Psalm 34: The Lord Is Your Deliverer in Distress

Introduction

"Who do you cry out to when you are in distress?" Finn, a pastor in training at Charlotte Chapel in Edinburgh, opens his message on Psalm 34 with this question. When you fill out a registration form, there is always an "emergency contact" box. As a child, you put your parents. He tells how, after arriving in Edinburgh to study, he still wrote down his own, even though they lived in the south of England, seven hours away by road.

The real question goes beyond forms: when you are overwhelmed by worries, when your faith meets opposition, when you struggle against temptation and sin, who do you turn to for help? David, for his part, is full of joy because the name written in his box has no equivalent. "You could have the police, the ambulance, the fire brigade and the mountain rescue all rolled into one, and David says: no, I know someone far better." The Creator of the universe picks up. The Lord is his deliverer.

Outline of the Message

1. A Psalm That Circles Around a Single Truth

Psalm 34 is an acrostic psalm: each verse begins with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Finn admits he considered writing his sermon as an acrostic before giving up on the idea.
So there is no linear structure. David circles around his main theme: the Lord is the deliverer.
The opening verses call for praise: bless the Lord, glorify him, rejoice, exalt his name together.

2. The Lord Delivered the King

The trigger for this praise is in verse 4: "I sought Yahweh, and he answered me, and delivered me from all my fears."
The title of the psalm points back to 1 Samuel 21 and 22. David is fleeing King Saul. He is given Goliath's sword to defend himself, and the only place he can hide is Gath, the city Goliath came from.
Alone and vulnerable, with Goliath's sword in his hand, he appears before the Philistine king, called Achish in 1 Samuel and Abimelech in the psalm. To save his life, he pretends to be insane: he scratches marks on the doors and lets his saliva run down his beard. The king, who already has enough madmen in Gath, sends him away.
What strikes Finn is that David does not credit his deliverance to his cleverness, but to the Lord. He recognizes that he has no resources of his own: "This poor man cried, and Yahweh heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles" (verse 6).

3. The God of the Exodus

Some details of the psalm seem strange: radiant faces that are not covered with shame (verse 5), the angel of the Lord who encamps around those who fear him (verse 7).
David's personal story reminds him of the great story of Israel. When he thinks of God's deliverance, his mind goes back to the Exodus, where a king, Pharaoh, like Achish, was made to let the people go.
The radiant face recalls Moses, whose face shone after he had spoken with the Lord. The angel who encamps around the people recalls the angel of God who accompanied the camp of Israel in the pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire.
David believes in the God of the Exodus. Because his story is the story of God's people, he invites others to sing with him: "Oh magnify Yahweh with me! Let us exalt his name together" (verse 3).

4. The Lord Delivers His People

In verse 15, the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, in the plural. Verse 17 repeats verse 6 almost word for word: "The righteous cry, and Yahweh hears, and delivers them out of all their troubles." It is no longer only David who cries out, it is all of God's people.
After Gath, David takes refuge in the cave of Adullam. All those who were in distress, in debt or discontented gather around him, and he becomes their leader. The king who has known deliverance becomes the rallying point for those who long for it.
This promise was fulfilled in Christ. Without him, we were frightened, afflicted, without hope, poor people with nothing to offer God, captives of sin, Satan and death. The deliverer heard, he answered, he acted. He did not send help from afar: he came himself in his Son.
If you recognize yourself among those in the cave, in distress, anxiety, opposition or defeat in the face of sin, "come to your leader in the cave, the Lord Jesus."
"Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but Yahweh delivers him out of them all" (verse 19). The psalm promises neither the absence of trials nor the moment of deliverance. Israel waited four hundred years in Egypt, but deliverance came, and it will come for you.
"He protects all of his bones; not one of them is broken" (verse 20) is not about fractures. Finn smiles: for a broken bone, there is a doctor in the congregation. The meaning is that God will keep you to the end. You will not be lost, you will not be defeated.
You can say "the Lord is my deliverer" on Sunday and, the rest of the week, look for your hope in a relationship, in your career or in a passing pleasure. "You say he is your Savior, but do you really believe it? Do you live as if it were true?"

