Invited to Worship

God's word invites us to worship in all circumstances and to taste of his goodness in all things. Psalm 34.

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SPEAKER_00 0:00

It is just a joy to be here with you all. If you don't know me, it may have already said this, but I'm Micah. I'm the student minister here. And I don't get to preach very often. That's okay. But I'm very thankful for the opportunity to bring God's word to you this morning. And now, if you're here the last time I preached, uh you may not know this, but that was the Sunday after Thanksgiving. And this is the last time I preached. And there's a power surge, all the power went out, and there's only one service. So I mean I had one time, one opportunity to get it right, and there at the very end, everything went wrong. And I still don't know if it was someone messing with me or if it was something I said that the Lord said, like, you don't need to be saying that. Um but graciously someone told me today, just don't say anything stupid up there. And I said, I'm gonna try my best not to. And so by God's grace, Lord willing, that won't happen today. But if you have your Bibles, turn to Psalm 34. Psalm chapter 34. And last week, Braden began a series for us this summer, uh looking at the Psalms, and we'll just kind of spend uh various weeks this summer looking at that. And so he he uh brought us through Psalm 63 last week, and this week will be in Psalm 34. As you're turning there, I'm sure at some point in our lives uh we've all been invited to something, right? Invitations are many, whether it was invitation to a wedding, invitation to a bridal shower, invitation to a graduation, invitation to a birthday party. Like we we live in a world where invitations are very normal. Um and maybe you're here today because you were invited today to come to church. And maybe uh you're a member here today because two years ago you were invited to come to Westside and you're here still. But invitations are a normal part of our life, and and when you boil it down, you know, people are invited, and people invite others because essentially they want to bring people in, people they know, people they love and care about. They want to bring them in and experience something with them. They want to celebrate something with that person, they want to bring them in. And so this psalm, Psalm chapter 34, does exactly that. David has just escaped with his life and he's worshiping the Lord. And in the psalm, we find that David isn't just worshiping by himself, but he is he's wanting to bring people in. He wants to invite us in today to worship with him, and today he is inviting us to do that. And so I've entitled the sermon Invited to Worship. And what I hope to show you today is that God's word invites us to worship despite our circumstances and taste the Lord's goodness in all things. God's word invites us, I'm not just inviting you, David is not just inviting you, but God Himself is inviting you to worship him despite any and all circumstances, and to taste that the Lord is good. Now, before we dig into Psalm 34, uh this is a unique Psalm. There's only four, so there's 150 Psalms, there are only 14 that give a very specific and direct understanding of when this happened in the Old Testament, and this is one of them. So if you look in your Bibles, if you have them, right beside 34, right underneath 34, uh you'll see a superscription, and that gives us an understanding of what's going on. And it says in my Bible, it says, of David, when he changed his behavior before Abimelech, so that he drove him out and went away. And so uh if you have cross-references, this will show you where this is, but I don't want to spend too much time on this because I want to preach uh Psalm 34 and not the actual context. Uh, but I do think it's important to get a fuller understanding of what was happening and what was going on, if it's given to us, considering that only 14 out of 150 Psalms give us this specific information of where it is, I think it deserves some special attention. So if you look in your Bibles, you don't have to go there right now, but it the story is found in 1 Samuel chapter 21, but specifically verses 10 through 15. And at this point, David has been anointed as king, yet he's not taken kingship. He has defeated Goliath, and now he's on the run from Saul. He has been loyal to Saul. He has continued to serve Saul, but now he is on the run. And at the beginning of chapter 21, we see David enter the town of Nob, and he goes to the priest, and he wants some food, and he's got some people with him, and so he goes to the priest and he asks for some bread, and so the priest gives him some show bread. But after seeing, or after getting the bread, David sees a servant of Saul, and that scares him. And he realizes that either that servant will recognize David and tell Saul, or maybe Saul happens to be near if his servant is also near. Either way, he's scared. And so he goes to the priest, and his name is Elimelech, and he asks for a spear or a sword. And funny enough, he happens, the priest himself