Psalm 34 - A Song and a Sermon

Throughout history, people have cried out to God for deliverance, whether it was slaves who were unjustly treated or Jews who were being taken to concentration camps, the ovens, whether it was the children of Israel crying out for deliverance from Egypt or a Psalmist David crying out to God for deliverance from his foes. The song we just heard really is the kind of song that we find a lot of in the book of Psalms, songs and prayers for deliverance when the going was extremely difficult and hard. But today we're going to look at a different kind of Psalm, we're going to look at a Psalm of worship. You know, whenever we talk about worship today, the first thing we think of is music. And although worship is composed of music and other elements as well, and music is a very important part of worship, to limit worship to music itself is, I think, wrong. It's just wrong. It's not really the ultimate of worship, it's not the only expression or form of worship, but typically today when you talk about worship, tensions tend to run high over personal preferences in the style of music. I was in a bookstore on Friday and looking at books, it's an occupational hazard for pastors. We like to look at books and I was looking at some books and books in a worship section. And there are a number of books written on the subject of what's called the worship wars. And the idea is that people are fighting over styles of music and things like that. In fact, I came across something that kind of takes a humorous poke at some of that worship war type of thing. An old farmer was trying to explain to his wife the difference between a praise song and a hymn. And she was having difficulty understanding the difference between the two. And he said, let me try to explain it this way in terms that we can understand. If I were to say to you, Martha, the cows are in the corn. And if I wanted to say that and sing it to you in a praise chorus, it would sound like this. Martha, Martha, Martha. Oh, Martha, Martha, Martha. The cows, the big cows, the brown cows, the black cows, the white cows, the black and white cows, the cows, cows, cows are in the corn, are in the corn, are in the corn, are in the corn, the corn, the corn, the corn. And if I were to repeat the whole thing two or three times, well, that would be a praise song. But Martha, if I wanted to communicate the same thing to you in a hymn, cows are in the corn. This is the way it would sound. Oh, Martha, dear Martha, hear thou my cry. In clineous thine ear to the words of my mouth, turn thou thy whole wondrous ear by and by to the righteous inimitable, glorious truth, for the way of the animals who can explain their in their heads is no shadow of sense. Harkenest they in God's sun or his rain, unless from the mild tempting corn they are fenced. Ye those cows in glad bovine rebellious delight have broke free their shackles, their warm pins eschewed. Then goaded by minions of darkness and night, they all my mild chiliwack sweet corn have chewed. So look to that bright shining day by and by when all foul corruptions of earth are reborn, where no vicious animal makes my soul cry, and I no longer see those foul cows in the corn. Then if I were to do only verses one, three and four, and do a key change on the last verse, well, that would be a hymn. Well that's a humorous poke at the worship wars as some people call them. To be quite honest, I think God despises worship wars. That obviously is not an accurate way to represent worship choruses or praise songs, nor is it an accurate way to represent hymns. It's going to the extreme on both sides, obviously. But the point is this, the point is not the style of music or the style of worship that makes up worship. What makes up worship is a focus on God. And whether you focus on him through a praise chorus or song or one of the grand old hymns, that's not the important thing. The important thing is that we focus on God. And so in the midst of these worship wars, I think we need to get back to the focus of what worship really needs to be. The song that we sang earlier, I don't know if you've ever heard the history of that song, The Heart of Worship, Matt Redmond as a worship leader in England, and he was challenged in his own heart to get away from all of the trappings that sometimes contemporary praise places on the music and just get back to the basics. What is worship really all about? He just took out his guitar and started composing this song, The Heart of Worship. I'm sorry Lord for the thing I've made it. All the other stuff I put in with it, I just want it to focus on you and you alone. That's really the heart of worship is to focus on God. And that's exactly what Psalm 34 does for us. It clears away all of the styles and preferences and culture type stuff and gets to the heart of worship which is a focus on God. Now I love this song because it's kind of like a worship service. The first part of it is a song, the second part of it is a sermon. And even in this song the sermon is longer than the songs. I like that and that's the way David kind of laid it out. The idea is though that there are two elements of worship, the praising of God and the fearing of God which is the sermon. So let's take David's worship service this morning. His Psalm on worship and let's look at what it means to really focus on God in worship. First of all, praising the Lord. What does it mean to praise the Lord? First 10 verses of Psalm 34, deal with praising the Lord. And David begins with a declaration of praise in verses one and two. Notice how he declares that he is going to praise God. Verse one. 