Psalm 34.15-22

In their 2003 hit song, Bring Me to Life, rock band Evanescence sang:

(Wake me up)

Wake me up inside

(I can’t wake up)

Wake me up inside

(Save me)

Call my name and save me from the dark

(Wake me up)

Before I come undone

(Save me)

Save me from the nothing I’ve become

And, more recently, in 2018, metal band Underoath sang:

Open up my eyes and show me salvation

Wake this body up ’cause I’m tired of sleepin’

Our Biblical text this morning from Psalm 34 makes it clear that we need to be woken up to the truth of our relationship with God the Father in Heaven if we are going to live every day with hope for better tomorrow.

Psalm 34:15–22 says this:

[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. (ESV)

Our piece of Scripture from Psalm 34 lets us know that there are two categories of people that God sees when he looks at humanity.

When God looks at you, God either sees you as righteous or evil.

As King David, the writer of Psalm 34 tells us, those that God calls righteous have the grace, mercy, love, and goodness of God poured out on them every day of their life and eternally.

King David, who is writing Psalm 34 after being rescued by God from the hands of the king who wants to kill him, and the people of Goliath’s hometown—Goliath being their champion, the giant solider that David killed with a slingshot and a stone, names some of the benefits of being labeled righteous by God.

According to our final verses from Psalm 34,

the righteous have God’s attention as God’s eyes are always on them, watching them to provide for their needs and protect them from ultimate harm.

The righteous are heard by God when they cry to Him for help in prayer.

The righteous have their cries and prayers for help answered by God.

The righteous are delivered from their troubles by God who hears and answers them.

The righteous always have God near them, especially when they are brokenhearted.

The righteous are saved by God when they feel crushed by their sin and the sin of the world around them.

The righteous find comfort in a God who cares for them.

The righteous are redeemed by God from their sin.

So, what does it mean to be righteous?

To be righteous means to be morally perfect when measured against God’s standards for life and love which are laid out for us in the 10 Commandments as well as the other 600+ commandments found it Scripture.

To be righteous means to have lived every second of every day with a record of 100% compliance to every single thing that God tells us to do and not to do.

If you are like me and think about your past and your present when you hear this, you are hopefully realizing that you are in trouble because their is absolutely no way you can claim to have a 100% record of compliance to every single thing that God, as only revealed in the Bible, has told us to do and not do.

When measuring ourselves against God’s standards for right and wrong we have to agree with the Scriptures that say:

[10] …“None is righteous, no, not one;

[11] no one understands;

no one seeks for God.

[12] All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;

no one does good,

not even one.” (Romans 3:10–12,ESV)

[23] …all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 

(Romans 3:23, ESV)

And, Isaiah 64:6, which tell us that,

[6] We have all become like one who is unclean,

and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.

We all fade like a leaf,

and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away. (ESV)

So, if we are living in an evil state, constantly failing to measure up to God’s standards for life and love because of the Sin that corrupts us, what is our position before God’s throne?  

Well, it would be the opposite of righteous according to our text for his morning and that puts us in God’s category of “evil.”

So, what is the life of an evil person like?

King David addresses that as well in this morning’s text.

He says that God looks away from the evil person.

He says that God does not remember the evil person.

He says that God will allow affliction to define the life of the evil person.

He says that God will condemn the evil person to an eternity separated from Him and separated from the Kingdom of Heaven.

Again, hopefully, we recognize our problem.

Our problem is that everything that King David says here about the evil person is our natural state of being because of Sin that is inborn and overflows from us.

But, because of God’s love for us, even in our evil state, He is gracious and merciful towards us giving us the ability to be transferred into the category of “righteous” where we receive all of the benefits of a reconciled relationship with Him that we heard King David mention a few minutes ago.

And, here’s the thing, to become righteous in God’s eyes isn’t something you can earn by doing good deeds or attempting to be the best person you can be.

To become righteous, all you need is faith in Jesus Christ, God-in-the-flesh, who is God’s freely given gift to you so that you can be delivered from slavery to sin, saved from death and separation from God, and redeemed for Kingdom life that is begun to be lived here and now and that will be lived eternally in Heaven.

