If you would turn with me to our last scripture reading, Psalm 34. Psalm 34. Biblical worship is a clarifying thing. I don't know if we really think of it in those terms. I don't know if in our generation, we're especially aware of the fact that the scriptures present to us that the worship of God is the place of vision, where you and I begin to see clearly. And I don't just mean about those things that are to come. In fact, principally when the scriptures speak about clarity in worship, especially that in the experience of the life of the believer, It is clarity for the present life. This is the place where you and I begin to see clearly. We begin to think more accurately about the world in which we live, ourselves and others. I mean, you think of Psalm 73, and you see that so poignantly, don't you? He thinks about the world in a particular way until he comes into the sanctuary, And then everything changes and he begins to see it right. Before he acted as a beast, before he saw improperly, now his vision is clarified and he's returned to a right way of seeing the world. But it's the sanctuary that was the place of vision. And you remember that in the New Testament, when the apostle speaks of the Psalter, he speaks there of the Psalter primarily instructing us. singing, as he says there, in psalms and hymns, teaching and admonishing one another. Praise of God for the apostle is also a place of instruction, of admonition. Our psalm this evening is very much very much a Psalm that reminds us of the fact that the praise of God is supposed to be a clarifying thing. This is the place where you and I begin to see the world aright. Psalm 34 is an instructional Psalm to teach us how to interpret the world out there and how to see ourselves. But in order for us to see this, we need to look at the Psalm in its entirety, beginning with the superscription. You notice that this Psalm has a title. And the title is of course, historically tied. It's tied to a particular moment in David's life. The events of course, are those described in 1 Samuel 21, where David of course is there. He's there before the Philistine King. He's there before Achish. who we're told here is Abimelech. Abimelech simply means Father King. So there's no contradiction between 1 Samuel and Psalm 34. But the point is, we find here David in a very low place. And there you remember, as he is under the pressures of being in exile, as he is there in a foreign land, he feigns himself mad before Akish. And so Akish pays him no mind. and David is so delivered. The theme then, friend from the superscription, is that of deliverance. Deliverance. A man reduced to nothing. A man in exile, a man with nothing really to his name, but a man delivered. Now, as we take up our psalm, you'll notice the first two verses present to us the psalmist, his own expression, of his intention to worship God. And so he says, I will bless the Lord at all times. And you recognize, as we've said before, that when we find these portions of the psalm devoted primarily to telling us what the psalmist will do, you and I are to interpret that as a vow. This is not just a well-wish as it were. Here you have the psalmist very solemnly telling us before the Lord what he will do. You recognize, friend, that the reason why the psalmist does this so often, and he does so often do this, is because he recognizes his obligation to deliver praise, to offer worship to the living God. And in this case, friend, what you also recognize is that he delights in that obligation. He acquiesces in that duty. And when he knows that God is worthy of his praise, and so in verses one and two, he tells us that that's what he will do. He's telling us solemnly that he rejoices that such is his duty, that such is his calling. It's a vow, wherein the psalmist shows us that it is a blessed obligation, the most delightful of duties, to worship the living God. Now friend, as I've said to you already, you'll see these professions of intention right throughout the Psalter. But note what you have in verse two. In verse two, you have something that is unique to Psalm 34, and that is that after the psalmist tells us what he will do, after he makes the vow that he indeed will worship the Lord, he tells us this, that the humble shall hear thereof and be glad. In other words, the humble shall hear this praise and they shall rejoice. And the natural question for you and for me is what connection does the psalmist's praise have with the rejoicing of the humble or the poor? Why is it that the psalmist, as he is praising, becomes a ground of rejoicing for these people? It's a natural question, but it's one that's answered for us in the text. As they hear his praise, they will rejoice. Well, whose praise do they hear? I want you to notice in verse four, you find reference to a poor man. There, he says, I sought the Lord. He delivered me and heard me from all my fears. He rescued, and in verse six, this poor man cried. The Lord heard him. The word poor in verse six, the word humble in verse two are the same Hebrew words. It's the word ani. Know what the psalmist is saying. He's saying that the praise which