Rev. Alan J. Meenan
I encourage you to turn to Psalm 34. Keep it open as we look together at this sacred text. It was written at a time when David was afraid that he would be killed by King Saul. As a result, he fled into Philistia—the land of the old arch-enemies of his people. While there, he was recognized as the one who had killed Goliath. So in the attempt to escape from the horns of the dilemma, David resorted to feigning or pretending to be a madman. He had saliva dripping down his beard. Such that the King of Philistia, Abimelech, said, “Don’t I have enough madmen in Philistia that I should have this other one?” and basically excommunicated David from the presence of the Philistines.
It is tragic that some of life’s lessons cannot be learned any other way but through experience. I wish there were other ways of learning. David had learned an immense lesson in the midst of his failure. There is no more miserable picture than that of David pretending to be mad in the courts of the King of Philistia.
David wants to instruct us in this Psalm 34. It is an incredible Psalm that portrays a father’s wisdom for his children. This is the young man’s story—told when David was older and presumably wiser as he penned these words.
Many times in our worship, we will be greeted with the words, “God is good!” to which you respond, “All of the time!” There is a sense in which we derive that statement from Psalm 34. David is very eager to tell us that God is really good. That he is wonderful beyond measure. That he’s a great God.
Immediately from the very outset of the Psalm, he is able to transfer your gaze from your own navel to God himself. “I will extol the Lord at all times,” he begins.
When the Apostle Paul writes to the Church at Thessalonica, he says in the first epistle, the fifth chapter and the 18th verse, “give thanks in all circumstances” whatever happens, in every situation of life, before and after and in every trial of life. In the bright days of joy that you experience and the dark days of fear, my praise, he writes, will continually be on my lips.
Is it possible that this is more than bravado on the part of David? Is this something that we should aspire to? Is it in fact feasible and embraceable? Is this pie-in-the-sky-by-and-by or can this part and parcel of the Christian life be able to say with heartfelt conviction, “I will extol the Lord at all times; his praise will always be on my lips”?
Obviously, David knew difficult days. This Psalm was written in the context of one of the most heinous difficult dark days in David’s life. He is writing from the depths of hurt and experience when he says that he will praise God all the time and in every circumstance of life. He refers in verse 4 to the fact that there were fears that he was trying to avoid—horrendous experiences, the dread of the unknown, running for his life—seeing others massacred because of him.
Yet as he looked around, there were others that he gazed upon who were followers of the Lord Jehovah. They were somehow able to rise above the circumstances and David longed for that in his own experiences. So we read in verse 5, “Those who look to him are radiant; their faces are never covered with shame.” In other words, these believers portrayed a degree of confidence and joy that seemed to bid farewell to fear, terror and shame and enabled all of those things to give way to radiance.
I want to attempt to explain what it means to be a radiant follower of Jesus Christ. I want to outline the steps that one must take if one is to live the victorious Christian life. What then does it mean to be radiant? Why is it that so many believers and followers of Jesus Christ seem to be anything but radiant?
There seems at times to be a blatant disconnect between possessing the joy of Jesus and being befuddled with the circumstances that surround us in life. The word radiant is found in Isaiah 60:5. “Then you will look and be radiant, your heart will throb and swell with joy…” There it describes the mother’s face lighting up at the sight of her children that she thought were long lost. They were coming home. She became radiant with joy.
I remember my first major trip away from home when I was a boy; I had come to America to begin my studies in theological education. Ireland was a long way off and I was desperately homesick. I had been gone a mere 3 months and longed to get back. I took a little job in order to earn $212.00, which was the price of a round trip airfare from New York to Dublin. I knew if I got as far as Dublin, I could make it home. I decided to surprise my mother. She wasn’t expecting me for 3 years. I remember the great joy of opening the door and saying, “Hello Mom!” She turned around. She had been washing the dishes and dropped some of her best china, but it didn’t seem to matter because I saw the radiance on my mother’s face.
