“Mud Pies in a Slum”
Psalm 34
Bruce R. Johnson
Exeter Presbyterian
Church
Exeter, New Hampshire
July 10, 2016
* * * * * * *
I think that there may be as many as 20 sermons in
this psalm. Surely there is more than one, but only one will be
delivered this morning. That means that we won’t deal with all of
the verses in the psalm. However, we will look very closely at some
particular words and particular verses -- dissecting them, if you
will, to aid in our understanding and to move our hearts.
I. Context
There are three contexts I want to consider.
Originally only two, but then came all of the police shootings this
week. I intended to talk about our context here in the sanctuary and
that of the psalmist, but now I think that I must add the context of
contemporary American culture.
Context A. Ours: To whom am I speaking? Who
is listening? Who are you? Those who have been “ . . .
delivered . . . from the power of darkness and conveyed . . . into
the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption
through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.” Col. 1.13-14
Rom 5.1-2 --
Listeners have peace with God. He’s not angry with you. Relax and
enter into the joy of your Master.
“The Lord is near to the
brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.” v. 18
Brothers and sisters, that describes us and the context in which we
have gathered to hear the word preached.
We have a way -- I have
a way -- of leading with my head when I pass through the sanctuary
doors. Scholar Glenn Arbery says that the impulse of the intellect
is to reduce everything as soon as possible to abstractions, concepts
or teachings -- which leads people to look at literary works, which
are by nature complex and bafflingly full of images and motifs and
such -- and to want to find out what it means. “Summarize
it and give me a takeaway.”
Patience is required to take in the
whole form of something as its meaning instead of always wanting a
tight, knowable summary of “bullet points.” “What the poet is
trying to say is the whole poem.”
This whole poem (Psalm 34) reveals
Christ. And, yes -- we will discover doctrine in the poem, but we
will also -- and equally importantly -- talk about how this poem was
written to affect our hearts.
Context B. This is a sweet
psalm. How do we understand it in the context of the bitter violence
of the past week? Verses 4-7 will aid our understanding.
Context
C. David
acted like a madman before Achish (his given name). In the title of
the psalm, “Abimelech” is like “Pharaoh” -- a general title
for kings rather than the name of a particular king. David has been
busy fleeing Saul, and the word is out in Israel that he will even
replace Saul as king. So the Philistine courtiers were acclaiming
David as a king, which would have put him in jeopardy before Achish.
Imagine: One king in another’s kingdom! David “pretended
to be insane in their hands and made marks on the doors of the gate
and let his spittle run down his beard.” 1 Sam. 21.13 The
king’s courtiers must have been quite a cast. He sarcastically
asked “Do I lack madmen, that you have brought this fellow to
behave as a madman in my presence?” Id. v. 15 Achish
let him go, and David escaped to the cave of Adullam. He may even
have been in that cave when he wrote this psalm.
What was he feeling? Remember: He was often on the
run during this phase of his life -- if not from Achish, then from
Saul. I think he would have been exulting and experiencing a sense
of relief. It’s probably becoming clear to him now that God is his
deliverer.
So that’s the
context. Now, here’s what we’re up to next (borrowed from John
Piper’s God’s
Passion for His Glory):
Our task is to study reality as a manifestation of God’s glory, to
speak about it with accuracy, and to savor the beauty of God in it.
Particular emphasis this morning on savoring the beauty of God.
II. Hearing the
call vv. 1-3
Let’s start
with vv. 1-3. What do these words do to you? Do they stir your
soul?
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!
“
Bless at all times . . . continual praise . . .
boasting soul . . . ”
David was probably rather foolish in letting himself
get into a pickle before Achish. He’s a good “stand-in” for us
as we consider the apparent foolishness of these first three verses.
“I will bless the Lord at all times.” Really? “At all times”
when I’m not muttering under my breath about the raw deal he’s
given me with this aching tooth, that ungrateful child, that
demanding boss, those tanked investments or whatever else is my
complaint du jour?
“
His praise . . . continually . . . in my mouth”?
Unlikely. There are far too many other subjects I’d rather hear
myself talk about.
But wait -- are we taking these “big” words too
much at face value -- words like “all times” and
“continually”? Are you “put off” when you read
words like that because you know that you couldn’t possibly live up
to the standard they set?
Perhaps they are better understood as referring to a
dominant mindset -- a heart and mind pointed toward God, His
greatness and His praise; a heart and a mind which, in the muck and
mire of daily living, quickly “rebound” to ongoing blessing and
continual praise when they are reminded of the pre-eminence of
Christ.
