Let's just bow our heads in prayer as we stand, please.
Father, you know what our hearts are really like.
You know, Father, the things that we say to ourselves.
You know the inclination of our hearts.
And, Father, you know how, especially for Christians,
we often live in denial of this or pretend to be something different than we actually are.
But we give you thanks and praise, Father, that you know each of us perfectly and completely,
and still you love us.
And so, Father, we ask that your word would come into our hearts
and that you would rule in our hearts through your word,
that the gospel would become more deeply real to our heart
and would form the inclinations of our heart and how we speak to ourselves
so that we might live free and whole and beautiful lives to your glory.
And we ask this in the name of Jesus, your Son and our Savior. Amen.
Please be seated.
I guess Jono mentioned the couple of people who are sort of trained on the slide.
Neither of them are here today, so we have somebody wonderfully stepping in.
But you might not see some of the scripture text up on the screen when I refer to it.
But it's all just a good reason, a good, not a good excuse,
a good reason to have your own Bibles with you.
And because we're going to be looking at the Bible.
And if you're a guest here, of course, there's the screen available.
There's also always some free Bibles over here that you're welcome to come and take for the service
or take home if you want.
We've had a couple of weeks of very, very hot weather.
And after a couple of days of hot weather, I went into one of the coffee shops,
which is that I'm a regular at.
And I wondered why the doors were open on such a hot day.
But as soon as I stepped inside the coffee shop,
I understood why the doors were open because the air conditioning wasn't working.
And I saw the poor barista.
And she had, like, literally sweat just running down her forehead
and looking very sort of pale from the excessive heat.
And I said, how's it going?
And her response was, well, I'm living the life.
I'm living the life.
And we're all really familiar with that phrase, I'm living the life.
And usually we use it in situations like that when we're doing something
which is the opposite of the good life.
But behind that comment, of course, is that if we really could,
what we really know that we should be doing, we're trying to do,
or if we were more successful, we would do is that we would be living the good life.
And the Bible text that we're going to look at today, believe it or not,
actually asks that question about what it means to live the good life.
And it's a little bit surprising.
Even Christians often, when they want to understand how to live the good life,
don't actually think that the Bible is going to give them the type of wisdom that they need.
But we should.
Partially we're just affected by our culture.
And for many people outside the walls, and maybe for some of you here,
or maybe for some of you not that long ago,
the last place you would have looked to get some advice about what the good life is like.
Well, actually, I think one of the things that's going to surprise us is that this psalm,
it actually has many of the same aspects that our culture would have about what the good life is.
But it's sort of subversive to how we think about the good life.
And in fact, actually, it both subverts what we think of the good life,
but it actually gives us what we really want at a deeper level.
So it both fulfills our desires and it subverts our desires so it can fulfill our desires.
Even though many people in our world would never think of looking to the Bible
for some insight about what to live as the good life.
Well, let's look.
If you have your Bibles, we're looking at Psalm 34.
We're in the summer of the Psalms.
And right at the very heart, the center of the psalm, in verse 12,
that's where we're going to begin, where this question is asked.
Look what it says, verse 12 of Psalm 34.
What man or woman is there who desires life and loves many days that he may see good?
Now, what this is, it's a bit of a poetic question, but it really is saying,
don't we all want to live a good life?
And what the good life is going to look like, of course, is that it's going to be,
we desire more and more of life.
We want to have many days and we want to have those many days of long life
characterized by goodness, the good life.
Very, very obvious.
If a teenager was praying that they would live the good life
and they died in three months, they would think that they hadn't lived the good life.
They don't want to just live the good life for a couple of months and then die.
They'd like to have a long life, which is a good life.
And that's the question.
So who wants to figure out how to have more life, more life and longer days and see good?
Really, who wants to live the good life?
Now, it's very curious that this question is being asked in this particular psalm,
because the context within which the psalm was written would suggest that it couldn't possibly
be a meditation upon the good life, or at least not without being sort of a complaint.
