Address—R. Klassen
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Sending the prayer meeting and the reading meeting and.
Him is sometimes given out and you've been out in the world and seen it's.
Complexities and and the clutter and it's just such a restorative hymn to my soul and I'd like to sing it this afternoon. It's clearing away the clutter and the pressure of life. Just the thing. The 1St 4 stanzas of 275.
Great job.
Let's look to the Lord for His blessing and health.
There was a thought that was advanced this morning about the five loaves and the two fishes.
And that little lunch filled a multitude, fed a multitude.
And it was brought out.
How the five loaves would represent the five books of Moses?
And the two book two fishes would represent the Psalms and the prophets.
And I'd like to look at one of the fishes this afternoon, the first one from the Psalms, the Book of the Psalms.
Concerning himself, turn to Psalm chapter 34.
Like to just preface a little bit before we read this chapter.
This chapter was endeared to my heart by the boys and girls of Oaxaca.
We had the privilege of being there and the brethren enjoy and order where at the end of the general meetings, that's usually in the month of February, that they announced the chapter for the children to commit to memory. And in the next general meetings, when their time comes, they have the privilege of standing up and quoting the Psalm that has been designated. And if they do it perfectly, then they get a reward of a Spanish book or a Spanish Bible, maybe other things.
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But as one was observing this going on, I noticed just a little might of a girl just barely making five years old. And I can see her kind of get encouraged to lift her hand. And after a while she got it up and she was called on. And I thought to myself, I wonder how this is going to go. So I snuck up to the bench behind her so I wouldn't distract her to listen very carefully.
To those beautiful Spanish words just rolling out of that little mouth with such ease and clarity. And I don't know Spanish. But as I was listening, I could hear her say, oh, senor, oh senor.
Well, she got through that perfectly and went up and took her reward and sat down.
And I got to looking at this chapter afterward, and I noticed that the name of the Lord comes sixty in 16 verses of this chapter, 22 verses long.
And looking at it closer, there's another verse that has He and another one that has Him. So we really have 18 verses and at least 4 verses without the name of the Lord mentioned. And those four verses are verses of exhortation.
Now another thing is we meditate upon this. I would like to notice that the apostle Paul read this chapter. How many times we don't know, but he drew something out of this chapter for his own soul.
We also can find that Mary, the Mother of the Lord Jesus, read this chapter perhaps many times, and we want to notice what she drew out of it.
And then we can go on further and we can find the Apostle Peter that he drew out of this chapter, quite a large part of it, which was obviously a blessing to his own soul. And then last of all, we have the Apostle John.
Solo read it with this preface in mind. Verse one.
I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul shall make her boast in the Lord. The humble shall hear thereof and be glad.
All magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt His name together. I sought the Lord, and He heard me and delivered me from all my fears. They looked upon Him, and they were lightened.
And their faces were not ashamed. This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him.
And saved him out of all his troubles.
The Angel of the Lord encampeth around about them that fear him, and delivereth them, or defendeth them.
All taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man that trusteth in him. All fear the Lord, ye his Saints, for there is no one to them that fear Him. The Young Lions do lack and suffer hunger, but they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing. Come me, children.
Hearken unto me, and I will teach you the fear of the Lord. What man is he that desireth life and loveth many days?
That he may see good.
Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips from speaking guile. Depart from evil and do good. Seek peace and pursue it. The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears are open unto their crying. The face of the Lord is against them that do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth. The righteous cry, and the Lord heareth and delivereth them out of all their troubles.
The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart, and save us, such as be of a contrite spirit.
Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivereth him out of the mall.
He keep up all his bones, not one of them is broken. Evil shall slay the wicked, and they that hate the righteous shall be desolate. The Lord redeemeth the soul of His servants, and none of them that trust in Him shall be desolate.
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Now it's good to be reminded that the heading of these Psalms are also inspired. We'll go back to the heading to give us the setting.
A Psalm of David when he changed his behavior before Abimelech, who drove him away and he departed. I would like to add the words to The Cave of Adalom.
Well, the life of David. His boyhood days charm us, do they not? It's kind of like a storybook to think of a young boy leading his sheep out into the Judean hills.
And to see them feed upon the tender grass.
And to have those hours out there alone with the Lord.
And then to have that call to come to the King's palace to play on his heart, to soothe the heart of the king.
And then there is that time in the Valley of Elah when the armies of Israel gather there.
David goes back to the sheep. Perhaps in those forty days he had the battle with the lion and the bear and triumphs over them, preparing him for the triumph of Ela.