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. Now notice the words David uses for worship here as he declares his praise to the Lord. He says first of all I will extol the Lord. I think the King James actually gives the best rendering here. I think the King James keeps the word bless. I will bless the Lord. That's really the meaning of the Hebrew word. I will bless the Lord. The problem is some of us don't understand how in the world can we bless God. We know that God blesses us but can we really bless God? We can. When the Old Testament talks about blessing God, it's talking about taking his blessings and turning them around into praise and offering them back to him. It's talking about being grateful and appreciative for the blessings that God gives us and then giving them right back to him in a declaration of praise. That's what it means to extol him or to bless him. And you know that blesses God the same way his blessings encourage and strengthen us. When we turn to that around and praise God and we're grateful to him, we appreciate what he's done. That blesses God's heart to hear the praise of his people. So praise is blessing his name. David also says I will boast. My soul will boast in the Lord. That's an interesting concept. Usually when we think of boasting, we think of speaking well of ourselves, of praising ourselves. When we boast. But the idea here is to turn that around and rather than talking about ourselves, we talk about God. We turn to boasting away from ourselves and focus upon him so that worship is declaring our pride of who God is. We think about how proud we are of our God. Boasting about him. That's what worship really is. And David says I'm going to do that all the time. He says there in verse 1 I will extol the Lord. At all times his praise will always be on my lips. The best way to translate that in verse 1 is I will bless the Lord or extol the Lord at every time. But David, you have to understand the history behind this Psalm in order to appreciate why David would say that. If you see the heading of this Psalm before verse 1, it says that this is a Psalm of David then it says when he pretended to be insane before a Bimolec who drove him away and he left. The historical background for this Psalm is found in 1 Samuel 21. We're not going to take the time to look at it, but read it sometime. First Samuel 21 tells the story of how David is running from Saul. Saul is out to kill David and David is running from cave to cave, hiding from Saul. And finally David gets tired of that and says I'm getting out of here, I'm going to go down to the Philistine country. Saul won't try to find me there because the Philistines are our enemies. So he goes down and passes himself off as an ally who wants to help the Philistines in their battles. But somebody blows his cover. One of the AIDS generals, whatever, took King of the King of the Philistines says isn't this David? I mean, isn't this the guy that people sing about in Israel, Saul has slain his thousands? David is 10,000s and David knew he was in big trouble when that was discovered. He can't be at home in his own land and now he is under suspicion and could easily be killed by the King of the Philistines. And so David in order to kind of get out of that situation pretended to be insane. First Sam in 21 says he would scratch on the city gates, he would let saliva run down his beard, trying to act like an insane person. And you know what the King of the Philistines finally said, get this guy out of here. I don't need any more insane people. I got enough insane people as it is around here. I mean, read it for yourself. It says that. I got enough insane people. I don't need another one. Get him out of here. And David saw that as God's way of delivering him from an almost impossible situation. That's when he wrote this Psalm. And so he says, I will bless the Lord at every time. It doesn't matter what's going on in my life. Even if I'm a man or a country, don't have a place to really land and people are trying to kill me, both my friends and my enemies, I will praise the Lord at every time in my life. I will praise the Lord. You know, Paul seconds that feeling in Colossians chapter 3 when he says, and whatever you do, whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. So whatever you do at every time, at all times, give thanks to the Lord. And he says very simply and briefly in 1 Thessalonians 5, 18, give thanks in all circumstances for this as God's will for you in Christ Jesus. So the Bible is telling us and David is testifying, I'm going to bless the Lord and turn his blessings around and praise him. Be grateful for them. And I'm going to boast of the Lord and speak well of him at every time in my life. At all times, I will praise the Lord. That's a declaration of praise. But then there's an invitation to praise. In verse 3, David says, come, join me in this. I want to declare to you my praise, but I want you to join me in this. Look at what he says in verse 3. Glorify the Lord with me. Let us exalt his name together. So he broadens it. It's not just David now blessing God and praising his name and boasting of the Lord. He says, I want some folks to join me in this and the praise intensifies as others join with David in their praise. That's what corporate worship is about. That's