Look with me in Psalm 34 for a moment, and I want to give you something. As a pastor, you You read your Bible, amen, and you preach, and you read, and you preach, and you read, and you preach. I was trying to preach a few messages through the life of David, and I came upon Psalm 34, and it excited my heart because I was preaching through the life of David. The heading of the Psalm in Psalm 34, it says, A Psalm of David, when he changed his behavior before Abimelech. who drove him away and he departed. And so that excited my heart that I was reading in a psalm that gave me some direction of a time and a place in the life of David. And if you'll look back with me another place, hold your place there. I appreciate you fellas using the Bible. I feel a little more liberty use the Bible this morning. First Samuel chapter 21. And I really had never really, I've heard the first of Psalm 34 preached And really in the beginning of Psalm 34, David is praising God for what he's done. He's saying that I'll bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul shall make her boast in the Lord. The humble shall hear thereof and be glad. Oh, magnify the Lord with me and let us exalt his name together. So he's glorifying God for what he's done. But the Psalm, after we find that, those beautiful, Three or four verses there that just lift up the Lord for His deliverance and His faithfulness and His goodness and how worthy God is. Then David kind of gives us an understanding of the time in his life, what he was going through, where it'd been. And David hadn't been killing any giants. David hadn't been winning any great victories. He wasn't even being a great example at this time in his life. He'd been through a real difficult place, a real hard place. Look with me in I Samuel 21. I want to just fill in the gap. What is this time in his life? And the best I understand and in 1 Samuel 21 and verse number eight, David has determined that there's really no home for him anymore, anywhere around Saul or anywhere around Jonathan or anywhere around where he has made his life, he can't make his life there anymore. And really, David here, he's gonna take some steps that are not perfect steps. He's gonna make some moves that are not perfect moves. I think Charles Spurgeon says that this is how the Lord delivers his people. Even when they do some things they shouldn't do, Sometimes we get away, sometimes we go in the wrong direction. I'm glad God doesn't let you go too far in the wrong direction before He'll put you on your knees and remind you He's the Lord. But look with me in 1 Samuel 21, verse number... 10, notice this, and David arose and fled that day for fear of Saul, and went to Achish king of Gab. And the servants of Achish said unto him, is not this David the king of the land? Did they not sing one to another of him, and dance and sing, Saul slain is thousands, but David is ten thousands? And David laid up these words in his heart, and was sore afraid of Achish, the king of Gath. One writer said that the word fear in verse 10, it speaks of the countenance. And I can just imagine what Saul looked like when he's throwing javelins at you and going crazy. I've met a few like that, by the way, that their countenance was not always kind in my direction. But then the Bible said there in verse 12 that David is afraid of the words of the King of Gath. You know, when you run from one fear, you run right into a lot of times a greater fear or another fear. The Bible says that in verse number 13, and notice this, and he changed his behavior before them. and feigned himself mad in their hands, and scrabbled on the doors of the gate, and let his spittle fall down upon his beard. Then Achish said unto his servants, well, you see the man is mad, and in their culture, they didn't want crazy people in their midst. It wasn't a good thing. They had no use for them. And he said, lo, you see the man is mad. Wherefore then have you brought him to me? Have I need of mad men that have brought this fellow to play the mad man in my presence? Should this fellow come into my house? And so that is the background of Psalm 34. Now, David didn't just write, one psalm about this experience in his life, he wrote a second psalm about this very experience in his life in Psalm 56. Won't take time, I may throw a few of those verses along the journey if I have time, but I don't know too many experiences in the life of David that he wrote more than one psalm about. I'm sure that, and we know he goes from, I preached the message to his life. He went from crazy in the next chapter, he's in a cave, amen. Sometimes when you go crazy, you end up in a cave, amen. But anyway, God is gonna have mercy on him and deliver him. Look back with me in Psalm 34. I titled this David's life story. But as I studied it, I found out it's really my life story. It's really the child of God's life story. And notice just a few verses here