And then at the end of those 40 days, he goes to the Valley of Elah.
And we know the story. He went down to the valley and he dropped the giant in the dust.
And after that he was called to the King's court and given the honors that were promised, and he married the King's daughter, and he led the armies of Israel.
In victory.
Marvelous Life.
And we would like to volunteer for that.
But you know there's a javelin in the hand of Saul.
And he threw it at David three times, and the third time he had to leave and escape for his life, and he went to the priests of Knob for refuge or something to eat.
And it just looked like everything just fell apart.
Perhaps David was vexed in his mind. What could I have done different? How could I have saved this situation and justice? Look at it from every angle.
And just go on with a heavy heart distress because there's no answer and there's no refuge.
Every way that David would turn, there was number refuge for him. So he decides that he's going to the King of Gath.
And we gasp, we say, David, you just dropped their champion in the dust a little while back, and you're going to the King of Gath.
This sounds incongruous.
So we want to dwell on that just a little bit, but I enjoyed someone pointing out the thought that in order for David to leave the priests of Nob and go to the King of Gath, he had to pass through the valley of Elah.
Well, if that were true, you can imagine what a walk that would be to stand there where he heard that that enemy of God's people say, send me a man that I may fight.
And to walk down the slopes to the brook and see where he chose the five stones, and then to walk to the spot where he dropped that.
Giant in the dust in gloriously.
You know the valley is silent.
There was a shout of victory when that happened, but it's just strangely and everybody has forgotten the victory that had been won.
You know, I think there's something very significant about the Spirit of God giving us this life because it's somewhat of a pattern.
To our lives as we grow up in Christian homes and Christian privileges. This is not a strange life.
And so he goes on to the King of Gas. Now what is he thinking? Oh dear ones, let me speak plainly. There are those who administered the word of God to us in time past, and they faithfully warned us about the systems of man and being taken up with man running things, and warned us to keep close to the Lord. And then we have seen some that minister this to us go out.
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And they join the very ranks in which they spoke against.
And they stay and we don't understand.
Well, you know, if we'll join the ranks of those that we have spoken against, being gathered to the Lord's precious name, they'll welcome us. They'll give us a position and a responsibility.
With the stipulation, of course, that there's certain things that we should honor and recognize.
And so I believe that's what David felt and knew, and went there to the King of Gas. And you know it would have worked except for the Lord. And the Lord, as it were, just turned to ground under David's feet. The quicksand and the spittle began to run down his beard, and he was scribbling on the gate of the city.
And feigned himself as a madman. And Abimelech looks at him and he says, I got enough of those kind of fellows around here.
Get them out of here.
All the mercy of our God.
And so David leaves that place. There was number refuge there for him. I'd like to Note 2 verses that perhaps depict Davidde thoughts as he turned and he looked at the Judean hills that he knew very well as a young man taking care of sheep. The first one is in the sum 142.
Some rather yes. 142 and verse 4.
I looked on my right hand and be held.
But there was no man that would know me. Refuge failed me. No man cared for my soul.
Well, you know, I think we realize why the 34th Psalm is filled with the name of the Lord, because it's a soul that is cast entirely upon the Lord. There is no other refuge.
Then if we turn back to the 121St Psalm to the second one.
And verse one.
I will lift up mine eyes onto the hills.
The heels of Judea and it should be now a question from whence cometh my help?
He has the answer. My health cometh from the Lord which made heaven and earth.
And so is he, standing there at this great crossroads of life. Where shall I go?
I don't know how David knew about The Cave of a dullum. Perhaps he discovered it one day while he's caring for the sheep. And he went in there and he looked at this structure and he wondered, I wonder why God created such a thing.
And as he's standing, standing there with a few men, wondering what to do.
So I'm going to take refuge in The Cave of Adelaide.
Well, he goes.
And there were those men that came to him that were in distress.
And disheartened. And in debt. Why? Why were they in that condition?
Samuel had warned the people that if they chose a king that they were the king was going to take their daughters and make confectionaries out of them and bakers, and that they were going to he was going to take their land and give it to others.
And so many of these dear men knew Samuel's ministry. They valued it. They knew that God was going to unite Israel under one head, and they didn't fit into the economy of the man after the flesh. And they lost their land, and they gathered to David, and he became the captain of their salvation.
As David takes up this position, I'd like to suggest that he.
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Adds a new word to his vocabulary. That to me is very important. And it's a little word, but it's the word all.
