It's a joy to be with you this evening, to see old friends, hopefully have a chance to meet some new ones. I invite you to turn with me in God's word to Psalm 34. Our work as translation consultants is, you could boil it down to asking three questions about the translations that indigenous mother tongue translators produce. Is there anything added? Is there anything left out? Is there anything changed? I'd encourage you to open your Bibles and to look at the text this evening. I would like to read for you a draft translation from the Bwati language, which is a Chadic language in Eastern Nigeria, which I was working with. We did 16 psalms just two months ago. A back translation, they're translating from the Hausa Bible into their language and with the help of the English Bible. So we have a tertiary three, it's translation from a translation into their language and then back into English. So this is kind of like fourth time around. So it's a bit rough at points, but I think you might find some remarkable insights even as we listen to this draft translation. If I use the word or, it means I'm reading two translation possibilities. And I think, for example, you'll appreciate some of their expressions like, faith for them is to agree and to lean on. It's how they express trusting in someone or having faith in someone. Let's hear then God's word from them through this draft translation. Their translation of the superscription reads, David faked being demonized before King Abimelech, and then the king drove him away. And then beginning in verse one, I will exalt or give Yahweh thanks all the time. I will praise him every day. From inside my heart, I will elongate, I will boast, I will take pride in Yahweh. They that do not have strength with them, let them hear and be happy. Exalt Yahweh together with me. We should exalt his name all together. I called on Yahweh and he heard me. He rescued or redeemed me from all that makes me fear. They who agree and lean on him, their faces will shine with happiness. Their faces will not be covered with shame. This person without strength, he called to Yahweh. Yahweh heard him and saved him from every type of suffering. A messenger of Yahweh always looks after or watches those who honor Yahweh. He separates them from whatever is bad, bad. Try with your heads and taste the goodness of Yahweh. It will be a thing of happiness for those who are covered by him. Honor Yahweh, you his good people, for all those who honor him lack nothing. Lion cubs often feel hunger and their bodies weaken. However, all those who agree and lean on Yahweh, they do not lack all kinds of fine things. Come, my children, and pay attention and listen to me. I will teach you the ways of fearing or honoring Yahweh. Whoever among you loves good living and the one who loves a beautiful life, let him separate from bad talk and separate from telling lies. Separate from doing bad. You should keep doing good things often. Seek for peace and stand on it. The eyes of Yahweh are on his good people. His ears often listen to their cries. However, Yahweh stands against evildoers. He causes nobody to remember them in the world. Yahweh hears his good people when they call to him. He separates them from all sorts of suffering. Yahweh is near to those helpless or unable. So also he does help or respond to the weak in body. All sorts of evil befall a person of integrity. However, Yahweh saves him from them all. He guides or follows him so that not even one of his bones will be broken. The sins of a wicked person will lead him to death. Also, those who hate righteous people, they will meet judgment. Yahweh is the one who will redeem his people. There is none who agrees and leans on him who will fall into judgment." Thus far in his word. May his blessing be on the reading and meditation of it. People of God, well loved by our Lord Jesus Christ. we have in our hands this evening precious promises. It's a very valuable psalm which was well known to the Apostle Peter. You'll remember that he's quoting that in that section that we read this evening. It's known by the Apostle John as he quotes it in chapter 19 as well. And it can fortify us as we look to the challenges that face us, 2025. We can look to Yahweh for good even in the face of the uncertainties that confront us. One privilege of traveling in the developing world is to see, so to speak, how the other side lives. I was traveling just two months ago with 10 Americans in Nigeria. We were doing translation consulting with various languages there. I was working with the Boitier team, as I read to you already. And during the two weeks that we were there, a brother of one of the translators was kidnapped. And he was on his way out of the village to the farm. He was kidnapped, held for ransom. During that time we were there, a ransom was paid. He was set free. This is not at all uncommon for that area. For the Boitier team off in the east, not having electricity is very common. And in the villages, not having it at all. An automobile? Not at all. Internet? In some places and at some times, perhaps. All-weather roads? Think again. The entire physical life of people is just so much more basic, so much slower, so much more