In fact, you would expect the person who wrote the psalm to be like the barista in the coffee
shop where the air conditioning wasn't working.
And I asked them how it was going and they said, I'm living the life.
If you have your Bibles, I don't think it's up on the screen.
The psalm begins with a little superscript.
And this is a bit of a side thing.
Some Christians don't know this.
Like in my version of the Bible, there's a little thing by the editor that names the
psalm, Taste and See That the Lord is Good.
But that's just written by the editor.
That's just, you know, if a couple of us were putting together the Bible and we wanted to
try to give the psalm a title, we'd do that because it helps modern readers.
It's not the Bible.
It's just the editors.
But underneath it, there's this little thing.
And it says of David when he changed his behavior before Abimelech so that he drove him out and
he went to wait.
Jono read it for us, wherever Jono is.
I thought he was sitting there.
He's somewhere over, somewhere else.
He's at the back.
And that actually is part of the Bible.
It's not just done by the editor.
It's actually part of the Bible.
And in fact, if you're ever talking to a Jewish friend about a psalm, you're going to maybe get
a bit confused with the verses because in the Jewish Bible, that bit that I just read
of David when he changed his behavior before Abimelech so that he drove him out and he went
away, that's actually verse one for them.
And so what we count as verse one would be for their verse two.
It's why if you look, sometimes you'll see that in the Hebrew Bible, they almost always
seem to have one verse more than us.
That's just the reason.
They actually include that as a verse.
But here's the point.
Now, David is the person who wrote this psalm, and he's asking the question about who would
like to live the good life.
But he's asking this after he's had, in the midst of having what all of us would say is
a completely and utterly terrible life.
He'd risen from obscurity to being sort of in the pinnacle of the kingdom.
And at the pinnacle of the kingdom, the king became massively jealous of him and decided
that he was going to kill David.
And David had to flee.
And while he was fleeing and being pursued by the king, he decided that he had to get
out of the country where the king was going to capture him and kill him.
So he went to a neighboring country thinking he would have some sanctuary there.
But when he gets to the neighboring country, the king of that country gets intimidated by
him.
And his advisors say, listen, isn't this the guy who's a massive military campaigner and
he's just come here to take us over?
And David was worried that he was going to die.
So what David did is he pretended to be insane.
He pretended that he was psychotic and having a psychotic episode.
And it describes that in another part of what we call the Old Testament, our Jewish friends
called the Tanakh, that he let drool come down his beard and he started gnawing the door
frames and stuff like that.
And as a result of that, Abimelech says, listen, don't I have enough crazy and insane people
in my country?
Why do I need another one?
Like, kick him out of the country.
And so David is writing this after he's had to pretend he's psychotic.
The king of Israel is trying to kill him.
The king of Gath, if he realized that David wasn't insane, would kill him.
He's homeless, separated from his family, running for his life.
And he asks the question, not ironically, he doesn't say, I'm living the life.
He says, who wants to live the good life?
Now, right off the bat, if we realize this, it should pique our interest.
Because when Canadians talk about living the good life, one of the big problems we have
when we Canadians talk about the good life is we can't conceive of how the good life can
coexist with hard times.
Many of you have probably seen a woman who went by the name of Nightbird in America's
Got Talent and a conversation she had with Simon Cole when she was on America's Got Talent
to sing.
And if you haven't seen it, it's really worth Googling, not Dream Church, After Church, Google
Nightbird, America's Got Talent.
And it's her first time before them.
And no spoiler alert or anything like that.
She's big, beaming smile.
She looks very skinny.
And they're asking her how she is.
And then she reveals that she has cancer throughout her body and has only a 2% chance of survival.
And the whole audience is completely and utterly shocked.
Now, by the way, Nightbird's a Christian, which isn't obvious in this.
If you do some other searches, you discover that she's a Christian.
And she says something to the effect of, after there's been this back and forward about
her situation and everything, and she said, you know, we can't wait until we don't have
any hard times.
Basically, she says something like this.
We can't wait until we don't have any hard times before we decide to be happy.