But how are we to think about
boasting? As Christians, are we allowed to do that? Listen to what
God Himself says about boasting:
Thus
says the Lord, “Let not a wise man boast of his wisdom, and let not
the mighty man boast of his might, let not a rich man boast of his
riches; but let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and
knows Me, that I am the Lord who exercises lovingkindness, justice
and righteousness on earth; for I delight in these things,”
declares the Lord. Jer. 9.23-24 NASB
Knowing the Lord -- this specific
Lord, who exercises lovingkindness, justice and righteousness on
earth -- knowing this Lord is something to get puffed up about.
And how utterly fascinating that the
Lord delights in lovingkindness, justice and righteousness . . .
much, perhaps, as we are to delight in Him.
He is worth our boasting. He is praiseworthy for these very
qualities which delight Him. Do not leave this psalm behind in your
private worship until God has given you a strong sense of how all of
this “rotates” around itself. (“The glory that you have given
me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we
are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become
perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me
and loved them even as you loved me.”
Jno. 17.22-23 ESV)
In many ways, the point of verses 1-3
is that Christ is eminently and always praiseworthy. Imagine a
person -- any person -- who deserves blessing all of the time --
praise continually. This is the Person revealed to us by these three
verses.
It is in these three verses that we find the doctrine
of the psalm: Doxology is the duty and the delight of the elect.
“
Doxology” -- “duty” -- “delight” --
“elect.” Except for “delight,” these must seem almost
unmanageable words to our unsaved friends and relatives.
C. S. Lewis once wrote that “I think we delight to
praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but
completes the enjoyment; it is its appointed consummation.”
We just can’t keep it inside. An example from Jesus’ own life
occurred when the Pharisees told Jesus to rebuke His disciples for
rejoicing and praising God with a loud voice: “But He
answered and said to them, ‘I tell you that
if these [His disciples] should keep
silent, the stones would immediately cry out.’” Lk.
19.40 NKJV This is how great God’s glory is: It must find
audible expression.
III. Examining our wants (vv. 4-7)
Key words in vv. 4 & 5: sought -- answered --
delivered -- fears -- look -- radiant -- ashamed.
Sought -- Although “seeking” is introduced
here in verse 4, it will enter in again to the meaning of verse 8,
where it is not found. We will not “taste and see” as
verse 8 urges us to do unless we seek. This simple word reminds us
that we are derived, dependent and contingent beings. We seek
because we don’t have everything we need. Seeking serves to
sanctify us in humility. And then we’ll see in verse 18 that it is
the humble who are able actually to enter into the duty and delight
of doxology.
Answered -- This is one of many arresting
phrases in this psalm: “He answered me.” Surely here is one of
those separate sermons. Just imagine that the God of the entire
universe -- the One who spoke it into being -- this One would
actually condescend to answer a mere mortal . . . and a sinner at
that. “Answered” teams with “sought” -- sought/answered.
Only the elect can apply to themselves the “answered” part of
this verse. “He answered me” is part of our “holiday at the
sea.” You don’t know what that means? Stay tuned.
Delivered -- At the root of “deliverance”
is the idea of being liberated, being set free . . . so we learn
about ourselves from this verse that we are in bondage.
To what? To sin, of course, in general -- but
specifically to our fears. From Dr. Dan Allender and Dr.
Tremper Longman III in The Cry of the Soul: “All of us fear
what we cannot control. Fear is our response to uncertainty about
our resources in the face of danger, when we are assaulted by a force
that overwhelms us and compels us to face that we are helpless and
out of control.” (p. 81) “We feel fear when core, life-giving
dreams that are the basis for our identity are threatened with
extinction.” (p. 83)
Don’t we fear the culture around us? Let me put it
this way: Betsy and I dreamed in the 1950s and even into the 60s
that we lived in a God-honoring culture. That the whole family going
to church was normal (even though neither of us came to Christ
until the 1970s). Baseball, hot dogs, apple pie, 4th of
July parades, Mt. Rushmore, Norman Rockwell paintings -- these were
all part of our identity.
And now we fear what America seems to have become.
In losing our country, we feel like we’re losing our identity. But
listen to the Psalmist:
I sought the LORD, and he
answered me and delivered me from all my fears. Those who look to him
are radiant, and their faces shall never be ashamed. This poor man
cried, and the LORD heard him and saved him out of all his troubles.
The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear him, and delivers
them.
