And I'd like you to turn to Psalm 34. And two weeks ago, we had a sermon that could have been entitled, The Joy of Christ, as we looked at Christ in His first and beginning of signs in the book of John, where we saw joy exemplified and symbolized in the wedding at Cana. There's a joy of a wedding. Weddings are joyful. And at the wedding, There were water pots that were empty, and that represented the old covenant rituals. And those water pots then were filled to the brim with what became the best wine, the wine itself representing joy, and the whole scene representing the joy of Christ that would come through the new covenants. And we mentioned in that sermon a couple of weeks ago that joy is a mark of a church. In fact, there is a sermon preached many years ago speaking of that, that joy was a mark of the church from John 17 when Jesus prays in His high priestly prayer. In fact, you could say the first thing He prays for His church there is that they would know His joy and have it fulfilled in them. We mentioned then that there are four basic ways of knowing joy as well. But then last week, we actually then had a sermon entitled, Joy is a Mark of the Church, and the Christian as well, from John 17. So there's a connection there. And with that, fleshed out the four basic ways, if you will, there'd be other ways of knowing joy. And if you need a reminder, first of all, you need to know the Christ of joy, if you're going to know the joy of Christ through repentance and faith. And then the simple things to pursue would be having a mind settled on the goodness of God in Christ and the things of God in Christ. And then having fellowship with God through Christ and fellowship with Christ's people. And thirdly, or fourthly, depending on where you start the list, would be pursuing holiness through obedience to Christ, pursuing a righteous life. So the three main things we saw was having a mind settled, fellowship, and in holiness through obedience. We said you might add some simple things, but important things like prayer, thanksgiving, and witnessing. Those things are really important to know joy in Christ. And we mentioned then last week Psalm 34. which is the connection. We mentioned Psalm 34 as an example of settling one's mind on God and His goodness, even in the midst of affliction, to learn to trust Him and to rejoice in Him. And we also mentioned Philippians as perhaps the greatest book on joy that we have in the whole Scripture. And even that, the greatest book on joy in all of Scripture in affliction as well. So then this week, I want us to look to Psalm 34, as we're connecting these together. And we'll see joy is part of experiencing God. Joy is part of experiencing God in Psalm 34. I think Psalm 34 is a helpful example of one of God's people in time of affliction who settled his mind on the goodness of God and the things of God, who seeks fellowship with God, and then pursues holiness through obedience to God. How? Through prayer. through thanksgiving and through being a witness. He wants everybody else to see what has been done by God and join in Him in praising Him. And so you have all of these things together into one place. I really, really, really, really wanted to have a quick tour through the book of Philippians to see how Paul encourages joy, but I just don't think there's time in one sermon to add that. I think it would distract from Psalm 34. If you'd even look at the last chapter of Philippians, in chapter 4, You see, all of these things together, Paul commands the Philippians to rejoice. It's a command. And again, if you missed it, he says, I say rejoice. And he then refers to their fellowship with God and with one another. He refers to their prayer and their thanksgiving. He encourages them to have a mind set on the right things, and then to obey those things. And then he encourages them to rest in the promises and supply of Christ, to know contentment and joy, and all for God's glory, Alas, we don't have time to walk through that. You might look at that yourself sometime later. You could look to Philippians 2, verses 1 and 2 if you wanted to really quick. In Philippians 2, verses 1 and 2, I think there's a similar experience that Paul is referring to that will make a bridge for us when we get to Psalm 34. In chapter 2, he begins with, if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of His love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, then fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind." It's a wonderful verse. It's maybe hard to understand at first, but what he's saying here is, if it's true about your personal experience and fellowship with God and Christ, if that's true, then make that the foundation. for your joy and mine, and for your obedience then to pursue unity within the church." If there's any consolation, that's from the same word of Pericleet. It means if there's any encouragement that comes along beside you in your life through Christ. If any comfort