MAGNIFYING THE LORD

The psalmist makes three appeals in these verses: “O magnify the Lord with me”, v. 3; “O taste and see that the Lord is good”, v. 8; “O fear the Lord, ye his saints”, v. 9.

In verses 4 to 7, he justifies his appeals by rehearsing the Lord’s blessings. Verses 4 and 6 describe personal blessings, and verses 5 and 7 describe collective blessings. We shall review verse 4 as representative of the others.

“I sought the Lord, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears”, v. 4. The heading of the psalm places it in the days when David, a fugitive during the reign of Saul, fled to the Philistines. The repeated hazards and stresses of the preceding days had so preyed on David’s mind that, shortly before he fled to Gath, he said to Jonathan the son of Saul, “truly as the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, there is but a step between me and death”, 1 Sam. 20. 3. He had lost the assurance of God’s protecting care and (very understandably) had succumbed to intense fears. But the resulting defection to enemy territory led him into a path of compromise and deceit which, but for the Lord’s intervention, would have resulted in his fighting with the Philistines against the army of Israel.

He reached the depths of despair when, on being sent back to Ziklag by Achish of Gath, he and his men found that the city had been burnt down, and their loved ones captured and removed by the Amalekites. His own followers threatened to stone him: and then we read these inspiring words, “but David encouraged himself in the Lord his God”, 1 Sam. 30. 6. He and his men pursued and routed the Amalekite invaders, and rescued all their loved ones. Truly he “sought the Lord” and was delivered from all his fears. Soon afterwards he ascended the throne of Judah, and finally became king of all Israel.

If we allow the pressures of adversity to undermine our trust in the Lord, there is no limit to the problems which we may bring upon ourselves. But recovery is always possible, for the Lord never abandons us, nor loses patience with us. “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it”, 1 Cor. 10. 13.