All right, if you're following along, Psalm 34, Psalm 34. It's not an orphan psalm. Orphan psalm is what kind of a psalm? Got no writer that we know of other than the Holy Spirit. Someone put it down, but we know that there's no particular human author that we put with that psalm. However, there is a particular human author. And what was the event that precipitated the writing of this psalm? What had David, where had David been? Right. He'd been with Achish, the people at Gath. He'd been pretending to be insane and escaped back. And he writes in one, I will 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. I sought the Lord and he heard me and delivered me from all my fears. They looked unto him and were lightened and their faces were not ashamed. This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his troubles. The angel of the Lord encampeth around about them that fear him and delivereth him. Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man that trusteth in him. Oh, fear the Lord, ye his saints, for there is no want to them that fear him. The young lions do lack and suffer hunger, but they that seek The Lord shall not want any good thing." Have you noticed how often the Lord and God is mentioned in this first 10 verses? David has come home to rescued by God and now he's giving God the praise, if you would. So that's his praise, the first 10 verses. Question number one, how many sections are there in the book of Psalms? Five, okay. 1-41, 42-72, 73-89, 91-06, and 107-150. Who were glad to hear in verse two? Who here are glad? The humble here thereof and are glad. Where's the boasting? In those 10 verses we just read, Who is being boasted about? I just read today that the clarinetist that used to play with the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra donated $100 million to Boston University. That's the only job he had, and he lived very frugally and saved his money. Over $125 million donated to charity when he died last week. And so they were praising him for that. Now, it's a marvelous thing. Tom and I were talking about it at work. That's a lot of scrimping. He invested very wisely. But this humble... This is David talking about the Lord. The boasting. By the way, you can boast about the Lord all day and it's okay. You can praise Him all day long, all night long, and it's just the right thing to do. Other people, not so much. But God, you can praise Him. The king of Gath was Achish. To whom did David lie at Nob? He told four lies in one verse to whom? The word magnify in verse three means to grow or to praise. Oh magnify the Lord with me, let us talk. I just magnified, I don't even know that guy's name, but I just magnified him a little bit by telling you about a clarinetist of all things who played professionally and able to donate 125. So that's a little bit of a magnify that person. You can read for yourself in the Wall Street Journal last Saturday's edition. And what was David delivered from in verse four? All his fears. Isn't that wonderful? He delivered him from all his fears. David's praise, what he resolved, the first three verses, what he remembers in the next four verses. First of all, the danger. I sought the Lord and he heard me, delivered me from all my fears. That was I was lost. A recurring theme in 17, he says, The righteous cry, and the Lord heareth and delivereth them out of all their troubles. The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart, and save as such be as of a contrite spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord, Yahweh, delivereth him out of them all. It's a recurring theme of the trouble that David, the Lord, delivers him out of and even through, in the midst of, and into, if you would. The Lord allows troubles in our lives, as you well know, to get us to be conformed to His image or to desire to do that. Spurgeon says, we may seek God even when we have sinned. If sin could blockade the mercy seat, it would be all over for us, but the mercy is that there are gifts even for the rebellious and an advocate for men who sin. End of quote and that's it is Jesus Christ the righteous. He he's making intercession for us even now So those things that that we do and we sin and and well now he's still one of my children and and more He's under the blood heavenly father. He and he's our intercessor. He's our our advocate. He's pleading for us and Question, also we were talking about verse four. This comes from his time with Achish and the people at Gath. You can imagine now he was numero uno as far as enemies of the Philistine. He had killed their giant. And so they did not like David. And there were the songs of Israel. I mean, Saul, his thousands, and David, his tens of thousands. And so no one liked that probably at all, except perhaps maybe, I don't know, David's friends or something. And so Saul certainly did not like that. And this is the same person as Gath who has been struggling so much, but he told Saul, I've killed a lion, I've killed a bear, he'll deliver me out of the hand of the flesh stain. And God did, but now he's... So any of us, if we're not careful, we take our eyes off the captain of the ship, the calmer of the seas, and we'll start sinking, and we'll start living below our circumstances instead of above them by God's help. And so that's a little bit of a summary of the first four verses. We're ready to go on now to something new, the top of page two. We talked about his danger, now his discernment. Verse five, they looked unto him and were lightened and their faces were not ashamed. Interesting, the