of Christ's love in your life. If any fellowship, that's the same word of Koinonoia. So if there's any communion with the Spirit, this is personal experience. If there's any affection that's to the bowels, to your guts, if there's any affection and mercy from the Spirit in Christ, then fulfill my joy, Paul says. I think that's a good bridge to what you see in Psalm 34, where we see that experiencing God leads to joy. We'll somewhat look in Psalm 34 to our experiencing, our knowing the goodness of God unto joy as we see David's experience of knowing God and tasting his goodness in the midst of affliction for his increase of joy. Psalm 34 exemplifies God's intimate care for his people, even and especially in the midst of affliction. And Psalm 34 is constructed similar to Psalm 51 and Psalm 32. Those are two Psalms of confession and repentance, but you might remember those Psalms that first David would say, here's what happened. And I confessed and God forgave. And then the second half of the Psalm of both 32 and 51, then David is compelled. Let me teach you what I've learned. I think you see the same thing in Psalm 34, whereas Spurgeon says verses one through 10 would be a hymn. And verses 11-22 would be a sermon in response to that hymn. And what I'd like to do today is focus almost entirely on verses 1-10. You could convince me to do 11-22 at a later date if you'd like, but we'll focus almost entirely, not all, but almost entirely on verses 1-10. And in your bulletin there's an outline. What we see in verses 1-3, we see exaltation. In verses 4-7 we see experience. Verses 8-10 we see exhortation. If we had time, we look at verses 11-22 and then we see the education that David gives us from what he learned. And the exaltation of those first three verses is the exaltation of his God, the exaltation of the goodness of his God. As we see how David settles his mind on the things of God and on God Himself to the point of joy, then from that he exalts God. Then in verses 4-7, we see how David came to know the goodness of his God, his fellowship with God, his experience with God brings joy, and then a desire to share that experience with others, which then leads you to verses 8-10, that David gives an exhortation for all of us to come and taste and see the goodness of our God. His obedience to praise and give thanks and to be a witness brings joy as he exhorts others to join him. in that joy. And again, verses 11 through 12 then speak of what did he learn about the fear of the Lord and the education we could have from that. And so we see that outline in your bullet and you can follow that. However, I'd like to add another E onto that because we have to have them all start with the same letter. I think it's helpful, maybe almost necessary with this psalm to see the background and see the event of the background of this psalm. The title which is not necessarily inspired, but it's helpful. The title of this Psalm is, A Psalm of David, when he pretended madness before Abimelech, who drove him away and he departed. And this sets the event, the background before this Psalm. A Psalm of David, when he pretended madness before Abimelech, notice the B there, there's going to be an Ahimelech later and it gets confusing. This is Abimelech, who drove him away and he departed. Abimelech is a title. It's like Pharaoh or Caesar. There's more than one Pharaoh. There's more than one Caesar. There's more than one Abimelech. This Abimelech, we think, it's a title for the Philistine King Achish, A-C-H-I-S-H. King Achish of Gath, a Philistine. And this takes us back to 1 Samuel 21. And you might turn there if you'd like. Takes us back to an event, an incident in 1 Samuel 21, where we have David and the Philistines. Sounds like a bad name for a rock group, David and the Philistines. And in 1 Samuel 20, as you're looking to 1 Samuel 21, even further back is King Saul is in Gibeah, and he had just angrily vowed to kill David in 1 Samuel 20. And in his anger, even threw a spear at his own son, Jonathan. And from that, David departs from Gibeah, and he's essentially now an outcast from Saul's royal court. and he's fleeing in fear. That brings us to 1 Samuel 21. And the first nine verses of 1 Samuel 21, we see where he flees. He flees to a place, a city called Nob. Now, kids, don't smile when you hear about a city called Nob. It does almost sound odd if you ask somebody where they're from. I'm from Nob, but this was a city of priests. A city of priests. And David goes to Nob for help and shelter, But he lies to priest Ahimelech." With an H. He lies to priest Ahimelech. He says, I'm on a secret mission, basically, from King Saul. I can't tell you what it is, but I do need some help and some food. It should make you start scratching your head. Here's David who slew his ten thousands, but now he flees and he lies. He doesn't look so courageous at this point. And he needs food and help. And you can see already his fearful, untrusting state of mind is