Choose

Choose
 
Have you ever been desperate in life?  You find yourself in a position that you cannot find a solution to and you just do not know what to do?  Have you ever, in that kind of position, made a bad choice that you later regret?  A choice made out of panic and desperation.  A choice that might have temporarily worked but later brought shame?  Join the group.  David, a man after God’s own heart, did the same.  If you take the time to read I Samuel 21:1-15 you will read of David’s decision to flee from Saul and to run to Gath.  The city of Goliath.  The city of his enemy.  While there, David is recognized and in a moment of fear, David feigns being mad.  Spit in his beard and tearing his fingers up making scratches in his prison door.  His scheme works and he is let go but you have to wonder if he lost more than he gained.  
What is interesting is that David was visiting a priest right before he went to Gath.  Some speculate that the priest inquired of God for David.  That God sent David to Gath.  Sent him there to deliver him and David failed and ended up in a cave where God truly brought his deliverance.  Something happened in that cave.  David, probably at his lowest time in his life, up to this point, made a choice.  All alone, no where to go, shame from his actions, David writes Psalm 34.  I have to share it.



I will bless the Lord at all times;
   his praise shall continually be in my mouth.
2 My soul makes its boast in the Lord;
   let the humble hear and be glad.
3 Oh, magnify the Lord with me,
   and let us exalt his name together!
4 I sought the Lord, and he answered me
   and delivered me from all my fears.
5 Those who look to him are radiant,
   and their faces shall never be ashamed.
6 This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him
   and saved him out of all his troubles.
7 The angel of the Lord encamps
   around those who fear him, and delivers them.
8 Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good!
   Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!
9 Oh, fear the Lord, you his saints,
   for those who fear him have no lack!
10 The young lions suffer want and hunger;
   but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.
11 Come, O children, listen to me;
   I will teach you the fear of the Lord.
12 What man is there who desires life
   and loves many days, that he may see good?
13 Keep your tongue from evil
   and your lips from speaking deceit.
14 Turn away from evil and do good;
   seek peace and pursue it.
15 The eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous
   and his ears toward their cry.
16 The face of the Lord is against those who do evil,
   to cut off the memory of them from the earth.
17 When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears
   and delivers them out of all their troubles.
18 The Lord is near to the brokenhearted
   and saves the crushed in spirit.
19 Many are the afflictions of the righteous,
   but the Lord delivers him out of them all.
20 He keeps all his bones;
   not one of them is broken.
21 Affliction will slay the wicked,
   and those who hate the righteous will be condemned.
22 The Lord redeems the life of his servants;
   none of those who take refuge in him will be condemned.

What a testimony of the work of God in someone’s life.  David had lost sight of who his God was.  His God is the God who always delivers. His God always redeems his own.  David, not knowing it, refers to Jesus in verse 20.  Our great redemption by Jesus always allows us to hope and trust in the truth that we are redeemed and we will be delivered.  We are able, because of that truth, to choose to bless the Lord at all times.  Notice the honesty of David.  The humble in verse 2 are the afflicted.  He speaks of the brokenhearted and the crushed in spirit.  He does not shy away from the truth that “many are the afflictions of the righteous”.  But those truths, realities of life, are outweighed by the truths that God is near and that he delivers us from all of our afflictions.  Not some, but all.  
For me, verse 8 has always been the key.  During the most difficult times, I may not be able to swallow the whole truths of what God is doing, but I can “taste and see that the Lord is good”!  That exclamation point is in my Bible.  Nibble on the truths of God’s love and nearness during the most difficult times and you will be overwhelmed by his goodness...even in the darkest days.  It is then, that we can, will, and should bless the Lord.