force of the statement is sometimes changed in some renderings to the imperative of look unto him. Now you can imagine, if he's talking to the people who's gathered around him in the cave, he's going to start instructing them. The first part is in praising, the second part is sermon to the people who are listening. Look unto him, and they were lightened. They would have been looking at Goliath's sword, he'd been looking at the king of Achish, he's perhaps been looking at a jail cell. I'm not sure all that he was looking at. He's looking at perhaps at four very tall brothers of Goliath. I'm not sure, but they looked unto him and were lightened. This Lord willing, Sunday morning, I'm going to speak on, where do we go from here? Where do we go from here? So Tom, Tim, where do we go from here? So a little bit of the mini-sermon there for Tom. Where do we go? We go to the Lord. We go to the rock. So I'll probably be a two-parter. In the morning, I'll set the need for going to the Lord, and then what we are to be doing. So we need the Lord, do we not? We certainly do. We get our eyes off other things, on the other things, and the dismal condition of the world today, but this is, we're looking for a better place. We are tent makers, we are tent carriers, we're just traveling through the desert on our way, as Abraham was while looking for that glorious, the new country, the glorious kingdom, that's what he was looking forward to. He was looking everywhere David was except to the Lord. Look unto him. Look expectantly. They looked unto him, and they were lightened. The word lightened says Henry Morris. This unique adjective lightened has the root meaning of sparkle. It was often used to describe a fast-flowing, cascading, sparkling stream of water. Thus, when God answers our prayers in special ways, it results in sparkling or radiant countenance as they light up with joy." End of quote. So when we talk about the Lord, we should start, well, let me just tell you what God did for me. And so often, I'm of the poor mouth variety. Everything's, oh, woe is me, woe is me, woe is me, instead of, wow. what God has done for us. He answers our prayer. He gives us life and health. Their faces were covered with joy, but not with blushes. He who trusts in God, says Phillips, has no need to be ashamed of his confidence. Time and eternity will both justify his reliance. There were people, But millions, yay billions of dollars with Sam Bankman-Fried in the cryptocurrency fraud fiasco of history so far, I believe. Fraud from the get-go, the CFO and the CEO, I know it's the CEO for sure, came clean and they were discussing how we knew things were wrong when we were doing them, but they did it hopefully to get lighter sentences, but we knew, We're talking like $8 billion he defrauded people, investors. And his mantra was, we're the safe cryptocurrency. You can invest with us and be safe. He's going to be held accountable for more ways than one. The people who put their confidence in Sam Bankman Freed just are really unhappy with that now. You can put your confidence in God. He is still the same yesterday, today, and forever. And He will always be the same. You cannot find any errors. There are none. You cannot find any historical discrepancies. There are none. It is perfect through and through. Aren't you glad you can trust that? Just take that for granted that God's Word is true. Every bit of it is true. There's a story by Henry Bosch from the Daily Bread. A woman who was more than 80 years old wrote to him at one point in time, some years ago, and related a personal experience. She said, now I recall that when I was a child, I used to watch a precious old saint in church as with eyes closed, he sang with his head thrown back and with tears trickling down over a perfectly radiant face. Come thou fount of every blessing. Sometimes he sang in tune and sometimes he was way off, but nobody cared because he sang from his whole heart. I don't remember a single word he ever said. She said, but I was profoundly impressed by his face. I wanted to be a Christian like that. And she says, since then, I've often prayed, oh Father, help me to be a radiant Christian. You've probably met them. They're few and far between, and I'll have to say, even in Christian circles, they're few and far between, who every time you can meet them, they're always positive. They've always, you know, they're walking with God, you know, and I'm not one of them, I can just tell you, I'm not that. I would like to be that maybe someday. But they looked unto Him and they were lightened, their faces were excited, they were so glad about what God had done for them of late, perhaps even that morning. Does your face radiate a good testimony for Christ? The one song that I've listened to of late, do they see Jesus in me? Do they recognize his face? Do people recognize that you are truly a child of God? And it makes a difference. By the way, when the Lord comes in, there is a dramatic difference in our lives. It's like the couple that took the little boy to the pet store, and the little boy wanted a dog, and so they're looking in the window, and it's the kind of pet store that had all these puppies, and they were playing around them, biting and nipping, and he finally points to that one. He goes, why, son, do you want that one? I want the one with the happy ending. That one right there. the happy ending and so I guess it's wagging his tail. So I want that one. So that's the positiveness of that. But when God comes in, the biblical mindset is what works. The true story is told