Psalms 34:8-10 ESV
“Oh, 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.”
Now, this is not suggesting that we experiment with the Lord
to decide if we want to follow him or not. The word translated as “taste” also
means to “perceive”. So, this could be like saying, “Understand or realize that
the Lord is good.” It has to do with discernment, with good judgment. And “good”
is not necessarily as humans define good, but it has to do with his holiness
and righteousness, that he is perfect in every way.
And yes, we are blessed when we take refuge in him. But
taking refuge in the Lord doesn’t mean that life is going to be easy for us or
that we won’t have to suffer. We will have to suffer, but that is for our good,
that we may share in God’s holiness. I am suffering right now with a horrible
cough that is torture to the rest of my body, but I know God is working good in
me through it all and he did give me much needed rest today, so to him I am
very thankful for that relief.
To fear the Lord is to show him due honor, respect,
veneration, obedience, and submission. It is to worship him in spirit and in
truth. It is to give our lives to him as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing
to him, no longer conformed to the ways of this sinful world. It is to go where
he sends us and to do what he commands and to say what he gives us to say no
matter how we are perceived or treated in return – all for the glory of God.
And when this says that we will lack no good thing, this
doesn’t mean that the Lord is going to give us everything that we want or
everything that we ask for. He will give us what we need but not necessarily
what we think we need, for he sees things differently than we do. And what we
need sometimes is to suffer, to humble us and to get us to rely on God more and
not on ourselves, and to get us to listen better and to do what he says.
Psalms 34:11-14 ESV
“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?
Keep your tongue from evil
and your lips from speaking deceit.
Turn away from evil and do good;
seek peace and pursue it.”
We learn the fear of the Lord through experience, through
trials and tribulations, but ultimately we learn through listening to the Lord.
For if we go through times of testing in our lives but we don’t listen to the
Lord then we didn’t learn anything. So, as we are going through our trials we
need to not be making demands of the Lord but we need to be listening to him to
hear what he wants to teach us, for suffering is for our good for a reason.
Now, if we do good, and if we do not do evil, that is no
guarantee that we will live long on this earth. Many godly people have died
young while many wicked people have lived nearly to the age of 100. But if we
do good and not evil, because we are listening to the Lord, and because we are
following in his ways, then our lives will be blessed. We will be at peace in
knowing that we are living according to his plan for our lives, and that is a
good thing.
And it is the will of God for our lives that we turn away
from evil and that we do the good that God has for us to do in his power and
strength. For this is not just about being “good deed doers.” This is about
walking in obedience to our Lord and doing the good that he has for us to do in
this life. For the purpose for which Jesus died on that cross was so that we
would die with him to sin and live to him and to his righteousness in his
power.
For, believing in Jesus Christ means we are crucified with
Christ in death to sin and we are raised with Christ to walk in newness of life
in him, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. So we are to
put off our old lives of living in sin and for self and we are to put on our new
lives of living for the Lord in holiness and righteousness. So we put off lying
and we tell the truth, and we put off immorality and we put on moral purity,
etc.
Psalms 34:15-18 ESV
“The eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous
and his ears toward their cry.
The face of the Lord is against those who do evil,
to cut off the memory of them from the earth.
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.”
This isn’t just Old Testament teaching here. This is New
Testament teaching, too. The righteous are those who walk righteously, who make
righteousness their practice, by the grace of God and in his power and
strength. Those who do evil are those who make sin their practice. They are
those who deliberately and habitually keep committing the same sins over again
in God’s face in defiance against his commands and usually without conscience.
We are not made righteous merely by a profession of faith in
Jesus Christ. Jesus said that not everyone who says to him, “Lord, Lord,” will
inherit the kingdom of heaven but only the one DOING (in practice) the will of
God the Father who is in heaven. And he said that if anyone would come after him
he must deny self and take up his cross daily (die daily to sin) and follow
(obey) him. And John said that if we say we know Jesus but we do not obey his
commands that we lie (Matt 7:21-23; Lu 9:23-26; 1 Jn 2:3-6).
So, the Lord listens to the cries of the righteous who are
living righteously, but his face is against those who make sin their practice,
no matter what they profess with their lips. So, if we are willfully living in
disobedience to our Lord and we are just living to please ourselves and not God,
he is against us, not for us. And he is not going to listen to our prayers. We
can’t live in disobedience to the Lord and still expect him to listen to our
prayers.
Now, when the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears and he
delivers us out of our troubles. But let me share this in the context of New
Testament teaching. Jesus said we will suffer and we will be hated and
persecuted and falsely accused and falsely imprisoned and even put to death for
our walks of faith and for the sake of his gospel, so he doesn’t always remove
us from our difficult circumstances, but he will carry us through them. And he
definitely is near to the brokenhearted and he saves the crushed in spirit.
[Rom 5:3-5; Phil 3:7-11; 1
Pet 1:6-7; 1 Pet 4:12-17; 1 Thess 3:1-5; Jas 1:2-4; Matt 5:10-12; Lu 21:12-19; 2 Co 1:3-11; Heb
12:3-12; Jn 15:1-11]
A
Believer’s Prayer
An
Original Work / July 31, 2012
With my whole heart, Lord, I pray
To be Yours, and Yours always.
Lead me in Your truth today.
May I love You and obey.
Lead me in Your righteousness.
When I sin, may I confess;
Bow before You when I pray;
Live for You and You always.
Love You, Jesus, You’re my friend.
Life with You will never end.
You are with me through each day,
Giving love and peace always.
You will ne’er abandon me.
From my sin You set me free.
You died on that cruel tree,
So I’d live eternally.
Soon You’re coming back for me;
From this world to set me free;
Live with You eternally.
Oh, what joy that brings to me.
I will walk with You in white;
A pure bride, I’ve been made right
By the blood of Jesus Christ;
Pardoned by His sacrifice.
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