Fighter Verses

Many are the afflictions of the righteous,
but the LORD delivers him out of them all.
He keeps all his bones;
not one of them is broken.
Affliction will slay the wicked,
and those who hate the righteous will be condemned.
The LORD redeems the life of his servants;
none of those who take refuge in him will be condemned.
[Psalm 34:19-22]

Through David, God promises that he will keep the bones of the righteous and that not one of them will be broken. The Apostle John understands this to ultimately be a prophecy about Jesus:

Since it was the day of Preparation, and so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away. So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first, and of the other who had been crucified with him. But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water. He who saw it has borne witness—his testimony is true, and he knows that he is telling the truth—that you also may believe. For these things took place that the Scripture might be fulfilled: “Not one of his bones will be broken.” And again another Scripture says, “They will look on him whom they have pierced.” (John 19:31-37)

This is significant. Two observations:

1. John understands Jesus to be the righteous man of Psalm 34:20. In fact, I think we could legitimately infer from this that Jesus is the righteous man of the entire psalm.
2. Because of this, we could either infer that John was trying to find as many cut-and-paste prooftexts as he could to explain the crucifixion, or that he understood the Old Testament in a way we would do well to ponder.

Many are the afflictions of the righteous,
but the LORD delivers him out of them all.
He keeps all his bones;
not one of them is broken.
Affliction will slay the wicked,
and those who hate the righteous will be condemned.
The LORD redeems the life of his servants;
none of those who take refuge in him will be condemned.
[Psalm 34:19-22]

Being righteous in the sense that David is speaking of here requires that you hear God’s word, believe in it, and delight in it from the heart (Psalm 1).

The difference today is that we have a fuller word from God; therefore you must hear about, believe in, and delight in Jesus Christ, the Word of God who came and fulfilled everything written before him, including Psalm 34.

That’s how we become righteous. What else should we know about it?

1) Being righteous means you will face affliction.

• “Many are the afflictions of the righteous” [Psalm 34:19]

There’s is no prosperity gospel in the Bible, whether in the Old or New Testament. All the promises of salvation, protection, and provision that we see in this psalm and others come with the realization that those who follow God will suffer in this life. Jesus warns everyone who would follow him to “count the cost.”

2) Being righteous means you will be delivered.

• “but the LORD delivers him out of them all” [Psalm 34:19]

Affliction is not the end of the story, nor even a significant part. Paul says that our slight momentary afflictions in this life are not even worth comparing to what is to come. In fact, the sufferings of this life are actually preparing for us an eternal weight of glory, so that, instead of making us lose heart, they only add savor to our salvation (see 2 Corinthians 4:16-18).

The LORD is near to the brokenhearted
and saves the crushed in spirit. [Psalm 34:18]

In fact, the LORD doesn’t save anyone but the crushed in spirit. In other words, brokenhearted humility is essential in saving faith. This is Jonathan Edwards point in Religious Affections when he quotes this verse (along with some 23 other verses to that effect in the same paragraph!). Those with “evangelical humiliation” (as he calls it) are only those who are saved, and the saved are only those with “evangelical humiliation.” He continues,

This may be laid down as an infallible thing, that the person who is apt to think that he, as compared with others, is a very eminent saint, much distinguished in Christian experience, in whom this is a first thought that rises of itself and naturally offers itself—he is certainly mistaken; he is no eminent saint, but under the great prevailings of a proud and self-righteous spirit. And if this be habitual with the man, and is statedly the prevailing temper of his mind, he is no saint at all. So surely as the word of God is true, he has not the least degree of any true Christian experience. [Religious Affections, 255-256]

He concludes the chapter,

All gracious affections that are a sweet odour to Christ, and that fill the soul of a Christian with a heavenly sweetness and fragrancy, are broken-hearted affections. A truly Christian love, either to God or men, is a humble broken-hearted love. The desires of the saints, however earnest, are humble desires. Their hope is a humble hope; and their joy, even when it is unspeakable and full of glory, is a humble broken-hearted joy, and leaves the Christian more poor in spirit, and more like a little child, and more disposed to a universal lowliness of behaviour. [Religious Affections, 266]

When the righteous cry for help, the LORD hears
and delivers them out of all their troubles.
The LORD is near to the brokenhearted
and saves the crushed in spirit.
[Psalm 34:17-18]

On Monday nights I’ve been teaching a class at church called God-Centered Living, which is a 12-week study of Christian Hedonism and how it relates to daily life. This past Monday we talked about how to be God-centered in suffering. I shared a quotation with the class that I’d like to include here. I find it to be mightily encouraging. It is not an exposition of Psalm 34:17-18, but it is about suffering, particularly about how the hope of resurrection transforms present suffering and evil. Resurrection, after all, is God’s ultimate promise to deliver the righteous out of all their troubles.