what we do when we gather together in a setting like this. When there's more than one mouth lifting up its praise to God, there's a bunch of us. And we encourage each other. We intensify our praise when we praise God together. It's an invitation to praise. And again, I love the words David uses. He says, glorify the Lord with me. For some translations have magnify the Lord with me. The word literally means to make great. In worship, it's not talking literally about making someone great because we can't make God great. He already is great. The idea in worship is to proclaim his greatness, to declare his greatness. And God is great because he is the creator. He is great because he is the Savior. He is great because he is the king. He's great because he is the God of all gods. There is no one like him. God is great. And like David would say in another Psalm, Psalm 48, great is the Lord and greatly to be praised or most worthy of praise. David loves to praise God. Why? Because he is great. He is greatly to be praised for that reason. So glorify him. Praise him greatly. Proclaim his greatness. And then he says, let us exalt his name. What does it mean to exalt God's name? What kind of worship is that? Well the word exalt means to literally lift up. If you exalt a person, you lift them up to a place of prominence where they can be recognized. If you exalt something, you lift it up where it can be seen. The word literally means to lift up. So to exalt the Lord, his name means to lift up his name. To let others see that it is his name that is important, that is special. There is no other name under heaven given among me and whereby we must be saved. The apostles said in Acts 4. And so that name is the name to be lifted up to be exalted as we worship together. Listen folks, as you can tell from the first three verses, this is not some kind of bland heartless ritual that we're supposed to go through on Sunday mornings. This is a heartfelt boasting of our God. Focusing His name, proclaiming His greatness, lifting up His name together in worship. That's what worship is all about. It is focused on God and there's an invitation for us to join together and proclaim His greatness. Say well, what motivates us to do that or what do we have to thank God for? Well, that's where David slips next into the testimony of praise in verses 4 through 7. What David does in these next few verses is after declaring his praise and inviting us to join with him, he talks about why he's praising the Lord. His own personal testimony is the basis for his praise, what God has done in his own life. It's kind of neat the way he lays it out here. David gives us two testimonies in these verses and then two lessons that he learned from those testimonies. You can see them very plainly if you just focus on the text for a little bit. In verse 4, he gives a testimony, he says something he did. And then verse 5, he gives us the lesson that he learned from that testimony. In verse 6, he gives his second testimony. And verse 7, he gives us the lesson he learned from that testimony. Let's take a look at them briefly. The first testimony is this in verse 4. I sought the Lord and He answered me. He delivered me from all my fears. I sought the Lord. That was His first testimony. Now we know what it means to seek things, right? To look for things. Have you ever sought for your car keys? Where are my car keys? You know, are they in my coat? Are they in the drawer? Or are they in the car? Where are my car keys? And we go around seeking for our car keys, looking for something that's lost. That is never the way the word is used in the Old Testament when it talks about seeking God. This is not some kind of aimless wondering, looking for someone that we don't know where he is. We know where God is. We know who he is. When the Old Testament talks about seeking God, it's talking about seeking from Him information, guidance, blessing, something like that. We know who he is. We know where he is. We are seeking something from him. It's not like he's lost and we're kind of aimlessly wondering about seeking God. No. We know who God is. We know where he is. We're looking for something from the God that we know. That's what it means to seek the Lord. And when we seek the Lord in that way, the Bible says, He answered me, delivered me from all my fears. The word fear is a very strong word, by the way. It's the word that actually means dread and horror. Things that would literally wake you up in the middle of the night, you'd be horrified of. God delivers us from those things as we seek His help, as we seek Him. So David's first testimony is, when I sought the Lord, He delivered me from my fears. And this is what He learned from that testimony, that experience. What He learned in verse 5 was, you know, those who look to Him are radiant. Their faces are never covered with shame. So He says, I've learned this from seeking the Lord and watching Him deliver me from my fears. And when you think of the situation He was delivered from, that was what He was talking about. Man, I was scared to death. I was going to lose my wife here in Felistine Territory and God delivered me from that. So He said, what I've learned is that when I look to you, Lord, my face is radiant. That's a great, great concept. The word radiant used in the Old Testament two different ways. And I think both of them are packed right into this verse. First of all, in the book of Isaiah, the word radiant is used of the