uncertain than ours is here in the US. Lack of access to safe drinking water, something we take for granted. Even where we were in Joss, the water was off every day, the electricity was off every day, the internet was off and on every day. lack of something like a banking system. Imagine what that would be like. Not only lack of investments, but lack of ability to handle, to deal with money through a banking system. And this is an area that's harassed by Boko Haram. Haram means to be forbidden, and Boko means westernization. So these are the people that, they attack schools where girls go to school, because that's westernization. Westernization is forbidden. Just the uncertainty of life, and it's just quite extraordinary in those areas. The lack of access to healthcare. Something we take for granted. Again, they face serious troubles. But the five translators in the team that were working with us through the psalms, they were able to find, this psalm really spoke to them. They were able to find comfort and orientation, consolation and encouragement from this psalm. It's a message from God to them and to us as well, I think you will find. This is not necessarily clear in our English Bibles, but of course all the psalms are poems, as you know. But this psalm is an acrostic. Do you remember what an acrostic is? It's like Psalm 119. Each section is one of the alphabet letters, kind of Aleph, Bet, Gimel, Dalet, Hey, the Hebrew alphabet. That may not be clear, but that's the case here. Even it is in many Psalms, such as Psalm 25. The structure here is very similar to Psalm 25. It's missing actually one letter, and it has one letter repeated at the end. And it's exactly the same letters in Psalm 25 as in here. So it seems they were written by the same person. We take it that that's David in this case. Because it's an acrostic, you wouldn't expect, it doesn't develop its themes in kind of groups, so it's a bit more scattered in its thoughts, so I'm not gonna give it to you or expound it to you in sections, but to think of it as a piece of music, perhaps. I would say that there are three major chords that run through this music, let's say, three main points, three main themes that we'll consider this evening. And the first is in the minor key. The first is a sober note, and it has to do with the sufferings that you face, that we all face. In Psalm 34, there are no cheap prosperity gospel promises here. Prosperity gospel is super popular in Nigeria. As we drove to Joss, I saw probably 12 billboard-sized advertisements for prosperity gospel preachers of various sorts. It's very appealing to poor people, If you do something, you'll get rich. That's a very, very appealing message. It's very abusive, of course, to do that to poor people, but that's the way it is there, sad to say. But there's an authenticity, there's a realism here in Psalm 34 that we can appreciate because it's not necessarily easy to hear, but the fact is that the Christian life is not trouble-free. The Christian life is not trouble-free, and if you've lived it for any length of time, you know that that's the case. Let me make this personal to us just to say that it is okay to be afraid. That's our first point. It's okay to be afraid. It's normal to be afraid. Whether you're in Nigeria, whether you're in Joliet, there are all kinds of challenges that surround us. That diagnosis I got. I'm afraid of how my kid is going to turn out. I would love to change jobs, but I'm not sure I can afford to make the change. I may have interpersonal troubles, health troubles, emotional struggles, spiritual struggles of all kinds. And this is very understandable. If you're experiencing fear, If you have experienced fear, as you do experience fear, it is understandable. Look through this psalm with me briefly and just see the many terms that, for the things that are against David. Verse 4, fears. Verse 5, being ashamed. Verse 6, troubles. Verse 9, lack. Verse 10, want, hunger. Verse 13, evil, deceit. Verse 18, being broken hearted, being crushed in spirit. Verse 19, afflictions. Verses 21, 22, condemnation. There are all kinds of things against us. And being sobered and even fearful about these things is natural and it is inevitable to one extent or another. I got a letter from a friend, a prayer letter, just this week, who was in an accident a few years ago, and he was fine for a number of years, but now he's starting to lose the use of his hands. He can't even type anymore. And he said that 2024 was the worst year that he'd ever had. I really appreciate his realism. He was looking these losses straight in the face. I wish I could tell you that 2025 will be a year in which you go from strength to strength. You go from prosperity to prosperity. You go from one success to another. The door is open for you again and again. I wish I could promise you that, but I can't necessarily. I can't. Life in this busted, sin-cursed, broken world is just that. It's twisted, it is broken, and it is filled with all kinds of troubles. If you look at verse 6, I think David is referring to himself when he talks about this poor man. In other words, he doesn't have resources. He realizes he cannot fend off all the threats against