Isaiah captures that when he talks about what it means to be radiant. The word is used again to depict the face of Moses in Exodus 34. You remember the story when he was up on Mt. Sinai and he eventually came down after having spent time with our Lord. Everyone looked at the face of Moses when he came down the mountain. Scripture says, “When Moses came down from Mount Sinai… he was not aware that his face was radiant because he had spoken with the Lord,” (Exodus 34:29).
Or when Paul writes to the Church at Corinth is his second Epistle, 3rd chapter, verse 18. There we read these words: “And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit” The word there also that is used is with ever-increasing radiance, which comes from the Lord. It indicates the Christian’s growing likeness to our Lord Jesus. Whereby, the more we spend time in his company and his presence, the more we take time to gaze upon his lovely face; then that loveliness shines out in our lives. The transformation is there for everyone. That’s what radiance is. That’s what you as a follower of Jesus Christ need to embrace.
I want you to note first of all David’s understanding of worship in this Psalm. Right from the very beginning, he says, “I will extol the Lord at all times; his praise will always be on my lips. My soul will boast in the Lord.” David sees it is the essence of boasting in the Lord.
Boasting is one of those things that we tend to hopefully shy away from. It’s all too easy to boast of one’s own accomplishments. We desire to impress one another or to be accepted by someone else. The Psalmist is saying something entirely different here. He’s saying, instead of boasting about yourself, join me and boast of the Lord. Let us say how wonderful, how amazing, how incredible God is.
Fill your hearts with his presence, and with his attributes, and with his person, with his faithfulness, and with his works, and with his promises. You will find them unparalleled, matchless, and incomparable. Fill your life so that you live radiantly with the worship of God.
Let me say this carefully, diligently and yet emphatically; the purpose of praise and the purpose of worship is not to make God’s people feel good. It amazes me that after all these years in ministry that so many followers of God do not seem to get that. Worship is not about making you feel good. Worship is not about you. Worship is solely and completely acknowledging the greatness of God!! (And by the way, that makes you feel good.)
We gather for worship in order to magnify the name of God alone. There are so many believers today who are missing out on that. Believers will tell me that they are in a Bible study, but they don’t go to worship. Or they attend a Sunday school class, but they don’t go to worship. It seems rather strange when I ask the question, “What is the point of learning about him if it doesn’t propel you to worship him?”
Bible study is no substitute for gathering together to praise his holy name—the more you get to know him, the more you are driven to worship him. If that is not the case, then one would need to question the quality of the learning experience itself. To be a radiant Christian is to understand worship as David understood worship.
Secondly, I want to suggest to you David’s understanding of prayer. He writes, “This poor man called…” (v.6). He’s got the essence of what prayer is all about. This poor wretch’s prayer is the cry of a poor wretch, but it is nonetheless powerful with Heaven, because it goes on to tell us that, “the Lord heard him.” Listen.
David passionately believed that God hears and answers prayer. It doesn’t matter who you are or what your station might be in life. It is the personal testimony of David when he was at his most wretched condition that he suggested to be heard of God is to be delivered by God. Prayer can deliver us from trouble. Indeed, it can move the very heart of God to become involved in our lives, to intervene and affect the outcome of our situation. When God intervenes in a human life, that intervention is massive, miraculous, and irresistible.
David reiterates that whole idea throughout these verses. God is a God that answers prayer (“…He answered me” (v.4)), a God who hears prayer (“the Lord heard him…” (v.6)), a God who saves through prayer, (“He saved [the poor man] out of all his troubles,” (verse 6)), a God who delivers through prayer, (“[the Lord] delivers them” (verse 7)).
Confidence oozes out of the pain of the Psalmist in verse 7; David says, “The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, and he delivers them.” David was absolutely convinced that God plants an army around you. You are ultimately, finally and fully protected because on every side there are warriors of sleepless eyes keeping watch over you by day and night. What an incredible encouragement for those who find themselves resourceless in the enterprise that we call life. David is saying that if you feel resourceless, then you’re not going to be radiant. To be radiant you need to know that all the resources of Heaven are at your command. You are a child of the King!
