July-11-0466-The life that God blesses
466_The life that God blesses Psalm 34:1-10 I will bless the Lord at all times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth. 2 My soul makes its boast in the Lord; let the humble hear and be glad. 3 Oh, magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together! 4 I sought the Lord, and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears. 5 Those who look to him are radiant, and their faces shall never be ashamed. 6 This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his troubles. 7 The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, and delivers them. 8 Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him! 9 Oh, fear the Lord, you his saints, for those who fear him have no lack! 10 The young lions suffer want and hunger; but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing. A few years ago, a young missionary couple set out to serve in a remote village in Southeast Asia. They had left behind a comfortable life, a stable income, and all the modern conveniences they had known. The road ahead was uncertain. Just a few weeks into their mission, disease struck. One of their children fell critically ill. There was no hospital for miles. The village doctor could offer little help. Desperate, sleepless, and heartsick, they fell on their knees and cried out to God. Miraculously, by morning, the child began to recover. Later, the village elder—once resistant to their message—said, “We saw your God answer your cry. He must be real.” That moment opened a door for the gospel. It’s one thing to talk about trusting God when life is smooth, but it's another to taste His goodness in the middle of fear, loss, or desperation. And that’s the theme of Psalm 34—a psalm not written from a throne, but from a cave. Not during a celebration, but after a narrow escape. Psalm 34 is a contextual psalm—rooted in a very specific and deeply vulnerable moment in David’s life. We read in 1 Samuel 21 that David, fleeing from King Saul, sought refuge in an unlikely place: the territory of the Philistines, Israel’s enemies. He came to Achish, the king of Gath—the very city where Goliath, whom David had slain, once lived. It was a desperate move. But the plan quickly unraveled when Achish’s servants recognized him and remembered the song sung by the women of Israel: “Saul has slain his thousands, and David his tens of thousands.” To the people of Gath, David wasn’t a refugee. He was a marked man—the slayer of their champion. Suddenly, he was caught in a trap with no way out. What does a man after God's heart do when all human wisdom fails, when enemies surround him and escape is impossible? David did not rely on his military skill or clever diplomacy. Instead, he feigned madness—scratching at doors, letting saliva run down his beard—just to escape death. It was humiliating, but it