look of delight on a mother's face when she sees a child. She hasn't seen in a long time. That's a great idea, you know. This past week, we had an opportunity to go up and see our daughter who lives in Chicago. We left on Wednesday and went up to see her for Thanksgiving. She's about 12 months pregnant and looks that way. She's expecting a baby in two or three weeks. And so we wanted to see her before and we'll, I'm sure see the baby when it comes to. But you know, it was different. When we got there, I'm the kind of person that is kind of detailed oriented and you know, I'm thinking, okay, we left at five o'clock this morning. Here, we took us three hours to get the last 30 miles through Chicago to their home. We got a church service to go to tonight at seven o'clock. We need to get going. We need to unpack the car. You know, there are two cases to get in, things like that. Come on, let's go. Let's go. And you should have seen Jeannie. You know, when we pull up in front of their house, she's out the door. I mean, she doesn't even wait for me to open the door. She's out the door, bursts into the house and there she is with Ruth, you know, just the look of glow on her face. She was radiant when she saw Ruth. We hadn't seen her since June. We had not, she was pregnant, but we didn't, you couldn't tell it at that time. And so this was the first time we'd seen her looking pregnant. And so Jeannie was just radiant. That's the best word for it. The glow of delight on your face when you see a child you haven't seen in a long time. That's one way the word is used. Second way the word is used in the Old Testament is of the glory that shined off of Moses' face when he came down from the mountain receiving God's law. And so what it's talking about is when you've been in God's presence and you're becoming more like him and you're reflecting his glory. Now I think both ideas are in this word here. When we learn to look to the Lord and seek the Lord, what we find is great delight. It just makes our face radiant. And it also reflects the fact that we've been in his presence and we're reflecting more of the presence of Christ in our lives. So David said, hey, I learned this, learned this, that when you look to the Lord, your face is radiant. It's just radiant. And because of that he says their faces are never covered with shame. You see, when you've been in the presence of God, when you seek him and you sense you're connecting with him and he's delivering you from things in your life that have troubled you and bothered you and waged you down, when you sense that, then your face is no longer covered with shame. David was ashamed to be caught like he was in the enemy's territory. And I have to use that ruse to get out, but he saw it as God's deliverance and his shame was now gone because he had looked to the Lord. So shame is gone and it's replaced with a radiant glow of God and the presence of God in your face when you seek him. So that's David's first testimony. His second testimony in verse 6 is this poor man called and the Lord heard him, saved him out of all of his troubles. Now when he refers to himself as a poor man, he's not talking about material things. The idea of the word here is to be poor in spirit, to be recognized that you have nothing to deliver yourself by. You have nothing to claim in God's presence. If something's going to happen here, it's going to all be that God does it. God's going to have to work this thing out. You have nothing to contribute to this. It's that sense of, I am absolutely helpless and God must work if something's going to happen here. That's the way David felt. Jesus said much the same thing in Matthew chapter 5 when he said, blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs as the kingdom of heaven. It's not poor in material things necessarily. David is recognizing he was poor spiritually. He had no strength, no ingenuity, nothing that could get him out of this unless God worked. I mean, even that which he did, and we are responsible to do what we can to get out of bad situations, but even that which he did would not have worked had not God been in it. So he recognizes his total dependence upon God. And that testimony of God's deliverance taught him something in verse 7. This is the lesson he learned. The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him and he delivers them. The angel of the Lord is a unique term. It's a term used in the Old Testament referring to the very presence of God, probably the presence of Jesus Christ before he came to earth as a baby. The idea is this is not just any old angel. This is the angel of the Lord. This is a special representative of God, probably his own son, who at times manifests himself in a way that people could see him, speak to him, be in his presence and he would form a camp around him of protection. That's what David said I learned. I learned when this poor man cried out to God that God himself showed up and protected me and delivered me and surrounded me. What a testimony. That's a testimony of praise. But then David turns that testimony into an exhortation from praise. You see, praise also includes exhorting one another. Paul says this in the New Testament where he says that we should teach and admonish one another in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. You see, the song in the worship service is not only a song of praise to God, but it's also a song of exhorting others, of challenging others, of encouraging