Brothers and sisters: The gospel of peace has been
entrusted to us. By the grace of God, we bear the fruit of the
Spirit. What will our responses be in the hundreds of conversations
we’ll all have about Dallas? Will we -- to borrow from Pastor
Magee’s admonition of two weeks ago -- “unmuzzle” ourselves and
tell the truth about the horrible condition of the human heart which
leads to murder and about the glorious gospel which is the only cure
for that ailing heart? Can we be content any longer just to debate
the merits of gun control legislation?
Look -- This is “look” in the sense of
“inwardly turn toward him (and, by implication, away from yourself)
in reliance.” But there’s some degree of physicality in
this looking -- not a mere internal or spiritual reliance. Because
“those who look to him are…
Radiant” -- “beam with light.” “Radius”
-- something which proceeds out from a center. That’s the light
which falls on us from Christ, the center of the universe. This
verse reveals to us that He is the center. And is part of our
holiday at the sea.
Ashamed -- Allender/Longman: “Shame is a
flight from intimacy. It is one of our deepest fears: [that] we will
be isolated and mocked forever. . . . Shame is feeling exposed as
ugly beyond words.” (p. 51). Not to be ashamed, then, might be
like feeling beautiful beyond words in the sight of our Maker.
Look more closely: Whose faces will never be
ashamed? “Those who look on him.” There could be at least two
problems with taking these words at face value. First, we can’t
see Him. We cannot use our material eyeballs to see Him as we
normally see others. Second, this descriptive (“those who look on
him”) seems related to an act which might be external and purely
mechanical -- unrelated to heart conditions.
For clarification of “looking to him,” consider
Christ’s words to Nicodemus in John 3: And
as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of
Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal
life.vv.14-15 ESV He was referring, of course, to
the story of the bronze serpent, told in Numbers 21.4-9.
Clearly, then, “Those who look to him . . . shall
never be ashamed” is both a description of believers and
an invitation to look on Christ on the cross and receive Him as
Savior and Lord, but in the context of examining ourselves, when we
read of those who look on him, we are led to understand about
ourselves that we need a Savior and a Lord.
Verses 6 and 7 seem to come right out of David’s
immediate experience -- fleeing Achish and heading to the cave. This
stanza ends with a second emphasis on deliverance.
IV. Investigating
Christ (vv. 8-17)
This section, too, ends with a report of deliverance,
but first comes this remarkable exclamation -- “Oh, taste and see
that the Lord is good!” And this, too, is part of our
holiday at the sea. “Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good!”
Don’t you find this verse arresting also? We live
this out every time we celebrate the Lord’s Supper. That makes it
easy to take the verse for granted. “Well, yeah, sure -- I ‘taste’
the Lord every Sunday in the Supper. And, yeah, that’s certainly a
good thing. So-o-o -- will the Red Sox be on TV this afternoon?”
Do you know that it is actually possible to taste
the Lord . . . and not just in the bread and the cup of the Lord’s
Supper. How can that be?
First: I’m not going to try to lay before you
everything which this “tasting” and “seeing” might be like.
I don’t know everything myself; this is an aspect of the Christian
life which I strongly suspect that God unfolds to us in increasing
measure over many years of sanctification.
Second (paraphrasing Piper, p. 74): It is to no
avail -- it is worthless, hollow -- merely to believe that God
is good . . . that He is holy and merciful. For that belief to be of
any saving value, we must “sense” His goodness, His holiness, His
mercy. That is, we must have a true taste for it and delight in it
for what it is in itself. Otherwise the knowledge is no different
from what the devils have.
So -- does this mean that, from somewhere within
ourselves, we must “gin” up this “true taste and delight” --
swallowing often enough, as it were, that -- with clenched fists and
set jaws -- we unilaterally overcome any bitterness in the taste? No
. . . because Christ is sweet to those who know Him and whom He has
known.
Nor does it mean that we must put aside all the years
of study which we in this room carry about in our bodies as we sit
(or stand!) here this morning. Quoting Jonathan Edwards on the
relationship between knowing and sensing: “The more you have of a
rational knowledge of divine things, the more opportunity will there
be, when the Spirit shall be breathed into your heart, to see the
excellency of these things, and to taste the sweetness of them.”
(Piper, p. 74)
What might “tasting” be in this setting? How
about “experiencing” or even “embracing”? Whatever words
seem to give “tasting” a proper biblical meaning, we must keep in
mind that “tasting” is ultimately a material metaphor for an
immaterial or spiritual phenomenon. And we must keep in mind that
the world in which we live tends to dismiss such metaphors. “That’s
just poetry. It has no objective ‘meaning.’ It’s only for
your personal reading pleasure.” So we are not culturally
conditioned to grasp the full meaning and beauty of such words. We
must -- as in verse 4 -- actively seek out their meaning and their
embodiment in the person of Christ.