This is from The Reason for God by Tim Keller:

The Biblical view of things is resurrection – not a future that is just a consolation for the life we never had but a restoration of the life you always wanted. This means that every horrible thing that ever happened will not only be undone and repaired but will in some way make the eventual glory and joy even greater.

A few years ago I had a horrible nightmare in which I dreamed that everyone in my family had died. When I awoke my relief was enormous – but there was much more than just relief. My delight in each member of my family was tremendously enriched. I looked at each one and realized how grateful I was for them, how deeply I loved them. Why? My joy had been greatly magnified by the nightmare. My delight upon awaking took the terror up into itself, as it were, so that in the end my love for them was only greater for my having lost them and found them again. This same dynamic is at work when you lose some possession you take for granted. When you find it again (having thought it was gone forever) you cherish and appreciate it in a far deeper way.

In Greek (specifically Stoic) philosophy there was a belief that history was an endless cycle. Every so often the universe would wind down and burn up in a great conflagration called a palengenesia, after which history, having been purified, started over. But in Matthew 19:28 Jesus spoke of his return to earth as the palingenesis. “I tell you the truth, at the renewal of all things (Greek palingenesis), the Son of Man will sit on his glorious throne.” This was a radically new concept. Jesus insisted that his return will be purged of all decay and brokenness. All will be healed and all might-have-beens will be.

Just after the climax of the trilogy The Lord of the Rings, Sam Gamgee discovers that his friend Gandalf was not dead (as he thought) but alive. He cries, “I thought you were dead! But then I thought I was dead myself! Is everything sad going to come untrue?” The answer of Christianity to that question is – yes. Everything sad is going to come untrue and it will somehow be greater for having once been broken and lost.

Embracing the Christian doctrines of the incarnation and Cross brings profound consolation in the face of suffering. The doctrine of the resurrection can instill us with a powerful hope. It promises that we will get the life we most longed for, but it will be an infinitely more glorious world than if there had never been the need for bravery, endurance, sacrifice, or salvation.

Dostoevsky put it perfectly when he wrote:

I believe like a child that suffering will be healed and made up for, that all the humiliating absurdity of human contradictions will vanish like a pitiful mirage, like the despicable fabrication of the impotent and infinitely small Euclidean mind of man, that in the world’s finale, at the moment of eternal harmony, something so precious will come to pass that it will suffice for all hearts, for the comforting of all resentments, for the atonement of all the crimes of humanity, of all the blood that they’ve shed; that it will make it not only possible to forgive but to justify all that has happened.

More succintly, C.S. Lewis wrote:

They say of some temporal suffering, “No future bliss can make up for it,” not knowing that Heaven, once attained, will work backwards and turn even that agony into a glory.

This is the ultimate defeat of evil and suffering. It will not only be ended but so radically vanquished that what has happened will only serve to make our future life and joy infinitely greater. (Pages 32-34)

When the righteous cry for help, the LORD hears
and delivers them out of all their troubles.
The LORD is near to the brokenhearted
and saves the crushed in spirit.
[Psalm 34:17-18]

We saw it in verse 6 and here we see it again: crying. In both instances, the Lord hears and saves the crier.

Why is this noteworthy? Because it’s such good news! In order to be heard by the Lord all we have to do is cry to him, like babies cry to their parents, and he will hear us, draw near to us, and save us.

• When babies are hungry, they don’t start slaving away in the kitchen. They cry out, announcing their hunger, and daddy brings the bottle.
• When babies dirty their diapers, they don’t go for the toilet paper. They cry out, confessing their filth, and mommy comes to wield the wipes and make them all clean.
• When babies are scared, they don’t grab the shotgun to go see what’s the matter. They cry out, owning their fear, and daddy comforts them in his arms saying “Everything is all right.”

Honest, humble crying contains with it the admission that we are “poor” (v. 6). And poor people are just the type that the Lord loves to call righteous and to save.

So be like a baby before God. Ask him and trust him to meet all of your needs in his appointed way, and he will name you among the righteous and save you, to his greater glory.