happens to have the very sword of Goliath, the one who David had just killed before. And David's probably like, yeah, that's already, I mean that's rightfully mine. I killed that dude. I need that sword to protect myself. And so he takes the sword, and then he goes to a place called Gath, and he goes to the king of Gath named Achish. If you're not aware, Gath is actually the hometown of Goliath. And so you're already wondering, like, why are you, why are you going there? You know, if you are carrying the sword of Goliath, whom you just killed, and you're now going to his hometown, don't you think that's the last place that you'd be going to? And I'm not sure exactly why he does, but again, that's not the point of this story. The point is that when he gets there, there's a servant of the king, the servant of King Achish, who recognizes David. And so then he goes to go get the king and he tells him, hey, it's David. And then we see that that David begins to change his behavior. He starts writing something on the gates of the door, and he begins letting drool and spit come down his beard. Now I thought about doing that this morning just for, you know, just dramatic effect, but I didn't want to. And so he begins to change the behavior, and so that then the king comes out and he sees this person who, you know, his servants are like, this is David, this is the guy that we need to get. And then the king comes out and he's like, This who is this person? This guy is mad. And he's like, Why would you bring, like, we have enough mad men in our town, why would you bring me another one? And so then David disguises his behavior essentially, and then he escapes. And we see that it says after this in 1 Samuel that David departed from Gath and he escaped to a cave in a doolum. Now, what does this mean? I think this is important for us because we get to understand the emotion behind it. We get to understand the weight of what's going on. I mean, David is writing Psalm 34 from the context of having escaped for his life two times, back to back, two different places, two different experiences, near-death experiences. And so he experienced real fear. It wasn't just this made-up fear, but real, real fear. And he also experienced real extreme joy and gratitude for how the Lord delivered him. And so David then writes a song about it. And so, again, if you're here last week, Braden reminded us, but psalms are songs. And with any song, as we sing it, as we listen to it, it reminds us of something. You know, I was even thinking about that in my own life. And there's a song that was sung at my grandmother's or my granddad's funeral, first grandparent that I lost, and I was about 12 years old, uh and I remember that song being sung vividly. And I remember it to this day. And so every time I hear that song, it reminds me of that point in my life. Same thing in middle school. I remember wanting to listen to this song that would encourage me to do everything that I do for the glory of God, and it had really upbeat pitch, and uh I would listen to it in math class because the song mentioned doing everything that you do for the glory of God in math class. It was just, you know, you have these songs that remind you of things. And this song right here is sung specifically because David is remembering and recounting the Lord's goodness and faithfulness in his life to deliver him from fear. So let's look at Psalm 34. I want to read the whole thing, and then we'll look a little closer at it. Psalm 34, he 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. Oh, magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together. I sought the Lord, and he answered me, and delivered me from all my fears. Those to look 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 of his troubles. The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him and delivers them. O taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him. O fear the Lord, you his saints, for those who fear him have no lack. The young lion suffers want and hunger, but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing. Come, O children, listen to me, and I will teach you the fear of the Lord. What man is there who desires life and loves many days that he may see good? Keep your tongue from evil, and your lips from speaking deceit. Turn away from evil and do good. Seek peace and pursue it. The eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous, and his ear are in his ears toward their cry. The face of the Lord is against those who do evil, to cut off their memory, or to cut off the memory of them from the earth. When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles. The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves those crushed in spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him from them all. He keeps all his bones, not one of them is broken. Affliction will slay the wicked, and those who hate righteous will be condemned. The Lord redeems the life of his servants, and none of those who take refuge in him will be condemned. So in our time together, I want to show you that again, David