O taste and see that the Lord is good!

Sermon Notes from Sunday 18 January 2015

Psalm 34

verse 8 “O taste and see that the Lord is good, blessed is the man that trusteth in him.”

David here reiterates the sentiment of Nahum the prophet in chapter 1 verse 7 “the Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble and he knoweth them that trust in him.”  That is our motto verse we are taking into 2015.  We go into this year with this timeless thought on our hearts today from the prophet Nahum and the lips of the Psalmist David.  Have you ever known the Lord to fail?  The Lord is good.  We have the testimony of the living God here as we go into 2015 with a God of love behind us.  He will be there.  When something happens I can be sure the Lord is my stronghold.  He is there for me to shelter in.  He promised that to me and to you in 2015.  As we sit here today the Lord knows those that are his, knows that you are a child of his but he also knows the unsaved man or woman.  There’s a line that runs through this building, it is the line of God.  It is very significant.  The only one who can see that line is God himself.  On the one side there are those who are saved and on the other there are those who are not.  Only God knows your heart and my heart today.  I could be the biggest bluffer today, open up the word of God, preach from it and yet not be saved.  The Lord is good.  As the young man who came to the Lord once say said “good master” and Jesus turned to him and said “there is none good but God himself.” (Mark 10 verse 18)  Psalm 34 is a song of a personal experience that the Lord is good – verse 8 “O taste and see that the Lord is good, blessed is the man that trusteth in him.”  Have you tasted, proved that the Lord is good?  You cannot prove it until you taste, until you take him as Saviour and Lord.  It is not a touch of the tongue but a casting our all on the Lord, casting everything on him for he cares for us.  Have you tasted to see that the Lord is good?  It stems from the experience that is personal to him.  Only God could surround his life.

God is good in his faithfulness.  David found that out even as a young boy sitting on the mountainside guarding the sheep, such a mundane job yet God hadn’t forgotten him.  He was able to retrieve the lamb that had wandered away from the flock.  Verse 6 David reveals his poverty to help himself.  “This poor man cried.”  We are in poverty of heart.  Verse 18 “The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.”  We don’t have to hold the view that we must be sad, cast down for God to help us. God doesn’t want us like that.  In 2 Kings chapter 4 a woman came to the prophet Elisha discouraged, cast down.  Her husband was dead and she was in poverty.  She had debts beyond number.  There were 2 sons in her house and the man to whom she owed the debt had the power to take them away, to make them his servants to pay off her debt.  She comes to the prophet Elisha, doesn’t know what way to turn.  This was the day of trouble for her.  She found God was faithful.  Elisha asked her “what have you got in your home.”  She replied “nothing except a cruise of oil.”  The prophet told her to go home and borrow as many vessels as she could then take the oil and pour it into all the vessels.  The woman went back home and did as the prophet had said.  When the last vessel was full the oil stopped flowing.  She went and sold all the vessels and paid off all her debts and lived on the remainder.  God was faithful to her.  Do you think God was going to turn his back on her?  Remember Lot how he lived in Sodom, was part of the government there?  He had a godly upbringing but Abraham his uncle never stopped praying for him.  God delivered Lot because Abraham was faithful in his prayers for him.  God is faithful.  When he rained judgement on Sodom God took Lot by the hand and brought him out of the city.  Jonah was given a message from the Lord and what did Jonah do?  He ran in the other direction.  He was running away from God.  He didn’t want to own up to it, to account for it.  Did God turn his back on him that faithless prophet?  He didn’t do what God wanted him to do.  Did God allow him to sink in to the depths of the sea and drown?  No.  Why?  Because God was faithful to him.  He proved this verse – “this poor man cried and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his troubles.”

God is good in his forgiveness.  God has seen our coldness, our apathy.  Just like Jonah we are not doing what God wants us to do.  There are things we should have done but didn’t do.  Maybe others haven’t seen it but God has seen it.  God comes and asks for repentance.  “If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”  David cried unto God of heaven.  He doesn’t forgive some things and not others.  “I sought the Lord and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears” verse 4.  If he had sat down and showed God all the fears in his heart would God have delivered them all?  Yes God forgives all your sins, there is not a sin God cannot forgive.  “This poor man cried and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his troubles” verse 6.  What trouble are you in today?  “Many are the afflictions of the righteous but the Lord delivereth him out of them all” verse 19.  The woman in the gospels caught in the act of adultery was paraded before the whole city for all to see.  The people who brought her to Jesus were very proud, kept the law to the last letter.  They told Jesus “the law says we should stone her to death but what sayest thou?”  The Lord was standing looking at all that was going on.  The Bible says he started to write in the sand then he looked at the crowd and said “let that man that hath no sin let him be the first to cast the first stone.” (John 8 verse 7)  When Jesus looked up again he asked the woman “where are thine accusers.”  She told him there were none.  The Lord told her “neither do I accuse you nor condemn you, go and sin no more.”  God was drawing a line under her sin, forgiving her sin but he told her to sin no more.  Perfect forgiveness, complete forgiveness, condemned no more.  The Lord on Calvary as he suffered in agony and pain there were those who were reviling and cursing him.  He said “Father forgive them.”  God is good in his forgiveness.  In 2015 there will be times when we will falter and fail, there will never be a time when we cannot find forgiveness for true repentance.  When we come before him, cry out for true forgiveness he will forgive.  Thank God for that.

God is good in his favour.  God shows his favour to us.  “The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous and his ears are open unto their cry” verse 15.  Jesus is our mediator.  He is the one seated at the right hand of God, the one who intercedes on our behalf.  He takes what is in our heart and brings them before his father.  David proved in his fears and troubles God was there to bring favour to his life.  We have a faithful, forgiving God but also a favourable God.  How wonderful it must have been for the pilgrims coming out of Egypt, what a tremendous sight it must have been to see the pillar of fire that they could depend upon.  This was the presence of God showing favour to them all the time even when they complained and criticised.  God showed favour to them.  God was there all the time, even there at the Red Sea when all seemed helpless and hopeless.  Moses didn’t have the answer.  God wasn’t going to lead them out to abandon them there.  God opened up the sea and made a way when there was no way.  There will be times when we come against a brick wall, not know which way to turn, maybe there will be those ready to criticise us, ridicule us, condemn us but Paul said to the Corinthian church “let me tell you God will not allow you to be tempted above that which you can bear, he will make a way of escape.”  He showed favour to the Israelites just at that moment.  He opened up the way and they walked across on dry ground.  God will show his favour to you and I in 2015.  Matthew 10 verse 29 “are not 2 sparrows sold for a farthing and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father.”  He goes on to say that the very hairs of our head are numbered.  Why would we be afraid?  Why would be worry when we have a God like that?  As we go into 2015 we are precious to God.

God is good in his fortune.  “The young lions do lack and suffer hunger but they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing” verse 10.  Thank God today that the good thing God has been speaking about he knows it.  He will make sure you lack nothing.  Hezekiah, a man of God, no other king like him in the Kings of Judah, got up one morning to see the hosts of Assyria coming against him.  The first thing Hezekiah did when he came to the throne was open up the house of God.  The devil didn’t like that, the devil was able to muster the Assyrian forces against Hezekiah.  Did God forget Hezekiah?  No he didn’t.  God sent his angel and defeated the Assyrian forces because Hezekiah had his God with him.  “The Lord is good a stronghold in the day of trouble and he knows them that are his own.”