The Face of God - Psalm 34

Psalm 34

This psalm is an acrostic psalm.

This psalm is a praise and celebration for how God was present and protected David.

David is giving testimony to the secret of the good life (vs11-14) , the secret to facing trouble (vs15-18) and the secret of deliverance (vs19-22).

(1) TROUBLE WE FACE

vs 6-7

Seeking the Lord, He gives direction and ways of escape.

illus: David delivered. Lepers healed.

When we face trouble, we turn to God in prayer and praise.

Seeking the Lord, He gives direction and ways of escape. The protection required David’s participation.

trouble leads us to face the Lord or face other things.

trouble often is a test, to see where we will turn our face.

prayer is first response not last resort…God responds to prayer.

God can turn our trouble into triumph…trial into testimonies

If God delivered you, what would your praise look like?

Trouble vs Calamity (19-22)

Trouble is certain for all.

Destruction or Condemnation is guaranteed for unredeemed.

Song: Turn your eyes upon Jesus.

1. O soul, are you weary and troubled? No light in the darkness you see? There’s light for a look at the Savior, And life more abundant and free!

Turn your eyes upon Jesus, Look full in His wonderful face, And the things of earth will grow strangely dim, In the light of His glory and grace.

2. Thro' death into life everlasting, He passed, and we follow Him there;

O’er us sin no more hath dominion-- For more than conqu’rors we are!

3. His Word shall not fail you--He promised; Believe Him, and all will be well: Then go to a world that is dying, His perfect salvation to tell!

Man is born with his back toward God. When he truly repents, he turns right around and faces God. Repentance is a change of mind…. Repentance is the tear in the eye of faith.

Dwight L. Moody (Evangelist)

We can face trouble without fear.

We don’t have to fear death and judgement (ultimate calamity) because we fear the Lord!

(2) FEAR OF THE LORD

Psalm 33:18 — “But the Lord watches over those who fear him, those who rely on his unfailing love.”

[vs 8-14]

long and prosperous life (eternal & abundant)…radiant with joy is literally “joyfully satisfied”

v13-14…do something, not only think something

obedience means to keep or preserve….preserve His presence in your life. Fear life without Him.

illus: revival or we die. Worship music challenge July

We should fear the Lord, not trouble or man.

fear of God must be taught…teach your children to pursue Him and prioritize Him not only dread punishment from Him

when we don’t fear the lord, we will fear outcomes and fear man.

Fear, God’s face not toward You.

1 Peter 3:12 “12 The eyes of the Lord watch over those who do right, and his ears are open to their prayers. But the Lord turns his face against those who do evil.””

2 Chr 16:7-9 - 7 At that time, the seer Hanani came to King Asa of Judah and said to him, “Because you depended on the king of Aram and have not depended on the Lord your God, the army of the king of Aram has escaped from you. 8 Were not the Cushites and Libyans a vast army with many chariots and horsemen? When you depended on the Lord, he handed them over to you. 9 For the eyes of the Lord roam throughout the earth to show himself strong for those who are wholeheartedly devoted to him. You have been foolish in this matter. Therefore, you will have wars from now on.”

2 Chron 29:6 - Our ancestors were unfaithful and did what was evil in the sight of the Lord our God. They abandoned the Lord and his dwelling place; they turned their backs on him.

The face of God is His favor toward us. We fear life without the face of God.

(3) FACE OF GOD

[v1-5; 15-18]

the eyes & ears of Lord are way of talking about the face of God.

the face of God in our direction brings protection, healing/restoration, joy, preservation/salvation or rescue, heard/understood, fullness of life.

Looking in His direction brings about radiance and joy…His gaze in your direction is His favor, removing shame because He gave you His Spirit.

shame is a shadow, removed when God’s face shines on us.

looking at him removes shame…so if you feel shame, you are gazing in wrong direction.

The Son of Righteousness shines in our direction…

Numbers 6:23–26 (NLT) 23 “Tell Aaron and his sons to bless the people of Israel with this special blessing: 24 ‘May the Lord bless you and protect you. 25 May the Lord smile on you and be gracious to you. 26 May the Lord show you his favor and give you his peace.’

- Father, Son, & Spirit here…

We should long for the face of God, not the favor of man.

We must turn our face toward God!

He is close, facing, the broken hearted…the pain is not an indication of lack of love.

Darkness comes for us us all, but we need to face the light of God.

“Believe in the darkness what you have seen in the light.” - Lilias Trotter

illus: Lilias Trotter was brilliant artist in the early 1900s in England. Wanted others to know God and started ministering to prostitutes at night. She eventually moved to the desert of North Africa. As she responded to this call, no mission agencies would send her there or support her mission. Not deterred, she decided to still follow the call of God to Africa and go by herself. She lived among the nationals in the hiddenness of the desert there for forty years. There, in the desert, Trotter knew what it was like to be stripped from every distraction to focus upon the face of Jesus. She had laid her life down for that one purpose. While there she penned this amazing poem that later would inspire the song, “Turn your eyes upon Jesus”:

It was in a little wood in early morning. The sun was climbing behind a steep cliff in the east, and its light was flooding nearer and nearer and then making pools among the trees. Suddenly, from a dark corner of purple brown stems and tawny moss, there shone out a great golden star. It was just a dandelion, and half withered—but it was full face to the sun, and had caught into its heart all the glory it could hold, and was shining so radiantly that the dew that lay on it still made a perfect aureole round its head. And it seemed to talk, standing there—to talk about the possibility of making the very best of these lives of ours.

