On Eagles' Wings Pt 420 — Don Courville

Blessing the Lord at All Times

In Psalms 34, David said, I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul shall make her boast in the Lord. The humble shall hear thereof and be glad. O magnify the Lord with me and let us exalt his name together.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for the victory that we have in Jesus. We thank you for this psalm of deliverance, this psalm of victory that David has given us. And we pray that today you'd open up our hearts and our minds to understand the power that there is in being in Christ.

And we pray for those that do not know Jesus Christ, maybe driving down the road or just tuning in, or maybe listen regularly, but yet have not received Christ as their Savior, that you would burn into their heart a longing and a desire for the Savior, the lovely Savior, that they would know Him, that they would know Him, that they might have eternal life, that they might be fulfilled and find the purpose in life that you so want us to have.

You want us to have fellowship with you. And, Father, we thank you for the precious blood of Christ that was shed for our sins. Thank you that you were crucified, buried, and rose again the third day for us.

And now we commit this time to you. We pray that you would minister to those that are wounded, those that are weary, those that are battle-worn, those that are discouraged, oppressed, and whatever the need, that you would lift them up on wings of eagles.

Thank you, Father, in Jesus' name. Amen. I was meditating earlier this week. Actually, I started on Wednesday morning meditating on this psalm. And then Thursday, I came back to it again. And Friday, I just came back to it again.

And God just began to burn a message into my spirit with this psalm. And as I meditated on it, actually, I think I took a lot of time Friday and meditated upon it. God just opened up my spirit to see what a powerful thing it is to have victory.

And I want to share this with you. You can take it. And I believe this will cause you, if you're not living in consistent victory, this will cause you to see more where consistent victory is, no matter what the circumstances that you're in.

And there are at least three or four key things in this psalm. One is the word, all, which is mentioned several times. And then the other word is deliver. Delivered, delivereth, and so forth. And then the other is cried.

These are mentioned several times. And then there's one other phrase that's mentioned 16 times, and that is the Lord. The Lord. I will bless the Lord at all times. 16 times out of 22 times. So if you want to get your Bible and turn to Psalms 34, I believe God is going to bless you this morning by just meditating on this psalm with me.

Moses, Amalek, and the Principle of Applied Victory

Now, if you remember, when Moses fought Amalek, this is after they received the water. And, of course, whenever the blessing of God comes, you have to watch out for the enemy. This is one of the things that we learned not only before revival, but during revival and after revival was the continual moving in of the enemy to try to counterfeit, to try to discourage, defeat.

Of course, he continually does that. But it's the counterfeiting that's the most devastating work of the enemy in the work of revival and in the work of the church or in the work of the Lord anywhere.

But if you remember when Moses was fighting Amalek, whenever he held his hands up, they had the victory. Whenever he let them down, they began to lose. But here's the perspective. They had the victory as much as they wanted it.

As much as he held his hands up and then finally Aaron and Hur recognized that they had to help Moses. And this is what we have to do with our leaders. We must help them. They can't do it all alone. As a matter of fact, none of us can function alone in the Christian life.

We need each other. Unless God has called you for some specific prophetic ministry like in Elijah or John the Baptist, but then you're never alone because you have the Lord. But they could have as much victory as they wanted.

And I believe this principle is for us. We can have as much of the victory as we want. And if you remember, this psalm came out of a hardship with David. He was being chased by Saul now. He had to flee.

He went and got some bread from the priest. And then that caused some problems because Doeg, which was fearful, that's what his name means, was there. And he went back and told Saul. And so as he's fleeing, he gets before the king Abimelech and finds out, well, he's in trouble here.

He's in real danger. And so he pretends to be a madman. And the king says, we don't need any more crazy guys around here. Let's get rid of them. So he escaped. And out of that came this psalm as he recognized God's hand in delivering him.

I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually be in my mouth. Why bless the Lord at all times? Why do it continually? I want to take you back over for a second. I'm going to do this every now and then to different verses.

Triumph in Christ Despite Circumstances

In 2 Corinthians 2, verse 14, Paul, in writing to the Corinthians, said, Now thanks be unto God which always causes us to triumph in Christ and make it manifest the savor of His knowledge by us in every place.

Did you know that this came immediately after there seemed to be some kind of confusion or conflict because he came to Troas to preach Christ and to preach the gospel there. And he said, A door was opened unto me of the Lord.

But yet he comes along in the next verse and he says, I had no rest in my spirit because I found not Titus my brother. But taking my leave of them, I went forth from thence into Macedonia. And then he said, Now thanks be unto God which always causes us to triumph in Christ and maketh manifest the savor of His knowledge by us in every place.