The experience of the Psalmist can be the experience of everyone. So David is compelled as he goes on in one of the loveliest verses, to invite others to share the adventure. In verse 8 he says, “Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him”
No wonder we sing that lovely hymn by Joseph Scriven:
What a Friend We Have in Jesus,
All our sins and griefs to bear!
What a privilege to carry
Everything to God in prayer.
Do you want to be a radiant follower of Jesus Christ? Transform your thinking to the power intrinsic to you in prayer, the power intrinsic to you in worship.
I would have you notice thirdly David’s understanding of wisdom. Throughout the entire Psalm you may have noticed, the reiteration of the phrase—“the fear of the Lord”. The fear of the Lord is expressed in submission to the will of the Lord. So the fear of the Lord and submission to his will means to walk in his ways: to respect his will, to tremble to offend him, to hasten to serve him. David seems to indicate that we should fear the Lord and fear nothing else.
I believe the grave absence in the church today is the fear of the Lord. It is absent from so many in the church. Because if we fear the Lord, we would be more concerned about what we do, say, and how we act. If we desire happiness in life, happiness is contrived in terms of the fear of the Lord: to enjoy life to the fullest.
“Come, my children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord. Whoever of you loves life and desires to see many good days…” David speaks as a father to everyone—who desires life and many good days—that’s all of us. If you would really find joy and happiness in life, David now wants to give you the secret of what it means to live happily, joyfully and radiantly. This is not a level of mediocrity to which he refers, to which so many attain—which in the last analysis is not life at all.
The art of truly joyful living is not given to everyone to know. But here it is given, true wisdom and how to live and how to die. He sums it up by saying, “Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking lies. Turn from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it” (v.13, 14).
Specifically, what the Psalmist is saying and David is telling us—base your life upon integrity as opposed to deception, “practice good instead of evil” (v. 13), “seek peace and pursue it” (v. 14). These are simple and profound lessons. But the reality is that so many believers are sour and grumpy all the time. They go about like they have just lost a liver. There is a sense in which they are always angry, always critical, always negative, always seeing the bad; seeing the cup half empty instead of seeing it half full. So many believers and there is a radical disconnect between the experience of the Psalmist and saying to live radiantly in Christ and those who feel they have just lost their kidney. They betray the Christ that they purport to serve.
I understand that the theology of “think positively” has fallen into disrepute. I agree with some of those concerns, but let’s not throw the baby out with the bath water. What David is telling us here is that he is challenging us to be honest people, to be decent people, to be good people, to be peaceable with one another, to be positive in your attitude, to be grateful in your heart, to be loving and to be kind. That’s not just an Old Testament measure of holiness—it’s also the New Testament measure of holiness! Does that not strike a bell with many of you?
Like Paul wrote to the Church at Galatia, “But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control” (Galatians 5:22-3). These are the attributes of a follower of Jesus Christ. God forgive us when we live other ways.
Let me tell you a little story of coming back from Malta. It was a Friday night. I lined up for my ticket. I had a reserved seat on British Airways. When I got to the counter, they said, “I’m sorry, your seat has been taken.”
I said, “No, I don’t think so. I have reserved them.”
“No, she said, we’re full. However, we will give you $1,000.00 if you will go tomorrow and we will put you up and feed you.”
I said, “If this were a Thursday night I would jump at that. But it was a Friday night and there are lots of people waiting for me on Sunday and I need to get back.”
She said, “We don’t have any seats.”
I said, “Well you have a problem then, don’t you?”
My daughter was with us. She was heading back to Edinburgh. She said, “Dad, demand your rights here.” My daughter is quite aggressive. She takes after her mother. (That’s not true by the way!) “You tell them that you are a Pastor!” (A great deal of good that would do, I am sure.) “You can’t let them treat you this way.”