others. David does that in verses 8 through 10. Notice how he exhorts us from this praise. Verse 8, he says, taste and see that the Lord is good. I love that. Taste and see. In other words, experience for yourself. Come on, come on, step out and really trust him and you will find that he is good. Just taste and see. Taste and see. The idea is to experiment. Try something new that you've never done before. Trust him in an area you've always been afraid to. Taste and see that the Lord is good. Genie and I have been privileged to travel in several different countries on mission trips and as we've gone, we have always made an effort to taste the food, to really try to just acclimate ourselves to the culture and eat whatever those people eat and not expect them to cook American stuff and try to really blend into the culture. That's been very easy in most places in the world. In Ukraine, Pylminy is great. In Hungary, Goulash is unlike anything you've ever had it here. It's good. It's really good. You know, in Brazil and in the Caribbean and other places, we've just tried to eat whatever. When we got to Japan, I ate everything that was put before me, at least part of it. But I got a new twist on this verse. Taste and see that the food is bad. That's kind of a new twist I put on this verse because the food was horrible in Japan. Now we have Americanized Japanese food. You go to a Japanese restaurant and see him cook the steak and the chicken and all. They don't know what steak and chicken is in Japan. All they know is raw fish. You'll raw fish and vegetables. Vegetables, I mean, I can eat vegetables a few, but I've never eaten the kind of vegetables I ate over there. And you know what they had to sweeten things with? It was called egg sugar, fish egg sugar made out of fish eggs. And I know I'm making some of you disturbed right now, so I'd better stop. But I got a new perspective on the food. I ate seaweed and all of that kind of stuff. Taste and see that the food is bad. Well I can guarantee you, if you test, if you taste, you experience the Lord, you will never be disappointed. Taste and see and the result is the Lord is good. He's good. Just try him. Test him out. Taste and see that the Lord is good. And his first exhortation to us is taste and see that the Lord is good. And he goes on to say, blessed is the man who takes refuge in him. Here's his second exhortation. Fear the Lord, you his saints. We'll talk a little bit more about the fear of the Lord in just a moment. But notice the promise he gives when you fear the Lord. He says, fear the Lord, you his saints, for those who fear him lack nothing. And that kind of strikes us as being an unusual statement, doesn't it lack nothing? I mean, if we fear the Lord, we will lack nothing. Are we supposed to take that seriously? Are there not people who lack, I mean, didn't even David lack some basic things in his life as he jumped from cave to cave running from Saul? What's he talking about here? Well, I think he explains what he means in verse 10. The lions may grow weary or weak and hungry, but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing. Alian, the fiercest predator of that day, and probably this day as well, may in spite of its own efforts at times go hungry. What he's saying is when we seek the Lord, when we trust in the Lord, we will lack no good thing. Now, that's different from just lacking nothing. It's lacking no good thing. In other words, God Himself knows what we need. He will provide what we need. It may not always be what we in our materialistic culture think we need, but God will provide what we need, and God has already provided every good thing for us in Christ, because let's face it. Everything we have here, but we have material stuff, we're going to leave behind. The only good stuff comes later. The really good stuff comes when we see Christ and we're in His presence, and we already have all the good stuff in Christ. So He's already provided all of that. You see, regardless of whether or not we live in a mansion or a hut here, that's not what it's talking about. It's talking about God will make sure we lack no good thing as He interprets good, which is for our need, our necessities, especially those spiritual things that we need to see Him someday in heaven. And you know, Jesus said the same thing to us in the sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter 6. Jesus said this in verse 25. He said, therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink, or about your body, what you will wear, is not life more important than food and the body more important than clothes. There was don't focus on just material things. There's a lot more to life than that. What is the good stuff in life? He tells us in verse 33. He says, bit seek first, His kingdom, and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. In other words, focus first on God, His kingdom, His work, His righteousness, developing His character in your life, and God will take care of the basic needs of life. You may not be rolling in riches, but that's never the promise of God for us anyway. We're going to leave all that stuff behind anyway. The real good stuff that which we really need, and the really good stuff what we're going to have in heaven, we already have, we don't lack any of that. So no good thing with a Lord with hold from those who seek Him. That's a great, great exhortation to fear Him, and He will provide for us. Well that's just the song service. Verse 