Have you ever looked back from the season of your life and you thought, I wish I would have trusted God more? Of course, yet I mean you might be that person, you’re like, I’m — I want to be like Moses and I want to like see the water part, but as I’m watching and I’m afraid it’s all just going to change in on me. You may — maybe you’re like David and you’re like, yeah, I gotta face my giant, but — but sometimes I wonder, am I really like David or am I more like Goliath, and I don’t know how it’s gonna go? When we find ourselves — we want to trust that. And then we get through those moments, we get through those times and periods where we’re afraid the water is gonna fall. We’re afraid that — that the walls are just gonna go flat. We look back and we go, if — I should have just trusted God.

See fear has a way of making us do things that we would never do otherwise. I mean, it — it clouds our judgment, it takes control, and it tells us — tells me — my fear tells me that God isn’t moving fast enough.

That’s exactly what we find David in Psalm chapter number 34. This isn’t a psalm that’s written out of victory, or David is just excited because he did the right thing. He’s not standing on a mountaintop. No. He’s looking back on a low moment of his life.

The moment in his life was that Saul was trying to kill him. Instead of seeking the Lord, David runs to Abimelech the king. And you say, well, who is Abimelech the king? I’ll give you a clue. He was the king of Gath. And if that isn’t connecting the dots for you, it’s the very city where Goliath was from. In fact, when David is running from Saul and he runs to Abimelech the king of Gath, he actually has Goliath’s sword with him. Can I tell you something? It wasn’t faith that brought David to that place. You know, if you remember correctly, David lied to get the sword. Now he has the sword, he’s running from Saul, he’s afraid for his life, and he runs to the enemy — not just the enemy of Saul, the enemies of God.

It wasn’t faith that brought David to this place. He was fear. David was terrified, and when — when Abimelech’s servants recognized David for who he is, David panics.

If you want to read the entire account, you can go to First Samuel chapter 21. It’s all there. It’s fascinating. If you don’t know it, I encourage you to read it. But the highlights are this: he panics, and he begins pretending to be insane. He starts scratching at the city gates. He lets saliva run down his beard. He goes to the city, staggers all over the place — anything to convince the king of Gath that he wasn’t a threat.

You and I might say, how clever of David. Oh, David, that was quick-witted thinking. You pivoted so fast and you did the right thing — you pretended to be insane. Some of us don’t have to pretend to — that all that hard, if we’re gonna be fair, okay? But David, you pretended to be insane, and the king just kicked him out of the city and ran him out. But David says later on that it wasn’t his quick-wittedness. It wasn’t that he was sly — no, it was that God spared him.

And in fact, that’s exactly how David tells the story. Years later David writes Psalm 34 under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. He doesn’t brag about fooling Abimelech. He doesn’t say, look at me and look how skilled I am, look how smooth I am. No. No, he doesn’t say that at all. In fact, he says this: I sought the Lord, and he answered me and rescued me from all my fears.

That’s the heart of the psalm. It isn’t celebrating his deception. It’s a testimony of a man who learned that God is faithful even when he isn’t. Hey, can I tell you something? God is faithful even when you’re not. I’ve learned — God’s faithful even when I’m not.

And I want you to catch this statement, it’s — it’s so good for all of us: fear will always tempt you to trust yourself, and faith always calls you back to trust God.

So Psalm 34 is David’s invitation to everyone who’s ever panicked, who’s ever failed, who’s ever taken matters in their own hands. And he says, let me tell you something that I learned about the goodness of God.

So would you look with me? Psalm 34, verse number one through three. It says this: I will bless the Lord at all times, his praise will always be on my lips. I will boast in the Lord; the humble will hear and be glad. Proclaim the Lord’s greatness with me; let us exalt his name together.

Notice David doesn’t say, I’ll praise when — when life gets better. Come on, that’s what we do. Hey God, I know you’re good — I’m gonna tell you how we say it to him. God, I know you’re good, but — and on the other side of this difficulty, I will praise your name. God, I know you’re good, and as soon as I get through this trial, God, I’m gonna get on the other side, and Lord, I’m gonna praise your name on the other side. And David says, no. I will praise the Lord at all times.