And she says it looking right at Simon Cowell.
It actually moves.
You see him having to fight tears when she says it.
You see, because in our culture, we all want the good life, but we can't conceive of how
the good life can exist in adversity and hard times.
For Simon Cowell and all of the judges, it's impossible for them to get their mind around
the fact that she has only a 2% chance of survival for cancer and yet had a sense of peace and
a sense of joy.
And if you hear her song, she knocks it out of the park.
She really does.
Just knocks it out of the park.
So, it's curious then that David, when he should be being ironic and saying that I'm
far from the good life, he's going to describe the good life while he's homeless and being
pursued by the authorities and separated from his family.
Now, it's even more shocking if we see just went before this question.
So, if you have your Bibles, look at what he says.
So, verse 12 is the question.
What man is there who desires life and loves many days that he may see good?
But look what actually is just before it.
And in the structure of the psalm, verses 1 to 10 is testimony and then 11 to 22 is teaching,
but it's the very center of the psalm.
And look at the question.
O come, O children, listen to me.
I will teach you the fear of the Lord.
What man is there who desires life and loves many days that he may see good?
Now, isn't that really weird?
Like, in fact, before I studied this psalm, I think this is the first time I've ever preached
on the psalm.
I had never really struck me the connection between the fear of the Lord and living the good life.
In fact, actually, for many people, even for Christians, there's a large number of Christians
who somehow think that once you know Jesus and have the Holy Spirit, that you'll no longer fear the Lord.
But that's actually not correct.
The New Testament teaches us to fear the Lord.
But for many others, this phrase is everything that's wrong about Christianity,
that it shouldn't be the fear of the Lord, but the love of the Lord, or the peace of the Lord,
or the joy of the Lord, and that the fear of the Lord somehow is a discordant note.
It's something that goes against that.
And yet before...
But here he's connecting the fear of the Lord to giving the good life.
Now, I don't know where you all are with Jesus.
I'm going to share with you something.
If you wouldn't understand yourself as a follower of Jesus,
or if you're watching this online and you wouldn't think of yourself as a follower of Jesus,
I want to share with you something that you might not know.
And that is this, that even for Christians,
we struggle with a type of whispering that goes on inside of our head.
And the whispering that goes on inside of our head first began in Genesis chapter 3,
where the serpent, the devil, the dragon, the devil, the serpent, the worm,
is speaking to Adam and Eve.
And what he starts to whisper in their ears,
and that reverberates even today for those of us who would consider ourselves Christians,
the whispering is,
if you want to live the good life,
you have to not be in the center of God's will.
You need to be outside of God's will.
Just a tiny bit.
You don't want to be really crazy.
But just be careful.
You'll get hurt if you're in the center of God's will.
Because to live the good life,
you've got to be a little bit outside of God's will.
And that's the whisper in the heart of every Christian,
which we have to fight.
And it's the whisper I would actually say
for every human being on the planet.
Be careful about the triune God and Jesus.
Don't think that by being in the center of Jesus' will,
you'll really experience the good life.
You know, don't think about sex and money.
You've got to be a little bit outside.
And that's part of the reason why you see for most of us,
like before I became a Christian,
I didn't want Christianity to be true.
But it's a constant whisper in the human heart.
And this beginning challenges this.
Look again at what it says in verse 11.
Come, O children, listen to me.
I will teach you the fear of the Lord.
Like really right in there with the Lord.
I'm going to explain what it means more towards the end.
But what, what, what, I'm going to teach you the fear of the Lord.
Why should you be interested in the fear of the Lord?
Well, what man is there who desires life and loves many days that he may see good?
Like, don't you all want to live the good life?
So you've got to know about the fear of the Lord if you want to live the good life.
Who talks like that?
Well, the Bible talks like that.
And I think it's wise.
Look how wise it actually is.
And it's wiser than how we think as Canadians.
Look at what he says first in verse 13.
Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from deceit.
Turn away from evil and do good.
Seek peace and pursue it.
So verse 13 again.
Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit.
