Chapter 34, verse 3. We'll read through the verse
and then we'll pray. We'll get started. O magnify
the Lord with me and let us exalt his name together.
Let's pray. God, we thank you for being good
to us, dear Lord. We thank you that we have air
on this hot day. I thank you for the beautiful
people that are in this church. I thank you for
loving us. I thank you that you allow us to love
each other, dear Lord. I thank you for the work
that has went into this VBS this week. I thank
you, God, just for all you do for us, dear Lord.
We cannot praise you and glorify you enough.
And I pray that in these few minutes, dear Lord,
that these simple words that we have read would
have an impact on our life, dear Lord, that we
would... That we would focus on you and your
goodness and your mercy and your grace and your
love and your forgiveness, dear Lord. That your
Holy Spirit would be among us, God. You know
where we are in our lives today. You know what's
going on. There are struggles and there are stresses
and there are fears. Life is hard, dear Lord.
There's sin in our life. It's just a lot of stuff,
God. We need you to give us the strength and
the power and the forgiveness and the grace to
get through. So I pray, God, that everything
that is said here today will be for your glory.
And that it would uplift us, dear Lord. And we
would praise your holy name. And I ask these
things in Jesus' name. Amen. This verse is really
quite beautiful. And it's simple enough, but
really to understand what's going on, we have
to... look at the context of the verse just a
little bit now if you go and read in psalm 34
in your bible it's likely you're going to see
a superscription there that says that it's a
psalm of david when he intended to be insane
in front of abimelech or something along those
lines now here's some homework for you this week
if you want some homework go to first samuel
chapter 19 and read those those three or four
chapters around there and you'll begin to see
what's going on and why david is writing these
words that he is writing here now david was soon
to become the king of israel but The big problem
was that they already had a king, King Saul.
And Saul, he really didn't start off on too good
of a note from the get -go. And things really
went downhill. And it was decided by God that
Saul was no longer fit to be king. And he was
going to be replaced by David. So you can understand
why there was some tension there. And as Saul's
mental health and spiritual health, I guess we
could say, began to decline, he kind of was really
going crazy. He had this hatred and this desire
to kill David. Things really got pretty intense.
Now, David, of course, God had blessed him. David
had killed the giant Goliath. And David was phenomenal
in his military battles. He had killed thousands.
And Samuel, it even talks about that, the people
talking about, Saul's killed his thousands, and
David has killed tens of thousands. And things
were very, very difficult between Saul and David.
There was a lot of tension there. And Saul had
a son by the name of Jonathan, and Jonathan and
David were quite good friends. And as Saul was
continuing to try to kill David, Jonathan said,
Look, I don't know if my dad's going to kill
you, but I'll find out if he is. And you hide
out in a certain spot. I'll go see if he's going
to kill you or not. And if I think your life
is in danger, I'm going to come out here and
I'm going to shoot some arrows. Some of you may
have heard this story before. And I'm going to
have an old boy out there and he's going to go
get the arrows. And if the arrow is short, if
I fire it short and I holler to the boy, come
back. The arrow is closer this way. And you'll
know it's safe. But he says, if I fire the arrow
long and I tell the old boy to go out there a
little bit further to get the arrow. then you'll
know that it's not safe and you need to head
out. And so David began to flee from Saul. And
obviously this was difficult. You've got somebody
that's trying to take your life, and here David
is fleeing. And we see as the story unfolds,
we see some other stories that maybe are referenced
in the New Testament that you may recall. There's
an instance. As David leaves and begins to flee,
then he comes to the tabernacle, and the priest
Abimelech is there. And David and his men are
hungry, and there's nothing to eat. And Abimelech
says, well, all we have is the showbread, the
bread that's inside of the tabernacle. And that's
not for normal people, but nonetheless, he gave
it to David. And Jesus even references that story
in the New Testament. Later on, David goes before
another king in an area where David's life may
be in danger because they know of David and his
greatness, and they may very well kill him. They're
afraid of him. And David pretends to be insane
in this king's presence. And this is where the
psalm brings us to. This is why this psalm was
written. This is when this psalm was written.
After David was fleeing and God had been good
to David throughout David's life, not just in
this instance, but in so many instances, we see
that David's life is in jeopardy. We see that
David sinned greatly. Now, don't misunderstand
this. We see in the scripture that David is a
man after God's own heart. But do not read into
that that David was perfect. Because David was
not perfect. And throughout some of these stories
of David, there are some things that are sometimes
questionable, that we're not quite sure about.
But nonetheless, it makes the story of David
that much more beautiful. That God continued
to bless him, that God continued to deliver him,
that God continued to lift him up, and God was
going to use David to do something so magnificent
that the very Messiah was going to come from
the bloodline. of David. And so David knew what
it was like to suffer. He knew what it was like
to suffer in his sin. He knew what it was like
for his life to be under attack. But he knew
what it was like when God came to the rescue.
He knew what it was like to receive forgiveness.
He knew what it was like to receive deliverance.
And he wrote this beautiful psalm after these
events that we just saw. It's a beautiful psalm,
and it's a certain style of psalm that sometimes
that we see in the scriptures. It's called an
acrostic. And the first letter of every verse
of the psalm would have been the first letter
of the Hebrew alphabet. The first letter of the
Hebrew alphabet is Aleph, and the second letter
is Beth. which is where we get our word alphabet
from. And it's a way of saying that I've covered
this topic from A to Z, so to speak. From beginning
to end, I've covered this topic. What is the
topic? It is the topic of praise. It is the topic
of praising God and proclaiming His name. Some
of your translations may say, I proclaim the
Lord here. I give God the glory. I glorify God.