I said, “Calm down and let me try to handle this.” I went over as nice as I could be. “I’ve really got to get to Los Angeles…”
Well, to cut a long story short, when eventually they were in the last few minutes, they called my name along with Vicky. They had upgraded me to those marvelous seats that fold down flat into a bed. God is good! As the man was giving me the ticket, he said, and my daughter was standing within earshot, “We’re upgrading you because you’ve been so nice!”
My daughter said afterwards, “I may start being nice now!”
Here’s the fourth thing: David’s understanding of life. It is an intensely realistic portrayal of life in verses 15 to the end. There is no guarantee that the righteous will escape problems. In fact we read, “a righteous person may have many troubles” (v. 19). At times you may be “brokenhearted… and crushed in spirit” (v. 18). But God’s presence is always to be experienced in the crisis of life, because “he hears your cry” (v.17). He hears your cry whenever you are hurting. He hears your cry. Isn’t that lovely? Just the way a mother hears the cry of her sick child. Or a father responds to the terrorized plea of his child, so God hears you.
In fact, he can’t take his eyes off you (v. 15). You’re so precious to him that he observes you with tenderness. The world is full of broken, hurting people with shattered hopes, dashed dreams—what a wonderful thing to read that the Lord is close to the brokenhearted.
It was Dr. Joseph Parker who was speaking to a graduating class of theological students and advised them, “Always preach to broken hearts and you will never lack an audience.” It’s true!
So in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, we have the privilege of bringing a broken-hearted savior to a broken-hearted world. That’s good news! It is the essence of our faith that enables us to live, no matter what the circumstance in life—to live joyfully and radiantly. So I hope you will say to one another as you leave today, or over the course of days to come, especially if you see a grumpy believer, “Smile! God loves you.” If you want to add, “I love you too”, you can add that. But if we understand worship, wisdom, prayer, and life as David did, then you will be able to say; “I will extol the Lord at all times; his praise will always be on my lips. My soul will boast in the Lord; let the afflicted hear and rejoice!” (Psalm 34:1–2).
I encourage you to turn to Psalm 34. Keep it open as we look together at this sacred text. It was written at a time when David was afraid that he would be killed by King Saul. As a result, he fled into Philistia—the land of the old arch-enemies of his people. While there, he was recognized as the one who had killed Goliath. So in the attempt to escape from the horns of the dilemma, David resorted to feigning or pretending to be a madman. He had saliva dripping down his beard. Such that the King of Philistia, Abimelech, said, “Don’t I have enough madmen in Philistia that I should have this other one?” and basically excommunicated David from the presence of the Philistines.
It is tragic that some of life’s lessons cannot be learned any other way but through experience. I wish there were other ways of learning. David had learned an immense lesson in the midst of his failure. There is no more miserable picture than that of David pretending to be mad in the courts of the King of Philistia.
David wants to instruct us in this Psalm 34. It is an incredible Psalm that portrays a father’s wisdom for his children. This is the young man’s story—told when David was older and presumably wiser as he penned these words.
Many times in our worship, we will be greeted with the words, “God is good!” to which you respond, “All of the time!” There is a sense in which we derive that statement from Psalm 34. David is very eager to tell us that God is really good. That he is wonderful beyond measure. That he’s a great God.
Immediately from the very outset of the Psalm, he is able to transfer your gaze from your own navel to God himself. “I will extol the Lord at all times,” he begins.
When the Apostle Paul writes to the Church at Thessalonica, he says in the first epistle, the fifth chapter and the 18th verse, “give thanks in all circumstances” whatever happens, in every situation of life, before and after and in every trial of life. In the bright days of joy that you experience and the dark days of fear, my praise, he writes, will continually be on my lips.
Is it possible that this is more than bravado on the part of David? Is this something that we should aspire to? Is it in fact feasible and embraceable? Is this pie-in-the-sky-by-and-by or can this part and parcel of the Christian life be able to say with heartfelt conviction, “I will extol the Lord at all times; his praise will always be on my lips”?