of Ironside when he was in Chicago, he's visiting the church. And he went to a Salvation Army street meeting, and they asked him to come up and be the speaker for the hour. And he went up and started speaking. And while he was speaking, there was a guy who reached into the crowd. He took out his pocket, put a note card in it, and started writing on it while he was speaking. After he was done, he came up to Dr. Ironside, who was visiting, and said, here, gave him the card. And it said these words. He said he wanted to challenge him to a debate next Sunday at four o'clock in the Academy of Science, all expenses to be paid by the man, and they were going to debate on the subject of infidelity, agnosticism versus Christianity. And so the man was a very distinguished man in the community, and so a gentleman that he knew well, pretty well, or knew of him already. And so he said, Dr. Ironside halted the crowd, said, I've been challenged to a debate for next Sunday with this distinguished gentleman at four o'clock at the Academy of Science Hall on the subject of agnosticism versus Christianity. Now, said Dr. Ironside, I will be happy to accept this challenge under one condition. First, I want the illustrious gentleman to bring with him two witnesses. One, a man who has been in the depths of sin and has been raised to a glorious new life by the gospel of agnosticism and infidelity. And then also I want him to bring one man as well as a witness and as a testifier to what agnosticism has done for him, racing him up out of the pit of the miry clay and setting his feet on the rock. I want the illustrious gentleman to bring one other witness. I want him to bring a woman who has fallen into mire and filth and dirt of life and who has been saved to a new and glorious redemptive purpose in the gospel of agnosticism and infidelity. So two total witnesses, the lady and the man. He said, my part is I will come to the meeting at four o'clock Sunday and I shall bring a hundred witnesses with me who have been in sin and whom Christ has raised to a glorious new life in Jesus. Now, he said to the gentleman, will you accept my challenge and I'll meet you next Sunday at four o'clock. One hundred witnesses for me and two for you. The gentleman declined to meet. See, that's the gospel message. It's the power of God unto salvation. It changes lives. Just said just to me this week about one of my own family members, a person said to me, if you were to ask her about God, she would say, I don't even believe, probably don't even believe there is a God. Raised in a Christian home, et cetera. God changes us, and so I looked unto Him and were enlightened, and their faces were not ashamed. You can look to God and be content. There is no, as I mentioned just last Sunday, there is no God beyond God. He is all there is. He is the end, not a means to the end. He is the end. And we will enjoy Him forever. Not only the danger, the discernment, His deliverance in verse 6. I was liberated. He was lost. I looked, and I am liberated. In verse 6, this poor man cried, and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all of his troubles. Question 7, I believe, in your outline. This poor man cried and encouraged us today. God's listening. This poor man cried and he heard, heard him. So it was more than just, we talked about again last time, more than the God knows and hears, God heard his prayer. God's listening. Aren't you glad there's no busy signals? I called someone today. They are no longer, they're not taking calls right now. Okay, I'll try to call again tomorrow. God never says that. Matter of fact, he says, you've been so long away. Why has it been so long? Since you dodged my number, but when did you talk? Why are you waiting? Even while pretending to be mad, even while acting insane, David was praying in his soul. Lord, have mercy. Lord, help me. Save me. That is what happened today. But David remembered, and instead of rubbing David's nose in the dirt, and the Lord stepped in, though, and set him free. Humanly speaking, someone's not following your order. Someone's disobeying your commands. Someone's showing up to be a bad light upon you. We are very rarely are we going to say, well, you know, I'm just going to lift you right out there and I'm just going, I don't care. And I'm just going to promote you. I give you even that. No, we'd be like, yeah, suffer down there a while. You'll see what it's like. Or you'll do that to me again. God's not like that. This poor man cried and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his troubles. Prayer, someone has said, can clear us of troubles as easily as the Lord make a riddance of the frogs and flies in Egypt when Moses entreated him. This poor man cried. It's just, we just don't take advantage. What a friend we have in Jesus. All these briefs, all the things we carry, all because we do not carry these things to Him in prayer. All the griefs we often forfeit, all what needless pain we bear, all because we do not carry everything to God in prayer. That should be numeral uno. We got a problem? Stop right here and pray. Yes? Yes, absolutely. I've actually got that written in my line right here, yes. This poor man crying. So he's not interested in our financial ability, that's not his at all. Now, in Bible times, yes. If you were very rich, obviously you have been blessed by God, because you have all those things. Not so much nowadays. Good point. So then finally, for tonight, will be what David realized, and we're still on page two, I believe. God protects, number one, God protects, verse