The Goodness of God | Psalm 34
How many of you watch the Food Network? I love food. I love to eat good food. The Food Network brings to television what I love to do, share, experience and enjoy. It is essentially food porn. Every show is designed to be visually irresistible. (Diners, Drive In and Dives; Chopped; Summer Baking; Iron Chef) They use bright colors, sizzling sounds, slowmotion, and creative descriptions. Neurologically, our brain contains something called mirror neurons which activate when you watch someone perform an action; especially something familiar like eating. So, when you watch a judge taste something and go “mmmm,” part of your brain mimics the sensation as if you’re doing it too. It makes food feel like an experience, not just a necessity. Another thing that watching the Food Network does is it makes us experts in food (foodies). So, we learn all kinds of things about food and how to cook food. But it is one thing to know a lot about food and how to cook food but it’s another thing to experience the food for yourself. How many times have you been watching and just wished you could eat the food on TV? You can’t survive physically just watching the Food Network, you will starve to death. You must eat food yourself. When it comes to the Spiritual life; you can’t just live off someone else’s experiences (your parents, spouse, kids or friends) but you need to experience God’s goodness for yourself.
Psalm 34 is written by David in one of the strangest moments in his life. It is one of 9 psalms with a superscription that gives us the exact historical context found in 1 Samuel 21. David, who defeated Goliath, became the son in law to King Saul. Saul put him over all his armed forces and was now a famous warrior. The hit song in the day was “Saul has killed his thousands, but David his ten thousands.” Saul was envious and angry at David and tried to kill him by throwing a spear at him (3rd time). David ran for his life and went to the city of Nob to visit with Ahimelech the priest. He lied to him and said that Saul had sent him and asked for food and supplies. Ahimelech gave him food and the only weapon he had was the sword of Goliath that David used to kill him. King Saul found and murdered Ahimelech and the priests in Nob. From there he fled to the city of Gath, thinking Saul would not follow him into Philistine territory. Gath was the hometown of Goliath. David’s cover is blown (sword was a dead giveaway) and taken to the King of Gath (Achish). He decided to act like a crazy man and foam at the mouth. Achish looked at David and said, “We have plenty of crazy people in Gath, we don’t need anymore. Send David away.” David goes away and hides in a cave of Adullam with 400 men who were “bitter in soul and in debt.” (Good with a sword but a bad credit score) While in the cave, as a fugitive, he writes this psalm of praise to God for deliverance. It is an acrostic psalm which was meant to be memorized and shared (share button). Psalm 34 is an invitation to enjoy the goodness of God by exalting Him with others and experiencing Him yourself.