1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:13,920 Would you pray with me please? 2 00:00:13,920 --> 00:00:18,880 Our Father and our God, we give thanks to you for the word which you have given to us 3 00:00:18,880 --> 00:00:24,560 as a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. 4 00:00:24,560 --> 00:00:29,040 Tonight as we open pages of this book, may the Spirit of God be our teacher. 5 00:00:29,040 --> 00:00:34,480 And we pray that you will encourage and enlighten our hearts in those things that we need to 6 00:00:34,480 --> 00:00:40,600 hear to apply to our lives so that we might walk with you this week. 7 00:00:40,600 --> 00:00:44,320 In Jesus' name, Amen. 8 00:00:44,320 --> 00:00:57,880 Would you open your Bible please to 1 Samuel and the 21st chapter. 9 00:00:57,880 --> 00:01:03,520 1 Samuel chapter 21. 10 00:01:03,520 --> 00:01:10,080 We are coming into the midst of a passage, a lengthy passage here dealing with David 11 00:01:10,080 --> 00:01:12,320 and Saul's search for him. 12 00:01:12,320 --> 00:01:18,920 You may recall that David had been anointed to be the next king of Israel. 13 00:01:18,920 --> 00:01:26,440 And Saul was extremely jealous, angry with David, sought to take his life. 14 00:01:26,440 --> 00:01:34,400 And was protected by those who were the closest to Saul. 15 00:01:34,400 --> 00:01:44,360 In chapter 21 we find David coming to the place called Nob, to a Himalek, the priest. 16 00:01:44,360 --> 00:01:50,200 Nob, by the way, according to the footnote of my Bible, is a place just north of the 17 00:01:50,200 --> 00:01:56,320 city of Jerusalem, a place called Mount Scopus, where some of us will be in a few days. 18 00:01:56,320 --> 00:01:58,080 Anybody excited about that? 19 00:01:58,080 --> 00:02:01,360 I see some smiling faces back there. 20 00:02:01,360 --> 00:02:06,680 We are looking forward to this journey and I hope that many of you will pray for us that 21 00:02:06,680 --> 00:02:13,480 the Lord would give us good health and would keep us safe, that he would cause the Palestinians 22 00:02:13,480 --> 00:02:22,520 to be at ease, relaxed and cool, and that the Israeli army the same during the two weeks 23 00:02:22,520 --> 00:02:24,560 that we'll be over there. 24 00:02:24,560 --> 00:02:27,960 By the way, there's a group from Grace Church Edina over there right now too, so I don't 25 00:02:27,960 --> 00:02:36,440 know if we'll bump into them or not, but they'll go and prepare the way for us maybe. 26 00:02:36,440 --> 00:02:41,160 So it gives you an idea of the geography here, when he talks about Nob. 27 00:02:41,160 --> 00:02:44,960 And David lies to the priest. 28 00:02:44,960 --> 00:02:46,280 He lies to the priest. 29 00:02:46,280 --> 00:02:48,480 God has taken care of David. 30 00:02:48,480 --> 00:02:56,400 Jonathan, David through Saul's daughter, Michael, in a variety of ways. 31 00:02:56,400 --> 00:02:58,040 Now he comes to the priest of God. 32 00:02:58,040 --> 00:02:59,040 He lies. 33 00:02:59,040 --> 00:03:00,040 He lies. 34 00:03:00,040 --> 00:03:02,780 What have you got on hand? 35 00:03:02,780 --> 00:03:04,880 Give me five loaves of bread or whatever can be found. 36 00:03:04,880 --> 00:03:10,040 And the priest answered David, verse 4, There is no ordinary bread on hand, but there is 37 00:03:10,040 --> 00:03:12,160 consecrated bread. 38 00:03:12,160 --> 00:03:14,840 If only the young men have kept themselves from women. 39 00:03:14,840 --> 00:03:18,840 God answered the priest and said to him, Surely women have been kept from us as previously 40 00:03:18,840 --> 00:03:20,000 when I set out. 41 00:03:20,000 --> 00:03:24,040 And the vessels of the young men were holy, though it was an ordinary journey. 42 00:03:24,040 --> 00:03:26,400 How much more than today will the vessels be holy? 43 00:03:26,400 --> 00:03:29,320 So the priest gave him consecrated bread. 44 00:03:29,320 --> 00:03:33,960 That is the bread that was a part of the worship, the showbread. 45 00:03:33,960 --> 00:03:37,760 There was no bread but the bread of the presence, which was removed from before the Lord in 46 00:03:37,760 --> 00:03:41,960 order to put hot bread in its place when it was taken away. 47 00:03:41,960 --> 00:03:49,300 Now one of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before the Lord, and his 48 00:03:49,300 --> 00:03:51,360 name was Doeg. 49 00:03:51,360 --> 00:03:56,200 You take the E out, you've got an idea of his character. 50 00:03:56,200 --> 00:04:01,000 Doeg the Edomite, the chief of Saul's shepherds. 51 00:04:01,000 --> 00:04:07,080 That plays into the story because he later goes to Saul with the report that the priest 52 00:04:07,080 --> 00:04:15,400 has supported David and results in the death of the priest and those with him. 53 00:04:15,400 --> 00:04:19,520 Well David said to Himalek now, Is there a spear or a sword on hand? 54 00:04:19,520 --> 00:04:24,040 For I have brought neither sword nor my sword nor my weapons with me, because the king's 55 00:04:24,040 --> 00:04:29,560 matter was urgent, the matter he had lied about earlier in the chapter that we didn't 56 00:04:29,560 --> 00:04:30,560 read. 57 00:04:30,560 --> 00:04:35,140 The priest said, The sword of Goliath, the Philistine, whom you killed in the valley 58 00:04:35,140 --> 00:04:36,140 of Elah. 59 00:04:36,140 --> 00:04:40,080 It is wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. 60 00:04:40,080 --> 00:04:45,520 If you would take it for yourself, take it, for there is no other except it, it is here. 61 00:04:45,520 --> 00:04:50,560 And David said, There is none like it, give it to me. 62 00:04:50,560 --> 00:04:58,320 Then David arose and fled that day from Saul and went to Ekish, the king of Gath. 63 00:04:58,320 --> 00:05:01,560 Does anybody recognize Gath? 64 00:05:01,560 --> 00:05:06,560 It is a town in Philistia and the hometown of Goliath. 65 00:05:06,560 --> 00:05:08,520 That is exactly right. 66 00:05:08,520 --> 00:05:09,520 Interesting. 67 00:05:09,520 --> 00:05:14,960 He has the sword of Goliath, a sword that was well known, a sword that the Philistines 68 00:05:14,960 --> 00:05:17,560 would have recognized immediately. 69 00:05:17,560 --> 00:05:20,840 And where does he go? 70 00:05:20,840 --> 00:05:27,280 But the servants of Ekish said to him, Is this not David the king of the land? 71 00:05:27,280 --> 00:05:31,600 See they had already had word of this transfer of power. 72 00:05:31,600 --> 00:05:38,080 Did they not sing of this one as they danced, saying, Saul has slain his thousands and David 73 00:05:38,080 --> 00:05:40,880 is ten thousands? 