these humble folk hear is the praise of a man who was once poor, reduced to nothing, once a man with nothing to his name and in worldly terms without hope, but delivered. The praise which they hear is from the lips of a man who's been delivered, though brought so, so very low. And what you know in verses four and 10 is then fourth or 10 is that the psalmist is recounting for us that this very concrete experience in his own life, but then he shows us in the course of these verses that this is not something peculiar to himself, that this is something that belongs to all of the godly. In other words, friend, the reason why the humble should rejoice in hearing the praise of a man who is delivered is because that deliverance was not peculiar to David. And he tells us very pointedly that he's not the only one interested in the Lord's saving help. And so he goes on to even to summon us to enter into and to know that goodness ourselves. But in verses 11 to 22, throughout the rest of the psalm, the psalmist now really adopts the posture of a teacher. And he gives to us a very clear picture of who are the others that are interested, that have a stake in this delivering grace. Who else has an interest in the saving help of the Lord? As you hold all of that together, what do you find? Well, you find that this is a psalm that very much on its face is a psalm of instruction. And in fact, if you and I were looking at this text in the Hebrew, you'd know that of course it's an instructional psalm. Every line begins with the next letter of the Hebrew alphabet. It's an acrostic. Why is it an acrostic? It's an acrostic because of course it's catechetical. Psalmist, what he is doing here is he is instructing us. As he says in verse 11, come, he says, children, that is, come as a child to his student, sorry, as a student to his teacher, come and receive instruction of him. And in what is he instructing us? What is the thrust of this psalm? From the superscription to the very last verse, the whole purpose of this psalm is to show us what the godly know, namely, the deliverance that they have an interest in. And what is their character? What are the evidences of that interest manifest in their life? What the psalmist is doing is he is of course giving us a tutorial in the godly life. What are the experiences of the godly, the grace of God in this time? What are the characteristics of their life? A friend as you hold all of these things together, you recognize as well that the psalmist is is going to show us how to interpret ourselves, how to read providences, how to see clearly. Our prayer should be that the Lord would lead us through this psalm to do so. The theme I suppose that we could distill from all of this is that we are taught here that the godly are really delivered by God. And we see that under three headings. We see that first of all, in the experience of the psalmist relates. And there you have it in verses four to nine. The psalmist calls attention first to himself. He says, I sought the Lord and he heard. And then he describes himself in verse six, this poor man cried and the Lord heard him. And so the psalmist begins as he's giving us this tutorial in the godly life, not with an abstract idea. He gives us something quite concrete, something tangible, something historical, something that actually happened to him. And again, that's the episode, of course, that is given to us in the superscription. That's that moment where David is delivered from Akish. And again, you and I remember what all that looked like. David was frothing at the mouth. As it's recorded for us in 1 Samuel 21, he feigned himself mad. But how does the psalmist see that moment? Note what he says in the next line. The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him, and deliver them. What is David doing? Well, he's telling us that the reason why he was delivered, as he looks back upon this experience, the reason why he was delivered was because the angel of the Lord encamps around the godly. And of course, David is a number of the godly. And what you recognize here is that what he's saying is he was delivered by God, not by his own ingenuity, not by his own craftiness. But note how he describes the deliverance of the Lord. It is the angel of the Lord that encamps about him. What is the angel of the Lord in the scriptures? Or more accurately, who is he? Well, you recognize that the first time that we encounter the angel of the Lord is at Mount Moriah, Genesis 22, where of course you have Abraham and Isaac at an altar. And it is the angel of the Lord there that arrests the hand of Abraham. Then we encounter him later. We see him, for instance, at the Brook Jobbock. He is the one who wrestles with Jacob and then renames him. Then we see the angel of the Lord again in Exodus 3 at the burning bush where God is summoning the one who will be the instrument to deliver Israel out of the house of bondage. And in fact, as you work throughout the scriptures, the angel of the Lord specifically appears at the most monumental, most watershed of moments in Israel's history. And there he is the one who brings to Israel, to the church, the