That praise — praise isn’t determined by circumstances. Praise is determined by who God is. And David isn’t pretending that life is easy. Because this life isn’t easy. I mean, he’s running for his life, he’s — he’s made bad decision after bad decision, he’s afraid, he’s terrified — yet in the middle of all of that, he worships God.

And it’s an important reminder for — for you, for me: the praise isn’t the result of peace. Sometimes praise is what carries us to peace. See, we think about that, we just go, Lord, when you — when you get me to that better spot, Lord, I’m gonna praise your name, Lord, out of peace and out of safety and out of the abundance of everything that’s good. God, I’m gonna praise your name. But something happens when we praise him in the middle of circumstances that aren’t going our way. So oftentimes that — praising him at all times carries us to a place of peace, whether our circumstances have changed or not.

Then you’ll notice what David boasts about. He doesn’t boast in escaping. He doesn’t boast in surviving, or — or even in himself and his abilities. No, he boasts in the Lord. One of the greatest tests of true spiritual maturity is that when God works in your life, who gets the attention? Do people leave thinking about your strength, or about God’s faithfulness? Your steadfastness, or God’s faithfulness? Your — your intelligence and your wisdom and — and your cunningness and all the things about you that — that you want to be recognized for? Or do they recognize how God carried you through faithfully, like he does, even when you’re not — even when I’m not faithful?

David says, no, no, no, I’m gonna boast in the Lord. Then he invites everyone else to join him, and he says this: magnify the Lord with me. Not because God gets bigger, or we need to make him bigger, but because David’s view of God gets bigger.

Then David tells us why he’s praising. Verse number four: I sought the Lord, and he answered me and rescued me from all my fears. Those who look to him are radiant with joy; their faces will never be ashamed. He says this: this poor man cried, and the Lord heard him and saved him from all of his troubles. The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him and rescues them.

Did you notice something? David — David said God delivered him from his fears. Not the Philistines, not — not king of Abimelech. Because David’s problem wasn’t the king of Gath. David’s problem wasn’t the Philistines. David’s problem, when we boil it down, all the way, when you really get into First Samuel chapter 21 — David’s problem was his fear.

And how often does that happen to us? To fear overwhelms us, overtakes us, leads us to doubting God — who he is, how he works. David says that fear had driven him to trust in himself instead of God. How often is this true? Fear makes us compromise, makes us panic, makes us want to control everything around us — all the narratives, all the circumstances, all the variables, even though there are far too many variables for our control. Fear makes us forget God.

But when David finally cried out to the Lord, God answered. I want you to hear this — that’s grace. And God wasn’t — David wasn’t rescued because he deserved it. No, he was rescued because God is merciful. Come on, we know how true this is. I mean, there are moments that we all look back on and we think, I should have trusted God more. And we can recall God’s faithfulness, we can recall what he did for us, how he continued to work in our lives even though we doubted him, how he continued to take us to his will and the completion of his will even when we wanted everything but —

And David says the angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him and rescues them. You and I, we might not always understand God’s protection, but the Bible promises us that we’ll never be without his — without his presence. God’s presence surrounds you even when you can’t see it.

Then David turns from testimony to an invitation. Earlier he said, magnify the Lord with me, and then he calls everyone in just a little further. And he says this, in verse number eight: taste and see that the Lord is good. How happy is the person who takes refuge in him? David doesn’t say read about God. David doesn’t say — we watch someone else’s faith. David says taste, see, and experience him personally.

And we read this verse and we just kind of read past it. Like, oh, of course, I want to taste and see the goodness of God. I mean, why would someone need to invite me to taste and see the goodness of God? I know God is good. No — sometimes what we see in this life, we doubt his goodness.