74 00:05:40,880 --> 00:05:51,460 And David took these words to heart and greatly feared Ekish, the king of Gath. 75 00:05:51,460 --> 00:06:00,920 So he disguised his sanity before him and acted insanely in their hands and scribbled 76 00:06:00,920 --> 00:06:07,120 on the doors of the gate and let his saliva run down into his beard. 77 00:06:07,120 --> 00:06:10,960 A little undignified, isn't it? 78 00:06:10,960 --> 00:06:19,720 A little unsightly, a little odd for a man of David's reputation, of his expertise with 79 00:06:19,720 --> 00:06:24,640 the sword, a man of his calling. 80 00:06:24,640 --> 00:06:31,280 And he becomes afraid of the king, the leader of this city. 81 00:06:31,280 --> 00:06:34,880 And he begins to act like a crazy person. 82 00:06:34,880 --> 00:06:41,720 And he scribbles things on the gate and he lets his saliva run down into his beard and 83 00:06:41,720 --> 00:06:43,800 he just acts crazy. 84 00:06:43,800 --> 00:06:49,480 And Ekish said to his servants, Behold, you see the man behaving as a madman. 85 00:06:49,480 --> 00:06:50,680 Why do you bring him to me? 86 00:06:50,680 --> 00:06:52,080 Do I lack madmen? 87 00:06:52,080 --> 00:06:53,640 I love that. 88 00:06:53,640 --> 00:06:59,000 That you have brought this one to act the madman in my presence? 89 00:06:59,000 --> 00:07:01,040 Shall this one come into my house? 90 00:07:01,040 --> 00:07:05,760 So David departed from there and escaped to the cave of Adolim. 91 00:07:05,760 --> 00:07:14,640 And so David got away from the king of Gath, whose name was Ekish. 92 00:07:14,640 --> 00:07:18,080 An odd story, isn't it, about David. 93 00:07:18,080 --> 00:07:25,560 It seems to be an interlude that's really out of character for this man of God. 94 00:07:25,560 --> 00:07:30,800 Would you like to know what he thought during those days as he reflected on it? 95 00:07:30,800 --> 00:07:39,840 Well, let's turn to Psalm 34 and we'll find out. 96 00:07:39,840 --> 00:07:41,480 Notice the inscription to Psalm 34. 97 00:07:41,480 --> 00:07:49,920 A Psalm of David when he feigned madness before Abimelech who drove him away and he 98 00:07:49,920 --> 00:07:52,920 departed. 99 00:07:52,920 --> 00:08:04,680 Now the inscription is rather interesting because it talks about Abimelech. 100 00:08:04,680 --> 00:08:07,560 We just learned that the king of Gath was whom? 101 00:08:07,560 --> 00:08:08,560 Ekish. 102 00:08:08,560 --> 00:08:09,560 Akish. 103 00:08:09,560 --> 00:08:13,440 And here he's called Abimelech. 104 00:08:13,440 --> 00:08:19,920 And here is one place where skeptics, critics of the Bible, attack its veracity. 105 00:08:19,920 --> 00:08:25,640 They say, well, you see here is an example of an error in the Bible. 106 00:08:25,640 --> 00:08:30,040 And it does on the surface appear that in one place the king is called Ekish and here 107 00:08:30,040 --> 00:08:36,200 he's called Abimelech and so here's a mistake in the word of God. 108 00:08:36,200 --> 00:08:45,720 But they fail to note that this word Abimelech is like the title Pharaoh. 109 00:08:45,720 --> 00:08:49,160 It refers to a dynasty. 110 00:08:49,160 --> 00:08:52,440 It's a title rather than a name. 111 00:08:52,440 --> 00:08:55,080 So Abimelech is like Pharaoh. 112 00:08:55,080 --> 00:09:01,160 Ekish is the personal name of this Abimelech who ruled in the city of Gath. 113 00:09:01,160 --> 00:09:04,720 So that's the explanation for that. 114 00:09:04,720 --> 00:09:09,800 Now we're going to get into David's thoughts and it's interesting here that David says 115 00:09:09,800 --> 00:09:10,800 two things. 116 00:09:10,800 --> 00:09:16,880 He is going to be a worshiper of God and he is going to be a teacher of God's people as 117 00:09:16,880 --> 00:09:21,080 a result of what he experienced. 118 00:09:21,080 --> 00:09:28,640 The first thing he basically says in verses 1 through 10 is I will bless the Lord. 119 00:09:28,640 --> 00:09:30,280 He's a worshiper. 120 00:09:30,280 --> 00:09:35,000 He offers praise to the Lord and we'll see how he does that. 121 00:09:35,000 --> 00:09:41,680 And then beginning in verse 11 he says I will teach you the fear of the Lord. 122 00:09:41,680 --> 00:09:45,000 And so he says first I will bless the Lord. 123 00:09:45,000 --> 00:09:47,900 Secondly he says I will teach you. 124 00:09:47,900 --> 00:09:51,640 So David is first putting himself in the role of a worshiper. 125 00:09:51,640 --> 00:09:55,960 Then he is putting himself in the role of a teacher. 126 00:09:55,960 --> 00:10:01,520 Let's look at David as a worshiper as he reflects upon what happened to him just days or weeks 127 00:10:01,520 --> 00:10:06,080 before this down in the city of Gath. 128 00:10:06,080 --> 00:10:10,440 I will bless the Lord at all times. 129 00:10:10,440 --> 00:10:19,180 That is in every season, in every circumstance, in every event of my life I will bless the 130 00:10:19,180 --> 00:10:21,360 Lord. 131 00:10:21,360 --> 00:10:27,960 What he is saying here in verses 1 through 3 is that I will bless the Lord with determination. 132 00:10:27,960 --> 00:10:34,020 In other words I will determine in my heart to bless the Lord no matter what. 133 00:10:34,020 --> 00:10:37,800 That is the intent, that is the decision, that is the choice that I make. 134 00:10:37,800 --> 00:10:41,560 Did you know that praising God is a choice? 135 00:10:41,560 --> 00:10:43,380 It's not just an act. 136 00:10:43,380 --> 00:10:45,040 It's not just a response. 137 00:10:45,040 --> 00:10:48,880 It is a choice that we make. 138 00:10:48,880 --> 00:10:58,280 And David says with determination, with choice I will bless the Lord in every season. 139 00:10:58,280 --> 00:11:02,840 His praise shall continually be in my mouth. 140 00:11:02,840 --> 00:11:08,880 Sometimes we call our morning service in particular a celebration. 141 00:11:08,880 --> 00:11:10,480 Here's where that idea comes from. 142 00:11:10,480 --> 00:11:12,720 It comes from the word praise. 143 00:11:12,720 --> 00:11:23,360 The Hebrew word praise comes from a verb that means to celebrate or to shine or to give 144 00:11:23,360 --> 00:11:27,000 radiance to. 145 00:11:27,000 --> 00:11:32,640 So when one is praising the Lord what he is doing is causing the Lord to shine. 146 00:11:32,640 --> 00:11:41,500 In a darkened world, a world filled with moral darkness, we need to make the Lord shine, 147 00:11:41,500 --> 00:11:45,960 to be radiant to people, to be real to people. 148 00:11:45,960 --> 00:11:47,680 That's what David is saying. 149 00:11:47,680 --> 00:11:50,320 I will praise him so as to make him radiant. 150 00:11:50,320 --> 00:11:56,160 I will celebrate him so as to cause him to shine forth in a dark world. 