blessings of the covenant. And he proclaims them at times and other times. He really sets forth the security and the saving help of God. Of course, the angel of the Lord is God himself. And we should take him as the Lord Jesus Christ. the divine son. But what I want you to notice in this text, friend, especially, is that the psalmist says that this one who is there in Israel's history, and there are the most important, most pivotal moments in her history, encamps around the godly indiscriminately. Not just the great ones, not just the great ones in redemptive history, he says around all of the godly, the Lord, that is the angel of the Lord, he encamps around them. And it is because of this that David was delivered and that all of God's people know God's deliverance. Why is this so important? It's important because he says very pointedly to us that he himself in that moment of deliverance was helped, was really saved by the one who encamps around the covenant people of God, who has always been the church's mainstay. In other words, friend, what you see him saying here is that that deliverance that he received was covenant mercy. It was not general benevolence. It was the mercy that belongs peculiarly to God's people. How or why was David delivered? Not because he feigned madness, he says. But because in real time, the angel of the Lord, that is the angel of the covenant, intervened. Oh, to the atheists. I mean, to the atheists, the reason why Akish, he didn't do anything to David is because Akish couldn't be bothered. Because David played the madman well. David says, no, the reason why I was delivered was because of the covenant of grace, because of my interest in the grace of God, because the angel of the Lord encamps about me. Oh friend, I wish we had so much more time to really think through how the psalmist meditates on these providences. But if we begin there, friend, what do we see? Well, we see here that the psalmist says that covenant mercy really obtained reality in the present, in this life. And he sees that as God dealt with him graciously in his providence. Now friend, what you recognize as the psalmist says, this is not unique to himself. David was a unique figure in redemptive history, but he says, this belongs to all of the godly, indiscriminately, all of those who really belong to the Lord, they know this as well. And then he exhorts us, as we said already before, he says, oh, taste and see, he says, see for yourselves this goodness, but who will see it? That's a crucial question. Who else will see and taste of this goodness that the psalmist himself experienced? Note what he says in the following lines. First of all, there's the exhortation, fear the Lord. And then he says, there shall be no want to them that fear him. These ones, he says, know the goodness of God now. They are the ones who taste and see the Lord's goodness now. And they are the ones who have an interest in this covenant mercy. The ones around whom the angel of the Lord encampeth. Why should the poor be glad? Friend, because that delivering help that the psalmist knew was not unique to himself. There is real hope to the poor. that hope lies in the angel of the Lord, in the covenant of grace, lies with all of those who fear the Lord in truth. A friend, I know we have very little time, but allow me just to elaborate further that note that the psalmist is teaching us how to interpret providence. When David is delivered, he sees that as an expression of covenant mercy. An expression of the fact that he belongs to God, not common grace. He sees that as an expression of the paternal love that God bears toward him as a member of the church of God. As one who has a real interest in covenant mercy. Yes, even that mundane, that mundane, that perplexing, that very difficult and very concrete moment. He says, there I see genuinely, genuinely, the special grace of God toward me. We need to interpret providence this way, Christian, because we don't, our thanksgiving is so hampered, our faith so flagging. But secondly, I want you to notice, friend, that the evidences of this group of people, those who fear the Lord are given to us in the verses that follow. He begins with a contrast. He says, young lions do lack. They will, he says, these ones, they will lack, they will go hungry, but they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing. And so there's a contrast. And what do we make of the contrast? Well, there are two ways of making sense of this verse. One way is to say, that he's literally describing beasts of the field. That these young lions are, these strong, young, vibrant, ravenous lions, they, despite all of their strength, they will find themselves weak. But the weak godly, they will find themselves ultimately secured and delivered by God. It's one way of reading the text. Another way of seeing that is that the word young lion in the Hebrew is actually a word used later simply for apostate. It's a euphemism for the apostate, one who draws back from God. The Hebrew will use that euphemism primarily to show us the recklessness and the ravish, sorry, the fact that they are a people who are