in Psalm 34 to find what I wanna look at. Look at verse four. There is a repetition here. There are three thoughts here that I want to, and you'll see them right away if you look, three phrases. Verse four, it said, I sought the Lord, and he heard me. and delivered me from all my fears. Look at verse number six. He said, this poor man cried and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all of his troubles. Verse seven, the angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them. Then look at verse 15. The Bible says the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears are open unto their cry. Verse 17, the righteous cry, and the Lord heareth. "'and delivereth them out of all their troubles.'" All right, verse 18, "'The Lord is nigh unto them "'that are of a broken heart, "'and save as such as be of a contrite spirit. "'Many are the afflictions of the righteous, "'but the Lord delivereth him out of them all.'" I wanna just look at these Psalms this morning and what God did in David's life and just try and see the reality of what the Lord does in our lives and how He does it. Would you pray with me? Heavenly Father, thank you, Lord, for the precious, precious Word of God we've heard, the good preaching. Lord, thank you for your presence among us, for speaking to our hearts. And Lord, I pray you'll touch every ministry represented here. Oh God, I pray that there'll be great profit that'll come out of this meeting, Lord, it'll go up, go back. Lord, every ministry represented here, and God, make a difference and an impact. Oh God, I pray, touch our lives. In Jesus' name we pray, amen and amen. So really what we find in verse 21 is that there's times in in David's life that he shows up and he's got such faith, he's got such boldness, he's got such power with God that he defeats the giants and then he knocks down the adversaries and he does what seems to be impossible in conquering the enemy. But in this passage, we find David is just a sinner saved by grace. It is a moment really in his life where it's a lapse of faith. It's a time, it's just a time in his life where he saw no other way to run, and so he ran in one direction, he ended up being in the wrong direction. But God didn't leave him just because he made one mistake, amen. And so David is confused, he's fearful, and he escapes, but he escapes really in a humiliating way. And when you leave the plain path of faith, there's no telling what embarrassment you might go get into. I make enough of my own problems, I don't need more problems, amen. So God is just really, and I don't know too many Bible characters that the Lord gives us such a great, great volume of their life story. And so God is just recording the errors of a man after his own heart for our example. And so I want us to understand, look with me real quickly back to verse 17. Here's the truth of the matter. Here's the life story. The righteous cry. Now in every one of those verses just about, I read, I sought the Lord. He said, this poor man cried. And over and over and over, we see that the righteous do cry. Amen. And that the Lord heareth them, and that the Lord delivereth them. So if the righteous cry, and they do. But I say, if you ever get to a place in your Christian experience where things get difficult, and I'm glad to hear men of God that are a little older than me, that sometimes they scratch their heads and wonder what to do next. Amen. I think a lot of times we just gotta wait on the Lord to tell us what to do and when to do it. but the righteous do cry. The righteous cry. I say, mom, it's okay. If things just get out of your hands once in a while, you had to go find some place and cry out to God. It's okay. It's okay, man of God. If you come to the end of your strength and the end of your ability and the end of the last touch we had for heaven and the last message you had and go to God and just cry, amen. So the righteous do cry, but what motivates us to cry? Well, the Bible says here in verse, we looked at it twice in 1 Samuel 21, why did he run? Why did he run? Because he was afraid. One of the things that motivates the cry of the righteous is fear. Notice what he said in verse four, Psalm 34 verse four. You got your Bible open? He said, I saw the Lord. What was it that motivated his cry? I saw the Lord and he heard me and delivered me from all my fears. Well, he said, I'm never afraid. Well, you're in some best company I've ever seen in my life. You're never afraid. But say David was afraid. But prayer to God is always the right thing to do when you're afraid. So what is it that motivates the cry of the righteous? Fear does. This word fear, it speaks of sheer terror. This is not one of those fears that doesn't make any sense. I remember some while back, my wife and my daughter were out in the side yard and I had laid down the bed. They were going out there to do something with the garden or something