151 00:11:56,160 --> 00:11:59,160 His praise shall continually be in my mouth. 152 00:11:59,160 --> 00:12:11,140 My soul shall make its boast in the Lord, not in my sword, not in my cleverness. 153 00:12:11,140 --> 00:12:13,920 He was pretty clever, you've got to admit. 154 00:12:13,920 --> 00:12:21,920 I remember when I was a student in Chicago, a young lady with whom I was a friend was 155 00:12:21,920 --> 00:12:30,080 walking by herself on Chicago Avenue to go to a store as I recall. 156 00:12:30,080 --> 00:12:33,360 And she was a nurse. 157 00:12:33,360 --> 00:12:37,000 Somehow I ended up dating a lot of nurses along the way and finally married one. 158 00:12:37,000 --> 00:12:39,880 It's not a bad idea, guys. 159 00:12:39,880 --> 00:12:45,360 And as she was walking down the street on Chicago Avenue, two men came out of the darkness 160 00:12:45,360 --> 00:12:49,160 prepared to mug her. 161 00:12:49,160 --> 00:12:55,840 She immediately began to pretend to have a seizure. 162 00:12:55,840 --> 00:13:02,400 As a nurse, she had seen them many times and so she immediately went into a seizure act. 163 00:13:02,400 --> 00:13:05,600 And the two guys got so scared they left. 164 00:13:05,600 --> 00:13:06,600 They didn't know what to do. 165 00:13:06,600 --> 00:13:09,560 They just ran when they saw her go into the seizure. 166 00:13:09,560 --> 00:13:11,560 How clever, I thought. 167 00:13:11,560 --> 00:13:18,240 But David here is not boasting in his cleverness and acting like a crazy person. 168 00:13:18,240 --> 00:13:22,000 He is saying, I boast in the Lord. 169 00:13:22,000 --> 00:13:24,880 The humble shall hear it and rejoice. 170 00:13:24,880 --> 00:13:27,600 It is the humble who hear it. 171 00:13:27,600 --> 00:13:29,800 The proud are too busy, too noisy. 172 00:13:29,800 --> 00:13:30,920 Their life is too full. 173 00:13:30,920 --> 00:13:31,920 Their ears are plugged. 174 00:13:31,920 --> 00:13:35,560 But those who are humble, he says, shall hear it and rejoice. 175 00:13:35,560 --> 00:13:39,320 And he says, oh, magnify the Lord with me. 176 00:13:39,320 --> 00:13:44,280 So not only is he making the determination himself to praise God, but he is inviting 177 00:13:44,280 --> 00:13:49,480 all of us to praise the Lord with him, to magnify the Lord with him. 178 00:13:49,480 --> 00:13:52,080 Let us exalt his name together. 179 00:13:52,080 --> 00:13:59,120 He's inviting us to come together now as a congregation, as a communal praise service. 180 00:13:59,120 --> 00:14:03,400 He says, let us magnify the Lord, exalt his name. 181 00:14:03,400 --> 00:14:07,040 When you magnify something, what are you doing? 182 00:14:07,040 --> 00:14:14,840 You're taking something that is very small to your eyes, and you're making it big, right? 183 00:14:14,840 --> 00:14:17,320 That's what these things do for me. 184 00:14:17,320 --> 00:14:25,960 In part, they magnify things so that I can see well. 185 00:14:25,960 --> 00:14:29,200 That's what you and I need to do in our praise of God. 186 00:14:29,200 --> 00:14:34,040 The Lord is small to a lot of people. 187 00:14:34,040 --> 00:14:35,040 They can't see him. 188 00:14:35,040 --> 00:14:40,720 Now, it's not that he is small, but to them, their perception of God is small. 189 00:14:40,720 --> 00:14:47,780 But by our praise of the Lord, the way we talk of him, we magnify him to others. 190 00:14:47,780 --> 00:14:49,400 We make him big. 191 00:14:49,400 --> 00:14:54,000 They're able to get a better perception of God. 192 00:14:54,000 --> 00:14:58,640 Their perspective begins to improve because the Lord is magnified. 193 00:14:58,640 --> 00:15:01,280 And David says, let's all do that together. 194 00:15:01,280 --> 00:15:03,520 So he blesses the Lord with determination. 195 00:15:03,520 --> 00:15:11,880 Now, in verses 4 through 10, he says, I will bless the Lord for deliverance. 196 00:15:11,880 --> 00:15:12,880 For deliverance. 197 00:15:12,880 --> 00:15:15,160 He doesn't talk about acting crazy. 198 00:15:15,160 --> 00:15:17,280 Notice this. 199 00:15:17,280 --> 00:15:24,000 He looks beyond the clever idea he came up with to see behind that God working on his 200 00:15:24,000 --> 00:15:25,680 behalf. 201 00:15:25,680 --> 00:15:29,760 And so he talks about what God did, not what he did. 202 00:15:29,760 --> 00:15:33,240 He says, I sought the Lord, and he answered me. 203 00:15:33,240 --> 00:15:34,240 God was afraid. 204 00:15:34,240 --> 00:15:37,800 He greatly feared the king of Akish. 205 00:15:37,800 --> 00:15:39,080 Greatly feared him. 206 00:15:39,080 --> 00:15:44,560 So David tells us that during that time, even though it's not mentioned back in Samuel, 207 00:15:44,560 --> 00:15:46,760 that he sought the Lord. 208 00:15:46,760 --> 00:15:51,400 And he says, he answered me. 209 00:15:51,400 --> 00:15:53,560 And he delivered me from all my fears. 210 00:15:53,560 --> 00:15:59,360 Might it be that God gave David the idea? 211 00:15:59,360 --> 00:16:03,200 I'm not going to argue for that necessarily. 212 00:16:03,200 --> 00:16:05,840 I just throw it out as a possibility. 213 00:16:05,840 --> 00:16:10,440 Because David clearly says, I sought the Lord, and he delivered me. 214 00:16:10,440 --> 00:16:12,480 To deliver means to snatch away. 215 00:16:12,480 --> 00:16:14,800 He freed me. 216 00:16:14,800 --> 00:16:22,920 He released me from all my fears. 217 00:16:22,920 --> 00:16:24,920 The word fear is interesting in the Hebrew. 218 00:16:24,920 --> 00:16:28,200 It's a Jepitcher-esque word. 219 00:16:28,200 --> 00:16:34,480 It refers to where one is not at home. 220 00:16:34,480 --> 00:16:43,000 It means to be on a road and to turn aside and to make the wrong turn and to result in 221 00:16:43,000 --> 00:16:44,000 anxiety. 222 00:16:44,000 --> 00:16:48,320 It's what you feel when you're in a place you don't belong. 223 00:16:48,320 --> 00:16:50,840 Have you ever done that? 224 00:16:50,840 --> 00:16:55,640 Have you men ever been driving down the road, you don't know where you're going? 225 00:16:55,640 --> 00:17:00,040 And your wife says, let's pull over and ask over here at the station how to get there. 226 00:17:00,040 --> 00:17:02,320 Oh no, we're just about there. 227 00:17:02,320 --> 00:17:03,320 I've been there before. 228 00:17:03,320 --> 00:17:06,040 I know how to do this. 229 00:17:06,040 --> 00:17:09,240 You recognize the routine, don't you? 230 00:17:09,240 --> 00:17:10,720 And you pull the wrong way. 231 00:17:10,720 --> 00:17:13,720 I remember that happening one time to me. 232 00:17:13,720 --> 00:17:15,560 I was in Chicago. 