Debated about giving this illustration, but here it is. Now I have everybody’s attention. When I was a youth pastor, I — I was preaching this passage, and I was like, how do I illustrate taste and see that God is good? Because you’ve got to be looking at something that’s not good, but really it is good — because sometimes God brings things into our life that don’t look good, but they really are good. You’re gonna find out in a second why pastor Cory has been the interim youth pastor and not me. Because I decided — see, the little baby already doesn’t like the illustration — but I decided that I would take a Snickers bar. See, not too harmless. And I take a person and put them on the platform, and ask them if they trust me, and say, well, will you eat what I give you? And then, of course, they said yes. And what they didn’t know is I took the Snickers bar and I rubbed it inside of a diaper. See, I’m already losing some of you. And you say, that’s awful. Hey, let me help you out for a second, okay? That’s really describing the verse right there.

Because what happens when you want to control, and when you want to panic, and when you want to rewrite the narrative, is that you’re looking at something and you’re going, God, you’re good — how could you bring this into my life? But God, if you’re good, why would you do that? If you’re good, why would you allow this to happen? And David is saying, regardless of how everything looks, regardless of how afraid you are, taste and see that the Lord is good.

See, Christianity has never been about borrowing somebody else’s experience. Listen to me: every believer has to discover the goodness of God for themselves. Let me help you with some theology this morning. God is good whether you experience it or not. Because we know theology tells us that God is good. And at the same time, you have to experience that theological truth for yourself. It can’t just be knowledge.

I was pastoring in Missouri, and I got a — had a couple that came to our church. And they came out of an extremely legalistic background — and I would say worse than what I grew up in, and it was very abusive. And they came into our church as a young married couple, and she was expecting. And we were just helping them walk through life together, and we were discipling them, and they were just growing.

She calls me one day in tears, and she said, I’m leaving the doctor’s office and I’m on my way to the hospital, and the — she’s seven months pregnant — she said the doctor can’t find a heartbeat. So I jump in the vehicle and I drive to the hospital where she’s at. Spending some time, and we find out that the baby passed.

And knowing the background that they grew up in, I was nervous for them. See, because they had been told their whole life, you see, God’s gonna judge you, and is gonna do bad things in your life because you left this church, because you left this bad theological teaching. And so I stayed in the hospital. I think I was there for maybe 15-18 hours. And she finally delivered, and they invited me to come up in their moment when they first held the baby.

I’ll be honest with you — I didn’t know what to say. I don’t care how many years you’ve been to theological training, I don’t care how many colleges or how many degrees or how much experience you have — there is nothing to say. And I remember praying this. Hugged them both, wept with them. And prayed, God, we know that you’re good. And God, we know that you only do good. But Lord, right now we can’t see it. So Lord, would you allow us to see the good that you’re doing in this situation?

Some of you might say, well, that’s some really insensitive thing to pray. No, that’s theology. This is where theology guides us, and not our emotions and not our feelings.

They’re in church the next Sunday, two, three weeks later. Wife comes up to me, big smile, hugs me. Hugs me. She starts to cry, and I said, what’s wrong? She said, hey, we’re seeing God’s goodness right now. We’re seeing how he’s working. We couldn’t imagine this thing ever turning into good, and seeing his hand at work. But right now we’re seeing him do things that we never thought we’d ever see. Conversations that we never thought we would ever have. And God is doing something, and he really, really is good.

Hey, I’m not wishing the worst circumstance on your life, but what I am telling you is, if the worst circumstance comes in your life, taste and see the Lord is good. Hey, when you get your minor disappointment, when you don’t get that promotion, when — when your children aren’t turning out the way that you desire, and you’re ready just to give up, and they’re only in seventh grade — see, everybody that laughed had a seventh grader. Hear me: don’t throw in the towel. Say, Lord, I need to experience your goodness.

Because all too often, what we do is we say, God, you’re good when everything is good according to our sight. Oh, God, you’re good when everything is going well according to our plan. And as soon as those get altered in the slightest degree, we forget to taste and see that the Lord is good. David says, I’ve experienced his grace — now come and experience him for yourself.

And you say, but what about my heart that might be wounded? What about my heart that may be heavy? David says, take refuge in him. Notice he doesn’t say, take refuge in your ability and your plans and your resources. No, he says, run to God. And somebody might need to write this down: run to God, because the safest place you’ll ever be isn’t where life is easy. It’s where God is trusted the most.

