Psalm 34 - Brokenhearted & Crushed

“Brokenhearted & Crushed” — Psalm 34 — March 31, 2019

During this season of Lent we have been spending time in the Psalms. The Psalms are not merely a collection of poems of the Hebrew people, they are a collection of songs that resonate with us because they are unabashedly honest in the struggle of life. They are ecstatic reflections on God’s goodness in the face of man’s sinfulness. They give us a vocabulary and a model for how we can come to terms with the stuff of life. This is the beauty of the Christian faith. We don’t merely worship a God who is entirely otherworldly—as though he flung the stars into space and sits back and watches. This, however, can often be our experience.

But what we will see today is that the Christian faith is one of experience. It’s too common to draw a hard and fast line between the seen and the unseen. What I have been at pains over the last year and half in our existence as a church is to show how the unseen is seen in the the seen. It is not one of separateness. Rather, it is, as the Apostle Paul says, the great mystery of Christ in you. The hope of glory is not distant. It is in you. How is this the case? It happens in every single conversation you have—Christ is there. Every sadness—Christ is there. Every victory—Christ is there. Every moment of everyday—Christ is in you. It is imperative for us to recognize this beautiful and fearful truth.
A couple weeks ago in Psalm 27, we considered how our fears can be defeated. I mentioned two very pivotal pieces: A Surpassing Beauty and A Greater Love. That is, when we see God in the face of Jesus Christ, we are so overcome by his love and compassion for us that we are driven through our fear. We are able to move forward even though we are afraid. Our psalm today gives us a third way to combat fear: A Greater Fear. One of the reasons we are paralyzed with what people think of us is because we have made their acceptance and love of more importance and value than God’s opinion of us and importance to us.
We can talk about grace and love and acceptance, but it’s when we leave this place and talk to other people…that’s when we really see what the motivating force in our lives is.
Psalm 34.1-14
This psalm was written after the Lord saved David out of the hand of the Philistine King named Achish. The name for the Philistine King was Abimelek—which means “my father is king”—like a title of Caesar. You can read more about this in 1Sam 21. And this psalm is one of deep reflection. This psalm is an acrostic psalm. Each verse in this psalm begins with a succeeding letter of the alphabet. Picture David in a cave writing out this psalm. What this communicates is a deep reflection. It signifies completeness. It could also be used to teach others…succeeding generations. More in a minute, but our experiences are meant to be shared.
(1) Not alone in your struggle.
I wish had all the time to walk through this line by line. I’d encourage you to do that at home tonight. Read it out loud. Slowly. Listen to David. Listen to God. This psalm—like the Christian faith—is meant to be experienced. You see this throughout the psalm. When we are struggling, we can often feel like we are alone. In fact, we gravitate toward it. We have to fight the tendency we all have to try to get our life together and then we’ll let people in.
The truth is, letting people in frees you from having to get it together. What we see in this psalm is that we are never alone. What you’re going through. I promise, someone else has gone through it. That never minimizes the struggle. But it spreads out the weight of it. If you try to carry it on your own and think that you were meant to, it will crush you. And you can hear someone in this church telling you—whatever you’re carrying—I have been there. Whatever weight is laying on your chest right now, know that there are others to help carry it…if you will let them know.
(2) Need a Greater Fear
We all are afraid of something. What will drive you through that fear is a greater fear. Picture the great lion Aslan. Our great call is to come to God to satisfy us. Hear this from the Chronicles of Narnia story The Silver Chair:
“Are you not thirsty?" said the Lion.
"I am dying of thirst," said Jill.
"Then drink," said the Lion.
"May I — could I — would you mind going away while I do?" said Jill.
The Lion answered this only by a look and a very low growl. And as Jill gazed at its motionless bulk, she realized that she might as well have asked the whole mountain to move aside for her convenience.
The delicious rippling noise of the stream was driving her nearly frantic.
"Will you promise not to — do anything to me, if I do come?" said Jill.
"I make no promise," said the Lion.
Jill was so thirsty now that, without noticing it, she had come a step nearer.
"Do you eat girls?" she said.
"I have swallowed up girls and boys, women and men, kings and emperors, cities and realms," said the Lion. It didn't say this as if it were boasting, nor as if it were sorry, nor as if it were angry. It just said it.