himself, and he uses the expression, his troubles, and that word is repeated in verse 17. That word for troubles is particularly rich. One dictionary, one Hebrew dictionary, defines that term as the process by which humans go through extremely difficult circumstances, resulting in severe anxiety, as if one were confined to a narrow and cramped space from which there is no escape. David experienced many situations that caused fear, Even as the superscription mentions, he was in the presence of the Philistine king. And by the way, this term Abimelech seems to be the throne name, like pharaoh of the Philistine kings. We can read the story in 1 Samuel 21. Don't be surprised that it speaks of that king as being with another name there. But remember now, he had killed Goliath, who was the champion and led to the destruction of a lot of the Philistine forces. And David was sung about as killing his tens of thousands. And here he is in the hands of the Philistine king, Goliath's king. His very life was threatened. And he only escaped by the shameful means of acting like he was crazy, kind of like Paul being let down in a basket from Damascus. Not exactly an honorable way to leave a city in a basket. acting like a madman to leave a kingdom, but that was the case. Trouble and trouble and trouble again was David's experience as we read about in the scripture. He's maligned by his brothers, misunderstood and slandered by his wife. He's of course persecuted and his life is held in his hand again and again with Saul. Even as king, his main advisor turns against him, betrays him. His own son seeks after his life to kill him and to take his kingdom. His entire family is kidnapped at one point in time. He's homeless and on the run for such a long time. He talks about, in verse four, all his fears. This word is only used two other times in scripture. In Proverbs 10, 24, that word is translated dread. Willem van Gameren writes about that word, quote, the fears of the psalmist are those concerns that terrorize the soul and occupy one's thoughts. It refers to a horror or a dread. This is his experience. Perhaps you have been in that situation. with dealing with that kind of fear. Perhaps you're at that point in your life even now, this kind of dread, something that is just overwhelming to you. You're in good company with David. Our troubles may be more on the emotional side. We read of these troubles that have sunk in deep. Our psalm speaks about those who are brokenhearted, those who are crushed in spirit, The Hebrew dictionary speaks about that crushing as, quote, a state in which someone has suffered harm and humiliation, as if crushed with a heavy object. Thinking of David's experience, of course, makes us think of the experience of David's greater son, our Lord Jesus, who experienced not only many of the things that David experienced, but was traitorously handed over even to torture, formal condemnation, and a gruesome execution. He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. Whatever you may face in terms of whatever's challenging you or oppressing you or making you fear, our Lord Jesus experienced these things and even more. At one point in his life, even as he's considering what's gonna happen to him the next day, he is so overwhelmed with pressure that his blood vessels are breaking out and he's bleeding, as it were, sweat. He's under such stress and such fear. David has been where you have been afraid. Our Lord Jesus has been where you are afraid. But thankfully, this psalm not only diagnoses our fears and the things that are against us, but more positively, it points us to a remedy. It starts and it ends with really the answer that we desperately need. And where is that? It says at the beginning, I will bless Yahweh. And at the very end, it's a little switched in Hebrew. The last phrase speaks about those who take refuge in him. So the beginning and the end is the focus on Yahweh. That's the answer. Yahweh is the bottom line solution to our deepest needs of body, and of soul and of spirit. First, as you look at verse four, for example, I sought the Lord. He answered me and delivered me from all my fears. We have testimony here from David. We have testimony from a number of others here. And this is our second point, that we can find help and we find help from God. If you look at these initial verses, it's remarkable the responsive relationship between God and us, his people. Verse 4, he answered me. Verse 6, the Lord heard his cry. Verse 15, his eyes are toward us and his ears toward our cry. Verse 17, he hears when we cry. Verse 18, he's near to us. Of course, this is what Christmas is all about, right? that he is near us, that God has come to us. He's taken on our very form as human beings. He's tasted our sorrow. He's experienced the worst, even our own sin, and he's carried that away on his own suffering shoulders. God is responsive to us. He's not far off and unconcerned. He's near and responsive and listening and ready to help us. David is writing from experience. In verse four, he delivered me from all my fears. Verse six, the Lord saved him out of all his troubles. Then our psalm goes on to make these glorious promises, these broad promises