Shabbat Shalom, and welcome to Israel Update. As you know, those of you that have been watching,
I started doing the series on the book of Psalms, and I'm doing it kind of throughout
this year, and I'm just kind of fitting it in wherever I can when there's a little bit of a
break from crazy breaking news. But I'm going to start today with Psalm chapter 34, 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, glorify the Lord with me, let us exalt his name together.
I sought the Lord, and he answered me. He delivered me from all my fears. Those who look to him are
radiant, their faces are never covered with shame. This poor man called, and the Lord heard him, he
saved him out of all his troubles. The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, and
he delivers them taste, and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.
Fear the Lord, you, his saints, for those who fear him lack nothing. The lions may grow weak, and
hungry, but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing. 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, keep your tongue
from evil and your lips from speaking lies, turn from evil and do good. Seek peace and pursue it.
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.
The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears them, he delivers them from all their troubles.
The Lord is close to the brokenhearted, and saves those who are crushed in spirits. A righteous man
may have many troubles, but the Lord delivers him from them all. He protects all his bones,
not one of them will be broken, evil will slay the wicked. The foes of the righteous will be condemned.
The Lord redeems his servants, no one will be condemned who takes refuge in him. Now, I know I
just read through that whole thing. But I want this to become personal for you. David wrote this at a
time when he was trying to escape from Abimelech and he was pretending to be insane at the time,
trying to escape with his life, but that's a whole other story. But even though these words were
penned thousands of years ago, there's personal there's personal meat that we can take from it.
Verse 4 says, I sought the Lord, and he answered me. He delivered me from all my fears.
I don't know about you, but I know that I've struggled with a bunch of fears. This is not a
joke for me. You know, I went on a hike the other day, it was a terrible experience. But I burned a
lot of calories, so huzzah! But there was a point in the hike when the pathway was kind of narrow,
and it was like a drop on the side, and I've got a very intense fear of heights, and the friend of
mine, one of the friends, there was a group of us that went, but one of them who went,
and she grew up in the mountains of Switzerland, and as much akin to a little yodeling Swiss
mountain goat. So she frolicked along, and had absolutely no trouble, and I almost had a panic
attack, so that was fun because I looked and then I was trying to hold on to the side of the wall,
and I was sort of staggering along, keeping the whole group up because of my fear of heights,
and I thought about this, and I was like you know I have to be able to, and I did it. I pushed through.
Part of me wanted to turn back, very close and I was like, no we're not going to let the group
down, you also want to get through this, that you can burn the calories. So let's keep going.
But, you know, in those moments I thought about it, and I was like, you know the fear that I'm feeling
right now, which is probably irrational. Because the chances of me actually falling down the hill
and perishing are quite minimal. But that fear felt so real to me, and I thought about David, and
thought about how the fear that he must have been feeling when he penned so many of these Psalms
would have been far more intense, because there really were people trying to kill him,
and I don't know what it is that you struggle with, I don't know what fears
you might face. But what the scripture tells us, what the book of Psalms tells us here
is that we seek God in these moments. He answers us, and delivers us from our fears.
Then verse 7, kind of reading, thinking about the same kind of topic. The angel of the Lord encamps
around those who fear him, and he delivers them, and I thought about it, and I was like, you know it's a
pretty good thought to me to think, well if I did slip maybe there's an angel hanging out, or just
kind of shove me back onto the path. Then I got freaked out thinking about that. Anyway the point
is the angel of the Lord does provide protection. We know this. We'll get to Psalm 91 at some point,
but we know this, that he who dwells in the shelter of the most high, will rest in the shadow
of the almighty, and we can continue going through this. But the protection of God is there for us,
because we trust in him, and we know that he's our refuge, and he is able to bring deliverance
in situations that seem impossible. I don't know what your situation is, but God knows.
I don't know what difficulty you might have been having in your life, but God does know.
Verse 11, Come my children, listen to me, I will teach you the fear of the Lord.
Verse 12, Whoever of you loves life, and desires to see many good days, I'd like, I love life, and would
like to see many good days. Verse 13, this is the kicker, keep your tongue from evil, and your lips
from speaking lies. I don't know how hard it is, but throughout my schooling career the only thing I
ever really got into trouble for in school was talking too much. I got put in detention because
I would get demerited because I was talking too much. It wasn't because I didn't do my work,
because I cheated, or anything like that. Like I was always pretty good kid, did all the stuff I
was supposed to do. But the talking, man, talking has always gotten me into trouble.
But also it's kind of what I do for a living. But this is something that I have to really focus on.
I have to keep my tongue from evil, especially when I get angry, and again, remember being angry
isn't a sin. It's what we do with the anger that makes it a sin or doesn't, but for all of us
we're being told again, we have to keep our tongues from evil, and that can be hard, especially when we
feel like we're in the right. But that doesn't give us the right necessarily to just sort of
run off and say terrible things about whoever it is that we, that we want, and I'm going to be
honest with you. Over the last couple of months I have said many, many an awful thing to a spectrum
representative that I should not have said. Because good pastors children, and good pastors, are not
supposed to say those sorts of things to spectrum representatives. But then they lose their Lebanese
temper and they say things they shouldn't, and then they think about this Psalm. Very personal story, as
you can tell, and I've been like, wow, I really shouldn't be talking to this person this way,
and at this point in my life I really should know better. Thank God for his grace. So I don't know if
that resonates with any of you who might have a quick tongue, and a quick temper. We're being told
we have to keep our tongue from evil if we want to see many good days. Which I do. Verse 18, The Lord is
close to the brokenhearted, and saves those who are crushed in spirit. I love this verse because it's
showing that even though you're righteous, even though you might be doing things right, even though
you might look around and say, what possible reason could there be for life to be as difficult as it
is? There is going to be broken-heartedness in all of us at some point, and what this is telling us
is that God is close to the brokenhearted, he is close, and he saves those who are crushed in spirit.
Which means if you do feel crushed in spirit, it's not an indicator that you've done anything wrong.
If you are broken-hearted, it doesn't mean that you've done something wrong. The God of Israel
is close to those who are broken-hearted, and he delivers those who are crushed in spirit.
you are not alone if you're going through a difficult time. The great king of Israel, king
David went through many difficult times, and wrote most of these Psalms that we read now.
The portions that he wrote when he was having a difficult time, even the Psalms of praise,
came from a place when he was in pain. So my exhortation, and encouragement to you today,
is that if you're having a hard time, if you're having a struggle, it doesn't mean that you've done
something wrong, and I pray that this verse out of Psalm 34 verse 18, that this would comfort you
today. That the Lord is close to the brokenhearted, and saves those who are crushed in spirit. So
whatever it is that you're going through, I pray that you would find comfort in the personhood of
Christ this week. Thank you so much for being with us. We'll be back with you next week, every Friday
with a new edition of Israel Update, which you can watch right here at israelupdate.org God bless you.