10 verses. Now we get to the sermon. The sermon is in verses 11 through 22. I want to summarize this for you somewhat this morning. In the song and praise service, David has encouraged us to come together and bless the Lord's name and lift it up high and boast about His goodness and declare His greatness. Love that we do when we sing. But then we come to the time when we hear the instruction of God. It's time for the sermon. It's time for the part of worship which talks about fearing the Lord. Not just praising the Lord, but also fearing the Lord. That's worship as well. Now what David says in verse 11 is this. Come, you can tell that the Psalm changes at this point. Come my children, listen to me. I will teach you the fear of the Lord. So David takes the place of a parent teaching children. And you know when we come to church, there's a sense in which we come to our Heavenly Father to hear His word to us and we take our place as His children, which means we are submissive to His Word. We are eager to obey whatever He tells us. We come as children who will listen and obey His Word. And so come, He says, in essence, our Heavenly Father says, come, listen, and I'll preach to you, I will teach you, I will instruct you, and the subject of the sermon is the fear of the Lord. And then He says in verse 12, whoever of your loves life and desires to see many good days, then are you ready? This is who I want this message to be for. If you want to live well, if you want to live well, then understand what the fear of the Lord is. Now we are pretty much in the dark about the fear of the Lord, aren't we? It's a difficult concept to wrap our minds around and to get a real handle on. Sometimes we have described the fear of the Lord with a simple two-word definition, very popular definition, reverential trust. And if you're going to summarize the fear of the Lord in two words, you probably couldn't do much better than that. It is a trust of the Lord that combines with a sense of reverence and awe for who He is. But I really like to define the fear of the Lord this way. The fear of the Lord is understanding who God is and responding appropriately to who He is. It has to do with knowing who He is, understanding who He is, but then responding appropriately as well. And you know, we have very little of that in our culture. We really don't have much of that in our culture. In fact, in Romans 3, Paul is summarizing the sinfulness of human nature and of our culture and he sums it up. This is the last thing he says about it. He sums it up in verse 18 by saying there is no fear of God before their eyes. Now we've got our list of fears in the world today and in our culture today. We fear terrorist attacks. We fear cancer. We fear bird flu. We fear loss of jobs or economic downturn. We got things that we fear, but typically the fear of God is not on our list. It's not on our list. Most people in our culture today, in our world, treat God as a retired chairman of the board. You know, he used to run the corporation, but he's kind of left it behind. He's out there somewhere and we salute him every once in a while, memorializing, ritualizing him in what we do, but we give him an occasional wave and now and then, but he's not active. He doesn't really do anything. That's the way most people see God. And the description of that is there is no fear of God before their eyes. What is the fear of God? If it means to understand who God is and live accordingly, then what does David say about the fear of God? When David says, come on, I want to teach you about the fear of God. What's he going to teach us? He's going to teach us first of all the meaning of the fear of God in verses 13 and 14. And David describes the meaning in much more practical terms than I have. I've given you kind of a dictionary, biblical definition, understand who God is, respond appropriately. David says, this is the way it's going to look in your life if you fear God. Number one, it will mean right speech, verse 13, keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking lies. In other words, speak good and speak truth. If indeed we understand who God is, that he is a God of holiness and that he is a God of truth, then that will affect the way we speak. We will respond accordingly in that we will speak good, not evil, and we will speak truth, not dishonesty. So basically it means that there is no room for profanity in a Christian's speech. There is no room for slander or gossip or the kind of criticism that only seeks to tear someone else down and build yourself up rather than contribute something good to them. There's no room for that in a Christian's life. There's no room for deception, no room for dishonesty, no room for the kind of exaggeration that just makes me look good. There's no room for those kinds of things in a Christian's life. If God is holy and God is true, then our speech should be good and truthful. And that's exactly what that passage says. Keep your tongue from evil, speak good, and refrain from speaking lies, speak honestly. So the fear of God means right speech. Secondly, the fear of God means right actions, verse 14. Turn from evil and do good. Turn from evil. That means stop doing bad stuff. Stay away from sin. Stay away from anything that interrupts your fellowship with God. If you really fear God, you don't want anything to come between you and your fellowship with Him. So you stay away from evil, but you know, fearing God is not just a list of