is not simply praising God for himself by himself, but rather he is inviting those around him and inviting us today to join him. And I want to show you five invitations that are offered to us through Psalm 34. So, number one, we are invited to praise the Lord at all times. Praise the Lord at all times. You know, within the Psalms, most times the beginning of the Psalm really sets the tone, sets the emotions for what the psalm is going to be about. It sets the whole attitude for the rest of it. And David starts here in verse 1 by declaring that he will bless the Lord at all times and let his praise continually be in his mouth. And so the tone, the emotion is set already. It's a psalm of joy and gratitude and relief for what the Lord has done for him. And David, again, has just escaped the king of Gath and realizes just how much danger he was really in. And you may think, right, it's easy to think, yeah, David obviously was going to praise the Lord because he was delivered. It's easy in those moments of deliverance and easy in those times of apparent and very visible goodness to praise the Lord after all that. It definitely helped, I'll say that. But at the same time, David is still on the run. Just because he, I mean, he's in a cave. And so he's still on the run. He's still in unfortunate circumstances, but he's committing here to praise the Lord. What David does here is not just commit to praise the Lord today and in that moment, but he's committing to long after today, long after he leaves that cave, that he will continue to praise the Lord, that the Lord's praise will be coming out of his mouth, so that no matter what else will come his way, he will let nothing stop him from praising the Lord. And he then opens up this invitation to us. In verse 3, it says, O magnify the Lord with me. And he says, Let us exalt his name together. And so it's an invitation for us to join him. He invites you, he invites me today to magnify the Lord, to make much of his name, to glorify his name, to exalt his name. Essentially, he invites us to praise the Lord at all times. I remember growing up in elementary school, or it might have been middle school, and I remember learning about a place called the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. And I'm sure many of you guys are very aware of what that is and what happens there. Um, but at this cemetery in Arlington, there's this group of soldiers who will walk on a mat all the time, right? 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. There is this group of soldiers who will continually walk this map in order to guard the tomb. Now, I won't go into much detail, but I was able to look a little bit more into it. But what they do is intense. What they have to do beforehand to get there is intense. They have a wild shift in which they work, and in the summertimes they have a different shift. In the wintertime, it's another shift in order to prevent them from having serious injury from the heat or from the cold. But then also their time off. They are very strict in what they have to do. Uh they have a lot of maintenance for their uniforms, their schedule is just wild, and that's all very intense. But I remember one of the craziest things that I learned in that that we most of us know is that they will continue to guard that tomb no matter what the weather is. And in a snowstorm and a blizzard, in a thunderstorm and rain, they will continue to guard that tomb. And there's very, very few nuances in which they will not do that, but they're still not going to abandon the post. And what's crazy is that this has happened since 1937. They have not stopped since 1937. And I think we can all get a wonderful picture from this as we are invited to praise the Lord at all times. And I say this with all love and grace and respect, but if these guards can stand watch continuously through all kinds of weather, through all kinds of storms, no matter what's going on, to honor those who are dead, how much more? How much more can we, as God's people, continue, no matter the storm, to praise the Lord, the living God at all times, no matter what storm we go through, no matter what trial we go through, no matter what it is in life, through the highs and through the lows, through the good and through the bad, how much more should we, as God's people, praise the Lord for his goodness, because he is a living and true, the one and only God. We've all heard this, right? We we want to be people who are thankful at all times, who are people of praise at all times, that no matter what comes my way, man, I'm gonna worship the Lord. We can say that, we can sing that, and we are people who want that to be true, I would imagine. But no matter what happens, right, at the end of the day, life happens. And then what, right? Everything goes wrong. And your plans fail. The random car or your car has a random problem that you didn't expect nor did you want. Maybe a promotion that you were promised doesn't happen. Uh maybe a pay raise didn't happen. Maybe uh someone you love gets a heartbreaking diagnosis. Maybe you blow up at your