INTRODUCTION
Each of us will enter 2024 with our own list of fears!
- There may be students who enter 2024 with Atychiphobia, which is the fear of failure, especially those who face public exams.
- There may be some others who enter 2024 with Anticipatory anxiety, which is the fear of the future, that bad things will happen to them.
- Then there may be others who will enter 2024 with Thanatophobia, which is the fear of death.
- Then those of ‘us’ entering into our forties or fifties this year may fear the
- physical changes in their bodies,
- or, the empty nest, as perhaps your youngest may leave home this year, for studies or for marriage.
- or, that younger people may replace you at work.
- Meanwhile, some of you may be entering the latter years of life and you may fear not feeling needed!
- Or, this year you may have been diagnosed with a physical illness and you may fear pain or further complications or an approaching surgery.
SERMON TEXT:
4 I sought Yahweh (the Lord) and He answered me, and delivered me from all my fears. (Psalm 34:4)
BACKGROUND
- This Psalm of David can be titled, ‘praise from the cave’, out of gratitude for a miraculous escape.
- David had fled from King Saul, to the Philistine city of Gath, but found no protection there either.
- David narrowly managed to escape, by pretending to be mentally ill or mad before Abimelech, ruler of the Philistines (These events are recorded in 1 Samuel chapter 21).
- David escaped and went into a cave where perhaps this joyful psalm of praising God for deliverance and answered prayer, was written.
- This Psalm of individual thanksgiving, invites God’s people to praise Him, for His constant goodness to them and he invites others, to also taste and see that the Lord is good.
- David’s testimony in this verse of Scripture is still powerful thousands of years later.
RUN TO GOD
4 I sought (or, I inquired, or, I consulted, or, I asked) Yahweh (the Lord)
David was facing death threats from King Saul. Now in the day of trouble, when David was facing a life-threatening situation, he desperately sought the Lord.
Over and over again, the Bible describe the faithful, not as those who never saw trouble, but as those who cried out to God in their crises. The men and women we remember as models faced times of trouble and days of distress.
Now like David, we may find ourselves facing times of trouble, or, may face days of distress, in 2024. And so, whether you are in a middle of a crisis, or may have a crisis comes up in 2024,
- go looking for Him in faith; or,
- go searching for the Lord and cry to Him during hard times,
As believers, we look up to God. This is the heart of what prayer is all about. It is not just about asking for things; it is about seeking God’s face and enjoying ‘sweet communion with him’.
Now the reason we can seek God is on the authority of His Word. God himself says, in Psalm 50: 15;
“Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me”
And not only David, but the psalmist Asaph as well said in Psalm 77:2
“In the day of my trouble I seek the Lord”
And this was Israel’s story over and over again as well throughout their history. In Psalm 107: 6, 13, 19 & 28
“Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and He delivered them from their distress”
Now there are times we may find it hard to pray when we are in pain, shock or grief. Yet there is a wonderful promise in the Bible found in Romans 8: 26 (AMP)
In the same way the Spirit [comes to us and] helps us in our weakness. We do not know what prayer to offer or how to offer it as we should, but the Spirit Himself [knows our need and at the rig ht time] intercedes on our behalf with sighs and groanings too deep for words.
So, when we cannot articulate our prayer requests to God; when all we can do is groan about our circumstances; the Holy Spirit understands our groanings and translates them into prayers.
RESPONSE FROM GOD
and He answered me (or, heard me, or responded to me, or He replied), …
God hears His children’s prayers, and David recalls how God heard His prayers. Throughout the Bible we read how God heard the cries of His children for help. He was not deaf then — nor is he today, to the voices of his people. In fact, God cares about the external circumstances of our lives, as well as cares about every outcome of our life’s various experiences.
Now during troubles, we know we should pray. So, we start praying. But we soon give up. Or we pray with no expectation of an answer. Or we think that God is silent.
- However, at times, God does not respond verbally, as we find in the Bible. But He may respond with an assurance of His presence as He did to Jacob through a vision of angels ascending and descending on a staircase.
- There are also times when God does not respond immediately, as in the case of Job, where he cried out to God for help, but God did not answer him.
- And at other times God may respond verbally.
Now when we express the fears of our heart in prayer they do not fall on deaf ears. Yet, sometimes when we don’t get a quick response, or exactly what we desire, we say God isn’t listening.
However, God sees the full picture even when we only see a small piece of the puzzle. And so, don’t be discouraged if you don’t get an answer right away. Pray to the God who hears, and can do something about it. Keep on asking, or continue praying, until God answers, for God hears all our prayers, and, in one sense, he answers all our prayers.
However, we will not always receive what we ask for. When we ask God for something, the response will be ‘Yes’ or‘No’ or ‘Wait’. John Stott wrote that
God will answer ‘No’ if the things we ask for are either not good in themselves, or not good for us, or for others, directly or indirectly, immediately or ultimately’.
Now we may not always get to know the reason why the answer is ‘No’. But we need to remember that God sees things from an eternal perspective and that there are some things we may never understand in this life.
RESCUED BY GOD
and delivered me from all my fears. (Psalm 34:4)
God responded when He delivered David from all his anxious fears. The Lord rescued David from the death threats of King Saul, and later from his own son Absolom. In response to David seeking God, the Lord freed the Psalmist, from all his fears, and the causes for his fears.
I wonder how many of us who follow Christ can say with the psalmist: “He delivered me from all my fears.” Now there may have been many things we feared in 2023,
- Disease.
- Disasters.
- Broken relationships.
- Disability.
- Crime
- Death.
- Job loss.
And what about the fears we had about our children?
- Illness.
- Self-abuse.
- Poor choices.
- Rejection of God.
Could we look back tonight and say, ‘The Lord delivered me from all my fears’.