The Purpose and Power of Worship: A Song in Trial

Hi, I’m KJ Scriven and welcome to Strengthen Your Walk™. We’re continuing our conversation on worship and we’re walking through the Psalms right now which are songs that people in scripture wrote throughout their lives and we’ve been talking about that. There’s all different emotions and different genres. They’re not just songs of praise but they’re all types of songs, all types of emotions that people throughout the scripture experience.

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And so today, we’re going to talk about Psalm 34 which is a psalm written by David. This psalm is actually very familiar and it’s often used as a call to worship, a call to joy and exuberance and praise. But I’m going to give you some more context behind this scripture because there may be more behind this psalm, this song, that you may not realize. It reads as such,

“I will bless the Lord at all times,” David says. “His praise will always be on my lips. I will boast in the Lord. The humble will hear and be glad. Proclaim the Lord’s greatness with me; let us exalt His name together. I sought the Lord and He answered me and rescued me from all my fears. Those who look to Him are radiant with joy. Their faces will never be ashamed. This poor man cried and the Lord heard Him and saved Him from all His troubles.”

Again, this is a song that is often used as a call to worship. It’s something that we sing; we say, “I’ll bless the Lord at all times.” But actually, you may not know this, but this song was written at the worst time in David’s life. Yes, he says, “I’ll bless the Lord at all times,” at the worst time in his life. In some of your Bibles, you will actually see this slight, the small intro before you get to verse one. And it says, “Concerning David when he pretended to be insane in the presence of Abimelech who drove him out and he departed.”

Now a little bit of backstory on David. David is a teenager, one of several sons of a guy named Jesse. The prophet Samuel comes to him and says, “Hey, one of your sons,” which ends up being David, “is going to be the next king of Israel.” So, David ends up serving King Saul shortly after as a musician and then he also becomes a warrior. He slays Goliath and then he becomes a great warrior.

But because he’s serving so well, Saul becomes jealous of him. So, David ends up running for his life and as he goes into a neighboring town, the king and the people of that town find out that David is there. And because he’s such a great warrior, the people get afraid and David is like, “Guys, I don’t want to fight. I just want rest. I’m just trying to obey God and do what He’s called me to do.” And so, David gets brought before King Abimelech, right? And David, in an effort to save his own life, because he has no interest in fighting; he’s just looking for peace as he’s running from Saul.

He begins to be insane and the scripture says he begins to scratch on the walls and drool out of his mouth so the people will think he’s insane to save his life. Soon after, David goes with a couple of guys and hides in a cave when he’s supposed to be king! And he hides in a cave and while he’s in the cave, he writes these words, “I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise will always be on my lips. I will boast in the Lord. The humble will hear and be glad. Proclaim the Lord’s greatness with me, let us exalt His name together.” David writes this song, that is so popular, in the worst season of his life. And guess what? You can honor the Lord. You can worship and praise the Lord even if it’s a dark season in your life too because the Lord is always present with His people. Thank you for joining us for Strengthen Your Walk™.

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