Sermon Tone Analysis
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Welcome
Well good morning, Park Family!
If we haven’t met yet, my name is Dan and I serve here as one of the Pastors for Park | Forest Glen along with Brenton Smith…we’re so glad you’re able to join us today.
Also a quick shout out to those of you watching online right now!
Over the summer, we’ve been in a series through the Old Testament book of Psalms.
And through this series, we’ve tried to hit all the different genres of Psalms in the first section of this book.
Today is the last day of the Psalm series and we’re kicking of our next series on Sunday, September 4th as we look at the New Testament letter of First Corinthians…which is going to be…fun.
And just as a teaser, we’re kicking off this series with something we’ve never done at Park before…you don’t want to miss next week!
Introduction
Alright, if you have a bible with you, meet me in Psalm 34.
Psalm 34.
I’ve been looking forward to this Psalm all summer.
I think it’s the perfect one to end on because it brings together so many of the themes we’ve been talking about the last 3 months.
Remember, what we’ve been saying over and over again is the Psalms really are an invitation to a wise and meaningful life!
They show us the kind of life we’ve been created by God to live.
And they invite us to make a course correct and take on this new way of life.
And this is exactly what Psalm 34 does…but not in a way that’s super obvious when you first read it.
See, Psalm 34 asks us a very personal question.
Where is my hiding place?
The word Psalm 34 uses is refuge.
And what I mean by that in particular is: where do you go…or maybe what do you go to…when you’re in a rough spot?
When you’ve just got some bad news…maybe it’s a health update you weren’t expecting…either for yourself or someone you deeply care about.
Maybe it’s bad news from work…or just something out of the blue that you were not expecting and don’t feel ready for.
Where do you run?
What do you reach for to help you cope with all this?
We’ve all got something…we’ve all got a refuge.
What’s yours?
So if you’re not there yet, open with me to Psalm 34.
If you have one of he house bibles, it’s on page ***.
It will also be on the screen behind me…and just a reminder that we’ve been using the Christ Standard Bible translation for this series.
Psalm 34 (CSB)
Concerning David, when he pretended to be insane in the presence of Abimelech, who drove him out, and he departed.
1 I will bless the Lord at all times; his praise will always be on my lips. 2 I will boast in the Lord; the humble will hear and be glad.
3 Proclaim the Lord’s greatness with me; let us exalt his name together.
4 I sought the Lord, and he answered me and rescued me from all my fears.
5 Those who look to him are radiant with joy; their faces will never be ashamed.
6 This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him and saved him from all his troubles.
7 The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, and rescues them.
8 Taste and see that the Lord is good.
How happy is the person who takes refuge in him!
9 You who are his holy ones, fear the Lord, for those who fear him lack nothing.
10 Young lions lack food and go hungry, but those who seek the Lord will not lack any good thing.
11 Come, children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord.
12 Who is someone who desires life, loving a long life to enjoy what is good?
13 Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from deceitful speech.
14 Turn away from evil and do what is good; seek peace and pursue it.
15 The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their cry for help.
16 The face of the Lord is set against those who do what is evil, to remove all memory of them from the earth.
17 The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears, and rescues them from all their troubles.
18 The Lord is near the brokenhearted; he saves those crushed in spirit.
19 One who is righteous has many adversities, but the Lord rescues him from them all.
20 He protects all his bones; not one of them is broken.
21 Evil brings death to the wicked, and those who hate the righteous will be punished.
22 The Lord redeems the life of his servants, and all who take refuge in him will not be punished.
PRAY
Searching for Refuge
Alright, let’s get started.
Two things we need to know about Psalm 34.
1.
There is a back story…we’ll look at that in moment.
2. There is very unique structure to this Psalm…but you can only see it in the original language it was written in; Hebrew, not English....we’ll look at that too.
And we need to know both of these things to see what this Psalm is talking about!
The Backstory
First, though, the back story.
Look at those words right before v.1 starts.
We call this the superscript.
These words are actually part of the bible.
They’re not like the chapter headings publishers put in.
In fact, in the Hebrew bible, verse one always starts at the superscript.
Most of the Psalms have a superscript that give some general info about the Psalm…usually they tell us the genre or the author or something like that.
But Psalm 34 is unique of the ones we’ve seen this summer because the superscript points to a very specific point in David’s life…and basically says, “This Psalm is all about that thing David did.”
So look at those words:
Psalm 34 (CSB)
Concerning David, when he pretended to be insane in the presence of Abimelech, who drove him out, and he departed.
And I’m sure some of us hear that and we’re like, “Okay…so…sounds like there’s a bit of a story behind that...”
And there is!
1 Samuel 21:10–15 (ESV)
10 And David rose and fled that day from Saul and went to Achish the king of Gath.
11 And the servants of Achish said to him, “Is not this David the king of the land?
Did they not sing to one another of him in dances, ‘Saul has struck down his thousands, and David his ten thousands’?” 12 And David took these words to heart and was much afraid of Achish the king of Gath.
13 So he changed his behavior before them and pretended to be insane in their hands and made marks on the doors of the gate and let his spittle run down his beard.
14 Then Achish said to his servants, “Behold, you see the man is mad.
Why then have you brought him to me? 15 Do I lack madmen, that you have brought this fellow to behave as a madman in my presence?
Shall this fellow come into my house?”
You can turn there in your bibles…in the house bibles it’s on page: 244.
The Old Testament books, 1 and 2 Samuel, tell the story of the people of Israel and their first two Kings; Saul and David.
David, is regarded as the greatest King in the Old Testament.
Of all the different Kings of Israel, David is the gold standard and all the rest are compared to him.
But, he was not a perfect king.
In fact, 1 and and 2 Samuel have several stories that point out the David was deeply flawed…and he did some pretty messed up things.
It’s actually one of the things I love about reading the Old Testament is that it really doesn’t pull any punches when it it talks about these major figures in the Biblical storyline.
1 Samuel 21:10-15, which is what Psalm 34 references, is one of those kinds of stories…it’s not holding anything back against David…what he does here is foolish.
You might remember that before David became king of Israel, the current king, Saul, was trying to get rid of him.
He saw David as a threat…the people seem to like David a whole lot more than him, and so he’s looking for David to kill him.
So David is on the run…that’s not the issue.
In Chapter 21 he crosses a line.
He goes over to the enemies of Israel and offers his services to them as a mercenary.
Interestingly enough, you remember the story of David and Goliath…in chapter 21, David goes to Goliath’s home town.
He sees this place as a refuge.
He’s running from a very real problem…and he’s looking for something that’s going to make it all okay.
David kind of realizes he’s made a terrible mistake because no one really trusts him there…they have every reason to kill him too…so fakes a mental illness…which so how buys him some time to sort things out.
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