spouse, right? And you blow up at your kids, and you get super angry, and then all of a sudden you don't feel like praising the Lord anymore. And life just happens, right? And then this commitment to praise the Lord just kind of dwindles. And in a matter of a moment, life can change and make it very difficult to bless the Lord at all times, to let his praise continually be in your mouth. And again, this is why we have to make a commitment. This is not a commitment that you make only at salvation. This is not a commitment to praise the Lord only one day a week on Sunday at church. This is a commitment that we make to praise the Lord at all times. This invitation to praise the Lord is also congregational. I mean, notice he says to praise the Lord together. Yes, we should seek to the Lord, or we should seek to praise the Lord on our own, individual, but at the same time, David's inviting others to join him, and so should we, with the church as God's people, as Westside Baptists, we as a church should be united. We should be persistent, we should praise the Lord at all times. This means that we praise him in the good and the bad times. This means that we as a church, we praise God through seasons of transition, but also through seasons of stability. We praise God in the highs and in the lows, together with each other. We praise God through tragedy and trials, but also through joy and gladness. And so the question is this how committed are we, how committed are you to praising the Lord at all times, no matter what happens. And we can all be guilty of letting our emotions and our circumstances dictate whether or not we will worship and give thanks. And so instead of allowing our emotions and allowing our external circumstances to determine that, we have to make a heartfelt commitment to praise the Lord at all times. And so then David moves on into his own experience of how he has seen the Lord deliver him and answer him in incredible ways. And based on his experience, he then invites us to seek the Lord for help. We see this in verses four through seven. But he begins with, I sought the Lord, and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears. And so he's inviting us to do the same thing, to seek the Lord. Maybe not just for deliverance, but for help in various things of life. This is where we find his reason for praise. Outside of the fact that God is worthy of our worship and he's going to commit to worshiping God, he's also testifying of how the Lord answered him when he called. I mean, he called and he sought the Lord, and the Lord heard and he answered him. And for that, he praised God. I think this Psalm right here specifically helps to fill in some of the gaps, maybe in 1 Samuel 21. See, all we know is that he was scared and he started acting crazy and he became a madman and he escaped. What Psalm 34 does is it tells us that, no, sometime, somewhere in that story, he took a moment and he paused and he sought the Lord and he asked for help. And now, you can make the case that was he really seeking the Lord and trusting the Lord for help if he also was acting as a madman trying to escape? You could. We won't go into that a whole lot, but I think there's both and at the same time. And he trusts the Lord to deliver him from that. But David, again, he experienced real fear. Fear of losing his life, fear of being caught. And this one, uh, this one use of the word fear is found another time in Psalm, or there's another use of that word fear, and we'll get to that later on the chapter. But this word fear here, uh, it just highlights the fact that we don't live in a peaceful, perfect world, right? We all have fears. We live in a day and age where we can be fearful for very, very different and very many reasons. Some of them are valid, and then some of them are not that valid. You may be scared of something, but but you probably shouldn't be. Maybe a little bit more serious. Parents, you may be fearful of your child ever experiencing harm or something tragic happening to them. Employees, you may fear for some reason losing your jobs. Those in relationships may fear breaking up. You may fear not making ends meet financially. You may fear not being able to provide for your family. You may fear for your own protection and own safety in different areas of life. But fear is an emotion that we all experience, and David certainly did. But he but he knew where to go to. But more importantly, he knew who to go to. So often when we need help or we are fearful, we run to all the things that are wrong. Maybe we run to all the people that are wrong. This may seem very simple, but I mean, in any any case where uh there's a serious medical emergency, say you're there, you witness it happen, you're not just gonna call your parent, right? You're not just gonna call a friend or that that stranger nearby and say, hey, come help. They may be qualified to, but in a serious medical emergency, what are you doing? You're calling 911, right? You're calling those who are adequately equipped to help. You're calling on the right person. And so it should be that when we're in