5. Praise Him and Seek Him

Praise him: this is the first purpose of the psalm. If you only think about the next thing you need to be delivered from, you will struggle to find joy. Joy comes when you look at what he has already done.
"I will bless Yahweh at all times" (verse 1). Today's praise is a rehearsal for the eternal song: "We might as well start practicing now." The purest praise often comes from those who suffer the most.
Praise is lived together. The role of the Church is to lift high the name of the deliverer so that others will come to cry out to him and find salvation.
Seek him: David dialed the emergency number and the Lord picked up right away. "Don't wait for him to call you, call him." Turn your eyes to him (verse 5) and cry out to him empty-handed (verse 6). Becoming a Christian means recognizing that you have nothing to offer God and receiving everything from him through Jesus.
"Oh taste and see that Yahweh is good" (verse 8). Finn uses the image of a chocolate cake fresh out of the oven: he can describe it with fine words, but until you have had a slice, you do not know what it is worth. The apostle Peter describes Christians as those who have tasted that the Lord is good.

6. Fear Him and Trust Him

Fear him: verses 9 to 14 do not say how to be saved, they describe the life of those who have been. A teenager does something foolish, has an accident and calls his parents. They do not stay on the phone for half an hour shouting at him: they come to pick him up because they love him. Only afterward, once they are home, come the words of advice, so that he does not go back to the danger.
"Who is the man who desires life?" (verse 12). This is wisdom in the style of Proverbs: not a terror of God, but a way of living under his authority. David replaces the fear of Saul and Achish with the fear of the true king. For us too: we no longer fear people, we fear God.
Concretely: keep your tongue from evil and your lips from deceit, do good, seek peace and pursue it (verses 13 and 14). The preacher refers to a message by Paul Tripp on 1 Peter 3, where the apostle takes up these verses.
Trust him, because he sees you and hears you. "Yahweh is near to those who have a broken heart" (verse 18). The heart may be broken, but God will not let any of your bones be broken.
Trust him, because he brings justice. He acts for his people and against those who oppress them, as he did against Pharaoh. If you suffer injustice, God does not close his eyes.
Trust him, because he is the only one who can save you. The world is not divided between good people and bad people: either God is your refuge, or he is not. "None of those who take refuge in him will be condemned" (verse 22), because Jesus bore the condemnation on the cross.

7. Not One of His Bones Will Be Broken

Why does David write verse 20? He is still thinking of the Exodus: God commanded that a lamb be killed, that its blood be put on the doorposts so that the people would be spared from judgment, and that none of its bones be broken.
The one whom God delivers from judgment is thus identified with the perfect lamb, slain in the place of sinners.
The connection becomes clear in John 19. The Roman soldiers break the legs of the men crucified beside Jesus, but not his: "For these things happened that the Scripture might be fulfilled: 'A bone of him will not be broken'" (John 19:36).
John does not say that Jesus did not really die. The true righteous king, the true Son of David, was not delivered from death but through it. He died and rose again so that we would rise with him.
"The Lord saved the king so that he could save his people." He longs to hear your cry.

Key Takeaways

David does not credit his deliverance to his cleverness before the king of Gath, but to the Lord who heard the cry of a poor man.
The God who delivered the king delivers all his people: the promise of the Exodus was fulfilled in Jesus Christ.
The psalm does not promise the absence of trials, but certain deliverance and being kept to the end.
Four responses: praise him, seek him, fear him and trust him.
Jesus, the Lamb whose bones were not broken, was not delivered from death but through it, and his life guarantees ours.

Personal Application

Who is really your "emergency contact" when anxiety, opposition or sin overwhelm you?
In which area of your life do you look for help somewhere other than in God: a relationship, your work, a passing pleasure?
Does your praise depend on your circumstances, or do you remember what God has already done for you in Christ?
Have you ever "tasted" how good the Lord is, or do you stop at a purely intellectual faith?
How can the fear of the Lord change this week the way you speak, act and pursue peace?

Verses Cited

Frequently Asked Questions

In what context did David write Psalm 34?

The title of the psalm points back to 1 Samuel 21: David flees from Saul, takes refuge in Gath, Goliath's city, and pretends to be insane before the Philistine king, called Achish in 1 Samuel and Abimelech in the psalm. Sent away, he escapes. Yet he does not credit his deliverance to his cleverness but to the Lord.

What does "He protects all of his bones; not one of them is broken" mean?

Finn sees in it a reminder of the Passover lamb, none of whose bones were to be broken. John 19:36 applies this verse to Jesus on the cross. Jesus was not delivered from death but through it, and his resurrection guarantees that God will keep his own to the end.

How should we respond to the fact that the Lord is our deliverer?

The preacher draws four responses from Psalm 34: praise him at all times, seek him by crying out to him empty-handed, fear him by living according to his wisdom, and trust him because he sees, hears, brings justice and saves.