already there. You can see what's going on. And if you would look to chapter 22, don't do it yet, but if you look to chapter 22, it results in disaster for Nob. Because Saul has an informant in Nob, and he tells him what's going on. And he comes in and all of the priests are killed, or slaughtered in the city of Nob. And David remorses this greatly later. But here, in 1 Samuel 21, David is allowed to eat some of the holy bread that the priest had. And the priest gave him Goliath's sword. Now, does that make you wonder? We know he's going to do something with some Philistines. Was Goliath a Philistine? So he's given Goliath's sword, which probably was easy to recognize. I don't know if there's a big G engraved in the handle. But that brings us to 1 Samuel 21, starting in verse 10. So read with me. with 1st Samuel 21 starting verse 10 to see what's going on with the background of Psalm 34. Then David arose and fled that day from before Saul and went to Achish the king of Gath. And by the way, Gath is the hometown of Goliath as well. So he's going to Goliath's hometown with Goliath's sword amongst the Philistines. And who was it that killed Goliath? In verse 11, and the servants of Achish said to him, Is this not David, the king of the land? They know who he was. Did they not sing of him to one another in dances, saying, Saul has slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands? Now David took these words to heart. What does that mean? He was very much afraid of Achish, the king of Gath. And so he changed his behavior before them. He pretended madness in their hands. I don't think we have pictures of David in our Bible picture books about this incident very often. He pretended madness in their hands. He scratched on the doors of the gate and he let his saliva fall down on his beard. He's acting like a madman. And then Achish said to his servants, the king does, he says, look, You see, the man is insane. Why have you brought him to me? Have I need of madmen that you have brought this fellow to play the madman in my presence? Shall this fellow come into my house?" And David therefore departed from there and escaped to the cave of Adulam. He escaped to the cave of Adullam, which is actually very close to where Goliath was defeated with the sword that he had. That's the event. That's the background to this psalm. And do you see this picture? Is this a picture of David as a mighty warrior and a great king? No, it's David who is fleeing for his life. He becomes sinfully fearful. And fear causes him increased grief, as it normally will, to not trust his God. It's as if Saul and his threats and his evil have become greater than God and his promises and his goodness. And David shows a lack of trust. And you'll see the idea of fear and trust through Psalm 34. He shows a lack of trust by taking matters into his own hands. He lies to the priests. He fled to the Philistines, the enemies, and he will not trust himself to be with his own people. He fled to Gath, the hometown of Goliath, with Goliath's sword. He fakes insanity deceitfully before King Achish with degrading behavior out of fear and a lack of trust to he might escape danger. Degrading himself as one who is appointed by and anointed by God to represent him rather than to trust God. And he flees to a cave, alone, without weapons. Maybe he still had the sword of Goliath. I don't know. But he had little else. And without help, into a cave that was near where Goliath was defeated a few years before. This is not a good picture. Nor does something that you would assume would produce the opening lines of Psalm 34. How do you get from that to the opening lines of Psalm 34? Let me read now finally Psalm 34, the first 10 verses. At the end of our service, we will sing these words. I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul shall make its boast in the Lord. The humble shall hear of it 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 to him and were radiant and their faces were not ashamed. This poor man cried out and the Lord heard him. and saved him out of all of his troubles. The angel of the Lord encamps all around those who fear him and delivers them. Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man who trusts in him. Oh, fear the Lord. Oh, you, his saints. There is no want to those who fear him. The young lions lack and suffer hunger. But those who seek the Lord shall not lack any good thing. It's the Word of the Lord in the first 10 verses of Psalm 34. And you have to think, how in the world does this psalm begin an exaltation of the goodness of God after what we saw the event was? Why is David so joyous, especially considering this background? Why are the first three verses especially firm and resolute in their exaltation and praise of God? David finds himself alone in a cave delivered from immediate danger of his life or to his life. But now he sees his own failings. He sees his own deceit, his embarrassment. This is public embarrassment