The last half of the psalm answers a question: what does it actually look like to fear the Lord? David says the fear of the Lord isn’t merely a feeling. It’s a way of living. You see the result of that in the next few verses — verse number 11, 13, and 14. Come, children, listen to me, I will teach you the fear of the Lord. Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from deceitful speech. Turn away from evil and do what is good; seek peace and pursue it.

David says it changes your speech. Fear the Lord — it changes the choices, and changes your priorities. It says the fear of the Lord, it leads you to seek peace and pursue it. And hey, before — before you get stuck on a checklist — this isn’t a checklist, this in a — this isn’t a bunch of things that now, three more things that you add to your list that you do if you’re a good Christian. No. David’s describing the result of your heart — of my heart — being changed by God. Hey, in other words, the fear of God isn’t proven by what we say in church — it’s revealed by how we live on Monday.

And David describes one of the greatest promises in the Psalms — verse number 17: the righteous cry out, and the Lord hears, and rescues them from all their troubles. The Lord is near to the brokenhearted; he saves those crushed in spirit. And those verses have comforted believers for thousands of years. And notice who God draws near to. Not the proud. Not the self-sufficient. Not the planner, not the controller that’s going to figure it all out. No, the Lord comes near the one that’s brokenhearted, the one who knows that they need him.

David balances our expectations. He says this in verse number 19: one who is righteous has many adversaries, but the Lord rescues him from them all. He’s telling us the righteous still suffer — following God doesn’t remove difficulty. Following God changes who walks through your difficulty with you.

And then David ends with one of the greatest promises of all. He says this: the Lord redeems the life of his servants, and all who take refuge in him will not be condemned.

Hey, David’s story began with fear, and it ended with praise. Not because David was faithful — because God was faithful. Hey, can I tell you right now — you may be living the opposite of what I’m preaching. I mean, you’ve walked in with all your worries, all your concerns, your prayer lists of all your wants, your wishes, and your desires. And if God just does all of this, then you’ll praise him on the other side and everything will be okay. And in the meantime, what you’re doing is you’re allowing your fear to take you places that God has never called you to.

Listen to me. Your story may have started today with fear, but it can end with praise. Not because you’re faithful, not because I’m faithful, not because we’ve got it all together. No. Because he’s faithful. So instead of going home and saying, well, I’ve got to get it all together so that then I can praise God — no. Bring him your brokenness, bring him your pieces, bring him your doubt, your fear, your insecurity. Bring him everything, and say, God, here I am, a broken mess. What — I’m starting out with fear, but I want to end up at praise.

The passage says he comes near the brokenhearted. He said — well — Anthony, how do I live this out? How do I live out what we’re describing today? Let me tell you this: stop letting fear make your decisions. Stop letting fear make your decisions. This is really the heartbeat of Psalm 34. Fear is a terrible leader. It will always take you somewhere faith never would.

See, David didn’t end up in Gath because God led him there. No, he ended up there because fear drove him there. And how many of us are making decisions the exact same way? Not because we sought God, not because we obeyed his word, not because we prayed and God nudged our heart and led us in a direction. No. No, we’re driven someplace, we’re going someplace, we’re headed towards a destination, and it’s all because of our own fear.

And fear says, if you take control, everything will be okay. And fear says, if you protect yourself, you’ll be safe. Compromise just this once, fear says. Fear says you can trust God with a lot of things, but — but you can’t trust him with this. To bring that to our world — maybe you’re staying in a dating relationship because you’re afraid of being single the rest of your life. Maybe you’re exhausting yourself because you’re afraid you — you won’t have enough. Maybe you’re refusing to forgive because you’ve already been hurt, and your way of protecting yourself is holding all the time to some kind of bitterness to make you feel safe — when all bitterness does is make you vulnerable. Let me tell you something: fear always promises security, but it never delivers peace. So ask yourself — it’s what you’re struggling with — is this a decision driven by faith, or driven by fear?

Hey, here’s another thing you can do to live out this passage: stop carrying burdens God never asked you to carry. I mean, David finally learned something — David didn’t need to save himself. God was already at work. God was already at work. And here’s what I want to say to you today: you’ll either carry your burden, or you’ll trust the one who already carries it for you. All too often we think we can successfully carry our burden — God can just carry it better. Hey, let me help you this morning: theology tells us you can’t carry your burden. I can’t carry my burden. In fact, he is the only one that can carry it.