out there. I don't know, somebody was talking about this. We got 30 chickens in the yard, say amen right there. Where's the grit in your crawl? Amen, where did it go? Amen. Yeah, we got 30 birds wandering around. So I know a little bit about it. So I'm laying there in the bed and all of a sudden I hear my wife let out a sheer rip scream of terror. And then the next thing I hear my daughter let out the same. It's like they're playing tennis with screams. And then they screamed four or five times and then they started laughing. Well, it was a great big bullfrog that jumped by. My wife has got a fear of frogs. Well that really, a frog, as far as I know, unless you're somewhere in some jungle where they're poisonous, a frog can't really hurt you too bad. Unless you're in the swamps of Louisiana, they might carry you off, amen? So there are some fears that don't make any sense. But there are some fears that make a whole lot of sense. Amen. There are some justifiable fears, amen. Well, the Bible says that David goes from one fear to a greater fear. He feared the face of Saul, but now he fears the words of Achish. You know what happens if you don't bring your fears to God and cry out to God about it, you're gonna end up with a bigger thing to be afraid of. You know what, the devil wants you to be afraid. The devil wanted Nehemiah to be afraid and many other people to be afraid, but instead of just living with it, some people live in a state of that. Cry out to God about it. What are you afraid of? Well, I have my oldest son here, he's 31 years old, he's pastoring now, praise the Lord for that. I've got seven more children. My second oldest son is married. I've got, thank God, seven grandkids. Can I get an amen right there? But I got six more. I'll be 65 when my youngest son is 18. Anybody wanna jump in there with me? I've got some justifiable fears. I got two 15 year old boys that eat like, that you can't bring the groceries in fast enough. I'm afraid of some things. I got some family fears. I got a 10 year old little girl and eight year old boy that not been saved yet. And I want them to be saved. I have some future fears, some financial fears. I have some ministry fears. I got some church fears. I have some real justifiable ones. But you know, something we can tell the Lord about that. Now in that companion Psalm, in Psalm 56 verse three, guess what David said about this time in his life? He said, what time I am afraid, I will trust in thee. And then in Psalm 56 verse nine, in the companion Psalm, he said, when I cry unto thee, then shall mine enemies turn back. This I know for God is for me. So I need to move along, but what motivates the cry, the righteous fear? Now look at verse number six. In verse number six, he said, this poor man cried, he's crying to the Lord, the Lord's hearing him, and he saved him out of all his troubles. Then look at verse 17. The righteous cry, and the Lord heareth and delivereth them out of all their troubles. Yeah, we got two fears if we count the ones in 1 Samuel. You know something, we got double trouble now. You ever had trouble? My goodness, trouble. Oh my goodness, I mean, if you're serving God, if you're doing anything for the Lord, there's gonna be some sin ballots and Tobias in it. I mean, if you're really doing the work for God, you're gonna have trouble. But don't let troubles run you out. Don't let them run you over. Let them bring you to the altar. The word troubles here, it speaks of the tight place, tightness. It speaks of adversity. It speaks of anguish, distress, tribulation. It also speaks of having an adversary. But I say, we all have fears, we all have troubles. The Bible says of Job, he's a righteous man, yet he experienced troubles. The Bible says in Job 14, one man is born of a woman's a few days and full of trouble. David said in Psalm 25 verse 17, the troubles of my heart are enlarged. Oh, bring thou me out of my distresses. So we're all gonna have troubles, but we ought to let that motivate us to cry to the Lord. And so Psalm 50 verse 15, call upon me in the day of trouble. I will deliver thee and thou shalt glorify me. Psalm 86 verse seven, in the day of my trouble, I will call upon thee for thou will answer me. So David's troubles motivated his cry. David's fears motivated his cry. Look at verse 19. Many are the afflictions of the righteous. But the Lord delivereth him out of them all. afflictions. And that speaks of things that are like a calamity. I had a phone call recently. Somebody seemed like life was going just perfectly well for them. Called me early in the morning and said, preacher, my life fell, my world fell apart last night. I wish everybody got well. I'm learning more and more about arthritis in more and more places in my body. And if you've got a wonder drug, please tell me. But you know, that's a light thing. That's a light thing. afflictions. Everybody doesn't get well. Some people live