During Lent, we’ll be looking at Psalm 34 as one way to move
from Ash Wednesday to Easter. In Hebrew Psalm 34 is an acrostic (but I haven’t
been able to find out what the Hebrew letters would spell). It is also noted as
being a Psalm for deliverance “of David, when he feigned madness before
Abimelech, so that he drove him out, and he went away.”(If you look in 1 Samuel
21:10-22:1 you’ll see that the king’s name was Achish. Abimelech, according to
commentators, seems to be a royal title, like king or prince, used by
Philistine royalty.)
We’ll look at the Psalm in sections, because I see a pattern
in the psalm similar to the ACTS prayer. Come along on this exploration and see
if you agree that you could identify verses of the prayer as
Adoration-Confession-Thanksgiving-(Intercesssion)-Supplication.
We start out with verses 1-3. Keeping in mind that David is fleeing
for his life both from Saul and perhaps from danger in the Philistine court, it
is interesting that the Psalm opens with words of Adoration. David says:
I will
bless the Lord at all times;
his praise shall continually be in my mouth.
My soul makes its boast in the Lord;
let the humble hear and be glad.
O magnify the Lord with me,
and let us exalt his name together.
his praise shall continually be in my mouth.
My soul makes its boast in the Lord;
let the humble hear and be glad.
O magnify the Lord with me,
and let us exalt his name together.
How much easier would it
have been to start ranting at God? I probably would have been saying, “Why me?
I never asked for any of this. I was happy as a shepherd in Bethlehem. Now I’m
an exile and cannot even go home!” Or maybe blaming God…”It’s all Your fault.
If Samuel hadn’t come and poured that oil on me, I’d still be happy at home
with my parents, a wife, and babies. Now I’m running for my life, like a dog.”
David, though, starts out
with words of Adoration, praise and blessing. He calls us to “exalt His name
together.” Lent isn’t necessarily a time when we think of Adoration. That’s kind of a Christmas feeling, isn’t it? “Come let us Adore Him, Christ the Lord.” It’s easy to adore when there’s a sweet, ‘adorable’ infant. It’s a little harder when things go wrong. In Lent, we look down the road to Jerusalem. Jesus knew where he was going and what awaited, but he ‘set his face to Jerusalem’ (Luke 9:51). Let us, then, with our Lord look toward the difficulties in our lives by turning to God in Adoration.
Paul reminds us in Romans 8:31-39: “What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else? Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? It is Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For your sake we are being killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered.’ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Because we have God on
our side, we can say with David, “his praise shall continually be in my mouth”.
Let’s start our Lent journey with Adoration!
Next week, we will
consider what part Confession plays in our journey and in David’s psalm.