We as parents take the liberty to warn our children how they use that word all and never. Don't say all the time and don't say you never will. It's not our language to be used. And so it may kind of put a little damper on this word all, but David uses it and I believe it's a comfort to our hearts.
In the circumstances that we may be in this afternoon.
Six times and I'm going to just note it. Verse one. I will bless the Lord at all times.
Verse 4.
I sought the Lord and He heard me and delivered me from all my fears.
Verse six. This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles.
Verse 17 The righteous cry, and the Lord heareth and delivereth them out of all their troubles.
Verse 19. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivereth him.
Out of them all.
Verse 20 He keep us all his bones.
So you know, this is the language of faith.
And faith has the wonderful prerogative of counting upon that all before the Lord.
Oh, what a consolation that is to my heart. What consolation it must have been to David's to be able to use that word all.
Well, we come now.
To think about the Apostle Paul reading this chapter.
And I think of him reading the first verse. I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually be in my mouth.
Well, you know.
As these men gathered together, they had a lot of sorrows, disappointments. Life just broke down on them.
Where does this language come in? I will praise the Lord at all times.
You know the Lord delights to take our sorrows.
And our freshers and affords them into a song of praise.
And only God can do that.
And the Spirit of God will do that for us. So consequently, if we would have come to The Cave of a Dolan, we could have heard perhaps 400 voices singing this as a song together, the song of praise.
And so the apostle Paul then gives us a New Testament light in the Ephesians chapter 5.
How he draws from this verse?
Ephesians chapter 5.
And verse 19.
Speaking to yourselves and psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord. Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, I love that always.
For all things.
Oh, what a latitude we as God's people have, and what beautiful hymns have been forged out of these kind of circumstances.
We were saying the other evening in heavenly love, abiding no change my heart shall fear.
And I wondered what this sister must have passed through Miss Warren. And we had opportunity to look at it. And she lived to be 90 years old. She was not married. But, oh, you know, she writes from a vantage point that was beyond the borders of earth. Her heart was beyond. And she has given us a beautiful hymn to sing, and perhaps we have sung it when our hearts were.
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Pretty well pressed down and it lightened the weight that was pressing down upon us. Speaking to yourselves in psalms.
Well, we turn back.
And we think of Mary the mother of the Lord Jesus, the mother of the Messiah, pouring over this chapter and verse two. My soul shall make her boast in the Lord. The humble shall hear thereof and be glad. All magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together.
Let's turn to Luke, chapter one.
Luke chapter one and verse 46.
And Mary said, My soul doth magnify the Lord. My spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior, for he hath regarded the lowest state of his handmaiden.
We'll just stop there. There are those words that were written in the Old Testament in this Psalm of David. And now when she learns that she is to be the mother of the Messiah, which was something very special for an Israelite, godly Israelite woman, but she takes a place of such humility. But what formed it? Oh, is the word of God, the word of God formed those thoughts.
So that at this time she just comes out and she says my soul doth magnify the Lord. And it's just like she looks at us and says, I want you to join into the singing of my with my soul.
Well then we come on down to verse 7.
It says, The Angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him, and defendeth them.
Well, did David say that? Because he put some pretty good Sentinels out on guard duty.
No, David, in some respects brings before us the reality of the armies of heaven that are on patrol at all times.
There was that time when he was to wait until he heard the sound of the rushing of the wind and the Mulberry trees, and that was just simply David's invincible allies taking up their position on the battlefield. And all David his men had to do is just to go and collect the spoil.
What a wonderful sense. Sometimes we may suffer our car to be broke. Our car is broken into and we say, well, didn't the armies of heaven see that? Were they looking somewhere else? No, they saw it. And they not only saw it, but they know who did it and they know exactly where that person is right now.
But it may be an opportunity for us to glorify the Lord and perhaps to learn valuable lessons as to.
How tenaciously we hang on to things down here rather than to have our minds and hearts set on things above.
And so he defendeth them.
And so nobody could touch David's men, nor did they, because the armies of heaven were on patrol. The Lord of Hosts is his name.
1St And the Young Lions do lack and suffer hunger, but they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing.
Oh, you can imagine the sensitivity of David's men as they gathered there in The Cave of Dolem and looked at David and said well.
What's going to sustain us?
Where are we going to get food to eat? Make it go out and look around and see those skinny lions walking about the hills said, you know, we don't want to get looking like them. And David said they may suffer hunger, but they that wait upon the Lord shall not want any good thing. And that's exactly what happened. And as long as David and his men were in exile, they were wonderfully taken care of.