Obviously, David knew difficult days. This Psalm was written in the context of one of the most heinous difficult dark days in David’s life. He is writing from the depths of hurt and experience when he says that he will praise God all the time and in every circumstance of life. He refers in verse 4 to the fact that there were fears that he was trying to avoid—horrendous experiences, the dread of the unknown, running for his life—seeing others massacred because of him.
Yet as he looked around, there were others that he gazed upon who were followers of the Lord Jehovah. They were somehow able to rise above the circumstances and David longed for that in his own experiences. So we read in verse 5, “Those who look to him are radiant; their faces are never covered with shame.” In other words, these believers portrayed a degree of confidence and joy that seemed to bid farewell to fear, terror and shame and enabled all of those things to give way to radiance.
I want to attempt to explain what it means to be a radiant follower of Jesus Christ. I want to outline the steps that one must take if one is to live the victorious Christian life. What then does it mean to be radiant? Why is it that so many believers and followers of Jesus Christ seem to be anything but radiant?
There seems at times to be a blatant disconnect between possessing the joy of Jesus and being befuddled with the circumstances that surround us in life. The word radiant is found in Isaiah 60:5. “Then you will look and be radiant, your heart will throb and swell with joy…” There it describes the mother’s face lighting up at the sight of her children that she thought were long lost. They were coming home. She became radiant with joy.
I remember my first major trip away from home when I was a boy; I had come to America to begin my studies in theological education. Ireland was a long way off and I was desperately homesick. I had been gone a mere 3 months and longed to get back. I took a little job in order to earn $212.00, which was the price of a round trip airfare from New York to Dublin. I knew if I got as far as Dublin, I could make it home. I decided to surprise my mother. She wasn’t expecting me for 3 years. I remember the great joy of opening the door and saying, “Hello Mom!” She turned around. She had been washing the dishes and dropped some of her best china, but it didn’t seem to matter because I saw the radiance on my mother’s face.
Isaiah captures that when he talks about what it means to be radiant. The word is used again to depict the face of Moses in Exodus 34. You remember the story when he was up on Mt. Sinai and he eventually came down after having spent time with our Lord. Everyone looked at the face of Moses when he came down the mountain. Scripture says, “When Moses came down from Mount Sinai… he was not aware that his face was radiant because he had spoken with the Lord,” (Exodus 34:29).
Or when Paul writes to the Church at Corinth is his second Epistle, 3rd chapter, verse 18. There we read these words: “And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit” The word there also that is used is with ever-increasing radiance, which comes from the Lord. It indicates the Christian’s growing likeness to our Lord Jesus. Whereby, the more we spend time in his company and his presence, the more we take time to gaze upon his lovely face; then that loveliness shines out in our lives. The transformation is there for everyone. That’s what radiance is. That’s what you as a follower of Jesus Christ need to embrace.
I want you to note first of all David’s understanding of worship in this Psalm. Right from the very beginning, he says, “I will extol the Lord at all times; his praise will always be on my lips. My soul will boast in the Lord.” David sees it is the essence of boasting in the Lord.
Boasting is one of those things that we tend to hopefully shy away from. It’s all too easy to boast of one’s own accomplishments. We desire to impress one another or to be accepted by someone else. The Psalmist is saying something entirely different here. He’s saying, instead of boasting about yourself, join me and boast of the Lord. Let us say how wonderful, how amazing, how incredible God is.
Fill your hearts with his presence, and with his attributes, and with his person, with his faithfulness, and with his works, and with his promises. You will find them unparalleled, matchless, and incomparable. Fill your life so that you live radiantly with the worship of God.
Let me say this carefully, diligently and yet emphatically; the purpose of praise and the purpose of worship is not to make God’s people feel good. It amazes me that after all these years in ministry that so many followers of God do not seem to get that. Worship is not about making you feel good. Worship is not about you. Worship is solely and completely acknowledging the greatness of God!! (And by the way, that makes you feel good.)