Have you ever thought about that? I believe that that was one of those situations where he realized that God wanted him to do something there, but he didn't have peace in his heart at that time, so he moved on.

And many times God will reveal to you something He wants to do, but you do not have the peace of the Lord yet to do that, so you have to move on and wait for His timing. And then the perspective then of Paul was, no matter what, I have the victory.

Now thanks be unto God which always causes us to triumph in Christ and maketh manifest the savor of His knowledge by us in every place. So no matter what the circumstance, you have the victory, even though it doesn't look like you have it.

You have it. This is the perspective. Now I've got two questions to ask you. One, is there any time a believer is not in Jesus Christ? Is there ever any time a believer is not in Jesus Christ? This is a doctrinal thing.

The answer, of course, is no. There's never any time when a believer is not in Jesus Christ. If you go over to Ephesians 1, verse 3, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.

If you're in Christ, is there ever a time that you are not blessed with these spiritual blessings? Well, of course, the answer is no. Verse 6, To the praise of the glory of His grace wherein He hath made us accepted in the gloved.

As a believer, is there ever a time when God has not accepted you? Well, the answer is no, even if you're in sin. God still accepts you because your acceptance is not based on your performance. It's based on the performance of Christ on the cross and the blood of Christ was shed.

We're accepted by the performance of Christ. Now, let me flip this over, and there's more verses of being in Christ. Verse 10 is another one in verse Christ. But let me ask you another question. Now, you think about this one.

Victory in Christ and the Need to Exercise Faith

Since we're in Christ, we're blessed in Christ, we're always accepted in the Lord, is there any time a believer is not in victory? Is there ever any time that a believer is not in victory? Well, the answer is yes and no.

The answer is yes in the aspect that, like Moses, they had the victory. But the answer is no. They only had the victory as long as they applied their authority. And as Moses applied his authority, lifted up the rod, he had it.

And this is the principle of Psalms 34. And as we go through here, I believe God's going to bless you as you begin to see this. In whatever situation you are in, no matter how bad it looks, or maybe how insignificant it looks, we are to continually bless the Lord at all times and claim our victory.

Claim the victory that Christ has secured for us at the cross. As we go through the passage, I believe God's just going to open up to you to see this. And whatever you're struggling with, God wants to move you from the position of struggle to the position of rest.

No matter how bad a situation maybe you've got yourself into, and most of the times we have problems, we've got ourselves in there because we wouldn't listen to God. We wouldn't obey Him. Now, if you remember in Acts 7 when Stephen was stoned, did he have the victory?

Yeah, he had the victory. It didn't look like he was having the victory. It looked like he had the defeat. But he had the countenance of Christ on his face. He had the glory and the power of the Lord in his life.

And so he had the victory. It didn't look like he was having the victory, but he has the victory. And this is the position of blessing the Lord at all times. Once we cease to bless the Lord, then we begin to agree with the enemy that he has the victory.

The key, I believe, to this whole psalm is at all times. Whatever time we don't praise, whatever time we don't believe, whatever time we don't give God the glory, that's the time that we give Satan ground to come in.

So it's all times. If you'll notice, we read up to verse 3. I'm going to continue on in verse 4. I sought the Lord, and He heard me and delivered me from all my fears. Actually, there are several major breakdowns of deliverance here.

Deliverance from Fear by Seeking the Lord

Here's the one from your fears, from all your fears. Any fears you still got, you need to get rid of them and come and commit that area to the Lord because the Bible says that He delivers us from all our fears.

I sought the Lord. That's the key. Seeking Him. I sought the Lord, and He heard me. And then believe that He hears you. Like it says in 1 John, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. Believe that He hears you.

It's like Hebrews. He that comes to God must believe that He is and that He's the rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. So you seek Him, and then you believe that He hears you. I sought the Lord, and He heard me.

Verse 4 is where we're at. And then what? And delivered me from all my fears. We seek Him. He hears. He delivers. Look at verse 5. They looked unto Him and were lighted, and their faces were not ashamed.

We look unto Him like Peter walking on the water. It's the same. He could walk on water as much as He wanted to. But when He decided that He wasn't going to keep His eyes on the Lord, He lost the victory of walking on the water.

This principle is all throughout Scripture. We have as much victory as we want. But we can have all of it if we want. Like Stephen. They may have ruined his clothes. They may have ruined his body and whatever.

But he had the victory. There wasn't anything they could do to stop him from having the victory. And because of his death, it just brought tremendous power in the church. Now look at... There's a little thing here I noticed this morning.