Turn away from evil and do good.
And seek peace and pursue it.
A couple of years ago, I've used this.
Some of you might have heard this illustration before.
But a couple of years ago, I think it was in the National Post or the Citizen, something like that.
They were interviewing a famous actress.
And it was a very, you know, like a puff piece actress sort of showing her wisdom and her insight and stuff like that.
And, you know, she had some wisdom and insight about stuff.
But one of the questions they asked her is if there was one thing you could change that would make your life way better, what would it be?
And the answer was there would be no guilt.
I'd have no guilt.
And the interview went on and it obviously took that to being a very, very glowing and insightful type of thing.
Like, what a wise thing to ask.
But what they didn't realize is this.
She just asked to be a psychopath.
She just asked to be a sociopath.
People who don't feel guilt.
That's what we call them.
Psychopaths or sociopaths.
And it never struck her or the interviewer that her idea of what the good life would be is to be a psychopath.
Well, obviously, it's not going to be.
That can't be the good life.
Right?
Like, that's the opposite of a good life.
It's actually one of those things that doesn't matter if you're progressive or right wing or whatever.
If you want to describe the opposite of a good life, you talk about psychopaths and sociopaths.
And yet, you see, when the Bible here says, in verse 13, keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit, it's talking about your inner life.
You know, I know most of us at times, some of us way too often, we speak, speak, speak, speak, then think.
Right?
And really, part of the good life is think, then speak.
And if we could do that more often, like think, think more deeply, then speak, like we'd have a lot less conflict in our lives and have a better life.
So it's really not just so much talking about what we say.
It's talking about our inner life, what's going on in our inner life.
And what it's saying is that one of the things that the fear of the Lord does is it helps us to have a proper inner life in regards to the good and in regards to truth.
Now, you see, that's actually probably what the actress wanted.
You see how all of a sudden, remember I said how one of the things that this psalm does, it both, it subverts what we think is wise, but actually fulfills what we want to have.
And what she's really trying to express is I'd really rather have a whole good relationship with the truth and a whole good relationship with what's true.
I mean, with truth and goodness.
That's what she'd really like to have.
But she doesn't understand that if she got rid of guilt, she'd become a psychopath and a sociopath, the opposite of a person who's going to live the good life.
And you see that the other next part of it is just as wise.
Look what it says.
If you want to have the good life, you have to understand the fear of the Lord.
What will the fear of the Lord do?
It's verse 14.
Turn away from evil and do good.
Seek peace and pursue it.
Now it's talking about what you do and what you pursue.
So the first part's talking about your inner life.
The next part's talking about what you do and also talking about what you're pursuing, where you're headed.
And it's very, very interesting because it says that we're going to turn away from evil and do good.
And it's not just turning away from evil and it's not just doing good.
It's doing both.
And if we think about it, it's very, very wise.
That it's not maybe like if you go, let's say that same barista,
and I came in and she snapped at me and she was really grumpy at me.
And I might just get on my hind legs and say,
one moment, she can't snap at me like that.
I can snap way better back at her.
And I do.
And I give it to her.
Right?
And then I walk away and I get my coffee and she's even in a worse mood.
And I'm in a worse mood.
Or maybe I'm a little bit happy that I really got her with a zinger.
But afterwards, I'm really thinking to myself,
you know what really would have been far, far better
is to say a word of kindness to her and encouragement.
See, it's not only that I shouldn't have just blasted her with my tongue,
it's that I should have used my tongue in some way that was actually going to do good for her.
Isn't that more like what we want with the good life?
That's exactly what we want with the good life.
And this other thing about seeking peace and pursuing it,
well, every time you see the word peace in the Old Testament,
almost every time,
we tend to misinterpret it by interpreting it in emotional terms.
And the Bible doesn't mean it in emotional terms.
The Bible is referring to something structural about us in our life.
So it would be as if my youngest son and my youngest daughter,
let's say, one's an engineer, the other's an artist,
and they decided they were going to do some type of a sculpture in a place like this.