We gather for worship in order to magnify the name of God alone. There are so many believers today who are missing out on that. Believers will tell me that they are in a Bible study, but they don’t go to worship. Or they attend a Sunday school class, but they don’t go to worship. It seems rather strange when I ask the question, “What is the point of learning about him if it doesn’t propel you to worship him?”
Bible study is no substitute for gathering together to praise his holy name—the more you get to know him, the more you are driven to worship him. If that is not the case, then one would need to question the quality of the learning experience itself. To be a radiant Christian is to understand worship as David understood worship.
Secondly, I want to suggest to you David’s understanding of prayer. He writes, “This poor man called…” (v.6). He’s got the essence of what prayer is all about. This poor wretch’s prayer is the cry of a poor wretch, but it is nonetheless powerful with Heaven, because it goes on to tell us that, “the Lord heard him.” Listen.
David passionately believed that God hears and answers prayer. It doesn’t matter who you are or what your station might be in life. It is the personal testimony of David when he was at his most wretched condition that he suggested to be heard of God is to be delivered by God. Prayer can deliver us from trouble. Indeed, it can move the very heart of God to become involved in our lives, to intervene and affect the outcome of our situation. When God intervenes in a human life, that intervention is massive, miraculous, and irresistible.
David reiterates that whole idea throughout these verses. God is a God that answers prayer (“…He answered me” (v.4)), a God who hears prayer (“the Lord heard him…” (v.6)), a God who saves through prayer, (“He saved [the poor man] out of all his troubles,” (verse 6)), a God who delivers through prayer, (“[the Lord] delivers them” (verse 7)).
Confidence oozes out of the pain of the Psalmist in verse 7; David says, “The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, and he delivers them.” David was absolutely convinced that God plants an army around you. You are ultimately, finally and fully protected because on every side there are warriors of sleepless eyes keeping watch over you by day and night. What an incredible encouragement for those who find themselves resourceless in the enterprise that we call life. David is saying that if you feel resourceless, then you’re not going to be radiant. To be radiant you need to know that all the resources of Heaven are at your command. You are a child of the King!
The experience of the Psalmist can be the experience of everyone. So David is compelled as he goes on in one of the loveliest verses, to invite others to share the adventure. In verse 8 he says, “Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him”
No wonder we sing that lovely hymn by Joseph Scriven:
What a Friend We Have in Jesus,
All our sins and griefs to bear!
What a privilege to carry
Everything to God in prayer.
Do you want to be a radiant follower of Jesus Christ? Transform your thinking to the power intrinsic to you in prayer, the power intrinsic to you in worship.
I would have you notice thirdly David’s understanding of wisdom. Throughout the entire Psalm you may have noticed, the reiteration of the phrase—“the fear of the Lord”. The fear of the Lord is expressed in submission to the will of the Lord. So the fear of the Lord and submission to his will means to walk in his ways: to respect his will, to tremble to offend him, to hasten to serve him. David seems to indicate that we should fear the Lord and fear nothing else.
I believe the grave absence in the church today is the fear of the Lord. It is absent from so many in the church. Because if we fear the Lord, we would be more concerned about what we do, say, and how we act. If we desire happiness in life, happiness is contrived in terms of the fear of the Lord: to enjoy life to the fullest.
“Come, my children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord. Whoever of you loves life and desires to see many good days…” David speaks as a father to everyone—who desires life and many good days—that’s all of us. If you would really find joy and happiness in life, David now wants to give you the secret of what it means to live happily, joyfully and radiantly. This is not a level of mediocrity to which he refers, to which so many attain—which in the last analysis is not life at all.
The art of truly joyful living is not given to everyone to know. But here it is given, true wisdom and how to live and how to die. He sums it up by saying, “Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking lies. Turn from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it” (v.13, 14).