to us as the people of God, especially in the middle and the end of our psalm. Look at verse six, he talks about those who look to him are radiant. How do you like that as the name of an OPC, huh? From Psalm 34, perhaps. Radiant. Radiant. Verse 7, the angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him and delivers them. That's a promise for you, for me. That's something we don't think about as we should, being so secularized, that there are angels that continually minister to us in our various needs. Verse nine, those who fear him have no lack. What a promise. Verse 10, those who seek the Lord lack no good thing. Marvelous promise. This is not a promise of opulence that this will be a year of luxury for you, but you can use it, you can claim this promise that God will provide for you. The things that you need, he will provide. This is a promise for you. Look at verse 17, the Lord delivers the righteous out of all their troubles. Verse 18, he saves the crushed in spirit. Verse 19, he delivers the righteous from his affliction. The Lord, we read here, is good. This is why he does this, because he is good. And if you doubt it, then verse 8 is an invitation to all of us. If you doubt what I'm saying from this psalm, you say, I can't believe this, then verse 8 is for you. It is an invitation. Taste and see that the Lord is indeed good. Blessed is the one, blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him. Learn this by experience. that God is good and is good to you. Not just good in the abstract, but good to you. That's what Psalm 34 is all about. You can have this by experience. Look at all the action words used in this Psalm to describe what God does. Verse 4, deliver. Verse 6, save. verse 7. Deliver, again 17. Deliver, save 18. Deliver, 19. Again, keep 20. Redeem, 22. God is good. This is the kind of being He is. He delights to give benefits to His people and beyond His people to all human beings. He causes His sun to shine on the righteous and the unrighteous. You say, It's hard for me to believe. I would say open your eyes and see what God has done for you this past year. In our first song selection we were talking about, the word, the knowledge goes out where there's no word, right? Just the very natural revelation speaks to us of even the goodness of God. But the clearest example of the goodness of God is found through the one whose name points to what he came to do. His Aramaic name is Yeshua. His Hebrew name is Joshua. We call it Jesus, which comes through the Greek. But that name is his mission, which is Yahweh saves. That's his work, is to save. He came to deliver. He came to rescue. He came to save. He came to set free. He came to do you good. Yes, you can find help from God. Rescue and deliverance come to us through our Lord Jesus. It's okay to be afraid. That's natural enough. You can indeed find help from God. That's what David is emphasizing for us here in this psalm. Let me now strike David's third chord in this particular piece. If you look up verse 11, You see that David takes the role of a father and of a wisdom teacher. And our third point to express it is, seek the Lord and walk in His way. This is a call for you and me, for all of us. Seek the Lord and walk in His way. The psalmist says, come, O children, listen to me. I will teach you the fear of the Lord. Where do you hear that? I will teach you, children, the fear of the Lord. Where do you hear that again and again? From the first chapters of Proverbs, right? This is taking on the wisdom theme and the wisdom role. This is a fantastic psalm to end one year with and to begin another with, because on the one hand, it's filled with thanksgiving, looking back. Have you taken a chance to sit down, to write down all the good things that God did for you, or at least some of the good things that God did for you this past year? If you haven't written them down, have you talked to somebody about them? Have you talked to yourself about them or prayed about them? What a great time of year to look back and to say, thank you for this, for this, for that. But it's also a good time of year to challenge us, not just with being careful about what we eat, or our exercise routines, or those kind of things that are so common in the world. But we need that multifaceted, multiperspectival Perspective of wisdom that we have we find in the scriptures and through Christ, right? That's that's wise enough to say answer a fool according to his folly and don't answer a fool according to his folly I mean there's it's complicated and how you apply the word of God in situations is not always Simply cut and dried it takes wisdom What shall I prioritize this year? What relationships shall I be pursuing? What focus? What goals? We are in desperate need of wisdom as we look to the future. But this is inviting us to this way of wisdom. Would you look with me at 12 through 14 in particular? Now twelve, expressing it this way, is virtually universal. Who isn't, that doesn't desire life, that doesn't want to see good? Of course this is universal. But the fact of the matter is that true good can only be found just by desiring it, but by having peace with God, by having a good relationship with God. This