Come, let us praise the Lord and glorify Him together!

The psalm I read this morning was Psalm 34 and I wanted to share it with you guys:

Psalm 34:1–3 — I will extol the Lord at all times; his praise will always be on my lips. My soul will boast in the Lord; let the afflicted hear and rejoice. Glorify the Lord with me; let us exalt his name together.

To "extol" means to "praise highly" and this psalm says they will do that all the time and that they'll boast in the Lord too. Boasting in the Lord is what we do when we share a praise report and tell all that the Lord has done for us lately or what He's done at an earlier time.

He says that the afflicted will hear him and rejoice though. Why would they rejoice? First, someone who is afflicted, is a person who is suffering for some reason. It might be due to circumstances or due to physical pain or whatever. So why would they rejoice when they hear him praising the Lord and boasting about Him?

Well, remember my posts where I shared how the Lord had helped us pay our bills and all the outright miracles He performed to save my husbands life and the other awesome things He's done for us since? Anyone who knows and loves the Lord, should read that and get excited about what the Lord had done for me, because they'd know that if the Lord did those things for me, He could and would do something just as wonderful for them. So here, David is talking about a person who has a close relationship with the Lord themselves even though they're suffering. They're not wallowing in self pity, although they may get down at times. They hear him rejoicing and praising and boasting in the Lord and it reminds them that they have no reason to be downcast, that no matter what, the Lord is in control and they have nothing to fear or worry about. So by him praising God, he also lifts up other believers who are suffering! Isn't that awesome?

Then David tells them, "Come on, glorify the Lord with me!" "Let's exalt His Name together!" There's power in praise when we praise the Lord! Did you know that? When we're down and feeling sorry for ourselves, or when we're worried or fearful or anxious, (obviously we should be taking our thoughts captive then too, but doing so doesn't always bring back the joy of the Lord for us right away) if we begin to honestly praise the Lord for all He's done for us, and begin bragging about Him and how great He is, it lifts our souls up because it changes our focus from ourselves to God and once our focus is on Him, we begin to be filled with His joy! (and as we know, the Joy of the Lord is our strength!)

Psalm 34:4–7 — I sought the Lord, and he answered me; he delivered me from all my fears. Those who look to him are radiant; their faces are never covered with shame. This poor man called, and the Lord heard him; he saved him out of all his troubles. The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, and he delivers them.

David continues to extol the Lord telling us that he sought the Lord and the Lord what? The Lord answered him. I know, you're probably thinking, "yeah, so what?" Have you heard of many people of other religions who's God hears their prayers and answers them? I haven't! We are so very privileged! God isn't under any obligation to us and He certainly doesn't have to listen to us much less answer us, but He does!

Then David says that God delivered him from all his fears. David had been fearful that Saul was going to kill him and he panicked and ran away. Then he pulled himself together and remembered the Truth about God and prayed asking for His help and God did indeed deliver him from certain death. We don't generally have to ask God to deliver us from something like that, instead we tend to ask for other types of things, and yet, the Lord always answers us. Depending on our request, His answer might be yes, no, maybe, or later, but answer He does!

David had a legitimate reason to be afraid. He knew without a doubt that Saul was trying to kill him (again) and it looked like he would succeed this time. Like I said, most of the time when we pray about a fear it's not that kind of one. Yet the Lord still answers us, because He loves us. That's why David says that when we look to the Lord for our answers, we're never put to shame because He will always answer us. Better then that though, David says that all who look to the Lord are radiant!

Have you ever been told you're radiant? Maybe not in those exact words, but those of us who love the Lord really do have a radiance about us! I remember the first couple of years after I was saved, when I'd run into people I hadn't seen in awhile, they almost always remarked that there was something different about me...and would define it saying that I "glowed" with happiness or joy. How could I not glow with joy??? I was saved!!!!! If God never did another thing ever for me, I'd glow with that joy forever!

I just love how David describes himself as "this poor man" it reminds me so much of myself and really of all of us. David would have never guessed at that point in his life that people would look up to him as one of the great saints of God. So basically he was saying, "look, I'm a nobody and God did this for me...if He did it for me, then obviously He will do it for you too" and isn't that just how we feel when we tell about something great the Lord did for us?