And they get some others to help them.
And one of the things they decide to do in a place like this
is they're going to make a very, very complicated mobile.
You know, mobile, there's the sticks and the little,
I know, usually you see them over cribs and, you know,
little bunny rabbits or butterflies or angels or something that sort of moves around.
But let's say they're going to do actually a very, very complicated one
so that on one end, they're going to get the right type of steel.
They're going to do all the mathematical calculations
to make sure that the rods are able to hold it
and the chain that's holding it to the ceiling is at the right distance.
And they might have a very large thing, let's say, like a refrigerator at one end,
but they have it so beautifully balanced
that the other end of that same piece of stick
are like three little delicate glass butterflies.
And they've been so balanced that the whole thing holds it.
And they do a whole pile of things like that at different heights,
of different weights and different lengths.
And you'd come in and you'd go, wow.
Wow.
Like that looks remarkable and beautiful.
The balance and the harmony is really quite something.
That is what the Bible means by peace.
You see, it's the difference between...
You know, in war movies, you see guys,
they're getting shot and they're all in pain.
And they're still in pain.
Maybe they're even dying, but the medic gives them morphine.
Well, they have some peace,
but they're bleeding out and dying.
It hasn't actually dealt with the problem.
It's just given them a feeling.
And you see, in our culture,
inadvertently, when we think of the good life,
we think of those feelings.
But really what we're thinking of is we have a druggie,
stoner image of the good life.
You go, whoa, whoa, whoa.
Well, actually, that's actually what you're longing for.
Like, ironically.
Like, tragically.
And the Bible is pointing to something better,
that the fear of the Lord
is going to deal with your relationship inside of yourself
to goodness and also to the truth.
And it's also going to deal with your outer life
of not only helping you turn away from evil,
but also doing good things.
And it's also going to involve you in a pursuit
of that type of harmony and balance in your life.
There's going to be really, really huge, massive things
like death and heartache
and also other massive things like marriage.
And there's going to be the small little daily pleasures,
like just really how unbelievably delicious
freshly made blueberry scones are
with butter and a cup of coffee.
It's all the small things and the big things.
And that's what we want.
And that's what the Bible says.
The fear of the Lord is going to help you
and train you to pursue.
And we end up tending to think of things
in terms of a stoner mentality
or sociopathic mentality.
And then the fear of the Lord
talks about something even more astounding.
Something that if you're watching this
and you don't know Christians,
most Christians are terrified about talking
in terms of things like heaven and hell.
But the psalm, look what it says right next
in verses 15 and 16.
The eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous
and his ears toward their cry.
And the face of the Lord is against those who do evil
to cut off the memory of them from the earth.
Now, here's the thing.
He's still talking about teaching of the fear of the Lord.
And now he brings in the presence of the triune God.
And he uses it in terms of the metaphor of the face.
And he said,
you know, the fear of the Lord,
as you start to walk on it and enter into the path,
what you see as you walk on the path
and at the end of the path
is that the face of the Lord is toward you.
is toward you.
You know, is toward you.
It's like we just had my son Jesse visiting us.
And he has a, you know, his youngest is Bronwyn.
And, you know, she's at that age that she's, you know,
chattering and wanting this and wanting that
and wanting that.
And Jesse's trying to have a conversation.
But there's the moment when the dad, right,
his face is toward her.
And he looks at her.
His face is toward her.
His ears are toward her.
He's with her.
He sees her.
He's listening to her.
And she knows it.
The other option,
those of you who have ever counseled somebody
who've been terribly, terribly, terribly, terribly betrayed,
terribly abused.
And maybe they've been terribly abused
by their father or their mother.
And you mention their father or their mother to them.
And their face,
their face
is against them.
They don't want to look.
You can see by the setting of the jaw,
the setting of the mouth,
the setting of the eyes.
You can see the anger.
You can see that there
there's not going to be any love towards them.