ravenous, dangerous in the church. Take it either way, take it as either literally young lions or take it as the euphemism for apostasy. There's a distinction made. Not all of mankind have an interest in the saving help. Not all will know the goodness of the Lord. Obviously, then that presents the question. Well, who are those that will know? What are they like? And bring that to a very personal level. Am I among them? Am I numbered among those that shall know the goodness of the Lord and the land of the living? Am I numbered among those that he will secure and that will know his covenant mercy? I want you to notice that that's precisely the question that the psalmist intends to answer because in the 11th verse he says, come children. Again, he's a pedagogue, he's a teacher telling us to come, and he says, I will teach you the fear of the Lord. Striking friend, because just beforehand, he tells us that only those who fear the Lord will know this goodness. Now he's saying, I will teach you what is the fear of the Lord. And then he even brings out in verse 12 that invitation. Are there any among you, as it were, that he asked? Are there any among you that want to know this, the saving help of God? Do you want to know how you might have an interest in the covenant? Well, then here he says in verse 13, he says pointedly, keep, keep thy tongue from evil. You do not speak in such a way that would show that you are those who do not fear God. In other words, your words must demonstrate that you are one who seeks the Lord. Then he says, do good. So with your tongue, you're not supposed to act as one who hates God. Now he says, with your hands, you're supposed to work in good works. Put your hands to that which is truly righteous. Then he says again, seek peace. And the idea there is that, again, even toward your fellow men, you are one who's engaged and even conscientious about maintaining peace and justice with your neighbors. Later, he will say again that these ones are those who have a contrary heart. They're those who not only, friend, are conscientious in their dealings with men, but they are so before God. What does the psalmist told us? He says, this is the kind of person who knows the delivering help of the Lord, around whom the angel of the Lord encamps. This is their description, their resume, if you like. And of course, the obvious question for us as the worshiper at this juncture is to ask, do I see myself in this text? This is the resume of those who fear the Lord and only those who fear the Lord. know this goodness, know this saving help. Do I meet this list? But friend, I want you to notice that as we move then toward the end of this psalm, as you move to verses 21 and 22, the psalmist brings us to a point, a point of contrast once again, Verse 21, he begins by saying that evil shall slay the wicked. Now, it's important to recognize what he's saying here. He's not saying that evilness shall afflict. He's saying evil, evil will be their destruction. He has the final end of the wicked in mind. We're not talking about various trials and afflictions in the life, we're talking about the end. And one way you could render the text is by saying that they shall die by sin. The evil there is not temporal evil. The evil there genuinely is a moral evil. They will die by their sin or even die in their sin if you prefer it. But it's that next line that stands parallel to this that I want you to notice. Now in Hebrew poetry, there's such a thing as what we call synthetic parallelism where you have two lines. and they express very similar thoughts, but the idea is that those two lines, though parallel, are really telling us progressively some particular truth. In other words, these two lines aren't redundant. The second line is to clarify what is said in the first line, and you have that in the text. Evil shall slay the wicked, he says, and then describing the wicked, he says, they that hate the righteous shall be desolate. I want you to notice the marginal note here, because this is quite crucial. In our translations, it's rendered desolate, but our translators have supplied for us the words shall be guilty. Why do they do that? Because 35 times, this Hebrew word appears in the Hebrew Bible. And 32 of those times, our translators actually render it either offense, transgression or guilt. Why is that important? Because the principle, the overarching theme that lies behind this word and its use in the Hebrew text is that of guilt. Our translators have chosen for the purpose of context to render it desolate and only as an interpretive choice. Modern Hebrew scholars, however, including even unbelieving Jews, and as well, a good number of our forebears, render the text thus. They that hate the righteous will be condemned. They that hate the righteous will be condemned. Why do they perish, says the psalmist? Why? Because they will be condemned. And note the future sense there, they will be. That is, there is a final condemnation that these ones will face. And because of that, they perish. Because of a future reality, something that has not yet, as it were, been sealed, that is at least not publicly