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And then at the end of that exile, they had the battle with the Amalekites and took all that great spoil more than they could handle.
And David remembered everyone that had shown kindness, and he sent portions to them and appreciation.
You know a cup of cold water shall not lose its reward.
Yes, how sensitive is the one we love? And he's going to reward a cup of cold water.
But it's sometimes a matter of waiting, and it's hard to wait with impatient spirits. But they prove wonderful things there in The Cave of Dome.
Now we come to the Apostle Peter, and I see him reading verse 11. Come ye children, hearken unto me, and I will teach you the fear of the Lord. You know Peter did that to his dying day.
What man is he that desireth life?
And loveth many days, that he may see good. Keep thy tongue from evil, and my lips from speaking guile. Depart from evil, and do good. Seek peace and pursue it. The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears are open unto their cry. The face of the Lord is against them that do evil.
Well, I believe that when these men gathered together in The Cave of a dolem with David, that you would just hear one sad story after another and stories of injustice and violence and and everyone had a real story to tell the other. And this probably went on for quite a while. And David.
He'd one day say men.
We can't go on with this bitter spirit. We can't go on carrying this load.
We've got to be delivered from it.
What man is he that desireth life and loveth days?
That he may see Good. All these men knew that David was going to sit on the throne of Israel.
And they learned after a while that God had to put David through these circumstances.
So that when he was put on the throne of Israel that he would represent God to the people. And so if he was going to sit on the throne, would not these devoted men share in his glory there? Oh, you know they would. These are men that were tried and found in fidelity and they weren't going to change masters. They love David.
And so.
Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips from speaking guile.
All here are the words of exhortation. They often come home to my own heart when there's that getting bowed down under things and Satan comes in with his suggestions and.
Depart from evil.
And do good and seek peace, you say. But I can't seek peace under these circumstances.
Because what I had was violently taken away from me. Well, we like to take the microscope and look at things as they are right now. And we need to telescope to look down the way to God's purposes of blessing for us. So if we turn to first Peter 3.
Verse ten of first Peter 3 for he that will love life.
And see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips, that they may speak no guile. Let him ask you evil and do good. Let him seek peace and ensue it. For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open under their prayers, but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil.
Brother Hagel used to tell us that every exhortation of Scripture is not a matter of attainment.
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It's not getting up to, but it's a matter of possession, and God uses exhortation in His Word to show us what we possess. We have a new nature that delights in divine guidance, and we learn that there is nothing better than to follow that divine guidance.
Going back to Psalm 34 for John.
John's reading this chapter and he says he keep all his bones and not one of them is broken.
You know that interested me, that statement. He keepeth all his bones.
And not one of them is broken.
Allow me just to suggest something.
Don't know that happened or not.
But you know, when 400 men are in this precarious situation and they're in caves and on ledges and up with the wild goats, there's a good chance that you could break some bones.
How easy is it to break bones? We could do it right here in this room, but they didn't have a hospital.
And I just wonder if day after day there just were no bones broken and it really became a very obvious thing.
And so out of this situation comes a beautiful prophetic statement concerning the Lord Jesus.
Beyond chapter 19, how we read there that they came to break their bones, they came to the first thief and they broke his legs and sent him straight to paradise.
They broke the legs of the other and, sad to say, perished into hell for eternity.
And they looked at that middle cross, they saw that he was already dead, and they break not his bones.
Oh, what a thrill this must have been to John as he read this chapter. He saw the prophetic beauty of it and he applied it there at the death of our Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary's Hill.
What a sight. They will not touch that man because he's the truth. Then the bones would speak of the structure of truth. It cannot be broken.
Wonderful thought. The truth of God cannot be broken, though men may try to break it. It stands.
Like the clothes now with rather a solemn thought. And it's going to fortify what was said this morning.
David, you know, he had a fall morally.
And the result of that was so terrible that he spoke about groaning.
His bones crying out is just as though the experience of that fall was to have broken bones.
You know, that's just the way it is if we violate the Word of God. And so David in his restoration in the 51St Psalm, he could say.
'Cause the bones that thou hast broken to rejoice.
And so may this just be something that we can learn here this afternoon. Every one of us can join with these that read this chapter ahead of us and gained such wonderful blessings and stability in their lives. We can join him and gain a blessing according to our needs this afternoon from this very chapter.
Could we return to our hymn books? Sing the last two verses of 275?
Scenes of stride.
High grades of love.
Hard desert.
We learn to drive.
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And Love Is All.
Saying.
Our God and our Father.