And the image here,
which is painted,
I mean,
we tend to think of things like heaven and hell
and all of that,
but it's actually painting
of just a very,
very stark image
that any of us who know how faces work,
that we can say that there's a way of life
that is lived
and ends
with the Lord
looking at you
and seeing you
and hearing you.
and there's affection
and there's fatherly concern
and desire
where there's a face
that's hardened
and turned away.
The fear of the Lord
walking it
is a walk
with a father in heaven
who looks at you like that.
And it's a walk
that ends
with him looking at you like that.
And to walk outside
of the fear of the Lord
is to walk
with the father
looking at you
in that other way
and it ends with that.
But if you think about it
for a second,
you see,
if we're going to actually
live the good life,
often when we think
of the good life in Canada,
we just think of,
well,
we just think of endless repose.
We just think of
endless consumer goods.
We just think of
one day after another
with blue skies
and sunny skies
and there can't be affliction
and there can't be hardship
and we have to somehow
or another,
if we're to live the good life,
be completely
and utterly insulated
and inoculated like that.
But if you think about it
for a second,
that type of a picture
that we as Canadians
desire
when we sort of imagine
the good life
of just endless consumption
and good clothes
and good weather
and no hardship
and no adversity,
in science fiction movies
where there's a dystopia,
they're the bad guys.
They're the cruel,
heartless people
up in the sky
while the people
down on earth
are suffering
with the pollution
and no food.
That's,
you know,
if it's in the train,
it's the front of the train
where they're all like that
and the back of the train
where people are suffering
and at the heart of us
what we actually desire
is a good life
where we're the bad guy
and we go,
oh no,
but no,
that's what you're desiring
and what's it like,
you know,
and then,
and those other types
of science fiction movies
where there are people
like that,
what happens to them?
They start to despair
because a day after,
blue sky after blue sky
and all your food
being met
and it doesn't actually
feel your heart
with meaning,
it feels you with despair.
You know,
there's a very telling phrase
in the book of Revelation
which describes
so many things
in science fiction movies
where they,
they describe,
it describes a time
where they long for death
and cannot have it.
That's all the old vampire movies,
the despair,
not the new ones
where they try to make them
look cool.
It's all part of trying
to rehabilitate evil,
rehabilitate the serpent.
You see,
all of a sudden
we realize
that one moment,
life,
if it's going to be good,
we're going to have
the right relationship
internally to goodness
and truth
and we're going to have
the right relationship,
we're going to turn away
from evil,
we're going to do good
and we're going to speak,
we're not going to just seek
superficial stoner types
of peace
but actually get our life
in some type of balance
and harmony
and have those big things
and those small things
and we're going to have
some type of a direction
to our life
and you know,
one of the things
which is so wonderful
about this description,
it made me think
of that great old hymn,
Great is Thy Faithfulness
and this explains
to those outside
the Christian faith
the emotional power
and beauty
of a person
who's been captivated
by the gospel.
Listen how it goes,
pardon for sin
and a peace
that endureth
thine own dear presence
to cheer
and to guide
strength for today
and bright hope
for tomorrow
blessings all mine
with ten thousand
beside.
Now,
the psalm continues
and you might wonder,
George,
you're just some type
of special person
that knows how
to fear the Lord
or you're saying
that all these things happen,
you see,
and you still haven't,
well,
look how the psalm continues.
Now,
one of the things
which is really shocking
about this psalm,
we're going to continue
reading it at verse 17,
is that Jesus shows up
in this psalm
that was written
a thousand years
before Jesus.
I'm not making it up,
Jesus shows up
in the psalm.
Look at verse 17
and see what happens.
When the righteous
cry for help,
the Lord hears
and delivers them
out of all their troubles.
The Lord is near
to the brokenhearted
and saves
the crushed in spirit.
Now,
just as an aside,
you see,
we Canadians
can't think of
how the good life
can be with hardship,
but if we imagine
a world of a good life
without hardship,
we've actually imagined
ourselves in the bad guise
of all science fiction movies,
dystopias,
and here we're saying
that that great peace,
that huge mobile
that God is going to form
in your life
through the fear of the Lord,
that has the room in there
for the hard things
and the good things.