for the one who's to be king. He sees his sinful fear and his lack of trust in a faithful God. And yet he recognizes His faithful, personal, good God overruled it. He overruled his actions, David's actions. And he delivered David from his danger and his affliction. And David sees the contrast of God's goodness and God's mercy and God's grace compared to his own sin and failings and embarrassment. And it makes God's goodness and mercy and grace all the more sweet. And David's praise all the more loud, and his magnification of God all the more magnified. Have you ever been there? Has God ever delivered you from your own affliction? Even that affliction again that was brought on by yourself, and often because it's scriptural, We must be humbled before we can be exalted. Scripture speaks of that. But here we must be humbled before we can properly exalt our God. And so God overrules. He extracts David from his danger in spite of David's fearful, untrusting, sinful actions. And as a result, David both preaches to himself. He runs the truths of God before his eyes and his mind and his heart. settling his mind on God, and then he vows to return to faithfully bless and praise and boast and magnify his faithful God. And so we see David settling his mind on God and the things of God, and it brings him joy, and it brings exaltation to his God. So for the exaltation part, look at verses 1-3. Look at verses 1-3. Look and see how strongly and how total David vows to exalt and to praise his God. And I think this is something we could copy in our own lives. I think we said in the past, it's almost like you could picture David with gritted teeth, knowing this should be his mindset. So he's preaching to himself as he exalts God and it brings him joy. He says, I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul shall make its boast in the Lord. So we see the when and the how. When does David praise? He says, I vow to praise at all times and continually. And how? With my mouth and from my soul. With my mouth, words will be proclaimed to his praise, to his goodness. The goodness of God will be praised for all to know. And it's from his soul, from the seed of his emotions, from within. It's from his experience with God that this praise then bubbles up. And he's telling others about his experience with God and God's grace. He is resolved and fixed to praise and magnify God from his soul and with his mouth, with an intelligent mind from what he knows of God, but from an inflamed heart from what he experiences with God. And James Renahan says, we are to confess with our lips the greatness of God and to confirm with our souls his goodness. And David does that here. And then he says, the humble shall hear of it and be glad. Oh, magnify the Lord with me and let us exalt His name together. There's a when, there's a how, but there's a with, with the brethren. The humble are people like Him who have been abased, afflicted, the poor in spirit. The humble let us exalt our Lord together. True praise of God leads to the desire to join with the brethren in that praise. And David is inviting us to join with him. When there's true praise to God, especially due to the goodness of God, are you satisfied to praise God by yourself? Or do you not want the brethren to join? Let me tell you what God has done. Join me in praise. We are made to corporately come and praise our God. It's a supernatural thing. We should not be satisfied to praise God by ourselves. We often ask others to pray for us or to pray with us. But we should also ask others to praise God with us as well. He says, magnify with me, the Lord. That includes, see what God has done. Let this be a witness to you Let this be example to you, and then praise and magnify God as a result. I think what you see here is an Old Testament case of what you see in Ephesians 5 and Colossians 3. They were called to sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs together, speaking to one another and teaching one another. This is what David is doing here. Let's sing together. David in a sense is saying, come together, let us witness to God of His glory and teach one another in our praise. the goodness of God. So we see the exaltation in verses 1 through 3. In verses 4 through 7, we see the experience of David focused upon. After beginning with exaltation, David turns then to relate his experience. He gives his testimony, if you will. And note in verses 4 through 7, David does not really mention the details of his escape. He doesn't parade his sin. Oftentimes when we give our testimonies, we linger too long. Look at all the bad things I did. It's a testimony about Christ, not about me. David doesn't linger on his own foolishness, yet he hints enough at his own poverty, his poorness in spirit, his fear, his lack of trust. Do we get the point? But his focus is on his God who in spite of David heard him and delivered him. It's as if David is saying, if this is God's care for me, the poor, the