Psalm 34

This was a Psalm of David. It was written at the time of the events of 1 Samuel 21:10-15. Just an interesting side note.

David is praising God for what He has done in his life. David does this a lot. I don't think we do it enough. God created me, he knew me by name before I was even a thought, He had a plan for me and still has a plan for me no matter how many times I try my hardest to mess it up. He provides for me, He frees me from my demons, and He never leaves me. How often do we just sit down and list a few of the great and mighty things God has done for us? I will extol the Lord at all times; his praise will always be on my lips. (verse 1)

This Psalm was written during the events of 1 Samuel 21:10-15, which on the surface is kind of a humorous story from my perspective. David was on the run from King Saul, who was jealous of him and wanted him dead. He came to this king of whom he was afraid, on top of the fact that he had just left his friends and family to run for his life. We're talking a very scary point in David's life here. To keep from being recognized, he pretended to be crazy, and this king seriously said (in KRV, which stands for "Kaycee's Remembered Version): "Do I not have enough madmen in my court that you have to bring me this one?" Pretty slick on David's part, if you ask me.

So then David escapes and he pens these words. I sought the Lord, and he answered me; he delivered me from all my fears. (verse 4) When we stop to look at the things that God has done in our lives, it reminds us of how faithful He is. The cool part? God doesn't change. I'm facing a new set of struggles at this new stage in my life, but I'm facing them with the same God that protected me during family hardships, the same God who provided me a church family back home, the same God who has provided for me since day one of moving to Iowa. Much of this Psalm is David looking at all of the ways that God was with him.

At times, this Psalm appears to limit God's protection to the "righteous." For example: The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their cry, the face of the Lord is against those who do evil, to cut off the memory of them from the earth. (verses 15 and 16) So who is "righteous" if ALL have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God?

This is the cool part.

The Lord redeems his servants; no one will be condemned who take refuge in him. (verse 22) Those who look to him are radiant; their faces are never covered with shame. (verse 5). I may be a sinner. I may have screwed it up pretty bad. I may have made some awful mistakes that I still really regret. But according to Psalm 34, I can look to God and take refuge in Him, and I don't have to carry the shame of my mistakes, because I am redeemed by God! That makes me righteous in His sight, and all of the grace and protection and love that God gives to David is mine, too!

~ * ~

Other highlighted verses: 11-14 and 18

Intro to Psalms

Personally, I've struggled with Psalms my whole life. I mean, it's the longest book in the Bible, so that makes it pretty overwhelming. Then every time I try to read it, it feels like I'm reading the same thing over and over and over... and over and over... and over again. "God, why is my life so hard? Why am I facing these trials? Why are my enemies winning? But every time I come back to You, everything is beautifully hunky-dory!" Just about every Psalm holds at least loosely to that format, and I can't always quite follow how the Psalmist goes so fluidly from such devastation to such peace. When it doesn't follow this path, a Psalm begins with this elaborately poetic praise of how awesome God is, and as I'm reading my Bible looking for something to apply to my life, I'm sure that the Psalmist was really feeling God in that moment, but I'm generally not so much.

So I keep trying to read through Psalms because people tell me that they are "powerful," but I start with Psalm 1 (which is great, don't get me wrong), but once I go into Psalms 2 and 3, I start seeing the same thing and then I give up until the next time I am struck with the inspiration to try again... starting with Psalm 1. Then 2 and 3. Etc.

But every now and then, especially the past couple of years, God uses a Psalm to show me something awesome.

So instead of trying to read through the Psalms, I'm going to keep my feelers out for those ones that God speaks to me with, and I wanted somewhere to write down what I learned. So maybe, with this blog, I'll stop just giving up on Psalms all together, and perhaps God can show you something in the Psalms, too.

The title of each of these posts is going to be a Psalm. I'd encourage you to read the Psalm first, so that God's words are in your head before you start reading mine. Who knows? Maybe God has something entirely different in mind for you to take away. The Psalms are still God's word to us, and I shouldn't ignore them just because they are daunting. They can be truly powerful!