Simply put, the righteous are saved by faith in Jesus.

In what may be familiar verses to you, John 3:16–17 lays out God’s deliverance, salvation, and redemption plan.

John 3.16-17 says this:

[16] “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. [17] For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. (ESV)

There are a bunch of verses in the Biblical book of Romans, which is the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Christians in the city of Rome during the 1st Century AD, that put our problems and and God’s solution for us together in a wonderful way that has become an easy way to sum up the good news of Christianity.

This collection of Bible verses has become known as Romans Road.

Let’s hear the good news of God’s love making us righteous for in the person and work of Jesus Christ through Romans Road together.

Romans 6:23

[23] For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (ESV)

Romans 5:8

[8] …God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (ESV)

Romans 10:9

[9] …if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. (ESV)

Romans 10:13

[13] For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” (ESV)

Romans 5:1

[1] Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. (ESV)

Romans 8:1

[1] There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. (ESV)

And, Romans 8:38–39

[38] For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, [39] nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (ESV)

Have you ever heard the saying, “All roads lead to Heaven,” or, “All roads lead to God”?

Well, that is one of, if not the greatest, lies that exists.

Our Scripture from the Bible for this morning, along with every other Scripture that exists in the Bible, makes it explicitly clear that ALL ROADS DO NOT LEAD TO GOD THE FATHER IN HEAVEN.

And, to make sure we know this, Jesus Christ, God in the Flesh, makes it unquestionably clear when he tell us,

[6] …“I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. (John 14:6, ESV)

Without Jesus, God calls you evil and your end is punishment and destruction because of sin.

However, with Jesus, God calls you righteous and you are delivered, saved, and redeemed from the hell of being separated from God today, tomorrow, and forever.  And, your new life is led by God, protected by God, and all of your needs are provided for by God.

May your daily prayer this week be:

Our Father, who art in Heaven, wake me up inside; call my name and save me from the dark; save me from the nothing I’ve become; open my eyes and show me salvation.

I leave you with this promise from Psalm 91:14–16:

[14] “Because he holds fast to me in love, I will deliver him;

I will protect him, because he knows my name.

[15] When he calls to me, I will answer him;

I will be with him in trouble;

I will rescue him and honor him.

[16] With long life I will satisfy him

and show him my salvation.” (ESV)

This is the Word of God for you today.

This is the Grace of God for you today.

Amen.

Reverend Fred Scragg V.

September 22, 2024.

Prayer:

Holy Lord, 

We are not fit to come before you. We have no righteousness of our own to offer, and we possess nothing to sacrifice that is worthy of the great debt that we owe you. We have not done what is just and right, but instead have frequently sinned in our words and our actions. We have not loved kindness and delighted our souls in doing others good. Instead, we have delighted in harming those whom we deem our enemies, and even when we have done good to others, we have resented them in our hearts. We have not walked humbly and wisely before you, but rather we have walked in our own wisdom and followed the counsel of the world around us. Father, forgive us. 

Jesus, you are our righteousness, and you have made the perfect offering to atone for our sin. You walked humbly with God every day of your life, you loved faithfulness and mercy, and you burned for justice. These glorious attributes are our only hope of entering God’s presence, yet we wanted you dead because of them, and so we crucified you. What great arrogance, hatred of kindness, and injustice belongs to our race—and to us as well! Thank you for your great mercy in which you come to sinners like us, cleanse us with your precious blood, and clothe us in your perfect righteousness. Hallelujah! What a Savior you are! 

Holy Spirit, work in us true righteousness. Take away our hard and stony hearts and create in us true goodness and beauty. Give us a new desire to walk in your statutes and to live by your rules, out of the thankfulness of our hearts for our rich salvation. Give us deep and abiding joy in the gospel—a joy that neither our circumstances nor our sin can take away. Fix our eyes increasingly on the everlasting inheritance of righteousness that is ours in Christ—on the new heavens and the new earth where we shall finally be able to enter your presence, by your grace alone, standing on the righteousness of Christ alone. In Jesus’ holy name we pray, amen.

Benediction:

Go in peace this morning.  Jesus has transferred you from the domain of evil and darkness to the domain of light and righteousness.