Greetings to you all in the name of our Lord and savior Jesus

Christ.
Let us look to God in prayer. Lord as we listen to your word today we
ask you to speak to each one of us. We open our hearts and minds to
receive your word. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.

For today’s brief mediation I have chosen Psalm 34. As we all

know Psalms are very special and they are very unique. They are
beautiful songs and poems written by people who experienced God’s
power in their life. They come out of people’s experience of happiness,
sorrow, joy, thanks giving, and anger and so on. That’s why psalms are
very meaningful as they are very much similar to our experience. This
psalm 34 is a Psalm of David. He sings this psalm after experiencing
God’s saving power in his life.
If we look at the background of this Psalm it takes us back to
1Samuel 21verses 10 to 15. Here we see that David runs away from Saul
and goes to Gath, where Achish was the king who was also known as
Abimelech that signifies that he was a king of Philistine. Gath, where
David fled for shelter, was the native place of Goliath. So it was a place
of his enemies as he had got victory by defeating Goliath. So the people
of Gath hated him. So when they recognized David they brought him in
front of the king as their enemy. But here we see that God gave David
the wisdom and David behaved insane in front of the king. Looking at

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David the King said that this man is insane and asked the servants to
take him away and leave him. This is how David was saved by God
from the Philistine. And in response to this experience David sings this
Psalm to thank and praise God.
Today we will meditate upon the 1 st 10 verses of Psalm 34. Psalm
34: 1-10 has two main parts. It opens with a hymnic introduction,
praising God and calling upon others to join in glorifying God and the
second part offers a testimony to the goodness of God, and the Psalmist
tries to share the fruits of his experience with his fellow-worshippers.
In verses 1-3 David summons to magnify the Lord. In v.1 David
says, I will bless the Lord at all times and His praise shall continually be
in my mouth. Here David expresses his intention to thank the Lord not
only on the occasion of a special deliverance but at all times. It requires
a firm trust in God to make such a faith affirmation. Because life was not
always easy for David. In his early days he was constantly pursued by
Saul, then by his own son Absalom and so on and came across number
of life threatening situations. But David never failed to put his trust in
God. There were times when David failed miserably, but even that did
not discourage David from putting his trust in God. He was still able to
praise God in his adversity. And that’s a challenge for us today.
In verse.2 he says my soul makes its boast in the Lord. Let the
humble hear and be glad. Here is the king of Israel, who has a tough
army at his disposal and untold wealth and splendor and majesty of his

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kingdom saying my soul boasts in the Lord. David was not proud about
what he had but rather he takes pride in whom he has in his life, who is
God. He knew his beginnings, he knew that he was a simple shepherd
boy who was chosen to be the King of Israel by God. But unlike David
many a time we take pride in our talents, wealth, knowledge and power
forgetting that it is God who made us to be whom we are now.
After praising God in first two verses, in V.3 David invites the
people to magnify God with him, to exalt God’s name together. Here he
stresses the need to praise God together. That’s something very
important in our journey of faith. Many a time our prayers and thanks
giving are very individualistic. We just thank God for what he has done
in our life and in our family. Neither we share what God has done to us
with others nor we thank God for what God has done in others life. But
it is always good to come together to praise God for what God has done
in each one of our lives.
In V.4-7 David shares his personal experience of how God heard
his prayers and helped him in his troubles. V.4 says, I sought the Lord
and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears. Every time
when David was in trouble and when he called on to God, God rescued
him, be it from the hands of Saul or his own son Absalom or any other
threats he faced. God never let him down. There were times when he
faced death in its eyes but God miraculously saved him time and again.

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And that’s why with all certainty he could say in V. 5. Look to him, and
be radiant; so your faces shall never be ashamed.
One thing David knew for sure in his life is that God never lets
down those who look to God. Our God is a God who hears us and who
answers us. No matter what we are going through, no matter how
difficult is our situations when we call upon God, God will never put us
to shame. Once again in v.6 he shares his experience that when he cried
unto God, God saved him from every trouble. He reaffirms what God
has done in his life. And in v. 7 he beautifully describes a great truth that
you and I need to remember always.
He says, the angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him,
and delivers them. We are not alone in our struggles, in our pain, in our
agony. Many a time when we face any difficult situations we panic
thinking we are left all alone. But that’s not the truth. Our God is always
with us. Our God always walks with us in all our situations. That’s why
in Psalm 23. Verse 4, David says, Even though I walk through the
darkest valley, I fear no evil; for you are with me and this is the truth. To
realize this we need to experience it. Today I would like to invite you
like David to taste and see God’s goodness. For v. 10 says, the lions may
go hungry and week but those who fear the Lord and those who seek the
Lord will not lack any good thing. When we put our trust in God and
when we seek God in our lives no matter if red sees and Jordans are
before us, it may intimidate us, it may make us feel there is no way out

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for us but I tell you our God will walk us through it as Israelites walked
between the walls of water of the red see.
Therefore the message that I want us to take today as we move out
from here is the assurance that our God is with us, for God is Emmanuel,
the Lord with us. In our lives there will be times of difficulties,
struggles, dangers, trials but even then we should trust and believe that
God is there to protect us, to rescue us and to guide us. It is through our
faith in God that we can experience the deliverance of God in our lives
as David did. When we receive this deliverance from any situation we
should take a lesson from David’s life to praise and thank God for God’s
doings and not only to praise God by ourselves but also invite others to
praise God with us, because God is worthy of all our praises.
So let’s live the life with faith, confidence and assurance of God’s
ever abiding presence with us. May God bless us.

Let us pray, Lord we thank you for speaking to us today. We are sorry
that we often take your blessings for granted and do not thank and praise
you for it. Lord we offer you our praises for all that you have done for
us. Give us a heart of thanksgiving and praise so that we can praise you
in all situations. Help us believe that you are with us in every situation of
our lives. Thank you for being so faithful to us. In Jesus’ name we pray
Amen.