pronounced, they perish. It's the idea. But then come down to verse 22. Now you have the contrast. The Lord, he says here, redeemeth the soul of his servants. Again, a parallel. and none of them that trust in him shall be desolate. Now, the words be desolate are exactly the same words at the end of verse 21. It's the same words that we render condemn or guilt. And friend, what you find in this text is this, that God redeems his servants, why? Because of a future declaration. They will not be condemned. a reality that will be consummated in the time to come, a reality that is in the present, a reality that will one day be more fully displayed in the future. So they will not be condemned. Why won't they be condemned? Well, you might say they won't be condemned because of the descriptions that you have in verses 20 and following, right? They will keep their tongue from evil. They will do good. They will seek peace. They'll be the contrite spirit. That's not what the psalmist says. Why won't they be condemned? Why are these ones redeemed by the Lord? Friend, if this doesn't thrill you, I don't know what will. None that trust in him will be condemned. In other words, friend, if you come to the end of the psalm and you say, okay, if I want an interest in the mercy of God, I need to engage in meritorious works of obedience. The psalmist says that's not the principal reason why the Lord's servants are redeemed. The principal reason why they're redeemed is because they trust in the Lord. There's no other way to read this verse. No other way, in fact, if you look at this text, what is he saying? He's saying at this moment, because they are not condemned, they are delivered. What do you see in these last two verses of the psalmist? This is so crucial, friend, because it runs through the whole of scripture. The psalmist is saying, as he looks back over everything that we've covered up to this point, he is saying, why is it that the godly are delivered and that ultimately the wicked perish? It's because, as it were, their eschatological place, as it were, is intruding into the present. Who they are, either condemned or not condemned, is manifest now. As the wicked suffer, it is because they are condemned. One day that will be publicly pronounced for all the world to hear. And why is it that the godly are delivered? because they are not condemned. That is, as it were, their identity in Christ is breaking through in the present in those moments. Why is this so important, friend? Because this is exactly how our forebears looked at providence. And they looked at providence because they read texts like this. Robert Bruce put it this way. He says, our affliction floweth from the favor, the love, and the mercy of God in Christ Jesus, and tendeth to our great profit and commodity. But as to the affliction of the reprobate, it floweth from the hot wrath and indignation of God, and from him as a righteous judge, beginning their punishment here, which shall last forever. It's exactly what the psalmist says. Why do the wicked perish in verse 21? Because they will be condemned. They have a foretaste of hell, he says. And he reads that right into Providence today. Robert Bruce goes on to say, so affliction that is unto them a part of his justice, unto us it is a merciful correction. Friend, we must close here. We've come to the place of clarity. We've been told that this is how you and I are to look at life. that whenever the godly are delivered, it is because God is manifesting his covenant love and care over them. It is his special love that we can even see in Providence. And then he goes on to tell us that those who are recipients of this love, who have a real interest in the covenant of grace, they will manifest that through evidences in their lives. But he closes by saying this. He says, do you want to know ultimately why the wicked perish and why the godly are redeemed? These are condemned. All those that trust in the Lord are not. He interprets providence, friend, by looking to their eternal state. He says that breaks through in the present and even in this life. Now you may say to me, well, pastor, does this Psalm teach them that every righteous person will be delivered from every difficult providence? And the answer of course, indubitably is no. Note what he says there, many are the afflictions of the righteous. So what kind of deliverance certainly do the godly know? I want you to notice what we read again in 1 Peter. He writes to that congregation, Peter, he says, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations. This was a persecuted congregation. The congregation very much spread out. The Claudian exile from Jerusalem made them really a diaspora congregation. Peter says that you have faced all kinds of difficulties. Temptations surround you as it were at every point. And yet he says this, Quoting from our Psalm, in chapter two, he says, ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious. Also, whom having not seen, speaking of Christ, ye love. in whom though now you see him not yet believing, he rejoiced with joy unspeakable and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls. And