Some of you right now — you’re walking through life and you’re trying your best. You become experts at worrying. You rehearse the conversations that — that have never happened, you imagine the disasters that — that don’t even exist. You lose sleep trying to control tomorrow, all while God never asked you to carry tomorrow. In fact, he never asked you to carry anything. He asked you to follow him. He asked you to follow him. I want you to just dial in on that for a second: he didn’t ask you to carry the stress of your job. He never asked you to carry your financial stress or pain. He never asked you to worry about the economy. He never asked you to carry the fears of any of that. You know what he said to you? He said, pick up your cross and follow me. Follow me. That’s it. All these other things that we can’t carry, we keep adding to our lives. And David says, don’t — don’t do that.

Some of you walked into church today carrying financial pressure, carrying some family tension, some health concern, anxiety about your children, about your job, about your future — all while actually being uncertain on how to actually carry it. Here’s Psalm 34: David says run to God before you run to your own solutions, because the safest place that you’ll ever be isn’t where everything makes sense. The safest place is where God is trusted the most.

Here’s my last thought for you: make trust in God your daily habit. Hear me: make trust in God your daily habit, not your last resort. David ends this so well. He said, I will bless the Lord at all times. I’m gonna continue to bless him, whether I think everything is good or whether everything actually is good. But I know God is good, so it’s always gonna be good. David says, I’m gonna bless him at all times, I’m gonna praise him at all times. Not someday. Not when I feel the safest. Not when everything settles down. No, today.

And some people — some people only see God when the diagnosis comes. Some people only seek God when the marriage falls apart, when they lose their job, when they lose their grip on their emotions, when everything has failed them. David says this — he says, don’t do what I do. Don’t do what I did. David is saying, praise him and seek him every day. Praise him before the answer comes. Put your hope in him — you won’t be ashamed, he will come through. David says seek him before the crisis. David says trust him before the fear takes over. Because people who know God best don’t just run to him in emergencies. No, they live with him every day.

Maybe you’re here and maybe you’re struggling. You’re going to — wish I could just live the Christian life not struggling. I wish I could just live it so victorious that there were no struggles and no difficulties and no hard days. Hey, can I give you just a hard reality? The greatest testimony will never be, I never struggled. Greatest testimony may be, I struggled and I failed and I wandered and I failed and I struggled, but God never stopped being faithful. And I never stopped running towards him.

God was never meant to be your emergency contact. He desires to be your constant companion. And some of you — you’ve been running. Running from your past, running from your disappointment, running from your fear, running — running from the future that you can’t even predict. And today, God’s inviting you to stop running and start taking refuge in him. Because the safest place you’ll ever be isn’t where life is the easiest — it’s where God is trusting most.

I think all too often what happens is we start living the Christian life putting our faith and trust in Jesus to save us from our sin. And then we end up right back at this place of thinking we’ve got to figure it all out on ourselves, all out on our own. And we forget what we were before Jesus saved us: that we were lost and without hope, that we couldn’t do it ourselves, that he is the one that did all of the saving. I didn’t even know how to bring him all of my sin and all of my shame, because I wasn’t even aware of all of it. You weren’t even aware of all of it. And yet he was rich in mercy, full of love and compassion, and redeemed you and redeemed me. And if you put your faith and your trust in Jesus Christ as your Savior, he redeemed you.

And the God that redeemed you, that saved you, desires to keep walking with you — to mold you, to shape you, to look less like you, for me to look less like me, and for us to look like him.

Heavenly Father, you’re so good. Lord, would you just help us to see you. Lord, would you just help us to see you. Lord, as we sing in the moment, would we — would we see the lyrics differently? Would we see you in a completely different light? Rich in mercy and love and kindness. And Lord, in our difficulty, in our failure, in our fear, Lord, instead of running to our own solutions, Lord, would we just run to you the same way we did when we needed you to save us, Lord? Would we just run to you again — and again — and again? I pray in Jesus’ name.

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