seven, and that's sort of your title for tonight is, Surrounded by Angels? Are we surrounded by angels? God protects, verse seven. The angel of the Lord encampeth around about them that fear him, and delivereth them. This was interesting. Now, we want to say, and I'm not boohooing or saying it's not true, we want to say that we'll always have a guardian angel. The Bible never says with any explicitness that we all have a guardian angel. I believe this is the angel of the Lord. I was looking up today, the angel of the Lord appears to Hagar. to Abram in 22, Moses in Exodus 3. He appears to Balaam in Numbers 22. It is to Judges 6, Gideon, Judges 13, Samson's parents, 2 Samuel, David at the plagues, Elijah, the Assyrians, Zechariah, and in Matthew 1.20, Joseph, so the angel of the Lord, it's not angels, and the L-O-R-D, we know what that is now, right? That's the tetragrammaton, that's the Yahweh, Y-H-W-H. My wife just showed me a video explaining about that, so I'm at the supper tonight, and I'll watch that a little bit later, Lord willing. But this is the covenant, this is the theophany, a Christophany, if you want to call that. I believe it refers to that. Now, on every side, he is the captain of the host, and I like that term, and Psalm 24, verse 10. He is the Lord of hosts. Psalm 24 10 9. Lift up your heads, O ye gates, even lift them up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall come in. Who is the King of glory? The Lord of hosts. He is the King of glory. So the Lord of hosts means there have to be some People thought hosts would just naturally be a group of something. A host would be the angelic beings, et cetera. He's the captain of the host. He is the Lord of hosts. He's the angel of the Lord. In Psalm 91 verse 12, 91 verse 12 of Psalms we find here for us. They shall bear thee up with their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone. He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways, verse 11. So there are guardian angels, I believe. Angels are sent, we know from Hebrews chapter one, verse 14, that they are sent as ministering spirits. Question number nine, bottom of two, do you think there's a battle in the heavenlies between good angels and fallen angels? So while you're thinking about the answer to that question, I've got another question. If angels and demons can't die, what is the point of engaging in battle? And here's your answer. We need to remember that not all battles are to the death. The point of angels battling demons is not to kill them, but to thwart their plans and further God's plans. In the Bible, we see the angels do battle with demons in order to deliver divine messages to people, Daniel 10. and remove Satan's hordes from heavenly places, Revelation 12. Demons can be withstood in James 4, 7, tortured by God, Luke 8, lose what they possess, Mark 9, and be sent to another place, Matthew 8, and be removed to the abyss, Luke 8. Secondly, there will be a time when Satan and his demons will experience what the Bible calls the second death, which is the lake of fire. So I believe that Satan's host, called demons, called in our translation devils, will eventually be cast into the lake of fire along with Satan. Do you think there's a battle? Yes, I believe there's a spiritual battle going on, and we'll have to start with that next time, but there are those Now, the Frank Peretti books, This Present Darkness and Piercing the Darkness, a little more, a little bit more licensure if you want, a little more swordplay, those kind of things. But remember that the battle is to prevent Satan. To get it doesn't work Satan's plans or to protect his people remember one was one spent 21 days coming to Daniel I think it was it took him 21 days to get to Daniel and are there guardian angels of nations? I would say absolutely yes to that Israel's guard angel if you would is Michael etc. And then like the cities I believe there are probably demonic hosts who are in charge of America and The big cities in America, perhaps even Greenup, there's a more smaller one in charge of this area. They're hosts. They're very well organized. We think there's some ram. No, no, no, no, no. And so next, we'll pick up on that next time. Do we have guardian angels? We might. We have angels that minister to us. Do we have one particular angel that has been with you your entire life? It's possible. We do know that angels took Lazarus to Abraham's bosom. The angels came and swing low, sweet chariot coming forward. That's biblical. I believe angels even today very possibly could come to escort the Christian to glory when they pass. We will pick up with that. Very interesting. And so I like that question. If angels and demons can't die, what's the point of engaging in battle? Well, it's to keep Satan to thwart his plans. And so we'll stop right there. I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually be in my mouth. That's a real encourager. If you'll keep doing that, let's pray. Lord, we thank you for your word. Thank you for David pinning these words to the inspiration of the spirit. We thank you that David teaches us much. Lord, he went through much and would help us that we would start memorizing scripture, whatever it is to have on hand. Oh, magnify the Lord with me and let us exalt his name. If we learn nothing else from this psalm, you are deserving of exaltation and honor constantly. Lord, may we be about your business. May you use us to further your work until you are done with us here. And so bless us now as we go our separate ways. In Jesus' name I pray, amen.