233 00:17:15,560 --> 00:17:21,040 No, when I made the wrong turn, that is. 234 00:17:21,040 --> 00:17:24,640 This happened many times to us, what I was describing. 235 00:17:24,640 --> 00:17:26,880 Where we made the wrong turn. 236 00:17:26,880 --> 00:17:35,520 We were in a part of Chicago where you didn't want to get off the main drag. 237 00:17:35,520 --> 00:17:40,840 And I thought I knew where I was going to get back to the expressway, but I made the 238 00:17:40,840 --> 00:17:41,840 wrong turn. 239 00:17:41,840 --> 00:17:50,240 And before I knew it, I was in a neighborhood where I didn't fit, where I didn't belong. 240 00:17:50,240 --> 00:17:57,760 The first thing I did was to hit the locks, and I began to look all around my car. 241 00:17:57,760 --> 00:18:02,640 I stopped at the stoplight with one foot on the brake and one foot on the accelerator. 242 00:18:02,640 --> 00:18:06,320 Had anything gotten in front of me, it was dead. 243 00:18:06,320 --> 00:18:07,880 It was dead. 244 00:18:07,880 --> 00:18:11,800 I was ready to move at an instant if anything came toward that car. 245 00:18:11,800 --> 00:18:15,720 And it took us a little while to find our way back to where we needed to be to be safe 246 00:18:15,720 --> 00:18:17,520 again. 247 00:18:17,520 --> 00:18:21,200 That's what fear is, as described here by David. 248 00:18:21,200 --> 00:18:25,800 David said, I made a wrong turn. 249 00:18:25,800 --> 00:18:28,000 I went down the gap. 250 00:18:28,000 --> 00:18:30,320 I was not at home. 251 00:18:30,320 --> 00:18:34,000 I went where I didn't belong. 252 00:18:34,000 --> 00:18:40,680 Maybe some of us are in that kind of a place tonight in another sense. 253 00:18:40,680 --> 00:18:47,920 David says, they looked to Him and were radiant, and their faces shall never be ashamed. 254 00:18:47,920 --> 00:18:52,200 He says, this poor man cried, and the Lord heard him. 255 00:18:52,200 --> 00:19:00,940 When David uses the word cried here, he doesn't mean just yelling out without any particular 256 00:19:00,940 --> 00:19:03,480 word in mind. 257 00:19:03,480 --> 00:19:09,800 He's not talking about a random cry, but he means I cried out with a specific message 258 00:19:09,800 --> 00:19:15,520 to a specific recipient with a specific response in mind. 259 00:19:15,520 --> 00:19:18,720 Now all of that is entailed in the Hebrew word here. 260 00:19:18,720 --> 00:19:21,560 It's a very specific kind of cry. 261 00:19:21,560 --> 00:19:27,040 I said something specific to someone specific with a specific request in mind. 262 00:19:27,040 --> 00:19:30,040 And of course he was crying to the Lord. 263 00:19:30,040 --> 00:19:34,320 He knew exactly who he was crying out to, and what he wanted was help. 264 00:19:34,320 --> 00:19:39,520 And he says, I cried to the Lord, and the Lord heard me and saved him. 265 00:19:39,520 --> 00:19:42,920 He says, out of all of his troubles. 266 00:19:42,920 --> 00:19:45,360 Here's the word saved in the Old Testament. 267 00:19:45,360 --> 00:19:52,320 It is a verb that is yasha in the Hebrew. 268 00:19:52,320 --> 00:19:58,080 Yasha literally means to bring to a wide open space. 269 00:19:58,080 --> 00:20:02,320 The opposite of it is to be confined, to be trapped. 270 00:20:02,320 --> 00:20:07,200 And you can see how David was trapped in the sphere of Gath. 271 00:20:07,200 --> 00:20:08,200 He was inside the city. 272 00:20:08,200 --> 00:20:12,160 There was a wall around the city. 273 00:20:12,160 --> 00:20:14,160 The enemy was all around him. 274 00:20:14,160 --> 00:20:18,320 Here he is hanging on to a sword that they recognize. 275 00:20:18,320 --> 00:20:19,640 He's trapped. 276 00:20:19,640 --> 00:20:21,160 But he says, the Lord saved me. 277 00:20:21,160 --> 00:20:25,960 The Lord brought me out to a wide open space. 278 00:20:25,960 --> 00:20:35,840 By the way, this word yasha can be found in the Hebrew name for Jesus, which is Yahshua 279 00:20:35,840 --> 00:20:36,840 or Joshua. 280 00:20:36,840 --> 00:20:37,840 Yahshua. 281 00:20:37,840 --> 00:20:38,840 The Savior. 282 00:20:38,840 --> 00:20:41,480 Jehovah saves. 283 00:20:41,480 --> 00:20:48,280 It is also found in the word hosanna, which means Lord saved. 284 00:20:48,280 --> 00:20:51,000 The same verb, same thought. 285 00:20:51,000 --> 00:20:53,720 The Lord saved him out of all of his troubles. 286 00:20:53,720 --> 00:21:01,680 The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him and rescues them. 287 00:21:01,680 --> 00:21:07,800 The word rescue means to draw out, to extricate from the problem, from the threat, the danger 288 00:21:07,800 --> 00:21:10,120 and you see exactly what he means. 289 00:21:10,120 --> 00:21:13,040 The angel of the Lord. 290 00:21:13,040 --> 00:21:21,120 The angel of the Lord is an Old Testament term that refers to God Himself appearing 291 00:21:21,120 --> 00:21:22,120 to man. 292 00:21:22,120 --> 00:21:26,160 Now David may have that in mind here. 293 00:21:26,160 --> 00:21:32,880 Not necessarily that God appeared to him, but that it was God Himself, this angel of 294 00:21:32,880 --> 00:21:42,880 the Lord, the pre-incarnate Christ who intervened on his behalf, who encamped around him. 295 00:21:42,880 --> 00:21:54,240 When I see this in my mind, I think of Israel camped around the tabernacle. 296 00:21:54,240 --> 00:21:58,200 Or I think of how they used to camp out in the wilderness. 297 00:21:58,200 --> 00:22:03,200 We see this on one occasion when Saul was out with his soldiers where he was in the 298 00:22:03,200 --> 00:22:09,600 middle and then there were these rings of soldiers around him out to the perimeter. 299 00:22:09,600 --> 00:22:15,080 David says, I am in the center and the angel of the Lord is around me. 300 00:22:15,080 --> 00:22:18,200 This is not just a poetic expression folks. 301 00:22:18,200 --> 00:22:20,560 This is a reality. 302 00:22:20,560 --> 00:22:24,400 That the angel of the Lord protects us. 303 00:22:24,400 --> 00:22:25,960 Talks about that in Psalm 91. 304 00:22:25,960 --> 00:22:34,120 We are not going to look at the text there, but it says He will give His angels charge 305 00:22:34,120 --> 00:22:39,160 concerning you to keep you, to keep you, to guard you in all your ways. 306 00:22:39,160 --> 00:22:41,800 Where do you hear that in the New Testament? 307 00:22:41,800 --> 00:22:43,760 Who quotes that in the New Testament? 308 00:22:43,760 --> 00:22:46,080 Does anybody know? 309 00:22:46,080 --> 00:22:51,120 Who was reading his Bible and quoted that verse in the New Testament? 310 00:22:51,120 --> 00:22:53,800 The devil. 