Friday 4th September

​Psalm 34 vs 11
 
Recently my old school was pulled down and the site cleared ready for a new smaller school to be built somewhere on the site. I can’t say that I hated school or even disliked it, but I definitely had no desire to go back to it after  ‘O’ Levels. I never thought about that really until last night as I thought about David’s words in Ps 34:11 his third personal statement. “Come my children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord.”  On reflection I think I was never enthusiastic about school because no teacher I knew really enthused about his or her subject or education in general in the way that some teachers I know do today. If one is passionate about a subject or imparting knowledge that enthusiasm is catching. Possibly not for everyone but for some and that is maybe the best we can do.

No-one can say that David is anything other than passionate about The Lord. In the opening verses his passion and praise is expressed by words and through his life. When in difficulties his relationship with God means that he naturally called on God who proved his faithfulness. As a result he calls on others to test the Lord themselves. It is really a call to living faith.
The whole of the second half of the psalm then, flows from these experiences and he is bursting to tell others, to teach them about the Lord he knows, to bring them into the same intimate, personal relationship he enjoys with the Creator. Commentators tell us that his intention “I will teach you the fear of the Lord” is nothing less than a call to live well before the Lord and that this same call is taken up by Peter and James in particular in their New Testament letters.
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When people hear us speak, or watch how we live do they see people who are passionate about Jesus, or those for whom faith has become just another burdensome duty, motions we go through without any enthusiasm? Do people see a living, vibrant relationship with him? If we know the Lord, really know him, if he has got under our skin and filled our hearts and that relationship has moved us then how can we keep from singing?