don'ts. The reason why we want to stay away from evil is the second part of it. Do good. We want to replace that which is evil with that which is good, that which is morally pure and pleasing in the eyes of God because we want to please Him. So right actions means turning away from sin, but turning toward holiness and living the way God wants us to live. And by the way, we need the Word of God to define good for us in this culture. We need God's Word to define what's good and what's evil in this culture because we're getting all warped in our thinking about what's good and what's evil. And I'm afraid the culture is even influencing Christians today about what's good and what's evil. Isaiah lived in a time like that. Isaiah said in Isaiah 5, in verse 20, woe to those who call evil good and good evil who put darkness for light, light for darkness who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. In other words, who confuse the basic principles of morality and what's good and what's evil. You see, we live in a culture that says adultery and fornication is just sexual freedom. We've given it a new name. It's just sexual freedom. And of course, we all want to be free. We don't we have it's American thing, liberty, you know. So, live it up. We've changed the price tags. We've changed the labels. We're calling evil good and good evil. We live in a culture that says abortion is simply a choice. And so we are pro-choice people say. And the way it is seen in our culture today is, well, wait a second, this is a part of my body. I can do what I want to with my body. You can't tell me what I should do with my body. Certain people say about women's rights to an abortion. And you know, we've called evil good because that is not simply that life growing inside of a woman is not her body. It is its own body with its own brain, own heartbeat. Yes, it is dependent on the mother's body for life and sustenance and security and comfort, protection from the outside world and all the elements. But yes, it is its own life. It is not just an appendage of the mother's body like a finger or a toe. And we've let our culture twist evil and good all around. We live in a culture that says homosexuality, which by the way the Bible calls an abomination to God. And I don't apologize for that. The Bible says that. It's an abomination to God. It's a perversity of the natural way God created, according to Romans 1. I mean, that's Bible. But we've turned that around to say, well, it's just an alternative lifestyle. You see, what we're doing in this culture is we are calling evil good and good evil. And if you disagree with the prevailing opinion in our culture on any of those issues or 100 others, I could mention, if you disagree, you're seen as bigoted, narrow, extreme, even evil, calling evil good and good evil. We're living there, aren't we? So we need the Bible to tell us what good is and when the Bible says refrain from evil and do good, we need to interpret that through the word of God. It is the word of God, which helps us understand what good is, what holiness, what godliness, what right living is all about. And that's what the fear of God means, that we understand, stay away from sin, pursue holiness. Third thing it leads to, right attitudes. The end of verse 14, seek peace and pursue it. I love the word peace, the Hebrew word Shalom, which is much deeper than just peace and getting along. The word which means wholeness. It means everything is right. It's in its place. You're right with others. You're right with family. You're right with other relationships. You're right with God. Things are in place. It's wholeness of life. That's the idea of the word and we're to seek that and pursue it. That's to be our aim. The right kind of attitudes, forgiveness, reconciliation, bringing others together, those are the kind of attitudes we're to live by. So that's the meaning of the fear of God. Right speech, right actions, right attitudes. But why? Why should we fear God? And why do we fear God? Look at verses 15 to 18. Just want to briefly point this out to you. The reason for this fear of God is twofold. First of all, his face, secondly, his heart. The reason why we fear God is first of all his face, verses 15 and 16. Notice basically it says his face is toward those who fear him. His face is away from those who don't. His face is toward those who fear him in the sense in verse 15 that his eyes are honest and his ears are attentive to us. I can just see God's face, for those who are seeking him, his eyes are honest. He's focused on us. He's watching over us and his ear is attentive to our cry. Not so, not so, the wicked. The Bible says in verse 16, his face is against them. Turned away from them. Reason we fear God is because we don't want his face turned away from us. We want his face toward us. His eye on us. His ears open to us. One thing has to do with his heart, verses 17 and 18. Just look at these verses. The righteous cry out and the Lord hears them. He delivers them from all their troubles. Listen to this. The Lord is close to the broken hearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. In other words, God's heart is with you who know him. You are his child. He loves you and his heart is with you. Are you broken hearted? God's close to you. Isn't that what you want when you're broken hearted? You just want someone to be there. You just want someone to be close to you. You don't have to say a lot of profound stuff. Just be