311 00:22:53,800 --> 00:22:58,840 He actually twisted and misquoted it to Jesus to try to tempt Jesus. 312 00:22:58,840 --> 00:23:00,680 But he quoted from Psalm 91. 313 00:23:00,680 --> 00:23:02,080 Very interesting he chose that Psalm. 314 00:23:02,080 --> 00:23:05,200 It is a Psalm of warfare, spiritual warfare. 315 00:23:05,200 --> 00:23:08,960 And he chose a verse from that Psalm to try to get Jesus to do something. 316 00:23:08,960 --> 00:23:11,160 Remember what it was? 317 00:23:11,160 --> 00:23:14,520 Yeah, jump off the temple. 318 00:23:14,520 --> 00:23:19,600 He says the angels will catch you because didn't God say He will give His angels charge 319 00:23:19,600 --> 00:23:22,560 to keep you in all your ways? 320 00:23:22,560 --> 00:23:24,800 Lest you dash your foot against the stone. 321 00:23:24,800 --> 00:23:27,320 God will send His angels. 322 00:23:27,320 --> 00:23:28,480 They will catch you. 323 00:23:28,480 --> 00:23:31,480 Go ahead and jump. 324 00:23:31,480 --> 00:23:33,480 See? 325 00:23:33,480 --> 00:23:39,880 Well truly the Lord does give His angels charge to keep us who belong to Him. 326 00:23:39,880 --> 00:23:42,040 The angels of the Lord encamps around them. 327 00:23:42,040 --> 00:23:45,200 I think here of Daniel. 328 00:23:45,200 --> 00:23:47,600 Remember when there was a transfer of power? 329 00:23:47,600 --> 00:23:53,920 Babylon fell and the Medes and the Persians came on the world scene and Darius was the 330 00:23:53,920 --> 00:23:57,160 head honcho at the time. 331 00:23:57,160 --> 00:24:04,040 And Darius decided he was going to divide his government in this newly conquered realm 332 00:24:04,040 --> 00:24:05,200 in a certain way. 333 00:24:05,200 --> 00:24:14,600 He appointed 120 governors so to speak over various regions and then he put three men 334 00:24:14,600 --> 00:24:17,960 over those 120 and then he was on top. 335 00:24:17,960 --> 00:24:25,320 So it was kind of a pyramid authority structure, delegation of power. 336 00:24:25,320 --> 00:24:31,800 And one of the three was Daniel who had distinguished himself in the prior kingdom of Babylon. 337 00:24:31,800 --> 00:24:35,520 So well respected was he that he was not killed. 338 00:24:35,520 --> 00:24:38,400 He was held over. 339 00:24:38,400 --> 00:24:40,520 He had been a part of the former administration. 340 00:24:40,520 --> 00:24:47,880 Now he's a part of the succeeding administration and it says that Darius so liked Daniel that 341 00:24:47,880 --> 00:24:53,760 Daniel continued to so distinguish himself that he intended to give him another spot, 342 00:24:53,760 --> 00:24:57,600 the leading spot under himself over all of these people. 343 00:24:57,600 --> 00:25:02,560 Well that didn't go over too well with Daniel's peers. 344 00:25:02,560 --> 00:25:07,720 They began to figure out some way that they could dig up some dirt on him. 345 00:25:07,720 --> 00:25:11,760 Now we might think that this is all new what the press does these days with our political 346 00:25:11,760 --> 00:25:14,600 leaders but they were trying to do it back in Daniel's day. 347 00:25:14,600 --> 00:25:18,520 They wanted to get dirt on Daniel and they couldn't find anything. 348 00:25:18,520 --> 00:25:24,040 They couldn't find anything except with regard to his God and the way that he worshiped God. 349 00:25:24,040 --> 00:25:26,040 So they tricked Darius. 350 00:25:26,040 --> 00:25:34,320 They got him to declare that for 30 days, just 30 days, that if anybody prayed to any 351 00:25:34,320 --> 00:25:42,640 other God than Darius he was to be executed by being thrown into the lion's den. 352 00:25:42,640 --> 00:25:44,960 And so Darius thought that was a pretty good idea. 353 00:25:44,960 --> 00:25:49,280 He enjoyed being God and so he signed the decree. 354 00:25:49,280 --> 00:25:54,200 There was a little provision in the law of the Medes and the Persians that if the king 355 00:25:54,200 --> 00:25:56,560 ever signed anything it could never be changed. 356 00:25:56,560 --> 00:25:57,560 He couldn't change it himself. 357 00:25:57,560 --> 00:26:01,080 That's just the way it was. 358 00:26:01,080 --> 00:26:08,840 So he signed it and it says that Daniel heard about it and he went home and got himself 359 00:26:08,840 --> 00:26:10,800 in his prayer closet and shut the door. 360 00:26:10,800 --> 00:26:12,840 Is that what it says? 361 00:26:12,840 --> 00:26:13,840 No. 362 00:26:13,840 --> 00:26:18,640 It says he went home, opened the windows up in his house and he began to pray like he 363 00:26:18,640 --> 00:26:23,600 always did, three times a day to the God of Heaven. 364 00:26:23,600 --> 00:26:27,640 And of course these guys are opening the roof next door with their binoculars looking and 365 00:26:27,640 --> 00:26:31,640 they see Daniel doing this and immediately they go to Darius and say, here's what's 366 00:26:31,640 --> 00:26:32,640 happening. 367 00:26:32,640 --> 00:26:34,480 Darius is terribly upset. 368 00:26:34,480 --> 00:26:39,240 He likes this man but he can't change his own law. 369 00:26:39,240 --> 00:26:40,800 So he does the only thing he can do. 370 00:26:40,800 --> 00:26:44,300 He throws him into the lion's den. 371 00:26:44,300 --> 00:26:45,300 But he frets about it. 372 00:26:45,300 --> 00:26:46,480 He worries about it. 373 00:26:46,480 --> 00:26:50,640 He doesn't want Daniel to die and so the next morning he comes back and says, Daniel, are 374 00:26:50,640 --> 00:26:53,160 you alive? 375 00:26:53,160 --> 00:26:55,720 Can you imagine how long those next seconds were? 376 00:26:55,720 --> 00:26:59,320 And finally Darius says, yes, I'm here. 377 00:26:59,320 --> 00:27:06,120 The Lord has sent his angel, closed the lion's mouth, and I'm still alive. 378 00:27:06,120 --> 00:27:08,000 And Darius is jumping up and down. 379 00:27:08,000 --> 00:27:13,400 He's absolutely thrilled that God has delivered him, has delivered Daniel. 380 00:27:13,400 --> 00:27:15,440 And so he lets the rope down. 381 00:27:15,440 --> 00:27:21,040 Daniel comes up and the guys who plotted against Daniel are thrown down with their wives. 382 00:27:21,040 --> 00:27:22,560 And the angel was withdrawn. 383 00:27:22,560 --> 00:27:27,520 And this time the lions did their work. 384 00:27:27,520 --> 00:27:33,320 Well there's an example of how the Lord sends his angel. 385 00:27:33,320 --> 00:27:37,040 And exactly how Daniel knew the angel, did Daniel see the angel? 386 00:27:37,040 --> 00:27:38,040 I don't know. 387 00:27:38,040 --> 00:27:42,720 But Daniel knew that the lion should have eaten him and they weren't. 388 00:27:42,720 --> 00:27:46,680 There may be times when you know I can't see the angel. 