is the only way that you can have truly rich and a beautiful life. True good means, in verse 18, it means having the Lord near you. And of course, if you look at verses 21 and 22, this is a sober topic, but it means knowing that you are not condemned by God, that you are not under the judgment of God, that His anger is not on you, that His face is not against you. Now, we know that this freedom from condemnation comes not by something that we do or that we achieve. It comes as a gift from God himself through the Lord Jesus Christ. It comes on our part, however, as we, as the Boitier translators put it, as we agree and lean upon Christ. not just an abstract, oh I know that Jesus existed. It's a, it's a, it's a, it's a faith in Christ. It's a, it's a, a trusting in Yahweh himself. A giving yourself to him and leaning on him for that deliverance. It's by faith, living faith. And as we have living faith, as we have a true connection with Christ by faith, there's a new lifestyle that begins to come out in our lives, little by little sometimes, sometimes in radical changes. We were hearing earlier today about a Muslim man who came to know Christ and just completely revolutionized his way of dealing with other people. We can call that change, that life of faith, the life of wisdom, we can call it in the words of verse four, we can call it seeking the Lord. Now of course in verse four that would refer to the life of prayer. It is good at the beginning of the year to think about my life of prayer, my life of connection with God through his word. Am I taking advantage of the fact that I have the word of God in my language, English? whatever my language may be. Am I using the means of grace? I won't emphasize this too much since we are on a Sunday night service and I know it's a rare thing for American Christians to come a second time to worship and praise the Lord for his grace given to you that you're interested enough in the gospel that you would take the effort to come out on a cold night and to hear the word of God and to sing the Lord's praises and to seek him in prayer. So praise the Lord for his grace already given to you. But as we sang in our earlier song about that grace going and holiness going into every corner of our lives, we see that here with wisdom. That wisdom and a godly way of living penetrates into the corners of our life. Look at verse 13. This is incredibly convicting, I think, if you'll be honest with yourself, because it attaches to our speech. Why is it that we say negative things about other people when it's not our duty to do so? That is simply wrong. It's simply wrong and we shouldn't do it. We should turn away from that. Why do we speak to other people in ways that manipulate them for our own interests, that use other people? That's simply wrong, but of course we do that kind of thing all too often. Wisdom, as we see in 14, it calls us to a new way of living. new way of relating to other people. It's the pursuit of shalom. I'm sure you're familiar with that Hebrew word which is we translate so often as peace, but it's it's richer than just than just peace. To chase shalom, to quest for shalom as this text suggests, means not with there's something vertically, there's something horizontally to that. Vertically this of course means to be to be convinced that you do have peace with God, that you are free from His condemnation. And our text would suggest that those who are outside of Christ, as we look at 16, as we look at verse 21, those who continue in their habits of scorning believers, of abusing other people, that on that day of judgment, or even before, they will be condemned. To use the imagery of verse 16, they will come to nothing, their memory will be cut off. As C.S. Lewis suggests in his essay, The Weight of Glory, they will be left utterly and absolutely outside, repelled, exiled, estranged, finally and unspeakably ignored. Who wants to have God's face against them? No one, I hope you don't, right? Praise God. We can have, vertically, we can have peace with God because, as we see at the end of our psalm, he redeems the life of his servants. None of those who take refuge in him will be condemned. Or as Paul expresses it in Romans, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. If we're connected to him by sincere faith, we have peace indeed. We have a life-giving connection to God. Praise the Lord for this vertical shalom that we enjoy through Christ. But that extends now, the challenge is it extends horizontally. And this is tremendously challenging to each of us. So the challenge is that we should live out wisdom in all of our horizontal relationships and chase after peace horizontally. So very simple. Are you seeking the welfare of your spouse? How are you seeking the welfare of your spouse? This idea of shalom is the idea of flourishing and welfare. Do you take your spouse simply for granted? Are you thinking, how can I make this person's life flourish? My children, how can I make their life flourish? Children, let me ask you, with your parents. You can say, how can I make my parents' life easier? How can I honor my parents? How can I do good to my parents? right? Serve my parents, help my parents, right? Not