Lastly David affirms that the Angel of the Lord, who we know as Jesus, encamps around those who fear Him and delivers them. Wow! Encamps is a military term for making a camp around something/someone to protect them and Jesus our Savior does that for us!

Psalm 34:8–10 — Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him. Fear the Lord, you his saints, for those who fear him lack nothing. The lions may grow weak and hungry, but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.

Now David figures that some folks aren't going to believe him that God is so good that He would do all this for us, so he basically is telling them, "give Him a try and you'll find out just how good He is." He explains that those who take refuge in the Lord are blessed. The term translated "refuge" means to flee to for protection, or have hope in, or to trust in. So all who put their hope, their trust, in the Lord instead of themselves, or the world or things and who go to Him when they're in trouble instead of trying to fix it themselves or getting some other person to do so are blessed-happy. They're happy because the Lord always takes care of His own!

David tells everyone that they should fear the Lord, meaning that they should have a reverential awe of the Lord which causes them to obey Him. Those who really do fear Him will lack nothing, just like Jesus told us, because the Lord really will supply all their needs. That doesn't mean that bad things won't happen to us...they obviously do since David is boasting about how God got him out of a very bad circumstance; it just means that the Lord will help us and deliver us from our problems IF we will trust Him and obey Him. (just like that great hymn..."Trust and Obey" and we will have all we need! Wait a minute...where did "obey" come into this? Well for confirmation just look at the next lines:

Psalm 34:11–16 — Come, my children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord. Whoever of you loves life and desires to see many good days, keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking lies. Turn from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it. The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their cry; the face of the Lord is against those who do evil, to cut off the memory of them from the earth.

See how David explains that we need to obey the Lord, not just say we love Him and trust Him? It's like what Peter, Paul, James, and Jesus, says too, we need to really study His Word so it can dwell in us richly, which means that we look at it intently and then apply it to our lives so that we are doers of the Word and not just hearers of it. Only then can we say we have the fear of the Lord.

David assures us though that for those who do that, the Lord watches over them constantly and He is always listening to them and answering them. He assures us that one day all who are evil will be gone and thee won't even be a memory of them!

Psalm 34:17–22 — The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears them; he delivers them from all their troubles. The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. A righteous man may have many troubles, but the Lord delivers him from them all; he protects all his bones, not one of them will be broken. Evil will slay the wicked; the foes of the righteous will be condemned. The Lord redeems his servants; no one will be condemned who takes refuge in him.

Again David agrees that we will have many problems here, but it's ok because the Lord will deliver us. Not only that but the worse the problem is, the closer the Lord will be to us and He will always rescue us and protect us. I know...if He's protecting us, then why would we need rescuing? Well David says He protects all our bones so they won't be broken. This is also a prophecy about our Lord as you know, but here David is letting us know something that Paul repeats later, that although we may be hard pressed at times, we will never be broken or completely crushed. We may fall down, but He will always help us back up. That's one of my favorite scriptures and I like to read it in the different versions so I can get the full meaning of it:

NIV | 2 Corinthians 4:8–— We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.

ESV | ‎2 Co 4:8 We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; ‎9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed;

KJV 1900 | ‎2 Co 4:8 We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; ‎9 Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed;

NASB95 | ‎2 Co 4:8 we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; ‎9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed;

NLT | ‎2 Co 4:8 We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. ‎9 We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed.

So we will never be destroyed because God Himself is protecting us, listening to us, and He will deliver and rescue us. He always puts a limit on our trials, there's always an end to them and there's always a reason for them. Because He's a good God, a loving God, and a just and righteous God, we can trust Him and know that any trial we are going through will turn out both for His glory and our good because those two things are interconnected the moment we're saved! He assures us through David that not one of us will ever be condemned or face judgment because we have put our trust and faith in Him! What exactly does that mean? It means that those of us who are saved never have to worry about losing our salvation. There is no condemnation for those of us who are in Christ Jesus! Nothing and no one, not even ourselves, can separate us from Him!

Now if all that doesn't put a glow on your face, I don't know what will! Come, let us praise the Lord and glorify Him together!