
8 Ibid., 355.