fight against them, not make their life difficult, right? So this is a call to us as children, a call to us as parents, a call to us those who are teachers, Am I thinking of how can I enrich my students' lives? Or as students, how can I be helpful to my teachers, my clients, my customers? To think of the people that I'm working with every day, how can I chase shalom for them? How can I promote their welfare? their well-being. That's what's being... Seek after good. It's not an abstract thing here. It's in how we relate to other people. This is what the psalmist is concerned about. This is, of course, is what the Lord is concerned about. How can we promote the well-being of others? How can we show them goodness, bring them health, bring them welfare, bring them desirable, give them desirable things? Because as we seek to provide well-being to others, this is where we find well-being ourselves, right? It comes back upon ourselves. Let me simply finish with this meditation. that enrichment comes inside, not outside, the will of God. Let me repeat that. This is very important. Because this is the original temptation. What's the original temptation? And it's at the seed of all temptations. Oh, enrichment comes outside the will of God. Separate from God just forget what God says on this this or this point And it's this is where you're going to this will be how you'll be happier here. You'll enjoy this you'll get ahead here This will be more pleasurable you'll find better comfort here You'll find happiness here consolation here meaning here outside the will of God oh The wisdom tradition, Psalm 34, David himself and our Lord Jesus Christ would say, enrichment comes inside the will of God. Inside, always inside the will of God. If you want to experience the good of verse 12, you have to give yourself to walking in the way of wisdom in verse 14. The good, same word in both verses, is connected together, right? seeking, giving ourselves in the service of others according to our various callings and relationships. Let us remember, brothers and sisters, Jesus is not about making your life narrow, cramped, and uncomfortable. No, he's about enriching your life, making your life full, making your life secure. But do remember that enrichment is found in the will of God, not outside the will of God. Let's listen to David and be able to say no to the temptations around us. Brothers and sisters, even as we've begun singing wonderful songs in praise of God, I love singing from the Trinity Psalter hymnal. I love singing from the Trinity hymnal. I miss that. We're part of a wonderful church in Mexico City. We live in the center of Mexico City, and we're part of a great church there. Matter of fact, Through historical reasons there are there are five great Presbyterian churches in this in the section of the city where we live We get great preaching every week It's it's a wonderful thing and even Alice's got enough Spanish now to I saw her weeping a couple weeks back And she we're blessed by the Word of God But let us, even as the psalmist does, brothers and sisters, let us respond as we see God's goodness to us, that he is good, that he's for us, that by his grace we can face the fears that are all around us. Let us break forth and give him praise. That's what David's doing at the beginning, right? He's responding with thanksgiving. He's saying and he's committing to bless the Lord at all times. God's praise is in his mouth. He's boasting, not in himself, but in the Lord. He's magnifying the Lord and he's inviting others to be with him. Brothers and sisters, for everyone who's ever lived, whether shepherd or king, it's true for each of you here. Let's take our refuge and find our help in him. Yahweh Himself, who's come to us through the Lord Jesus Christ, who cares and who's responsive to our needs and our difficulties. Let's look to Him and our faces will indeed be radiant. Should we stand together? Let's pray together. Would you stand with me please? Almighty God and Heavenly Father, we thank you that you have loved us and you've come to us by sending your Son, our Lord Jesus, to live the life that we couldn't live and to carry that condemnation that we couldn't survive. We thank you, Lord, for the demonstration of your care in the air we breathe and everything we've eaten today and what we have. You've been very kind to us. We pray that you'd help us, even as we prayed as a congregation, for those in need and difficulties. Lord, you know the sufferings of each heart and the fears that each of us faces. Let us, Lord, have the testimony more at the end of this year than we do at the beginning that you've delivered us from all our fears, that you've given us good things, that you've provided for us, how we need you for everything, Lord, how we need you for life, how we need you for your provision, for your wisdom and your guidance. Give us grace, then, we pray, to live not out of fear of your condemnation, but out of joy, and help us to give ourselves in the service of others, we pray, for all those around us. Grant us new opportunities, we pray, Lord, to make us useful this year, we do pray. We ask this with the forgiveness of our sins, in Jesus' name, amen and amen.