then over to chapter two, again, he says, unto you which believe, he is precious. Friend, in other words, what is the way in which this congregation faced the reality of this psalm? Where they tasted and saw that the Lord was good. Well, in the case of this congregation, it was not immediate deliverance from affliction. It was knowing by experience more and more the redemption in Christ. I would encourage you friend to meditate on chapter one in verse eight of 1 Peter and see there that what Peter describes for us is really people who are afflicted, but spiritually are people who knew themselves well delivered. So friend, no, we won't be delivered from every afflicting providence. The psalmist never tells us so, but we are told this, that the Lord will deliver us from all of them one day. The psalm ends, friend, driving us to that final end. The misery of the ungodly has begun here. and it will last for eternity, says the psalmist. They will be condemned. There's a future aspect there, not only for him to tell us about a future pronouncement, but to tell us, friend, that it will simply just continue. But the misery and the affliction that the godly face in this life will come to an end. Absolutely. The ungodly, their misery begins now and is but continued in hell. God will one day deliver the godly out of all of their afflictions indeed. Friend, do you see providence according to this text? Do you see your deliverances, however seemingly mundane they might be, as expressions of covenant love? If you're in Christ, the psalmist exhorts you to see it as the angel of the Lord encamping about you, as he did the church under age. Friend, when you see the suffering of the ungodly, you see that as but hell begun. Friend, do you see them as well in this text? how necessary a thing it is to be reconciled to the living God, how precious it is that our God is pleased to save hell-deserving sinners. Our psalmist says you should see it because it has a real impact in the life that you see and in which you live. This is a place of clarity, a psalm of instruction, My friend, what do we see? The psalmist says you ought to interpret your life, you ought to see the lives of others in this way. You ought to see, friend, that those who are condemned now, whatever miseries they face are a foretaste of that which is everlasting. For you who are in Christ Jesus, every mercy that you know, Yes, later on, we can even include afflictions. That is an expression of covenant love. As it were an earnest, a foretaste of that eternal life and bliss that is yours and Him. We should pray to God that we might see it so. Amen. We'll close our time this evening just by coming to the throne of grace together. Now let's stand to pray. Eternal and ever-blessed God, we come into thy presence this evening mindful that we come before thee, the judge of all the earth, the one who searches the hearts and tries the reins, who knows the secret thoughts, and the one who indeed one who separates the sheep from the goats. So we come, Lord God, mindful that we are a people, a people condemned in Adam the first, a people whose actual transgressions are of infinite guilt, but a people this evening thankful for Adam the second, who suffered in the place of his own, who took the handwriting and the ordinances that was against them and nailed it to his cross. Father, we thank Thee and we praise Thee that in the Lord Jesus Christ, there is justification. There is reconciliation with the living God. And Father, we thank Thee that this hope that we have is predicated upon him, the Lord Jesus Christ himself, given as a covenant for the peoples, one who is now ascended, the first fruits of the resurrection, the one who intercedes now that the benefits of the covenant would be applied to his people. Father, we thank thee that there is a living Christ this evening, and that as such, He does indeed communicate the benefits that he has purchased to his own. We pray that in thy love thou wouldst pardon us. For people, we are weak and our faith is so small. And Father, we see as does the world when we ought to see with greater clarity. We take for granted so many mercies, forgetting that to the believer, These are tokens of covenant mercy. These flow from the benefits that are theirs in the Lord Jesus Christ. Father, make us see as we ought to see. We pray as well, Father, that we would even look at the ungodly as does the psalmist. Father, that our hearts would be burdened as we see men and women in misery without Christ and to know that it is but hell begun for them. Father, would these things drive us more and more to seek the advancement of Christ's kingdom, to be more concerned for the wellbeing, the spiritual wellbeing of those nearest us, that we would be as those described by Jude, those saving with fear, pulling them from the fire, Father, grant us, we pray, this clarity. We ask all in Jesus' blessed name. Amen. And we receive now the Lord's benediction. The Lord bless thee and keep thee. The Lord make his face shine upon thee and be gracious unto thee. The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee and give thee peace. Amen.