with sicknesses and difficulty on and on and on. 1 Thessalonians 3, 3, Paul said that no man should be moved by these afflictions. For yourselves know that we're appointed thereunto. First Peter 5, eight and following he said, be sober, be vigilant because your adversary the devil is a roaring lion walking about seeking whom he may devour, whom resist steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that in the world, but the God of all grace would call us under his eternal glory by Christ Jesus after you have suffered a while, make you perfect, establish, strengthen and settle you. I wish sickness didn't come, but if it comes, Cry out to the Lord. Our fears sometimes motivate us to cry. Some people say, oh preacher, if you're a strong person, you'd never be afraid. Well, there's a whole lot of other people in the Bible talking about being afraid. Amen. The apostle Paul talked about within were fears, without. I don't know how exactly you interpret where the Bible's talking about the Lord Jesus Christ and the book of Hebrews where it says he was hurting that he feared. And I know that word is a different, a different word than, it's not a sinful fear Jesus went through. but it's in the Bible. I think it's like anything else we ever are faced with in life. Jesus let it touch him. He let it affect him so he'd know how to be that faithful high priest when we're afraid. Fears motivate us to cry. Troubles motivate to cry to righteousness. Afflictions motivate that cry, but I like the second part. The Bible said in verse number four, and he heard me. The Bible said in the verse number six, and the Lord heard him. The Bible says in verse 15, the eyes of the Lord upon the righteous ears are open to their cry. Verse 17, the righteous cry, the Lord hear it. The Bible says in verse 18, the Lord is nigh unto them. They're of a broken heart. And Brother Chris, I could come down here and whisper something in your ear and people in the back would never hear a single thing I said unless they called it on the microphone. I could say something here and you'd not hear it in the back. But the Bible says that the Lord, you know why Brother Chris could hear and you couldn't? Because he is near. You know why the Lord always hears us when we cry? It's because He is so near us. There's the wonder that God always hears. His eyes, His ears are upon us. The Lord is hearing, He's nigh. There's an assurance in knowing that God hears us. That encourages me to pray. The Bible says in 1 John 5, 14, this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He heareth us. Proverbs 15, 29, the Lord is far from the righteous, but He heareth the prayer of the righteous. Psalm 145, 18, the Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon Him, to all that call upon Him in truth. This is what I'm simply saying, the righteous do cry, but the Lord always hears. No matter what motivated your cry. No matter what came into your life made you afraid, the Lord hears you when you cry. No matter how big the trouble is that came in your life, I'm telling you, no matter how big the trouble is, no matter how great the need is, amen, God is able to meet the need and hear you when you cry. So there is the wonder that God always hears. But thirdly, there is the working that God always delivers. Now I understand that afflictions come and sometimes people pass out into eternity, but isn't that a perfect place of healing, amen? That a perfect place of deliverance. The Bible said in verse number six that he saved him out of all of his troubles. The Bible said there in verse, Number 17, the Lord heard and he delivered them, and notice, out of all their troubles. Notice, he said that in verse number six. In verse number four, he said, I sought the Lord, he heard me and he delivered me from all my fears. There is the working of God's deliverance. I like this word deliverance. It means to defend. It means to escape without fail. It means to be plucked out. It means to be preserved, to recover, to rescue. But I love the first definitions that are found in the scrolls. It means to snatch away. Amen. And I'll just tell you something about difficulty, and I haven't experienced a lot of what other men have, and I haven't had to deal with what a lot of other people have had to deal with. But one thing I do know is God always, somehow, someway delivers us when we cry to Him. God always makes a way. Always makes a way. The righteous do cry. It's okay. Just tell the right person. He said, Preacher, I'm afraid. Well, me too. Me too. But I know a God in heaven that hears me when I cry. Preacher, I got double trouble. Trouble, have you ever had trouble on top of trouble? Oh boy. There's a God in heaven that hears you and delivers you. I have affliction, and the Lord understands your affliction. Others may not, and I may not, but the Lord understands it all. The righteous cry, and the Lord heareth, and he delivers.