need, when we are fearful, that we remember who the right person is to go to, who the right person is to call on. And we're when we're wondering how we're gonna make it through the day, when we're worried about situations in our life, we must remember that the Lord is our help, that we go to Him, that we seek Him for our help. What this means for us is that through prayer, it is through prayer that we seek the Lord. I mean, it says that David sought the Lord and was answered, which means that David prayed. David prayed to God, and the Lord heard him, and the Lord answered him. Jesus would go on to teach this in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 7, verse 7. It says, Ask and it will be given. Seek and you will find, and knock, and it will be opened to you. I mean, Jesus is telling us clearly to ask him, to seek him, to knock and expect him to open the door. And in verses 7, our four through seven continue to emphasize the listening ear of the Lord, and that the Lord has an eager desire to answer us, to listen to us, and to deliver us through what we're going through. And so that means that we go to him. That means that we seek him and we ask of him. But we have to ask of ourselves, who do you run to in times of need? I mean, what what actual person in our life do we run to instead of the Lord? Where do we search for our help? Are we guilty of not even asking for the Lord's help at all? I mean, look in look in verse six, it says, This poor man cried, the beginning of verse six, this poor man cried. This indicates a helpless dependence on the Lord. And he comes empty-handed with nothing to offer except his cry for help. And so I ask you, will you, will, will I follow that same pattern today? Coming empty handed, like a poor man, with nothing to offer, going to the Lord, seeking his help, because he is the only one who is truly able to help us in big matters and in small matters. And then after testifying to the Lord's deliverance and protection his life, he invited. Experience the Lord's goodness. This is summed up in the first part of verse 8. He says, O taste and see that the Lord is good. And so through what the Lord had done for David and delivered him out of, David had tasted for himself and seen for himself the goodness of God. And as we read this in verse 8, I mean you can't help but feel the weight and the joy and just the desire of him inviting other people in. He says, Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. He's not asking, taste and see. Do you think the Lord's good? No, he's saying, taste and see that the Lord is in fact good. And so that gets very extremely personal here. This is where you can't just simply take someone else's word for it. Instead of hearing that the Lord is good, you must taste and see for yourself. You know, the idea of tasting and seeing that a person is good may sound odd. May sound even gross. It may sound all those kind of things. But David is appealing to our sense of taste here. So for example, you know, if you're into coffee, you may know this. If not, you may not, that's fine. But coffee beans will typically have a description of them, of just what they taste like before they're grounded up, before you actually brew a pot, and it gives a description. Well, I got to work at a coffee shop when I was a senior in college, and uh I got to know a lot more about coffee, like I liked coffee, but through working at a shop, I got to really know a lot more about coffee. Well, at this coffee shop, we offered three different kinds of roast. Uh we always had like a house blend, same thing every day. The dark roast and then the daily roast. Um, and those would usually change, but then we had the daily roast, and that changed, I mean, every day, obviously. But I remember one day that I was working there and I would do the drive-thru, and this dude he pulled up and he asked what the daily roast was. And I said, Well, I don't know, let me go check. And so I look at it and I read it to him, and I said, It's it's this or whatever. And he's like, Okay, what does that taste like? I was like, Well, and I look at the description, I'm like reading one thing after the other, and like some of these expressions are like nutty, bold, rich, maybe fruity, like all these kinds of things, just trying to explain what this coffee actually tastes like. And that didn't help him one bit. And the reason is because there's a difference in just hearing a description and hearing what it might taste like versus actually tasting it and seeing, is it good? Again, for example, hearing the words peanuts and glucose syrup, palm oil, sugar, water, skim's milk powder, salt, milk fat, whey powder, that does not sound nearly as good or nearly as appetizing as just eating a Snickers bar. Right? Now, many of you maybe don't ever want to eat a Snickers bar again because you hear that and you think, I didn't realize all that was in there. But the point is that we can just we can try to describe food as best as we can, but until one actually tries the food, until one actually tries it for themselves, they will never know how it actually