389 00:27:46,680 --> 00:27:49,400 Would you like to see an angel sometime? 390 00:27:49,400 --> 00:27:52,600 I think I'll always be curious to see an angel. 391 00:27:52,600 --> 00:27:55,440 I'm not sure how close I want to be to the angel. 392 00:27:55,440 --> 00:27:58,080 Might be kind of scary. 393 00:27:58,080 --> 00:28:03,520 I talked to a man one time who was probably 75 years old. 394 00:28:03,520 --> 00:28:04,520 I'll never forget it. 395 00:28:04,520 --> 00:28:08,880 He came into my office when I was pastoring in Covington. 396 00:28:08,880 --> 00:28:16,520 And had a white hair, very distinguished, strong man for 75 years of age. 397 00:28:16,520 --> 00:28:20,960 He began to talk to me and he was sharing some of his experiences with God. 398 00:28:20,960 --> 00:28:24,160 And as a young pastor I was just amazed. 399 00:28:24,160 --> 00:28:27,160 I believe him to be a credible person. 400 00:28:27,160 --> 00:28:29,200 He wasn't a nut. 401 00:28:29,200 --> 00:28:31,380 We had our share of those too. 402 00:28:31,380 --> 00:28:34,000 But he was not one of them. 403 00:28:34,000 --> 00:28:42,080 And he told me about one time when he was standing in the front of the auditorium of 404 00:28:42,080 --> 00:28:45,280 Moody Bible Institute called Torrey Gray Auditorium. 405 00:28:45,280 --> 00:28:46,880 Some of you have been there. 406 00:28:46,880 --> 00:28:49,200 It's about, I don't know, 3,000 seats. 407 00:28:49,200 --> 00:28:51,320 So it's not huge but it's not small. 408 00:28:51,320 --> 00:28:54,120 And he said while I was standing there, it was empty. 409 00:28:54,120 --> 00:28:55,120 The place was empty. 410 00:28:55,120 --> 00:28:56,120 No one was in there. 411 00:28:56,120 --> 00:28:58,360 He says while I was standing there I was looking up toward the back. 412 00:28:58,360 --> 00:28:59,360 There were three balconies. 413 00:28:59,360 --> 00:29:00,360 Two or three balconies. 414 00:29:00,360 --> 00:29:05,360 He said all the way to the top of the balcony. 415 00:29:05,360 --> 00:29:09,360 All of a sudden he said I saw an angel. 416 00:29:09,360 --> 00:29:12,960 I said what do you look like? 417 00:29:12,960 --> 00:29:15,800 He said well he didn't have wings. 418 00:29:15,800 --> 00:29:24,240 He said he was standing there big, had this robe on and some kind of a, looked like a 419 00:29:24,240 --> 00:29:28,000 chain or a metal around his neck. 420 00:29:28,000 --> 00:29:32,580 Very dignified, very powerful looking angelic being. 421 00:29:32,580 --> 00:29:34,600 He said that never happened again his whole life. 422 00:29:34,600 --> 00:29:37,240 Up to that point he'd never seen another one. 423 00:29:37,240 --> 00:29:40,120 But he said that one time I saw an angel. 424 00:29:40,120 --> 00:29:45,000 I've never seen an angel that I know of, that I know of. 425 00:29:45,000 --> 00:29:51,040 But I do know this, that God gives his angels charge to keep us, to guard us, to protect 426 00:29:51,040 --> 00:29:52,040 us. 427 00:29:52,040 --> 00:29:55,400 And that's exactly what David saw. 428 00:29:55,400 --> 00:30:01,320 Even though he was the one who was sort of playing the fool, who was putting on the game, 429 00:30:01,320 --> 00:30:08,000 the front down there in Gath, he said truly it is the angel of the Lord who encamped around 430 00:30:08,000 --> 00:30:09,000 me. 431 00:30:09,000 --> 00:30:12,040 And he rescued me. 432 00:30:12,040 --> 00:30:17,200 And then he says to all of us listening to him talk about oh taste and see that the Lord 433 00:30:17,200 --> 00:30:18,200 is good. 434 00:30:18,200 --> 00:30:21,080 Experience it for yourself he says. 435 00:30:21,080 --> 00:30:24,320 How blessed is the man who takes refuge in him. 436 00:30:24,320 --> 00:30:26,800 The word blessed is plural. 437 00:30:26,800 --> 00:30:30,080 It is always plural in the Hebrew whenever this word is used. 438 00:30:30,080 --> 00:30:33,760 Twenty-five out of forty-four times it is used in the Old Testament. 439 00:30:33,760 --> 00:30:35,280 It is found in Psalms. 440 00:30:35,280 --> 00:30:38,200 It is the one in Psalm 1. 441 00:30:38,200 --> 00:30:42,160 Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly. 442 00:30:42,160 --> 00:30:43,160 Same word blessed. 443 00:30:43,160 --> 00:30:49,840 It refers to the multitudes of good things, the happinesses of the one who takes refuge 444 00:30:49,840 --> 00:30:51,080 in the Lord. 445 00:30:51,080 --> 00:30:54,960 He says oh fear the Lord you his saints. 446 00:30:54,960 --> 00:30:58,760 And so he instructs us to fear the Lord. 447 00:30:58,760 --> 00:31:01,920 He's going to come back to that theme in just a moment. 448 00:31:01,920 --> 00:31:05,360 He says for to those who fear him there is no want. 449 00:31:05,360 --> 00:31:09,240 It kind of reminds me of Psalm 23.1. 450 00:31:09,240 --> 00:31:13,920 The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want. 451 00:31:13,920 --> 00:31:16,280 The young lions do lack and suffer hunger. 452 00:31:16,280 --> 00:31:19,800 David had seen that out there in the wilderness. 453 00:31:19,800 --> 00:31:25,440 But they who seek the Lord shall not be in want of any good thing. 454 00:31:25,440 --> 00:31:27,320 Come my children listen to me. 455 00:31:27,320 --> 00:31:30,180 So now David has blessed the Lord. 456 00:31:30,180 --> 00:31:34,520 He has blessed the Lord with determination for deliverance that God has given to him 457 00:31:34,520 --> 00:31:36,200 in the city of Gath. 458 00:31:36,200 --> 00:31:38,600 But now he wants to instruct us. 459 00:31:38,600 --> 00:31:43,280 He says come to me I will teach you wisdom. 460 00:31:43,280 --> 00:31:47,160 Before his worship now it's wisdom that he wants to teach us. 461 00:31:47,160 --> 00:31:49,960 He wants to teach us about the fear of the Lord first. 462 00:31:49,960 --> 00:31:52,000 He's already introduced that subject. 463 00:31:52,000 --> 00:31:54,520 I will teach you the fear of the Lord. 464 00:31:54,520 --> 00:31:59,620 When we talk about the fear of the Lord let's keep in mind that we're not talking about 465 00:31:59,620 --> 00:32:02,880 a fright. 