It's maybe not just a fridge,
but a terrible burden
on one end
and it has the scones
with blueberry and butter
and coffee
at the other end
and it's all overseen
by God
and you don't,
you have his own dear presence
to cheer and to guide,
but Jesus still hasn't shown up.
Look what happens next,
verse 19.
Many are the afflictions
of the righteous,
but the Lord delivers him
out of them all.
He keeps all his bones.
Not one of them is broken.
If you don't know your Bible
very well,
in the Gospel of John,
Jesus dies on the cross
and because it's the Sabbath,
the other two men
haven't died
and the religious authorities
ask that the Roman authorities
would break the bones
of the two men
so that they would die
and they wouldn't have to be
up on the Sabbath dying.
And so the soldiers
go and break both bones
and the men die,
but they come to Jesus
and Jesus is already dead.
And the centurion
takes a spear
and pierces it
into Jesus' side
and out of the side
comes blood and water
and they don't break his bones.
And John says,
this fulfills the prophecy
that says,
he keeps all his bones.
Not one of them is broken.
Jesus shows up in the psalm
in his crucifixion.
He keeps all his crucifixion.
See, my only hope
to learn how to fear the Lord
isn't because I'm specific,
I'm very righteous
or I'm specifically holy
or religious
or anything like that.
I mean,
what the fear of the Lord
text is here
showing us too
is, you know what?
You need redemption by Jesus.
You need redemption.
David wrote of what
he did not know.
Why did he throw that line in
unless he was inspired
by the Holy Spirit?
And God was going to show us
this deep promise
that God would do something
for us in the person
of his son
where he does not weigh
our merits
but he pardons our offenses.
Where the justice
and the judgment
that I deserve
falls on him
and the grace
that he deserves
is given to me.
Like it even continues,
affliction will slay the wicked
and those who hate
the righteous
will be condemned.
The Lord redeems
the life of his servants.
None of those
who take refuge
in him
will be condemned.
If you take refuge
in Jesus,
the condemnation
you deserve
is on him.
The grace
you don't deserve
is given to you.
Listen to how this theme
is taken up
and explained
in Romans chapter 8.
Romans chapter 8
verse 1
declares,
there is therefore
now no condemnation
for those
who are in Christ Jesus.
And that's remarkable
and it goes on
and talks more about it
but listen to how
Romans 8 ends
in verse 31.
What then shall we say
to these things?
If God is for us,
who can be against us?
He who did not
spare his own son
but gave him up
for us all,
how will he not
also with him
graciously give us
all things?
Who shall bring
any charge
against God's elect?
It is God
who justifies.
Who is to condemn?
Christ Jesus
is the one
who died.
More than that,
who was raised,
who is at the right
hand of God,
who indeed is
interceding for us.
Who shall separate us
from the love of Christ?
Shall tribulation
or distress
or persecution
or famine
or nakedness
or danger
or sword?
As it is written,
for your sake
we are being killed
all the day long.
We are regarded
as sheep to be slaughtered.
No!
In all these things
we are more than conquerors
through him who loved us.
For I am sure
that neither death
nor life
nor angels
nor rulers
nor things
present
nor things
to come
nor powers
nor height
nor depth
nor anything else
in all creation
will be able
to separate us
from the love of God
in Christ Jesus
our Lord.
Amen!
That is my hope
in life and death.
That is where
the fear of the Lord
begins
and where it will end.
You see,
the fear of the Lord
at its heart
is a
deep knowledge
of the difference
between God
and you
and where you begin
and where you end.
And you can't
know that knowledge
unless you're also
Christ has worked
in your heart
to create peace
between you
and God.
And you see,
brothers and sisters,
that's why it is
that we should pray
that we will learn
to fear the Lord.
It should be part
of your daily prayer.
Lord,
help me today
to grow in the fear
of you.
You know,
when you pray
that prayer,
you're asking
that he would start
to heal your inner life
in terms of goodness
and truth.