tastes. Let me tell you that someone may hear, maybe you're here today and you don't understand this, but but you may hear that the Lord is good, but it's not until you taste and see for yourself that you will actually know the Lord's goodness. You know, when thinking about this, we live in a day and age where good is subjective, right? A TV show for someone may be good and they really enjoy it, but for the other person, it's really bad. It's actually not a good show. And so it's subjective, right? But when it comes to the Lord's goodness, there is no subjectivity. The Lord is objectively good. Again, he says, taste and see that the Lord is good. He's not asking a question. He's not wanting you to see and taste and decide, is the Lord good? No, he's saying you taste him, you see, and he will be good. Because he is good. Psalm 119, 68 tells us that you are good and do good. Teach me your statutes. I mean, God's word, if we if we hold God's word as our source of authority and truth, then we can trust that when God's word says that he is good, that it's true and that there is no question. But the reason why some of you may say that the Lord is good and why that while others won't, is due to the fact that many people have yet to taste the Lord's goodness and their taste buds are off. Those who are dead in their sins and want no part of Christ and don't see his goodness, they don't desire it. You know, I think back to COVID-19, whenever the disease was spreading and all these symptoms were trying to be figured out. I remember one of them, the big symptom was you lost your taste and your smell. It's because you were sick. And hopefully for most, I've heard of some people who never got their taste back or whatever. But for most people, whenever you got over the sickness and through it, you got your taste back. Well, I think it's similar. Much in the same way, our sin nature causes us to not be able to taste the Lord's goodness naturally. We can't taste the Lord's goodness on our own. And it's for this reason that Jesus came to us. He came because he realized that we couldn't see his goodness on our own. And so he had to come to us in flesh to live a perfect life, to die in our place. And he came not to just restore our taste buds, but no, he came to totally give us new taste buds. He came to give us a new sight to where when we experience the Lord, we see just how good he is. And it isn't until you recognize your sinful nature and how bad off you are, apart from Christ, that he becomes sweet and that the work that he's done for you becomes good. Therefore, the gospel, good news. So often we can be guilty of this. The church can be guilty of tasting Jesus, letting it look like I'll come to church once a week on Sunday, and I'll get my fill on Sunday. In terms of tasting, people, we will eat junk food all week, but then we'll come to Sunday and get our Sunday salad and expect that we'll be healthy, right? Now, not just, you know, physically, it doesn't work. It doesn't work spiritually either. You can't go all week and eat bad meals and junk food to eat one good meal a week and feel like you're healthy. One healthy meal does not negate a week full of junk food, a week full of bad food. And that's true for us physically, but it's even more true for us spiritually. We must seek to taste and see the Lord's goodness day in and day out. And we do that through going through his word, through looking at his word. I mean, God has designed it for some reason for us to hear and to read and through those means of seeing the goodness of the Lord. And hearing sermons and hearing God's word preached, we we hear and we see the goodness of the Lord. One sermon on Sunday, though, is not enough to nourish you all week. And so through spending devoted time in his word, in prayer, meditating and memorizing, we are better able to taste and see for ourselves the goodness of the Lord. And then David would continue to write about how he saw the Lord's goodness on display as he describes further how the Lord was a refuge for him and a provider for those who fear the Lord. And so in verse 11, we see a tone, we see it kind of shift as he invites people to come in and to listen to him. And in these set of verses, David will invite us to ultimately, number four, fear the Lord. Fear the Lord. Verse 11, he says, Come, O children, and listen to me. And so he's kind of pausing from his flow and he says, Come in. Draw near, listen to what I have to say. He wants to teach them. He wants to teach them the fear of the Lord. This is where we come to the other use of God's or of the word fear. And it's the fear of the Lord. It's not a fear where we are scared and we we need to be delivered from, but no, it's a fear where we honor and revere and respect the Lord so much so that we want to live obediently to the Lord. David lists out these practical ways for us in verses 12, 13, and 14. Just telling us practical ways in which we can obey the Lord and live a righteous life. And we see this constant theme in verses 15 through 19 about living a righteous life and then the Lord paying attention to your