Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - When There's Nowhere to Turn | The Writings | Psalm 34

Episode Date: February 15, 2024

Whether you have no choice, only bad choices, or no obvious choice, this episode is for you. Where do you go when your back is against the wall? In today's episode, Patrick finds hope in Psalm 34,��where David struggles with nowhere to turn. Read the Bible with us in 2024! This year, we’re tackling a group of Old Testament books traditionally known as “The Writings”— Psalms, Chronicles, Proverbs, Daniel, Ruth and more! Download your reading plan now. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it so that others can find it, too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter@TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Psalm 34

Welcome to 10 minute Bible talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Patrick Miller. What do you do when you have no options, when it seems like there's no right choice, no obvious choice. What do you do when the choice you make backfires? It makes everything worse. I've been in lots of situations like this.

Maybe you're trying to navigate a difficult situation with someone you love right now. Maybe you've got a friendship that's on the world. rocks. Maybe your work isn't working. Maybe you're in a sticky situation in school. Maybe you're trying to resolve a health problem. Three thousand years ago, David, King David, was in a situation that is probably unlike anything you've ever experienced, and yet it's totally like it. After years of faithfully serving under King Saul, he didn't earn the king's praise. Instead, he earned the king's jealousy. Saul was a deeply insecure man, and he began to see David as a rival. and so he secretly sought to execute David.

Thankfully, Saul's own son Jonathan warned David, and David fled from Saul. But where do you go when you're running from the king? Everywhere is under his rule. Everyone has sworn fealty to him, and you're a fugitive. David's first impulse is to run to the house of God, the tent of meeting. And while he finds some food and a sword there, it's clear that the priest wants him out. David's presence is a threat to the priest's life. So where will David go? David has no obvious choices, no right choices. And so he chooses the worst of a lot of bad options. He runs to a foreign king, hoping that a foreign king might give him protection from Saul. But when he arrives, everybody recognizes him as a military leader who fought against them, and he realizes that he's made a bad situation worse. These people want his head more than Saul wants his head. And so here's what happens next. First Samuel 2113.

And so David pretended to be insane in their presence. And while he was in their hands, he acted like a madman, making marks on the doors of the gate and letting saliva run down his beard. Pause for a second. Ashish, he's the king of the foreign land, Gath. He said to his servants, look at the man. He is insane. Why bring him to me?

Am I so short of madmen that you have brought this fellow to carry on like this in front of me? Must this man come into my house? David left Gath and escaped to the cave of Adulam. At this point, you have to imagine that David is in the literal pits. He's alone. He's fleeing every king in the region. He's hiding in caves by himself just to stay alive. I doubt you've ever been in a situation that extreme.

And yet, I bet you've been in situations where you felt like there was no escape, where there were only bad choices. And perhaps in those moments of only... bad choices, no right answers, feeling totally stuck, you found yourself wondering, where is God? Why has he put me here? But see, that's where things get strange with David. Despite his circumstances, despite hiding away, alone in a cave, he chooses to see what happened with his escape from Ashish, from Gath, as God's protection and God's provision. Yes, he is in dire straits right now, and yet he sees, I'm still alive. And he's going to be,

to praise God for that gift. And so he wrote Psalm 34 just after he escaped from Ashish. While he's hiding in this cave at Adulam, he's alone, he's on the run and listen to what he writes. Psalm 34, verse 1, I will extol Yahweh at all times. Did you catch that? At all times. Yes, even in this cave when I'm on the run, because I am alive. He continues, his praise will always be on my lips. I will glory in Yahweh. Let the afflicted hear and rejoice. Glorify Yahweh with me. Let us exalt his name together. I sought Yahweh and he answered me. He delivered me from all my fears. Those who look to him are radiant. Their faces will never be ashamed. This poor man called and Yahweh heard him. He saved him out of all his troubles. The angel of Yahweh encamps around those who fear him, and he delivers them. Taste and see

that Yahweh is good. Blessed is the one who takes refuge in him. The Psalm continues like this, and it's as though David is in an alternative reality. He's alone in a cave, and yet he's exulting God and praising him for delivering him from Ashish. Rather than seeing everything going terribly wrong and concluding that his life is a disaster and God has abandoned him, he sees the one thing that's worked out. He is still alive and he thanks God for it. When things go wrong, do you fixate on the problem or do you praise God for even the smallest acts of protection? If we can see God's providence in even the darkest moments, it ignites those moments with light and life. David continues, verse nine, fear Yahweh, you his holy people, for those who fear him lack nothing. The lions may grow

weak and hungry, but those who seek Yahweh lack no good thing. Again, it's like David is in an alternative reality. He has almost nothing right now. He's hiding in a cave with his clothes and a sword and maybe some meager rations. And yet he looks at the little he has and he says, I have everything I need. I lack no good thing. Do you live with constant discontentment? You find yourself thinking, would my life be better if I just had X or Y? David's words here are counterintuitive. He's saying that if we fear God, which means that we honor him and love him above everything else, only then will we lack nothing. Why? Because if God is your first love in your heart, and you have him, then on the most fundamental level, as long as you have him, you can lack nothing.

We have everything we need in him. And because we know that he's sovereign and we trust in him, we can rest assured that what he gives us, however much or little it is, is precisely what's best for us. So even if you're alone, hungry in a cave, running from the government, you can say, I like no good thing. I have Jesus. No one can take him away from me. David continues, verse 18. Yahweh is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. The righteous person may have troubles, but Yahweh delivers him from them all. He protects all his bones, not even one of them will be broken. Evil will slay the wicked. The foes of the righteous will be condemned. Yahweh will rescue his servants. No one who takes refuge in him will be condemned. That is the final promise. It's the promise that I think

sets David free from his awful circumstances to see the good and to celebrate what little he has as enough for him. This is the promise that Yahweh himself is close to him and in the end Yahweh himself will save him and vindicate him and justify him. You see, this is the key in no-win situations where we feel like everyone is against us and nothing we can do will make things right where there are no good choices well there is one person who does see the whole picture one person who does know what you are going through and in the end he will make things right for you in the end in the final assessment in the resurrection he will vindicate the righteous in jesus christ and punish injustice and wrongdoing so even if we stumble or fall in this life because we chose obedience we can rest assured that

all will be set right in the end by God himself. And with that assurance, we can praise God. We can draw near to him. We can allow him to forgive our sins and take hold of the promise that one day he will vindicate us. We can praise him for the smallest victories, the smallest protections, the smallest good things and bad situations. We can thank him for our most meager possessions because in the end we fear him. He is first in our heart. And that means that we have what matters most. We have everything we need. We have Jesus.