You're asking them
to heal
how you treat people
and turn away
from evil
and pursue that
which is good.
You're asking him
to help you
to allow him
to make that balance
in your life
that you need.
You're asking
that you might know
that he is God
and you're not
so that you understand
and experience
his face
looking towards you
as you live your life,
as you deal
with hard things,
as you deal
with good things
and know
that at the end
of the story
that how the story
ends is that
you are redeemed
and he looks at you
with love and affection
and welcomes you.
And you see,
I haven't read
the beginning of the psalm.
It's only if you understand
how the psalm ends
that you can understand
the outrageous promises
of the first ten verses.
Let's read them
and we're going to
stand and pray.
Listen how,
you see,
it's only if you understand
the end
that you understand
the beginning.
Listen how it goes
at the beginning.
Psalm 34, verse 1.
I will bless the Lord
at all times.
His praise shall continually
be in my mouth.
My soul makes its boast
in the Lord.
Let the humble hear
and be glad.
Oh, magnify the Lord
with me
and let us exalt
his name together.
I sought the Lord
and he answered me
and delivered me
from all my fears.
Those who look to him
are radiant
and their faces
shall never be ashamed.
This poor man cried
and the Lord heard him
and saved him
out of all his troubles.
The angels of the Lord
encamps around those
who fear him
and delivers them.
Oh, taste and see
that the Lord is good.
Taste and see
that the Lord is good.
Blessed is the man
who takes refuge in him.
Oh, fear the Lord,
you his saints,
for those who fear him
have no lack.
The young lions
suffer want and hunger,
but those who seek
the Lord
lack no good thing.
come, oh children,
listen to me.
Come, oh children,
listen to me.
I will teach you
the fear of the Lord.
I invite you to stand.
For those of you
who are in Christ,
we're going to pray
that the Lord
will help us
to grow into fear the Lord.
Why wouldn't we want that?
And for those who
maybe have been far
from the Lord
for a long time,
this is your day
to renew your commitment
to him.
Every time we gather
around the Lord's table,
it's a time to renew
our commitment to Christ,
to maybe say to him,
you know,
I've had,
Father,
I've had a really terrible,
in terms of my walk
with you,
I've been absolutely terrible
for days,
weeks,
months,
years.
I thank you
that you never let me go.
I recommit to you.
And for those of you
who are outside of the faith,
all,
you know,
I don't have,
there's no formula,
just call out to him,
say,
Lord,
I want the good life
as is described
in Psalm 34,
and I give myself to you,
and thank you
that you'll take me.
I give myself to you.
That's all you need to pray.
Just say to him,
Psalm 34,
I want that.
I surrender.
I take refuge in you
that that might be my life,
that I might grow
in that direction.
Let's pray.
Father,
we give you thanks and praise
that your word
is wiser than the world,
and we give you thanks
and praise
that even though
there is a part of us
at times,
sometimes very loud,
that whispers
that if we really want
to live the good life,
we have to step outside
of your will,
we ask,
Lord,
that you,
in your mercy,
that you would help us
to not only shut that out,
but that rather than
listen to that whisper,
that we would listen
to your word,
that we would listen
to Psalm 34,
that we would listen
to verses 11 and 12,
that that might,
Father,
that your word
might be that
which speaks to us
very, very deep within us,
that we might learn
to memorize your word
and have that word
preached to us
that we might live out of it,
and we give you thanks
and praise
that you want us
to know you deeply
and to know that
you are God
and that we are not
and know where we begin
and end
and where you begin
and end
and to know that
is good
and we ask,
Father,
we ask,
Lord,
that you would help us
to grow in that,
that you would help us
to grow in the fear
of the Lord,
that we might know
your presence
and your promise
and your comfort
as we deal with
the good times
and the bad
and that we might know
that Christ
is our hope of glory
and that in you
your face is towards us
and that when we finally
see you face to face,
we will see you smile.
We ask these things
in the name of Jesus,
your Son and our Savior,
and all God's people said,
Amen.