life. You know, as children of God, we must hear the words of David here as he says, Come, O children, listen to me. We must hear that as God's own words. Saying, son or daughter, come in. Draw close and listen to what I have to tell you. And of all the ways of knowing and learning the fear of God, it's summed up in two things. In what we say and what we do. That's how to live wisely. That's how to live a righteous life. That's how you live in the fear of the Lord. He commands that we guard our tongues and that we guard the words that we say. He commands that we turn away from evil and that we look to do good. And so in fearing the Lord and living obedient to him, there is both a turning away from and a turning to. In fearing the Lord and living righteously, there is a beautiful promise of knowing that the eyes of the Lord are toward them. We can trust that based on his word, that his eyes and his ears are inclined to those who will live in the fear of the Lord and live righteously. And he's looking and listening for us, and he desires to help those who will live righteous. And it says that his face is against the wicked. And lastly, David ends this psalm of praise by inviting us to trust the Lord for refuge. Number five, trust the Lord for refuge. David takes the time to acknowledge the fact that living a wise and righteous life does not mean a life free from affliction. Rather, the opposite is true. He informs us that the righteous will have many afflictions. It says in verse 19, many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him from them all. And we have the assurance that the Lord will deliver us, maybe not immediately, but he will ultimately. These verses teach us that there will be a day when the wicked will actually suffer affliction themselves, that they will be the one who are condemned as guilty before the Lord. However, unlike the wicked who die from affliction, the righteous servants of the Lord will be the ones who are redeemed. And we see that those who take refuge in him, it says, will not be condemned. In verse 22, it says, The Lord redeems the life of his servants, and none of those who take refuge in him will be condemned. See, there's a clear distinction between people in this. There's only two categories. You have the righteous and you have the unrighteous. You have the wicked. And the wicked ultimately trust themselves for security. They look to their own abilities, they look to their own strengths for this refuge and this protection in this world. While the righteous, they know that they will they'll see affliction, they'll see evil things happen, but they know that their true refuge, their true salvation is found in only the Lord. Last night, Megan and I were able to go to a wedding, and uh, by God's goodness, truly the Lord's goodness, at the very end of the ceremony, uh it started raining. And by that point, though, the the bride and groom, they got to walk off, and I mean, literally like a minute later, after they walk off, it just comes a downpour. So everybody's like scurrying into the building, and obviously like, you know, that's that's just what we do. Whenever the storms come, when the rain comes, we go for refuge. We seek out shelter. And I was thinking about that. I was thinking about just you know, shelter and refuge. And I thought with, you know, even with this, you know, I could have easily grabbed an umbrella yesterday and just grabbed an umbrella and stood outside and just claimed, I'm fine. This is my refuge. This this umbrella is my shelter, right? But then beside me is this nice, beautiful structure of a building with a roof and walls that would have protected me a whole lot more. I can promise you, I didn't stand out in the rain with an umbrella just for this point. But the point is that we can claim, we can claim a lot of things as our shelter, can't we? Right? We see a lot of things in this world and we we say, and we just think, maybe not verbally, but we think, man, that's where I go to. That's my safe place, that's where I want to go to. And maybe social media is our refuge. And we just go to escape reality, we go to escape the world. Maybe it's it's escaping reality, or maybe it's holding a certain position in this life and having a certain role or a certain status, maybe it's having a certain amount of money in the bank account. There's so many areas in our life that we can run to as our refuge and as our shelter. But David is inviting us to trust the Lord. And our shelters may look different person to person, but the true shelter, the true refuge is found in the Lord. And in the context of this Psalm, David was living righteously, and affliction awaited him. Yet he trusted the Lord to be his shelter. And he trusted the Lord to be his refuge. In finding refuge in the Lord and escaping condemnation, it finds its way again in Romans chapter 8. Romans 8, 1, it says, There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. That's a beautiful verse. And it shows that from Psalms 34 to Romans 8, we see that there is only salvation found in one person, one refuge, one shelter, and that is