there. Be close. And God promises His nearness whenever you're broken hearted, when you're crushed in spirit. So His face and His heart are reasons why we fear Him. And we want to please Him because His face is toward us. His heart is with us. But the result of this fear is described in verses 19 to 22. And it's not that He delivers us out of them. Notice in verse 19, a righteous man may have many troubles. God is not saying if you fear Him, He's going to keep you out of trouble. But He will deliver you from them all. So if we're going to experience trouble but be delivered from it, how does that work? I mean, how does it work in verse 20 that He protects all these bones? Not one of them will be broken. Does that mean if you fear God, you'll never have a broken arm? No, not necessarily. This is figurative speech for God's loving care over us. Yes, we may have many troubles, but God delivers us in the midst of and through those troubles so that we can come out of them whole better than before, closer to Him stronger. It's like you never had a broken bone. You're right. You come out of it stronger than before. So He delivers us from trouble and He delivers us from guilt, verses 21 and 22. Evil will slay the wicked. The foes of the righteous will be condemned. Strong word condemned. It means the eternal judgment of God. But notice it is not God that seals their doom. It is their own evil, reaping the consequences of not knowing Christ and living an evil life is that we are condemned. But verse 22, the Lord redeems His servants. No one will be condemned who takes refuge in Him. No condemnation like Paul said, there's no condemnation to those who are in Christ. There is no disapproval in the eyes of God. We will never be separated from Him and cast into a place of eternal punishment. That's reserved for those whose evil ways lead them there. But when we know and fear God, we are protected, delivered from guilt. Do you want to worship well? You want to worship well? It doesn't matter. I don't believe it matters to God whether you do it with a praise chorus or a hymn, both are valid. What matters to God is where your heart is when you're singing His praise. Where your heart is when you're listening to His Word. Are you truly blessing His name, lifting up His name, extoling, magnifying, praising His name? Is your focus on Him as your worship? And then are you willing to say, okay, Lord, I'm your child sitting at your feet, waiting for your instruction? What it means to fear you? And I know it means I'm going to have to do something different about my speech and my actions and my attitudes, but I'm ready. I'm willing. I want to follow you. I want to obey you. When you come praise the Lord like that and when you fear the Lord like that, you have worshiped well. You've worshiped well because the focus has been on Him. I've told you the story. I'm sure several times about Johnny Erickson Tata, the wonderful lady in her mid-50s now, who when she was 17 years old in a diving accident suffered a broken neck, paralyzed from the neck down. And for a couple of years she wanted to die and she fought God. She was a Christian but she wanted to die and she fought God. Read her book sometime, Johnny, and it tells the story about it. Eventually she began to see that God could use her and she turned it around into a tremendous life of ministry. She sings, she writes with a pen in her teeth, she paints, she does all kinds of stuff. This amazing talent and gift-induced for God and she's channeled into a ministry for Him. Twenty years ago she got married. A man by the name of Ken Tata. She fell in love with her. He's a phys-ed teacher in California and he fell in love with her and they committed their lives to each other. And she describes in one of her books their wedding day. She says she was in the lobby. She was going to come down the aisle in her motorized wheelchair. And she noticed all of a sudden before the doors opened that a couple things had gone wrong. And being unable to move, she couldn't do a thing about them. She noticed that she had evidently rolled the wheel of the wheelchair over her white dress and there was a grease smudge on her beautiful wedding dress. And then she noticed that the flowers that had been laid in her lap and she couldn't move them that they had slipped over to between her leg and the side of the wheelchair. She's kind of fretting about those things and wishing something could be done about them before she goes down the aisle but all of a sudden the doors swung open. And she said she looked down the aisle and she saw Ken. There was the man who would give up a great part of his comfort and convenience and life to care for her, to love her, to give himself to her. She said when I saw Ken waiting for me at the end of that aisle, I forgot all about the dress and the flowers. None of that mattered. My heart was transfixed with him. Now that's the way it is in worship, friend. You don't care about the grease smudges and the flowers slipping to the side and all that kind of stuff, a little mistake here and there in the service. If your focus is on him, none of that matters. What matters is God is at the end of the aisle waiting for you and he's seeking your worship. He's waiting for you to express your love and your praise to him. And if your focus is on him, so what if things don't go quite right? The focus is on God and that transfixes our hearts. If we keep that focus, we worship well. Let's pray together.