466 00:32:02,880 --> 00:32:09,160 Now there is a fright whenever we confront anything that's beyond what we are accustomed 467 00:32:09,160 --> 00:32:12,520 to. 468 00:32:12,520 --> 00:32:21,720 And should the Lord himself appear here this evening we would find that a frightening experience 469 00:32:21,720 --> 00:32:27,360 because it's different and the Lord is holy which means he's utterly different than we 470 00:32:27,360 --> 00:32:30,360 are. 471 00:32:30,360 --> 00:32:33,680 He's just in a totally different category than we are. 472 00:32:33,680 --> 00:32:37,600 So we would be fearful but David is not talking about that kind of fear. 473 00:32:37,600 --> 00:32:40,120 There's another way in which fear is used. 474 00:32:40,120 --> 00:32:45,920 It means a feeling of reverence and of awe. 475 00:32:45,920 --> 00:32:46,920 You know that. 476 00:32:46,920 --> 00:32:49,880 So he says I'm going to teach you about this reverence and awe of God. 477 00:32:49,880 --> 00:32:56,120 Who is the man who desires life and loves length of days that he may see good? 478 00:32:56,120 --> 00:33:04,000 Well he says keep your tongue from evil, your lips from speaking deceit, depart from evil, 479 00:33:04,000 --> 00:33:07,000 do good, seek peace, pursue it. 480 00:33:07,000 --> 00:33:11,520 So what he's saying here is look I want to teach you what it means to have the awe of 481 00:33:11,520 --> 00:33:12,920 the Lord, to fear the Lord. 482 00:33:12,920 --> 00:33:14,760 He says here's what it means. 483 00:33:14,760 --> 00:33:20,120 It means to have your life right. 484 00:33:20,120 --> 00:33:27,000 It's not just a feeling of gooey warmth that comes over you when you're in church. 485 00:33:27,000 --> 00:33:30,640 He says it is a way you live. 486 00:33:30,640 --> 00:33:37,340 And what it means to fear the Lord is to keep your tongue, guard your tongue from evil. 487 00:33:37,340 --> 00:33:44,400 The word evil here is the opposite of good back in verse 8 where he says the Lord is 488 00:33:44,400 --> 00:33:47,960 good. 489 00:33:47,960 --> 00:33:55,040 The word evil comes from a root verb that means to spoil something by breaking it into 490 00:33:55,040 --> 00:33:57,500 pieces. 491 00:33:57,500 --> 00:34:04,080 You would see a potter who is working on his vessel and suddenly something happens. 492 00:34:04,080 --> 00:34:05,080 I don't know. 493 00:34:05,080 --> 00:34:06,080 He sticks his thumb into it. 494 00:34:06,080 --> 00:34:07,080 I don't know what happens. 495 00:34:07,080 --> 00:34:11,080 But the vessel is ruined on his wheel. 496 00:34:11,080 --> 00:34:15,600 And so he takes that piece of clay and he dashes it to pieces. 497 00:34:15,600 --> 00:34:17,680 It's evil. 498 00:34:17,680 --> 00:34:18,680 That's the word. 499 00:34:18,680 --> 00:34:23,280 It means to break into pieces because it's not fit. 500 00:34:23,280 --> 00:34:28,120 And so he says keep your tongue from evil, the kinds of things that are unfit, your lips 501 00:34:28,120 --> 00:34:31,320 from speaking deceit. 502 00:34:31,320 --> 00:34:34,480 Depart from evil. 503 00:34:34,480 --> 00:34:35,480 Forsake it. 504 00:34:35,480 --> 00:34:36,480 Do good. 505 00:34:36,480 --> 00:34:37,480 Seek peace. 506 00:34:37,480 --> 00:34:40,560 Pursue it. 507 00:34:40,560 --> 00:34:45,080 And so he teaches us here of the fear of the Lord and what it means to fear the Lord. 508 00:34:45,080 --> 00:34:50,440 Now in verses 15 through 21 he's going to teach us of the faithfulness of the Lord. 509 00:34:50,440 --> 00:34:54,000 By the way, he talks about deceit in verse 13. 510 00:34:54,000 --> 00:35:02,440 I wonder what he had in mind when he's talking about deceit. 511 00:35:02,440 --> 00:35:07,760 Wonder if he's reflecting upon his own experience and maybe realizes that there was some failure 512 00:35:07,760 --> 00:35:13,080 on his part in that area when he was in Gath. 513 00:35:13,080 --> 00:35:19,840 In verse 15 as he talks about the faithfulness of the Lord he says the eyes of the Lord are 514 00:35:19,840 --> 00:35:20,960 toward the righteous. 515 00:35:20,960 --> 00:35:24,280 His ears are open to their cry. 516 00:35:24,280 --> 00:35:30,000 The face of the Lord is against evildoers to cut off the memory of them from the earth. 517 00:35:30,000 --> 00:35:34,880 Notice the eyes, the ears, the face of the Lord. 518 00:35:34,880 --> 00:35:37,360 Wonder what color God's eyes are. 519 00:35:37,360 --> 00:35:40,800 Have you thought about that? 520 00:35:40,800 --> 00:35:43,520 What does God's face look like? 521 00:35:43,520 --> 00:35:45,800 His blue, yes, blue. 522 00:35:45,800 --> 00:35:49,920 God must be Scandinavian, right? 523 00:35:49,920 --> 00:35:59,720 His ears, as you know, these are terms that put God into language we can understand. 524 00:35:59,720 --> 00:36:00,720 They're anthropomorphic. 525 00:36:00,720 --> 00:36:08,240 They are terms that are describing God in manlike ways. 526 00:36:08,240 --> 00:36:15,880 Surely God doesn't have eyes or ears or a face because he's spirit. 527 00:36:15,880 --> 00:36:23,760 But what he's saying here is that God sees, God knows, God hears. 528 00:36:23,760 --> 00:36:25,280 God is present. 529 00:36:25,280 --> 00:36:32,200 The face of the Lord is against evildoers to cut off the memory of them from the earth. 530 00:36:32,200 --> 00:36:36,080 This is very strong language that I'm not going to explain in the crowd we've got here 531 00:36:36,080 --> 00:36:37,080 tonight. 532 00:36:37,080 --> 00:36:42,560 But I'll tell you something, he's very picturesque when he talks about cutting off the memory 533 00:36:42,560 --> 00:36:44,600 of the evildoers. 534 00:36:44,600 --> 00:36:49,000 To cut off means to cut off a body part. 535 00:36:49,000 --> 00:36:53,560 And so he is very strong in his language of the way that God in his faithfulness is going 536 00:36:53,560 --> 00:36:56,920 to deal with the evildoers. 537 00:36:56,920 --> 00:36:59,280 Then again he talks about the righteous. 538 00:36:59,280 --> 00:37:05,280 The righteous cry, the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles. 539 00:37:05,280 --> 00:37:10,720 The Lord is near to the broken hearted, those whose hearts have been shattered. 540 00:37:10,720 --> 00:37:17,280 And he saves those who are crushed, who are bruised, who are broken down in spirit. 541 00:37:17,280 --> 00:37:19,640 Is that you tonight? 542 00:37:19,640 --> 00:37:22,840 Is your heart bursting? 543 00:37:22,840 --> 00:37:30,640 Do you feel crushed, bruised by the load that you're bearing? 544 00:37:30,640 --> 00:37:33,160 Does Jesus care? 545 00:37:33,160 --> 00:37:35,040 As we sang earlier, yes he cares. 546 00:37:35,040 --> 00:37:36,560 He's near to those. 547 00:37:36,560 --> 00:37:43,480 And he says in verse 19, many are the afflictions of the righteous. 548 00:37:43,480 --> 00:37:48,800 I don't know, we kind of think that somehow afflictions are the things that interrupt 549 00:37:48,800 --> 00:37:51,920 life as it's supposed to be. 550 00:37:51,920 --> 00:37:58,840 The life is supposed to be happy all the day with Jesus as our Savior. 551 00:37:58,840 --> 00:38:01,760 And indeed there's a joy there and there is a happiness there. 