Jesus. And it is only through taking refuge in Christ that we no longer stand condemned. Ultimately, this passage would point to a day when salvation would be offered to all people through the work of Jesus. Ultimately, that Jesus is the true righteous one, and we are the wicked ones. We were deserving to be slain by affliction and receive just condemnation for our sins. But Jesus would come and stand in our place. And he would receive the condemnation that we deserved as wicked, sinful place or people, so that because of what Jesus has done, we can then stand in his place and be called righteous. And and be declared not guilty. And receive no condemnation. See, if you find your refuge in the Lord, that is you. Not condemned. We all take refuge in someone or something, and just as David did, we should seek refuge in the Lord. David doesn't just simply write this as informational. David writes this as invitational. He's inviting us to something. He wants the humble to hear and be glad. He wants the righteous to join him in magnifying and exalting the Lord. Again, God's word is inviting us to worship him at all times, no matter the circumstance, and to taste the goodness of God in our lives. And as we close, I want to ask you, believer, specifically, will you commit today to praise the Lord at all times? You're going to fail, you're going to sin, you're going to mess up. But we have to commit again over and over and over to continually praise Him. To let praise come out of our mouth. And though this won't come naturally or easily, it is a choice that we have to make. Will you daily seek to refresh yourselves with the goodness of the Lord? Will you taste and see for yourself every single day, every single morning, or whenever you read, to see that the Lord is good? And I encourage you to do this by opening up his word and seeing his goodness and beauty through the scriptures themselves. If you were to answer honestly, where do you find your refuge? Is it in having the control, right? If you have control of a situation, you feel safe. You feel secure. But what happens when that goes away? Financial security, being able to live with a certain level of comfort is your refuge in your own abilities, in your own skills, in your own strength, in your own knowledge and intellect. If it is, what happens when all of that goes away? And when you remember that the Lord is your refuge, you don't have to seek it anywhere else or in anyone else. Unbeliever in the room. With a crowd this size, I know that there are not just all believers here. And I ask you, who is your refuge? It says that none of those who take refuge in him will be condemned. And so there's only two options. Those who will be guilty for your sin and stand condemned and eternally separated from God, or you can accept the work of Christ for you on the cross, paying for your sin, taking your condemnation, and placing your faith and trust in Him and seeing Him as a refuge. Because if you find refuge in Him, you will not be condemned. Because there is, therefore, now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus. With any invitation you receive, whether it's for a wedding or for a party or for today, you have to answer, right? You have to say yes or no. Are you going to go or are you not going to go? Are you going to respond or not respond? Are you going to choose to make these commitments or not? And with any invitation, by not choosing anything, is an answer. And it's you saying no. And so this morning I invite you to respond to the invitations that God's word has given us. I'm going to pray and we'll sing one last song. Lord, we thank you so much for your word. God, we we thank you for who you are. God, you are a good God. And I pray that this morning through your word, that God, we will have tasted and seen for ourselves that the Lord is good. Father, I pray for the believers in this room that, Lord, they would be just renewed and encouraged in their commitments to praise you at all times. God, to seek your face, to go to you in prayer, to taste and see that you are good and that they will pursue that every single day. God, may they fear your name and live a righteous and obedient life. Father, may they seek you and trust you for refuge in this world. God, I know that you are a God who loves to seek out the lost and to save. And so I pray that, God, for those who are lost today, for those who do not have their refuge in you, God, I pray that you would open their eyes, that God, you would give them a taste of your goodness, that you would restore that to them, God, and give them a new taste and help them to see that you are good and that you do good. And God, we thank you for the work of Christ in making a way for those who do not know you, for those who are lost, to come to you, Father, and be found. And I pray that you would do that work today. Or I pray that as we sing, as we respond, that God, you would move and work in people's hearts and in their lives, and that you would be honored for the way that we respond to your invitation. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.