In order to do this, I encourage you to engage
scripture. “Engage” is not a Latin word; it comes
from the French. The root (“gage”) is something which is thrown
down (a glove, for example) to initiate a challenge to combat.
Challenge the scripture; let it challenge you.
To be sure, all of this represents a very different
way of “seeing” and a very different way of “tasting” from
the usual. It is, as I’ve already noted, not a customary way of
getting to know a person. Our human relationships grow from two-way
conversations -- “sightings” -- hand shakes -- travels together
-- tasks together (paint the fence) -- letters back and forth (even
e-letters).
Instead, our relationship with Christ depends on a
book (well, 66 books in a single binding) -- on “conversations”
(prayer) in which we speak but do not necessarily hear back -- a
washing with water (once) -- a weekly observance of a meal which
never filled anyone’s belly. These are clearly the ordained means
by which we come to “taste” and “see.” Has it ever occurred
to you that it is precisely because we cannot see the
“cause-and-effect” relationship between these means and
the end of knowing Christ that God ordained these means?
But there is more, isn’t there? There is a body --
Christ’s body -- present in this very room. In a sense, if you
speak with me, you speak with Christ; see Pastor Magee walking to his
car, see Christ; embrace Lorraine Bailey, embrace Christ; sing a hymn
with the Hendersons, sing with Christ.
V. Receiving Christ (vv. 18-22)
Doxology is the duty and the delight
of the elect.
Having heard the doctrine, what do
you do with it? What do you ever do with the
doctrines discovered in the scriptures and revealed from this pulpit?
Use doctrine to get to know Christ, as a person and not as --
Himself -- a doctrine for interesting discussions. Let the doctrine
invade your heart -- even break your heart. “The Lord is near to
the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.” v. 18
Listen again to the rest of the
psalmist’s description of God’s people. In addition to being
near to the brokenhearted and saving the crushed in spirit, “Many
are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out
of them all.” v. 19
What’s up with all this oppression?
“Brokenhearted,” “crushed in spirit,” “afflictions of the
righteous.” Ah, but these are precisely the people who have it in
them to “bless the Lord at all times,” to keep “his praise . .
. continually in [their] mouth[s].”
It’s unwise of me, perhaps, to
leave for the end (when your energy and attentiveness may be
flagging) what may be some of the closest reasoning I’ve invited
you to engage in all morning. (By “close reasoning,” I mean that
you must pay close attention to each one of the next few ideas as I
present them. “Miss” one and you’re likely to miss the whole
“thread.”)
We probably do think of ourselves as
brokenhearted and crushed in spirit and suffering the afflictions of
the righteous . . . but we often have it backwards. Oh, yes, we are
brokenhearted and crushed in spirit, but we tell ourselves that it’s
because . . . well, we are driven by the clock. We have so much to
do and so little time in which to do it. And all of our activities
are “good,” or at least “necessary” -- our jobs, keeping the
house clean and the electronic devices in working order and the
children driven to and fro and . . . you see, we just haven’t the
time for tasting and seeing that the Lord is good.
But that, my friends, is where our
happiness lies -- our fulfillment, our satisfaction. Have we excused
ourselves from the life of the Spirit and from the satisfaction which
it brings? Let me borrow from John Piper again (page 80) and caution
you to hear this carefully: You can’t love your own happiness too
much. It is impossible that anyone can pursue joy or satisfaction
with too much passion and zeal and intensity. Piper quotes Edwards:
“I do not suppose it can be said of any, that their love to their
own happiness . . . can be in too high a degree.” It can be
directed to wrong objects . . . but it cannot be too strong. C. S.
Lewis said the same thing:
If
we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering
nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that our
Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are
half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition
when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to
go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is
meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily
pleased.
Christ invites us to enjoy a
permanent holiday at the sea . . . or a skiing vacation . . . or
unlimited reading time. What would please you the most? That
(whatever it is) is He, and His glory is your satisfaction.
VI. Conclusion
Fathers and mothers, brothers and
sisters: This is your psalm; you own it. Will you claim it? Will
you devour it? Will you allow the Christ of this psalm to continue
-- right now, today -- His transforming of you by the renewal of your
mind . . . or will you be content to make mud pies in that slum which
is your old nature?
Taste and see that the Lord is good.