How it said that they were lighted. This poor man cried unto the Lord, heard Him, and saved him out of his troubles. Verse 5. They looked unto Him and were lighted, their faces were not ashamed. That was over in verse 36 this morning.

And verse 9 where it talked about, For with Thee is the fountain of life. In Thy light shall we see light. Why is it some people seem to have a darkness on their countenance? It's because they're not living in the presence of the Lord.

Those that live in the presence of the Lord will see light and they will have light. Like Moses when he came down from the mount. He had the glory and the glow of God on his face. He didn't recognize it until he began to get all this reaction around him.

But he had one glorious sunburn. Wow. And that's what we're to have. The sunburn of God on our life. Now notice in verse... We go to the second in verse 6. We go to the second deliverance. The first one was the deliverance from fear.

Crying Out to God in Trouble

Then the next one in verse 6. This poor man cried and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his troubles. This is the third all, by the way. The first one was we're to bless the Lord at all times in verse 1.

The next one in verse 4. He delivered me from all my fears. Then the third one is all his troubles. What did he do? He cried. This poor man cried. One of the reasons that many do not have the victory is because they will not be a poor man before God.

Will not recognize themselves as needy. This poor man cried and the Lord heard him. Here again, it's basically the same. We seek him or we cry to him. This poor man cried and the Lord heard him. The Lord always hears and saved him out of all his troubles.

Isn't that neat? You can have it. You can have it even like David. There he was in a jam and the Lord did something for him. Now look at verse 7. The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him and delivereth them.

Here's another deliverance. The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him and delivereth him. Who does God surround with angels? Those that fear Him. Those that fear other things are going to be surrounded by other angels and you're not going to like those.

That's what they're doing. Actually, the only power they have is the power of suggestion that God's not going to meet your needs. God is not going to answer you in this situation. God doesn't love you.

And all these lies that these demons will throw out to you. But look to the Lord. The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him and delivereth them. And delivereth them. Think about that.

How many times out of 1 ,000 will God deliver you when you look to Him, you trust Him? 1 ,000 times out of 1 ,000 times. In other words, God bats 1 ,000. You know, if you go play ball and you start off with 1 ,000, it don't take you long to get your average cut way down.

Just a couple, three swings and foul balls and strikeouts and your average is way down. But God's average is 1 ,000 on delivering us. And you can have as much deliverance as you want. He says, all his troubles, all my fears.

So it's up to us to receive if we want it. You know, you think about Romans 8 .28, a tremendous passage. Romans 8 .28, actually 32 and 35. The word all is used three times in 28. And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God.

There again, there's the perspective. No matter how bad it looks, we know that all this stuff is going to work out for good. All things work together for good to them that love God. There's a key. Maybe things are not working out good in your life.

You need to look inside, really, and say, do I really love God? Or is it just myself? But all things work together for good to them that love God, to them that are called according to His purpose. Then if you go down to verse 32, matter of fact, in 31, there's things again.

What shall we say then to these things? What about these things crushing in your life? And maybe there's a big thing that's crushing you and you feel like you're just almost ready to lose your breath.

Well, come back to Psalms 34 .1. Begin to bless God and praise Him and thank Him for the victory out of that oppression and that pressure. And He will. Because He says in 31, if God be for us, who can be against us?

There is the perspective of victory, of lifting up your rod, taking your authority against the enemy. Look at verse 32. He that spared not his own son but delivered him up for us all. Did it look like Jesus had the victory on the cross?

No. And when you go to the cross, I guarantee you, it won't look like you have the victory from outward appearance. But you will have the victory if you will go to the cross and die. Jesus will live His life through you and He will get the victory.

What shall we say to these things if God be for us in 31? Who can be against you? Nobody. 32. He that spared not His own Son but delivered Him up for us all. How shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?

There's the all things. And if you go down to 35, who shall separate us from the love of Christ? And this doesn't say, God's not saying that you're not going to have problems. Actually, it's saying that through the problems, we have the victory.

Because He says in 35, who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword? As it is written, for thy sake we are killed all the day long.

We are counted as sheep for the slaughter. Then verse 37. Nay, in all these things we are what? We are more than a conqueror. Let me tell you something. In the battles, the conqueror, he got the victory.

He was the winner. He got the spoil. He got the glory. But listen, God says that we are more than a conqueror. That means that we are exceedingly beyond the conquering. This is why Stephen had the glow and the glory and the power of God on his life because he was more than a conqueror.

They thought they were getting the victory. No, they wasn't getting anywhere. It may have looked like it. But it comes down to in Christ. In 30, nor hieth nor death nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Recognizing the Believer’s Position in Christ

It's all a matter of recognizing your position. Do you recognize your position? If you don't recognize your position, and position, by the way, my friends, in battle, is everything. I spent almost a year and a half of my life in Turkey for this one thing of position.