552 00:38:01,760 --> 00:38:03,640 But David says it right. 553 00:38:03,640 --> 00:38:09,120 I mean he's down where the rubber meets the road when he says many are the afflictions 554 00:38:09,120 --> 00:38:10,760 of the righteous. 555 00:38:10,760 --> 00:38:12,760 Life is not easy. 556 00:38:12,760 --> 00:38:18,240 And somehow we sometimes formulate little ideas. 557 00:38:18,240 --> 00:38:22,680 We put together formulas that we do this, this, this and this and that is going to be 558 00:38:22,680 --> 00:38:24,520 the result of it. 559 00:38:24,520 --> 00:38:28,520 And it doesn't work that way all the time. 560 00:38:28,520 --> 00:38:30,120 It doesn't work that way all the time. 561 00:38:30,120 --> 00:38:32,600 There are things in life we don't understand. 562 00:38:32,600 --> 00:38:37,440 There are afflictions that we suffer that we just are not able to explain. 563 00:38:37,440 --> 00:38:39,600 Many are these afflictions. 564 00:38:39,600 --> 00:38:44,680 And the word afflictions there in verse 19 is the same word as evil back in 13. 565 00:38:44,680 --> 00:38:49,920 He's talking about the hurts and the injuries of life. 566 00:38:49,920 --> 00:38:53,760 But he says the Lord delivers him out of them all. 567 00:38:53,760 --> 00:38:56,640 Not always in the way that we think. 568 00:38:56,640 --> 00:39:01,720 But the Lord is always there and brings his deliverance. 569 00:39:01,720 --> 00:39:04,240 He says he keeps all his bones. 570 00:39:04,240 --> 00:39:09,080 The word keeps here means to put a hedge around, the circle. 571 00:39:09,080 --> 00:39:14,320 And it reminds you of this word back in verse 7 where it says the angel encamps around those 572 00:39:14,320 --> 00:39:15,760 that fear him. 573 00:39:15,760 --> 00:39:20,960 Here he says that he puts a circle, a hedge around all his bones. 574 00:39:20,960 --> 00:39:22,280 Not one of them is broken. 575 00:39:22,280 --> 00:39:25,120 Does anybody recognize that verse? 576 00:39:25,120 --> 00:39:34,560 Yeah, it's quoted in John at Jesus crucifixion where it points out that not a bone was broken 577 00:39:34,560 --> 00:39:36,040 in Jesus. 578 00:39:36,040 --> 00:39:40,640 Out of joint, yes, but not broken. 579 00:39:40,640 --> 00:39:43,760 David means it in a metaphorical sense though. 580 00:39:43,760 --> 00:39:47,080 He says in verse 21, evil shall slay the wicked. 581 00:39:47,080 --> 00:39:50,640 The word slay means to execute. 582 00:39:50,640 --> 00:39:54,680 The wicked will be executed by his own evil. 583 00:39:54,680 --> 00:39:56,800 Those that live by the sword, what? 584 00:39:56,800 --> 00:39:59,000 Die by the sword. 585 00:39:59,000 --> 00:40:00,400 Evil shall slay the wicked. 586 00:40:00,400 --> 00:40:09,920 I want to tell you, those who are wicked will reap the consequences of their evil. 587 00:40:09,920 --> 00:40:14,880 And he says those who hate the righteous will be condemned. 588 00:40:14,880 --> 00:40:21,240 David had a lot of people hating him as he's thinking about this experience in Gath. 589 00:40:21,240 --> 00:40:23,560 He's a refugee out there in the wilderness. 590 00:40:23,560 --> 00:40:25,040 Maybe he was in the cave of Adulam. 591 00:40:25,040 --> 00:40:28,240 I don't know where he was when he wrote these words. 592 00:40:28,240 --> 00:40:31,160 But he's feeling lonely. 593 00:40:31,160 --> 00:40:33,680 He's being afflicted. 594 00:40:33,680 --> 00:40:37,400 But he says the Lord is with him. 595 00:40:37,400 --> 00:40:42,120 And in verse 22 he summarizes. 596 00:40:42,120 --> 00:40:45,640 He says the Lord redeems the soul of his servants. 597 00:40:45,640 --> 00:40:47,960 He liberates the soul of his servants. 598 00:40:47,960 --> 00:40:53,800 And none of those who take refuge in him will be condemned. 599 00:40:53,800 --> 00:40:56,320 None of those who take shelter in him. 600 00:40:56,320 --> 00:41:00,120 Do you ever feel like you need a shelter? 601 00:41:00,120 --> 00:41:03,200 You need a refuge? 602 00:41:03,200 --> 00:41:10,000 That things are coming so fast and so furious you just don't know where to turn? 603 00:41:10,000 --> 00:41:13,040 Well, take a refuge in the Lord. 604 00:41:13,040 --> 00:41:14,040 He's always present. 605 00:41:14,040 --> 00:41:16,200 We used to sing a hymn. 606 00:41:16,200 --> 00:41:18,160 I don't think it's in these hymns, is it? 607 00:41:18,160 --> 00:41:19,160 Check and see. 608 00:41:19,160 --> 00:41:21,880 The Lord's my rock, our rock. 609 00:41:21,880 --> 00:41:28,480 In him we hide a shelter in the time of storm is the name of it. 610 00:41:28,480 --> 00:41:29,480 Have you remembered that? 611 00:41:29,480 --> 00:41:36,080 Is that in there by any chance? 612 00:41:36,080 --> 00:41:38,640 A shelter in the time of storm? 613 00:41:38,640 --> 00:41:39,640 Okay. 614 00:41:39,640 --> 00:41:45,120 Well, we won't sing it then because I'll guarantee you I don't remember all the words. 615 00:41:45,120 --> 00:41:49,280 The Lord's our rock and in him we hide a shelter in the time of storm. 616 00:41:49,280 --> 00:41:52,200 That's what David is saying. 617 00:41:52,200 --> 00:41:58,760 Those who take refuge in him will not be condemned. 618 00:41:58,760 --> 00:42:00,760 Let's pray together. 619 00:42:00,760 --> 00:42:13,440 Father, we who love you, who are learning to fear you, to live that kind of a life, 620 00:42:13,440 --> 00:42:19,760 and who have experienced something of your faithfulness in our afflictions, want to join 621 00:42:19,760 --> 00:42:25,920 David and magnify you tonight and to praise you. 622 00:42:25,920 --> 00:42:34,160 We want to be worshippers and we choose to praise and to bless you. 623 00:42:34,160 --> 00:42:41,160 We may not feel like it because of the afflictions, and like David there may be fears that are 624 00:42:41,160 --> 00:42:52,680 taunting us, but we believe you, we trust you, and in the midst of our circumstances 625 00:42:52,680 --> 00:43:00,360 we bless you and we thank you that you give your angels charge to keep us. 626 00:43:00,360 --> 00:43:06,560 We come tonight to take shelter in you, to thank you for that protection, and we rest 627 00:43:06,560 --> 00:43:09,280 in you. 628 00:43:09,280 --> 00:43:12,280 Now may we this week like David be teachers. 629 00:43:12,280 --> 00:43:16,240 May we teach others of the fear of the Lord. 630 00:43:16,240 --> 00:43:21,800 We pray that you will help us to magnify you, to praise you in such a way that you will 631 00:43:21,800 --> 00:43:26,520 be radiant through us in this dark world. 632 00:43:26,520 --> 00:43:31,720 In Jesus' name, Amen. 633 00:43:31,720 --> 00:43:43,000 Thank you, good night.