Look to him and be radiant

 This week's study is on Psalm 34:3-10:

Magnify the Lord with me.
Let us praise his name together.
I sought the Lord’s help and he answered me;
he delivered me from all my fears.
Look to him and be radiant;
do not let your faces be ashamed.
This oppressed man cried out and the Lord heard;
he saved him from all his troubles.
The angel of the Lord camps around
the Lord’s loyal followers and delivers them.
Taste and see that the Lord is good.
How blessed is the one who takes shelter in him.
Fear the Lord, you chosen people of his,
for those who fear him lack nothing.
Even young lions sometimes lack food and are hungry,
but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.

 I've taught a couple times on verses from this Psalm. The Bible can be a bit like a precious gem sometimes, where you don't know exactly where to cut it to put it on display. Sometimes you have to try a few times to get it to shine. This is such a rich Psalm. It's funny that it was written by King David to celebrate the time when he was so desperate and oppressed that he pretended to be insane just to avoid being tortured to death.

This week's cut starts with community. Community is a great place to start! David is saying "Magnify the Lord with me. Let us praise his name together." Praise is a community thing, even if it may celebrate an individual blessing. When something great happens in your life, is it as joyous an occasion when you are alone as it is when you're among friends? We're invited to celebrate what God has done for us together as a church. Magnify the Lord with me as we continue.

David sought God's help and was delivered of all of his fears. We forget that fear can often be a big problem just on its own. Do you know how many people are paralyzed by their phobias? And we hear about people in life-threatening situations like battle, who just freeze up or turn into cowards and fail those they love. Do you have a fear you would like to get rid of?

David was in a dire situation, and he needed to be out of fear's grip. And God set him free from it all. That's no small thing. If you've ever been afraid, or suffered from anxiety and worry, you know what he is talking about.

We should look to God and be radiant, and not get clouded up by shame. David was delivered of his fear. He didn't have to behave shamefully.

Have you ever had something stressful turn out to be nothing? Have you ever gotten away with something you were sure you would have been punished severely for? You become tangibly lighter and brighter, right? You almost glow with joy and relief. You become radiant. 

When God does something in our lives, that change glorifies him. We see his grace, his loving hand helping us to realize our full potential. We are free from the consequences of our weakness. How can our faces be ashamed?

The oppressed man cried out, and the Lord heard. Oppression isn't just a one time thing. Nobody is oppressed for ten minutes on a Saturday afternoon. Oppression is a crushing burden. It is injustice prolonged. It is consistent, heavy, and cruel. David was at the mercy of a hostile culture who wished him harm. He had to humiliate himself to hide from his tormentors. 

He cried out to God, and God heard him and saved him from all of his troubles. God often steps in to save us from all of our troubles, from the things that oppress us. He can be called on to come and save us. He hears us when we cry out. Are you crying out?

He is close enough to hear us. Imagine you were important and had a protection detail camped out nearby. Would anyone give you trouble? If anyone approached you to try anything, or if anyone was hurting you, wouldn't those bodyguards come and set things straight? 

David tells us that the angel of the Lord camps around his loyal followers and delivers them. His quick reaction force is on the ridge overlooking our position, if we're loyal.

And how do we show our loyalty? How do we make sure to be close to him in the same way that he is close to us? We have to experience him fully. We have to taste and see that he is good. We need to chew on our knowledge of him, to swallow it and let it nourish us. We need to take shelter in him, not in our own coping strategies and defense mechanisms.

David tells us to fear the Lord. In other words, we need to be loyal and belong to him, the way we might belong to our family, or our spouse, or our country. We need to come looking for him. He will make sure we are taken care of. We will lack nothing.

Sometimes we think we can take care of ourselves well enough on our own. But in David's time, the most powerful creature on Earth was the lion. A lion could just take whatever he wanted. He could kill livestock, children, adults, wild animals, anything he wanted. Nothing was big enough to stop a lion. But even the lion couldn't always keep his family fed. Our span of control is the same way. We are so powerful, but our power has limits. God's does not.

So David tells us that God will chase away our fears, surround us with his grace and blessing, rescue us from oppression when we cry out, reward our loyalty with his personal protection detail, inviting us to experience him fully, and making sure we lack no good thing. Isn't that great! Let us praise his name together!