The Righteous One’s Experience of the Lord’s Love Under the Cross

To bless the Lord at all times seems an impossibility, but even Job in his dire circumstances could still praise God, though in sorrowful tone. We must remember that David was a young man, not yet the king, and that he had learned a lesson. He had feigned madness in front of king Abimelech, and as such, resorted to a ruse to escape. But he celebrated the fact that nevertheless it was the Lord that delivered him. His broken heart and contrite spirit now rejoiced in the salvation of God. He confesses that he is a poor man, not in riches, but in the condition of his life. And yet God heard him and brought him out of all his troubles.

Likewise, we can lift up our hearts in gratitude and thanksgiving at all stages of our lives and experience. If we cannot bless Him in the middle of the experience, we certainly can afterwards. Our deliverances, as with David, are by the Angel of the Lord, who is none other than Christ. 

Pastor Jeff O’ Neil

Recommended Tune: Jackson, Wiltshire

Psalm 34

¹GOD will I bless all times; his praise
My mouth shall still express.
²My soul shall boast in GOD: the meek
Shall hear with joyfulness.

³Extol the LORD with me, let us
Exalt his name together.
⁴I sought the LORD, he heard, and did
Me from all fears deliver.

⁵They look’d to him, and lighten’d were:
Not shamed were their faces.
⁶This poor man cried, GOD heard, and sav’d
Him from all his distresses.

⁷The angel of the LORD encamps,
And round encompasseth
All those about that do him fear,
And them delivereth.

⁸O taste and see that GOD is good:
Who trusts in him is bless’d.
⁹Fear GOD his saints: none that him fear
Shall be with want oppress’d.

¹⁰The lions young may hungry be,
And they may lack their food:
But they that truly seek the LORD
Shall not lack any good.

¹¹O children, hither do ye come,
And unto me give ear;
I shall you teach to understand
How ye the LORD should fear.

¹²What man is he that life desires,
To see good would live long?
¹³Thy lips refrain from speaking guile,
And from ill words thy tongue.

¹⁴Depart from ill, do good, seek peace,
Pursue it earnestly.
¹⁵GOD’s eyes are on the just; his ears
Are open to their cry.

¹⁶The face of GOD is set against
Those that do wickedly,
That he may quite out from the earth
Cut off their memory.

¹⁷The righteous cry unto the LORD,
He unto them gives ear;
And they out of their troubles all
By him deliver’d are.

¹⁸The LORD is ever nigh to them
That be of broken sp’rit;
To them he safety doth afford
That are in heart contrite.

¹⁹The troubles that afflict the just
In number many be;
But yet at length out of them all
The LORD doth set him free.

²⁰He carefully his bones doth keep,
Whatever can befall;
That not so much as one of them
Can broken be at all.

²¹Ill shall the wicked slay; laid waste
Shall be who hate the just.
²²The LORD redeems his servants’ souls;
None perish that him trust.