Specifically, what the Psalmist is saying and David is telling us—base your life upon integrity as opposed to deception, “practice good instead of evil” (v. 13), “seek peace and pursue it” (v. 14). These are simple and profound lessons. But the reality is that so many believers are sour and grumpy all the time. They go about like they have just lost a liver. There is a sense in which they are always angry, always critical, always negative, always seeing the bad; seeing the cup half empty instead of seeing it half full. So many believers and there is a radical disconnect between the experience of the Psalmist and saying to live radiantly in Christ and those who feel they have just lost their kidney. They betray the Christ that they purport to serve.
I understand that the theology of “think positively” has fallen into disrepute. I agree with some of those concerns, but let’s not throw the baby out with the bath water. What David is telling us here is that he is challenging us to be honest people, to be decent people, to be good people, to be peaceable with one another, to be positive in your attitude, to be grateful in your heart, to be loving and to be kind. That’s not just an Old Testament measure of holiness—it’s also the New Testament measure of holiness! Does that not strike a bell with many of you?
Like Paul wrote to the Church at Galatia, “But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control” (Galatians 5:22-3). These are the attributes of a follower of Jesus Christ. God forgive us when we live other ways.
Let me tell you a little story of coming back from Malta. It was a Friday night. I lined up for my ticket. I had a reserved seat on British Airways. When I got to the counter, they said, “I’m sorry, your seat has been taken.”
I said, “No, I don’t think so. I have reserved them.”
“No, she said, we’re full. However, we will give you $1,000.00 if you will go tomorrow and we will put you up and feed you.”
I said, “If this were a Thursday night I would jump at that. But it was a Friday night and there are lots of people waiting for me on Sunday and I need to get back.”
She said, “We don’t have any seats.”
I said, “Well you have a problem then, don’t you?”
My daughter was with us. She was heading back to Edinburgh. She said, “Dad, demand your rights here.” My daughter is quite aggressive. She takes after her mother. (That’s not true by the way!) “You tell them that you are a Pastor!” (A great deal of good that would do, I am sure.) “You can’t let them treat you this way.”
I said, “Calm down and let me try to handle this.” I went over as nice as I could be. “I’ve really got to get to Los Angeles…”
Well, to cut a long story short, when eventually they were in the last few minutes, they called my name along with Vicky. They had upgraded me to those marvelous seats that fold down flat into a bed. God is good! As the man was giving me the ticket, he said, and my daughter was standing within earshot, “We’re upgrading you because you’ve been so nice!”
My daughter said afterwards, “I may start being nice now!”
Here’s the fourth thing: David’s understanding of life. It is an intensely realistic portrayal of life in verses 15 to the end. There is no guarantee that the righteous will escape problems. In fact we read, “a righteous person may have many troubles” (v. 19). At times you may be “brokenhearted… and crushed in spirit” (v. 18). But God’s presence is always to be experienced in the crisis of life, because “he hears your cry” (v.17). He hears your cry whenever you are hurting. He hears your cry. Isn’t that lovely? Just the way a mother hears the cry of her sick child. Or a father responds to the terrorized plea of his child, so God hears you.
In fact, he can’t take his eyes off you (v. 15). You’re so precious to him that he observes you with tenderness. The world is full of broken, hurting people with shattered hopes, dashed dreams—what a wonderful thing to read that the Lord is close to the brokenhearted.
It was Dr. Joseph Parker who was speaking to a graduating class of theological students and advised them, “Always preach to broken hearts and you will never lack an audience.” It’s true!
So in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, we have the privilege of bringing a broken-hearted savior to a broken-hearted world. That’s good news! It is the essence of our faith that enables us to live, no matter what the circumstance in life—to live joyfully and radiantly. So I hope you will say to one another as you leave today, or over the course of days to come, especially if you see a grumpy believer, “Smile! God loves you.” If you want to add, “I love you too”, you can add that. But if we understand worship, wisdom, prayer, and life as David did, then you will be able to say; “I will extol the Lord at all times; his praise will always be on my lips. My soul will boast in the Lord; let the afflicted hear and rejoice!” (Psalm 34:1–2).
