Lesson on Psalm 34

If we fear the Lord (love, worship, honor and reverence Him; are in awe of Him) we are admonished to do the following:
     1) keep our tongue from speaking evil 
     2) stop telling lies
     3) turn away from evil and do good
     4) pursue and maintain peace
     5) seek the Lord by setting our mind and heart on Him

Those of us that worship God will have His best; worship opens doors to all His goodness. {Psalm 34:9}

If your heart is broken, God is right there with you, and He saves those whose spirits have been crushed. {Psalm 34:18}

The righteous (those in right standing with God) face many troubles, but the Lord comes to the rescue each time. {Psalm 34:19}

Our full surrender to God gives us the privilege to enter into His perfect plan and destiny for our lives. We can't have more of God without a full surrender to Him.

In Psalm 34, David tells us how to enjoy God and His blessings:
To enjoy God and His blessings, seek Him for salvation, fear (worship) Him, and walk in His ways. David is aware that deception and evil are not the way to the good life. Rather, seeking God for deliverance, fearing (worshipping) Him, and walking in His ways are the way to enjoy God and His blessings.

We can draw four practical lessons from this Psalm:
1) The life that God blesses is not free from extreme trials.
      a) Some trials are due to our own sins and shortcomings.
      b) Some trials are due to the sins of others against us.
      c) When we turn to the Lord in our trials, God can use even our past sins for His holy purpose.

2) Our trials should drive us to the end of ourselves so that we seek the Lord for salvation as we fear Him and learn to walk in His ways.

We can break this down into four components:
     a) To come to the end of ourselves, we must be brokenhearted and contrite over our sins.
     b) Our brokenness should drive us to seek the Lord for salvation and take refuge in Him.
     c) To experience God’s salvation, we must fear (worship) Him.
     d) To fear the Lord is to live in obedience to Him.

3) When we experience God’s blessings, He expects us to share it with others and to invite them to experience God’s blessings, too.

4) The ultimate experience of God’s blessing and salvation will not be in this life, but in the life to come.