humbled, the abased. Then this can be the same for you as well as you approach God and rejoice in it with me. So verse four, he says, I sought the Lord And he heard me, this is his experience, and delivered me from all my fears. I sought, the Lord has the idea of the prodigal son, the poor man returning to his father. I sought him and he heard me. And I think the emphasis here, he heard me. After all I did, he heard me. And it implies that he will hear you too if you call out to him. And he delivered me from all my fears, it's plural fears. And that indicates both physical, but I think spiritual fears as well. Yes, his life was in danger, he thought. There's a fear to his physical life, but I think there's a fear of what his sin and what his faithlessness deserved. Here is the anointed king to represent God before King Achish, acting like a crazy man. And it could be that David was saying, what have I done? I've misrepresented my Lord in front of my enemy. And so there's fear there. But he was delivered from all of his fears. In verse 5, they looked to Him and were radiant, and their faces were not ashamed. Who's the they? The they would be the same thing as the humbled that he mentions earlier. The they represents those who are humbled, the afflicted, the poor, like David, who are downcast in sin and affliction. But they looked to him and were radiant. It reminds us of Luke chapter 18, where Jesus gives the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector. The Pharisee says, look at all the good things I've done. Thank God I'm not like that tax collector over there. But the tax collector is so stricken with his sin that he will not raise his eyes towards heaven. But he stands afar off, and he says, oh, have mercy upon me, a sinner, as he beats his own chest. What did Jesus say at the end of that? He says the repentant one was the one who is justified before God and who ultimately knows joy. In Psalm 34, however, the downcast does look to God. He does look to God, and the goodness and the mercy of the Lord makes him radiant. His countenance changes. His face reflects the light of the Lord. His shame is removed. His spirit is uplifted. He looks to God and he's not ashamed, but he's confident and in joy and rejoicing. That's what it means to be radiant. And then in v. 6, this poor man, well, who's the poor man? It's David. This poor man cried out, and the Lord heard him, and saved him out of all of his troubles." When he says poor man, it means he's the poor in spirit one, the one who's conscious of his sin, crying out in repentance and dependence upon God. And the good and gracious God heard him, and delivered him, and saved him out of his troubles. And in verse 7, The angel of the Lord encamps all around those who fear Him and delivers Him." We're repeating this, which is okay. When you're excited about something, you keep repeating it. This reminds us of 2 Kings 6. We had Elisha and his servant. They're surrounded in Dothan by King Aram. It's at night. And in the morning, the servant went out to draw water. And he was amazed to see that the army then was surrounding them. And he runs back into the city walls. He says, Oh my Lord, to Elisha, what shall we do? There's no hope. We're surrounded. And Elisha says, do not fear. It's a good word. Do not fear. Those with us are more than those who are with them. And Elisha prayed that God would open the eyes of his servant to see the host of the angels surrounding them with their horses and chariots of fire, and fear went away. In Psalm 34, this is not merely the host of angels. I think when it says the angel of the Lord encamps, it's speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ himself, the angel of the Lord encamps all around those who fear him. and delivers him. For the Christian, Christ himself has pitched his tent around you, and you may continue to be physically afflicted, but nothing can separate you from Christ and his love and his care and his goodness, and it should bring you great joy. And you have a progression here of being delivered from all your fears that you might then actually fear the Lord appropriately, which this psalm speaks of eventually. And so David, in verses four through seven, gives his experience of God's deliverance in the middle of circumstances and afflictions, even his own self-imposed afflictions. And David uses his experience as a springboard, then, to exhort us to pursue God and all his goodness in verses eight through 10. We see the exhortation in verses eight through 10. And David says, oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. That oh means something. In your normal day-to-day conversation, do you say, oh, Ray, how are you? Maybe you do, but this means something greater than that. It's out of the overflow of His joy. He says, oh, behold, taste and see that the Lord is good. And David is exhorting us and inviting us to taste and see, to experience God and His goodness. So verse 8, oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. Because of God's mercy and His grace and His care and His faithfulness, draw near to Him to know it and to know Him. David's calling us to pursue Him, to pursue God personally, not just to enjoy God's gifts, but to enjoy God. God feeds us, yes, but He calls on us to feed on Him. It's incredible that our Lord would even care, but He knows us and He wants us to know Him. To not only perceive his goodness, but to pursue it, to delight in it, and yes, to delight in him. We know God is good by his word and by knowing that in our minds, but we need to taste and experience this. And this is where true abiding joy can be found. You might be saying at this point, well, give me something practical to know how to taste and see that the Lord is good experientially. If we're to be a people of joy, and we are, then give me something more practical. Already we've said, settle your mind on the things of God and who He is and what He has done through Christ Jesus. Pursue fellowship with Him through Christ. Pursue fellowship with His people. You seek the Lord where He's found. That's where joy will be found. Then pursue obedience through Him according to His Word. We've already said, you can add upon that by His Word and by prayer by praise, by thanksgiving, and by witnessing to others about him. But here I think in verse 8 and verse 9, there's two very simple things. How do I know God in this way? Well, trust Him and fear Him. Trust Him and fear Him are two more helps. In verse 8, the second part, blessed is the man who trusts in Him. Fairly straightforward. Place your faith in Him and continue to trust in Him daily and His promises. And trust in His person, no matter what the circumstances might be. James Boyce has written, how does God become a part of you? A part of your thinking of what you really are? By faith. And faith means believing God and acting upon that belief. David wants us to act on what we know of God and His goodness. For only then will we actually experience for ourselves how good God truly is. It's as if David says, I found God to be good. He delivered me from all my fears and enemies and provided for me too. I want you to experience His provision as I have. Taste and see is not merely an invitation. It's not merely David saying, Try God. I think you'll like it. It's not that. It means we are to know by experience that we can trust God and call out upon Him. And as we trust in Him, we can taste and see His goodness. And our own unbelief prevents us from such satisfaction in our God. Trust Him according to His Word, by His Spirit, with His people. And in verse 9, Yes, trust Him, but then fear Him. What does v. 9 say? Oh, fear the Lord, you His saints. There's no want to those who fear Him. Notice we've gone from wrong fear, sinful fear. Oh, I had all these fears and I fled. But then God delivered me from all my fears. But now he's saying, fear the Lord. Do it right. Maybe you weren't expecting to see, oh, fear the Lord. And we have a hard time defining what it means to fear the Lord. shaking in our boots because of God? Is that just having awe before God? Well, I think it may be part both. And I wish we had more time. But really what verses 11 through 22 then teach us is what does it mean to fear the Lord? It's a separate sermon in itself. David has learned the fear of the Lord. And now he's exhorted us to fear the Lord in verse 9. And then he teaches us in verses 11 through 22 to fear the Lord. He says in verse 11, I will teach you the fear of the Lord. Come, you children, listen to me. Some of us can sing this as well. And I will teach you the fear of the Lord. So briefly, because the clock says we have time, look at verses 11 through 22. This will be very brief. But in verses 11 through 22, the education part of this psalm, What did David learn and what is he trying to teach us? And notice it's longer than the rest of the psalm. In verses 11-14, what he's doing is he's teaching us that the fear of the Lord results in doing right and living in obedience and honor to God. Verses 11-14 teaches us that the fear of the Lord results in doing what is right and living in obedience and honor to Him. It says, come you children, listen to me. And I will teach you the fear of the Lord. Who is the man who desires life and loves many days that he may see good? Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit. Depart from evil and do good. Seek peace and pursue it. The fear of the Lord results in doing what is right and living in obedience to God. The fear of the Lord is to not do evil. Yes, it's to do good. It's to speak righteously. It's to pursue peace. It's to be set apart, walking in His ways before Him to honor and obey Him. Then verses 15 through 18, now we actually have the definition of the fear of the Lord. The fear of the Lord is defined as the constant awareness of God's being and His activities in your life. The fear of the Lord is defined as the constant awareness of God's being and activities in life. It acknowledges God's eyes are upon us. His ears are open to us. He is present. He is near. He's involved with us as we serve and represent Him. So if you read verses 15 through 18, the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and His ears are open to their cry. The face of the Lord is against those who do evil to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth. The righteous cry out and the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles. The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart and save such as have a contrite spirit. God is here with me when I'm his son or daughter through the Lord Jesus Christ. And it alters what I do knowing God is with me. He hears me, he sees me, he's never apart from me. It motivates me to righteous living, the righteous living of verses 11 through 14. I think it was Jim Renahan who said that sin is practical atheism. Sin is practical atheism. When we sin, it's the idea that God isn't really watching me. He's not really near. He's not involved. And therefore, I can do what I please. Maybe God just wants me to be happy. And therefore, I'll just be happy however I please. But the problem with that is that God is watching, and He is involved in our lives, whether we're a Christian or not. He is sovereign and holy. This is a great comfort to the believer, but it's a terror to those who do not know Christ, because it's a reminder of the judgment that will come unless they come to Christ. Then verses 19 through 22, we have the first three verses I should say four verses are the results of the fear of the Lord, and verses 15 through 18 defines it, but verses 19 through 22, the fear of the Lord causes the believer to trust and rest in Him. So you have a connection. The fear of the Lord, properly understood, causes the believer to trust and rest in Him, and to trust and rest in His delivering, guarding, redeeming, uncondemning grace and goodness. There will be afflictions for the righteous, But the Lord guards them. He delivers them. He defends them. The Lord will fully redeem them and not condemn those who trust in him through the Lord Jesus Christ. So the last of this psalm says many are the afflictions of the righteous. You don't want to read that, but many are the afflictions of the righteous. But the Lord delivers them out of them all. He guards all his bones. Not one of them is broken. Makes you think of Christ. Evil shall slay the wicked, and those who hate the righteous will be condemned. But the Lord redeems the soul of His servants, and none of those who trust in Him shall be condemned." I said we wouldn't look at those verses, but we had to. That's the education part of verses 11-22, focusing on the fear of the Lord. I think there's one verse that we neglected, which is verse 10. and the exhortation part. The young lions lack and suffer hunger, but those who seek the Lord shall not lack any good thing. Maybe that's confusing, but when you stop and think about it, it's fairly simple. The young lions are the most ferocious. They don't go without food because they go after it hard. But yet those who seek the Lord will have even less lack than they would have, is what's being said here. And Calvin makes this illustration from verse 10. Sooner shall the young lions, who by the way are the strongest, most ferocious beasts of prey, sooner shall the young lions perish with hunger and want, than God will disappoint of their necessary food. The righteous and sincere, who content with His blessing alone, seek their food only from God's hand. And so we've seen exaltation and experience and exhortation and education flowing from this event that you would not have expected. And we saw David then being delivered from his self-imposed affliction by the goodness of God. He responds, he relates, and he rallies. He responds in exaltation of God and His goodness after settling his mind on God's goodness. He relates his experience as a testimony to God and His goodness from his fellowship that he knows with God. And then he rallies others with exhortation to experience God and His goodness in obedience to His God. And so he does this with prayer and thanksgiving. And as a witness, all these things fit together. And it overflows then with joy from him to others. David is writing out of his own affliction And it's an affliction that at this point was not totally over. Saul is not dead yet. Saul will not be killed until chapter 31 of 1 Samuel. And though David was delivered from immediate danger, he must continue to run and be in danger. But his countenance changed because he understands the goodness of his God. In fact, this psalm is intended for those who have been or who are still afflicted. Read the whole thing and study it. Because God delivers us from fears and troubles and enemies and afflictions. This means we will have fears and troubles and enemies and afflictions. And deliver here in his psalm does not mean that they