"I daren't come and drink," said Jill.
"Then you will die of thirst," said the Lion.
"Oh dear!" said Jill, coming another step nearer. "I suppose I must go and look for another stream then."
"There is no other stream," said the Lion.”
Our call is to recalibrate our fears. We are often afraid of people not liking us. They are bigger than God. We are afraid of death. It becomes more sure than God. We are afraid of starvation or joblessness or poverty. Our comforts have become more important than the call to make Jesus our lasting treasure. Whatever is most important to us, that is what rules us.
(3) Deeper into heart of God
We are called to seek the Lord (v.10). What is more, David commands us to fear the Lord. V.9
We have too often looked around at our lives and say, “I lack! I don’t have the spouse I’ve been longing for. I don’t have the job I really wanted. I don’t have the money I need. I lack!” But God has not promised that. He promises himself. But that’s not enough. I don’ want that.
What God is calling us into is a deeper and more lasting treasure. You see, a spouse will always fail you. A job will always lead you to retirement. External and temporal possessions will never lead to lasting joy. We know that in our heads. But God is lovingly—through experience—driving it into every fiber of our being.
//Alan Gardner, a missionary in 1851, was shipwrecked with others off the coast of South America. He was the last one still living. When his journal was found after his death, it quoted Psalm 34:10: “Young lions so lack and suffer hunger, but they that seek the Lord shall not lack any good thing.” As he was dying of hunger, Gardner wrote his last line: “I am overwhelmed with a sense of the goodness of God.”//
Adversity, difficulties drive us to God. They drive us into the very heart of God. The Lord cares for us too much to give us everything we want. Even good things. He is better than our very life. Until we believe that, life will seem overly cruel. It will seem like a fire that consumes without end.
Vv.15-22
(4) To be brokenhearted and crushed is the call
“The fear of the Lord is indeed the foundation of life, the key to joy in life and long and happy days. But it is not a guarantee that life will be always easy, devoid of the difficulties that may seem to mar so much of human existence. The fear of the Lord establishes joy and fulfillment in all of life’s experiences. It may mend the broken heart, but it does not prevent the heart from being broken; it may restore the spiritually crushed, but it does not crush the forces that may create oppression. The psalm, if fully grasped, dispels the naïveté of that faith which does not contain within it the strength to stand against the onslaught of evil”
Do you hear the anguish in David’s cry? The Christian faith is not meant to make things easier. It makes us come to the end of ourselves everyday and see that Jesus is enough. I don’t say this flippantly. If we’re honest, we want life to be relatively easy. But that’s not life in a fallen world.
If you are seeking the Lord, you will also cry for help. Your heart will be broken. Your spirit will be crushed.
After all, we hear the echo of John’s Gospel in this passage. He draws attention to the fact that at the crucifixion, none of Jesus’ bones were broken. Is he just trying to find a cool prooftext? No. He’s highlighting the fact that the only Righteous One suffered. The only Innocent One was abandoned and condemned so that we will never be condemned.
(5) Experience is only completed when shared with others
As you are pressing into the heart of God, you will find him to be sweeter than life itself. This is our call as those who follow Jesus. Not that he saves us, but that he saves brothers and sisters we don’t know yet. Having experienced the satisfying water, we are compelled to tell others. Not because it’s simply the right thing to do. It’s the natural overflow of deep communion with God.
Throughout this psalm, David is not content to be holed up in a cave and just thanking God. Our praise is always and ever will be intended to bring others into magnifying that praise. 
V.2-3: Let the humble hear // Magnify the Lord with me! Let us exalt his name together! 
V.11: Come, listen to me. I will teach you.
“I have experienced the fearful and severe and satisfying and wrecking love of God. Taste this living water. Taste and see that, not in spite of your difficulties, but in the midst of him revealing his goodness to you in the marred face of Jesus, he is good.”
Do you want to conquer fear? Fear of others. Fear of circumstances. Fear of change. Of the unknown? Declare the greatness and overpowering greatness of God. David might have felt alone in front of the Philistine king. In the cave. But he remembered God’s faithfulness and declared it. Recount God’s good deeds toward you in the past to fight fear and being destitute now.