I magnify His holy name. Would you magnify the
name of the Lord with me? All of us together,
would we look back and see the beautiful and
wonderful and great things that God has done?
And would we praise God together, David says.
Now, we just read this whole, or recall this
whole story of what went on with David, but what
does that got to do with our VBS? Well, it's
kind of a play on words. Our theme this year
is... magnify you see magnifying glasses all
around now certainly when we see the word magnifying
this in this psalm it's not talking about david
who's sitting there with a magnifying glass looking
at god saying oh god i magnify you that's that's
not what he's talking about here but for vbs
with this verse it's a play on words it's it's
it's david saying look I've recognized the greatness
of God I have focused on. I have seen all the
little things and the big things that God has
done. And therefore, I will praise His holy name.
And that's what our theme is in Bible school.
And maybe that should be our theme in life. Maybe
our stories are not so unlike David's. Maybe
our stories are full of bad decisions and sins
that we have committed. Maybe our stories are
full of difficult times and people who are out
to get us are just a variety of hardships that
we face. Whatever our story may be, our stories
are hard. They are hard and life is hard and
life is difficult. But what we have to stop sometimes
and do is realize that God is with us. That we
serve a God who has created everything. This
week we're going to celebrate the bigness of
God. And we need to celebrate that every day
in our lives. And as we look at the universe
and we look at everything all around us and the
complexity of our human body and the beauty of
this world and all the things that we see, these
things magnify God. They show us the power of
God. And the most beautiful thing about God is,
is He's big enough. to create all of these things,
but he's not so big that he forgets about you
and I. God knows your problems. He knows your
struggles. He knows your sins. God doesn't want
us to live in those things. He doesn't want us
to live in our fear. He doesn't want us to live
in our worry. He doesn't want us to live in our
sin. He wants to give us freedom in Jesus Christ.
So maybe this week, even if you're not a... a
wee little tyke, and even if you're not going
to be attending VBS, maybe today is a good time
for you to reflect and think for just a moment
about the goodness of God in your life. And maybe
right offhand you think, there ain't no goodness.
My life is bad. Well, think a little harder.
There are probably more good things in your life
than you realize. Even in the midst of difficulty,
there may be more blessings in your life than
you realize. And maybe we need to take the song
to heart and count our blessings and name them
one by one. And maybe when we really stop and
begin to look at our life and push everything
to the side, our sin and our stresses and our
struggles and our worries, and we just begin
to focus our hearts and our attention on God,
and we turn the world off for just a moment,
and we just focus on God and look at Him. Maybe
then we begin to see his greatness. Maybe then
we begin to experience his love. Maybe then we
know that God has not forgotten us. God does
care about us. God does love us. We can begin
to reflect and think about all the things in
our life. Yeah, there's bad days. But think about
the goodness of God and the ways that he has
been with you. And the ways that He has brought
you right where you are right now. Sometimes
we have to go through some really tough stuff
to get to where God wants us to be. We don't
like the journey, but we do appreciate the destination.
And everything that God allows in our life is
to cause us to draw closer to Him. And that's
where our destination needs to be today. That
we stop trying to seek and go after things of
the world. But that we recognize the goodness
and the grace of God. And that we seek just to
set up camp with Him. So maybe there are things
in your life today, maybe like that of David.
Things that you need to reflect on. And you need
to remember the goodness of God. And the result
needs to be the same as the result in David's
life. When David recognized the goodness of God
and how God had been with him. David said, I'm
going to magnify the Lord. Oh, magnify the Lord.
Let us exalt his name together. Let us see the
bigness of God, the grace of God, and the love
of God, and all of the things that God has done.
And let us praise God this morning. There's no
greater thing that God has done for us today
than sending Jesus Christ to die. on the cross
for us we struggle we are full of sin we are
full of wickedness we are full of stress we are
full of worry and there is only one way that
we obtain deliverance there is only one way that
we obtain peace today and that is through jesus
christ he died for you he was buried in a grave
for you and god rose him from that grave so that
your sins may be forgiven That is a God that
is worthy of our praise today. So let us exalt
God together. Let's pray. God, we come to you.
We thank you for your good word. I pray, dear
Lord, that we don't fail to realize your goodness
just in creation and the things that you do,
dear Lord, and the way that you put things into
place in our life, dear Lord. Let us not... fail
to see you working in this world. God, it may
not always seem like it. It may not always seem
like you're with us or it may not seem like you
care, dear Lord, but you do. And you have not
abandoned us. You have not forsaken us, dear
Lord. You care for us and you love us and you
are with us and you have done so many great things.
So God, I pray that you help us not to fail to
realize your goodness today. God, I pray that
if there is one in here that does not know Jesus
Christ, That maybe today, for the first time,
they would repent. That right now, God, they
would ask you to forgive them of their sinfulness.
God, maybe they've seen some of the ways you've
worked in their life, but maybe they've never
really given their life to you, dear Lord. I
pray that today that they would put their faith
in Jesus Christ. Maybe there are some in here
today, dear Lord, and they are yours. And maybe
just the hustle and the bustle and just the busyness
of life and stress and sin has caused us to lose
sight of you, dear Lord. But I pray that you
would reshift our focus, that we would recognize
the grace that we have received through Jesus
Christ, that we would recognize the ways in which
you work and continue to bless us, and that today,
dear Lord, we would magnify your holy name. that
we would praise you, that we would proclaim you,
that we would glorify you, dear Lord. And I pray
that as a church body, as brothers and sisters
in Christ, dear Lord, that we would exalt your
name today, this week in VBS, and every day of
our life, dear Lord. I pray that you would just
bless these next few minutes. God, if you have
spoken to anybody, I pray that they would respond
to you, dear Lord. And I ask these things in
Jesus' name. Amen.