We had to have a military position that was necessary in that part of the country. And my whole 18 months of my life was on this one thing, position. And they told us what was going on. And position is key.

Your position in Christ is vital. You are there. But to recognize it's there, you know, if you give me $100 and you go stick it somewhere and you never tell me about it, I'll never enjoy it. You tell me about it, I'll go get it and enjoy it.

Have it spent up pretty quick too. And this is the way it is. God has given us the blessing. He's given us the victory. He's given it all and He's taught us about it. But if you won't go get it, it's your problem.

You can sit and sulk. You can be oppressed and discouraged and defeated, but you don't have to be. You have the victory. Now, going back to the Psalms. Going back to the Psalms. While you're going back there, there is just something I thought about that I really like.

It's over in, I don't know if I can get there, in 1 Peter 5 .10, I think it was. But the God of all grace who has called us unto His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that you have suffered a while, God may be allowing you to go through something.

After that you have suffered a while, remember the passage that says, this too shall pass? This applies. After that you have suffered a while, make you perfect, established, strengthened, and settled you.

And maybe God's letting you get sifted and sordid. And maybe it's saddening you, whatever. But after a while, it's going to stop. And you're going to understand and you're going to see. Now, back to the Psalm.

Tasting the Goodness and Lovingkindness of the Lord

In verse 8, Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man that trusted in Him. How do you taste? You try to get a little child to taste something, oh, they got something in their mind about it.

They didn't like the color. They didn't like the smell. They didn't like the way you dished it up or whatever. And they may not eat that for years. You and I have done that too when we were kids. We wouldn't like this or that.

And finally when we taste it, wow, mmm, yum, yum, that's really good. What's wrong with me? And boy, then they'll like it. The rest of their life. Oh, taste. Once you taste the Lord, you taste His lovingkindness, you just taste and see how good He is to you, then it will encourage you.

Thy righteousness is like the great mountains. Thy judgments are a great deep. Oh, Lord, Thou preservest man and beast. Listen to this. Psalms 36 .7. How excellent is Thy lovingkindness, O God! Therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of Thy wings.

Trust Him. Learn. Taste the Lord. Taste and see that He is good. Are you trusting Him? Trust Him. Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. Then what do you get? Well, you get blessed. Blessed is the man that trusteth in Him.

Verse 9. Oh, fear the Lord, ye of saints, for there is no want to them that fear Him. Verse 10. The young lions do lack and suffer hunger, but they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing. How do you fear Him?

It's by seeking Him. You seek Him. What's the result? You won't lack any good thing. Well, it looked like Peter was really lacking some stuff. No. He wasn't lacking stuff. When he went through the prison sentence, they say, well, boy, God didn't cover you today.

You got thrown in jail. Well, it may look like it. So they just went to praising God. Pretty soon the whole place was busted up. And this is what you'll do. The victory of Christ in your life will bust up the situation that you're in.

And, you know, you may have to pray a long time. Praise a long time. Think about George Mueller praying for, what was it, 50-something years for this one guy to be saved. Why did he keep on doing it?

He believed God was going to save him. And two of them, one got saved, I think it was at the funeral, and one after he died. He had the victory for their souls. You know, we need to believe that for the lost, for unsaved relatives and things, we need to believe, we need to pray the victory right into their life, and it will make a difference.

Look at verse... You know, many times we think God's holding back a good thing from us. Back when I was in Bible college, we were living in a converted turkey coop. My wife and I had just gotten married, been married about three months, and then we went off to Bible college.

I'd switched over to another one. We were living in a converted turkey coop. Out in the mountains of Colorado, on the edge of the foothills there, out near from Denver. But it was beautiful out there, but we just lived in basically a shack.

It was clean and comfortable, and you could see winter right through the walls almost. But one day a lady come out that was a friend of the owner of that place, and she was very wealthy. She owned big apartment complexes in Denver.

Guarding the Tongue and Pursuing Peace

PSYDE II. He that desireth life, and loveth many days, that he may see good, keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips from speaking guile. Depart from evil, and do good. Seek peace, and pursue it. The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and His ears are open unto their cry.

You know? The Lord's saying here, you better watch your tongue. Not only should we not complain, but we shouldn't complain against others. Speak evil of no man. Titus 3 -2. The Lord told us. And He says, if you'll seek peace, you don't, if you, you know, if you think about it, we're supposed to pray for the peace of Jerusalem.