The eyes of the LORD are toward the righteous
and his ears toward their cry.
The face of the LORD is against those who do evil,
to cut off the memory of them from the earth.
[Psalm 34:15-16]

Does it benefit the righteous for the LORD’s eyes to literally be looking on the righteous? Does God even have eyes?

Does it oppose evildoers for the LORD’s face to literally be turned against them? Does God even have a face?

Evidently, these expressions do not have one-to-one correspondence from literal meaning to reality.

Rather, the LORD’s eyes on the righteous communicates his favor toward them. It is as a mother’s attentiveness to watch for her playing toddler’s welfare, or as a craftsman’s approving gaze while his apprentice practices under him.

The LORD’s face against evildoers communicates his anger against them. Unlike man’s anger, God’s is sufficient in its mere direction, not its expended effort, to bring opposition against a person. And its extent eventually destroys them, and removes them from being the subject of popular thought.

The eyes of the LORD are toward the righteous
and his ears toward their cry.
The face of the LORD is against those who do evil,
to cut off the memory of them from the earth.
[Psalm 34:15-16]

God’s face is a significant theme in Scripture. It is both the desire of the righteous and the dread of the wicked.

For example, Aaron and his sons were to bless Israel by saying, “The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace” (Numbers 6:24-26).

The righteous long to see God’s face:

You have said, “Seek my face.” My heart says to you, “Your face, LORD, do I seek.” (Psalm 27:8)

The wicked are punished by God’s face:

Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: Like the wood of the vine among the trees of the forest, which I have given to the fire for fuel, so have I given up the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And I will set my face against them. Though they escape from the fire, the fire shall yet consume them, and you will know that I am the LORD, when I set my face against them. And I will make the land desolate, because they have acted faithlessly, declares the Lord GOD. (Ezekiel 15:6-8)

It is as the Psalmist explains to God:

With the merciful you show yourself merciful; with the blameless man you show yourself blameless; with the purified you show yourself pure; and with the crooked you make yourself seem tortuous. (Psalms 18:25-26)

God’s face is both a delight and a terror: a delight to those who have eyes to see and a terror to those who walk in the darkness. But how and where do we see God’s face? Paul gives us the answer in 2 Corinthians 4:4-6:

In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

Jesus is the face of God. “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9). We see his face as we study the gospel, and in seeing his face we are transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another (2 Corinthians 3:18).

The eyes of the LORD are toward the righteous
and his ears toward their cry.
The face of the LORD is against those who do evil,
to cut off the memory of them from the earth.
[Psalm 34:15-16]

None of us is neutral. Just as Jesus said: “Whoever is not with me is against me” (Matthew 12:30).

And this psalm presents the only two options: you are either righteous and do good, or you are evil and do evil. You are either one or the other.

So don’t pretend to be on God’s good side just because you aren’t out killing people or doing drugs. If you are not actively pursuing him and his will, you are his enemy. There is no spiritual Switzerland.

If you, like me, have had a hard time locking this verse in, here are two very simple patterns that have helped me remember it:

1)

What man is there who desires life
and loves many days,
that he may see good?

Notice the three words that begin with “ma”, one in each phrase of the verse.

2)

What man is there who Desires Life
and Loves many Days,
that he may see good?

Notice the slight mirroring of consonants between the first two phrases: D L L D (desires life, loves days).

This post doesn’t cover the other verses for the week, but they seem to come pretty easy after getting verse 12. However, any techniques you have for them (or verse 12) would be great to know about.

What man is there who desires life and loves many days, that he may see good? Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit. Turn away from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it. (Psalm 34:12-14)

This week is a high week for the church as we remember what Jesus has done for us. How does our Fighter Verse relate to Holy Week?

Peter quotes Psalm 34:12-14 in 1 Peter 3:10-12. I’ll cite the larger context so we can see how he uses this passage:

Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind. Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing. For “Whoever desires to love life and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit; let him turn away from evil and do good; let him seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.” (1Peter 3:8-12)

The blessing Peter has in mind is apparently connected to “see[ing] good days” in Psalm 34. In the hope of this blessing, Peter commands his readers to “not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling”.

Where does the power to live this kind of life come from? 1 Peter 2:23-24:

When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.

Jesus fulfilled Psalm 34 in his suffering and is now seeing good at his Father’s right hand. May the Fighter Verse fuel our delight in our Savior this week.