For if the Sun of Righteousness has risen upon our hearts, there is an ocean of grace and love and power lying all around us, an ocean to which all earthly light is but a drop, and it is ready to transfigure us, as the sunshine transfigured the dandelion, and on the same condition—that we stand full face to God.

Gathered up, focussed lives, intent on one aim—Christ—these are the lives on which God can concentrate blessedness. It is “all for all” by a law as unvarying as any law that governs the material universe.

We see the principle shadowed in the trend of science; the telephone and the wireless in the realm of sound, the use of radium and the ultra violet rays in the realm of light. All these work by gathering into focus currents and waves that, dispersed, cannot serve us. In every branch of learning and workmanship the tendency of these days is to specialize—to take up one point and follow it to the uttermost.

And Satan knows well the power of concentration, if a soul is likely to get under the sway of the inspiration, “this one thing I do,” he will turn all his energies to bring in side-interests that will shatter the gathering intensity.

And they lie all around, these interests. Never has it been so easy to live in half a dozen good harmless worlds at once—art, music, social science, games, motoring, the following of some profession, and so on. And between them we run the risk of drifting about, the “good” hiding the “best” even more effectually than it could be hidden by downright frivolity with its smothered heart-ache at its own emptiness.

It is easy to find out whether our lives are focused, and if so, where the focus lies. Where do our thoughts settle when consciousness comes back in the morning? Where do they swing back when the pressure is off during the day? Does this test not give the clue? Then dare to have it out with God—and after all, that is the shortest way. Dare to lay bare your whole life and being before Him, and ask Him to show you whether or not all is focussed on Christ and His glory. Dare to face the fact that unfocussed good and useful as it may seem, it will prove to have failed of its purpose.

What does this focussing mean? Study the matter and you will see that it means two things—gathering in all that can be gathered, and letting the rest drop. The working of any lens—microscope, telescope, camera—will show you this. The lens of your own eye, in the room where you are sitting, as clearly as any other. Look at the window bars, and the beyond is only a shadow; look through at the distance, and it is the bars that turn into ghosts. You have to choose which you will fix your gaze upon and let the other go.

Are we ready for a cleavage to be wrought through the whole range of our lives, like the division long ago at the taking of Jericho, the division between things that could be passed through the fire of consecration into “the treasury of the Lord,” and the things that, unable to “bide the fire,” must be destroyed? All aims, all ambitions, all desires, all pursuits—shall we dare to drop them if they cannot be gathered sharply and clearly into the focus of “this one thing I do”?

Will it not make life narrow, this focusing? In a sense, it will—just as the mountain path grows narrower, for it matters more and more, the higher we go, where we set our feet—but there is always, as it narrows, a wider and wider outlook and purer, clearer air. Narrow as Christ’s life was narrow, this is our aim; narrow as regards self-seeking, broad as the love of God to all around. Is there anything to fear in that?

And in the narrowing and focussing, the channel will be prepared for God’s power—like the stream hemmed between the rockbeds, that wells up in a spring—like the burning glass that gathers the rays into an intensity that will kindle fire. It is worth while to let God see what He can do with these lives of ours, when “to live is Christ.”

How do we bring things to a focus in the world of optics? Not by looking at the things to be dropped, but by looking at the one point that is to be brought out.

Turn full your soul’s vision to Jesus, and look and look at Him, and a strange dimness will come over all that is apart from Him, and the Divine “attrait” by which God’s saints are made, even in this 20th century, will lay hold of you. For “He is worthy” to have all there is to be had in the heart that He has died to win."

What if the way you face trouble, how you fear the Lord, and live because His face and favor are surrounding you…lead others to experience the deliverance and salvation of the Lord? Your testing can brings faith to life, or it brings death to your faith….all depends of if you turn your eyes to Jesus.

Response: Lord - what are our eyes upon right now? what is our focus?

——————

PRACTICING THE WAY

As disciples of Jesus, we know our allegiance to Him as King is expressed in our daily practice. We are not pursuing perfection but want to practice our faith each day. These practices will point you toward spiritual formation as an apprentice (disciple) to Jesus.

(1) Start the Bible Recap reading plan.

(2) Recite this prayer/liturgy daily:

Help me to know more of the joy that comes from knowing you. Grant me joy in Jesus, joy in being your child, and joy in knowing that you are always with me. I ask you to pour out Your unfailing love upon me, as I sing songs of love toward you. May I find hope in your word as I wait for the You. May my heart wait focused on You. May I live for You even while I wait. Help me to obey and remain faithful, no matter how long I am in this place of waiting. In Jesus' name I pray, amen.

(3) Talk it Over (with friends, a spouse, or your Group)

Read Psalm 34. The message was about learning to fear God and seek His face. What did this Psalm teach you about God? What was one main take-a-way from the message? What is one distraction you personally find yourself turning toward, especially when you face trouble? Shame is not from God. What are some indications (actions, attitudes, etc) a person might be experiencing shame? Read 1 Peter 3:12. What does this tell us about God? What does this reveal about our life? What do you image the face of Jesus looks like?