will just go away poof. but it means God delivers us from those fears. There's no guarantee that these difficulties will end today or even tomorrow or even until the day we die. We live in a fallen, sinful world. Locally, we cannot even have a parade celebrating a sports team without death occurring in the midst of it. This tells us the depravity of man and the sinfulness of our world. What is wrong with you people? We can't even do that right. But what this psalm does mean is that God and Christ will help you in the midst of any difficulty you have because He's sovereign over the whole thing. God allows and He even purposes afflictions into our lives for our good. And what's the good of it? Well, it makes us depend on Him all the more. It makes us more and more like Christ. It makes the sweetness of God's goodness and mercy all the more sweet. It makes us drink all the more deeply from the riches of Christ, because we must have them. It makes us feed all the more fully on His goodness. Without affliction, we generally only enjoy the gifts of God, but not so much the giver. With affliction, we almost always enjoy the giver. and not so much the gifts. And we find that the giver of those gifts indeed is good. David could taste and see that the Lord is good. He praised him. He boasted about him. He magnified him. He magnified him. Yet he lived in a time of types and shadows. David lived in a time of types of shadows and promises way in the future that were not realized until Christ came. How much more, brother and sister, should we delight in the Lord on this side of the cross? We can enjoy him in the full light of the Lord Jesus Christ, that's radiance, who chased away the shadows. We who have tasted the goodness of God in Jesus Christ, united in Christ by his death, burial, and resurrection, cleansed of our sin, given a new heart with Christ who tends and nourishes us and cherishes us. Christ who came to us personally in the flesh through a broken body and spilled blood. Christ who bore our greatest afflictions on the cross. Christ who bids us to come and to drink from his rivers of living waters, a fountain that will never run dry so that we will never thirst again. Christ, who is the bread of life, who if we feed upon him by repentance and faith, we will never die, but we will be in him and he in us. If David can taste the goodness of the Lord so sweetly and fully in the old covenant, how much more can we know the goodness of God in Christ Jesus now in the new covenant established in his blood? And if you're outside of Christ, we urge you to know Christ in this way, by repentance and faith in him. Christ drank the cup of wrath of the father against the sins of his people to the full. As the water pots were brimming full with wine, he drank the cup of wrath to the full. If you don't come to Christ, you will drink the cup of wrath deserved by your sin and that for eternity. Won't you come to the one who can satisfy your thirst your hunger and the wrath of God against you now. Let us pray. Dear Heavenly Father. We thank you for your goodness. We thank you for your faithfulness. We thank you for your grace and your mercy, your patience with us. We thank you, Lord, for your sovereign control over all things that even the worst of things that occur to us, we know they are for our good and for your glory. And we thank you, Lord, for the Lord Jesus Christ, who you sent, who is very God, who became man, that he might live in our place and die in our place. And he rose from the dead so that eternal life would be given and so that he would live forever to intercede on our behalf and to guard us and to keep us as the angel of the Lord and camping around us. And Lord, because of this, Those who are in Christ should be the most joyous people on earth. And certainly, when this life on earth is over, there's even greater joy in the presence of our God as we begin our worship as we sang. Lord, we thank you for Christ. We thank you for your love. We thank you for your salvation. We thank you for the spirit who's been given us to give us new hearts and to enable us, as we even saw earlier, to live after you and with good works, and to know the experience of fellowship with you and your people. Help us then to be a faithful people with our minds settled upon Christ, fellowshiping with you and with one another, and walking in obedience and in prayer and thanksgiving, and being a witness to who you are. We do pray, Lord, for those who are outside of Christ, Lord, that today would be the day of salvation. Lord, they would see both sides of a coin, if you will, that outside of Christ, they have nothing ahead of them except for suffering the wrath that their sin deserves. But if they would confess their sins and repent and place their faith in Christ, their sins would be forgiven, righteousness would be credited to their account, and they'd know the great joy of Christ, both now and forevermore. It's in Jesus' name we pray, Lord. Amen.