Reflecting on The Lord from One Crazy time to Another
Of David, when he changed his behavior before Abimelech, so that he drove him out, and he went away.
[1] I will bless the LORD at all times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth. [2] My soul makes its boast in the LORD; let the humble hear and be glad. [3] Oh, magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt his name together!
[4] I sought the LORD, and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears. [5] Those who look to him are radiant, and their faces shall never be ashamed. [6] This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him and saved him out of all his troubles. [7] The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear him, and delivers them.
[8] Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him! [9] Oh, fear the LORD, you his saints, for those who fear him have no lack! [10] The young lions suffer want and hunger; but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing. Psalm 34:1–10 ESV
It is so good, when you are confused about a section of the Bible, to hold on to it and not give up until you figure out what it means. This section says that it’s about David acting crazy before a king, but it doesn’t sound crazy. (There are much crazier psalms than this!) I came across a commentary that said this psalm wasn’t what David said before the king, but a psalm looking back at how God saved him when he was before the king. That changes this Psalm completely.
Throughout the scriptures, God is consistently on the side of the oppressed and the losing. David, though he was anointed to be king, was running for his life along with about 400 felons, debtors, outcasts, and ne’er-do-wells. He had more near misses than an Indiana Jones movie and no hope of ever really becoming the King that Samuel the Prophet said he would be.
Looking back on that, look at how an old man with a life of deliverances would look back on that time running around in the woods from his throne in Jerusalem. As a servant brings him exotic fruit from far away lands and minstrels play songs that he enjoys and wonders if he could play better, this lyrical prayer comes to his mind.
*The young lions suffer want and hunger; but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing. *
It is so good to reflect on the things that the Lord has done. Declaring His faithfulness to the next generation is all about telling younger people about the times that the Lord helped with this or that.
Are there some young people waiting to hear your stories? Are there some events in your life that were surrounded by the encampment of the Lord but you didn’t know it?