If you see somebody in trouble, pray for their peace. You pray for the peace of God to come into their lives. If you'll seek peace, you'll find it. The eyes, the ears, and the face of God are all mentioned here.

In verse 16 it says,. The face of the Lord is against them that do evil. To cut off the remembrance of them from the earth. If somebody's giving you a hard time, don't focus on them. Look at the Lord.

Look in His face. You know, if you're looking at somebody that's in bad shape pretty soon, you're going to look like them. That's why you don't look in the mirror too often. Look in the mirror of God's Word.

And, you know, we're changed into His image from glory to glory. But we cry unto Him. Verse 15. His ears are open unto their cry. The face of the Lord is against them that do evil. To cut off the remembrance of them from the earth.

The Broken Heart, Contrite Spirit, and Revival

In 17, the righteous cry. That's the third time crying out is mentioned in this passage. Verses 6, 15, and 17. The righteous cry. And listen. And the Lord heareth. Have you heard that before? And delivereth them out of some of their troubles.

Is that what it says? Nope. That's one of them new versions. No, it's all their troubles. If you're not getting delivered out of a trouble, then you're not believing that God's delivering you out. You have the victory.

It's up to you to take it. Wow! Isn't this stuff for you? It's for me. And notice verse 18. The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart. And save us such as of a contrite spirit. The Lord's near to who?

Those with a broken heart. You know, it's humbling to just take it and be quiet. It was humbling to Jesus. I mean, He could have called 10 ,000 angels or 10 billion angels down and they would have just blown that place to smoke around there as soon as they stuck one thorn in Him.

But no, He went through the humbling of the cross. And if you'll go through the humbling of the cross, humble yourself before the Lord. Have this contrite spirit. You know what a contrite spirit is? I believe it's being crushed to powder.

Being broken where you are just nothing. It's crushed to powder literally what that means. Isaiah 57 and verse 15. For thus said the High and Lofty One, that Inhabitant Eternity, whose name is Holy, I dwell in the high and holy place.

And then get this. With Him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit. You've been crushed to powder. God dwells with you. Recognize that He's there. And what's He going to do? To revive the spirit of the humble.

You see, the proud don't get revival. Nobody's ever experienced revival. They stayed in pride. Everyone that's experienced revival, a restoration in their life, has been broken and contrite before the Lord.

To revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite ones. You say, I've just been broken. God's been breaking me. Now you're ready for the mending. You're ready for that victory.

Start blessing the Lord. Bless the Lord at all times. Then this last thing. We're going to close up on this back in the Psalms. The Lord delivereth those who are afflicted. Look at verse 19. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivereth Him out of...

Deliverance from Every Affliction

How many of them? All. The Lord delivereth Him out of them all. You know this affliction could be an adversity. It could be a calamity. It could be some kind of grief or sorrow. It could be an oppression that you have in your life.

A hardship. A family problem. Anything like this. Barrenness. Remember Samuel's mother was barren. He was born out of affliction. And out of the affliction, God is going to bring a blessing. Samuel was the blessing that she got.

You know, it's only out of 177 times it's affliction. Only five times is it referring to a physical thing. He keepeth all his bones. Not one of them is broken. There was Jesus. A reference to Him there.

All. There's that word all. That word all is mentioned. One, two, three, four, five, six times. All. All. And then verse 20. He keepeth all his bones. Not one of them is broken. Evil shall slay the wicked.

And they that hate the righteous shall be desolate. The Lord redeemeth the soul of His servants. And none of them that trust in Him shall be desolate. It's position. We are blessed in the Lord. Is there any time a believer is not in victory in Christ?

Really the answer is no. We're in victory in Christ all the time. And God wants our position to be a matching up with our profession. What's the testimony of your lips? Complaining? Grumbling? Oh, woe is me.

I got all this stuff. Or is it glory? Blessing the Lord. Praise the Lord. Glory. I wonder what He's going to do through all this. This is exciting. I don't like it any more than you do to have all the problems and everything.

Calling on the Name of the Lord for Salvation

But the power of God is released in blessing Him. I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually be in my mouth. Thank you, Heavenly Father, for blessing us from the Word. Just the simple Word of God blesses us.

Help us to receive our blessings. We thank you that you are on our side. And if you're for us, who can be against us? We're on the winning team. And, Father, we pray for those that are suffering and struggling right now.

That they are moving into the victory ground, the shouting ground. And maybe there are some that just cannot get in. And maybe they can't get in to the victories because they're not in Christ. And right now, we just challenge them to pray and receive Jesus as their Savior.

Just call out. Call. He says, if you'll cry, if you'll call, He'll answer. Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Thank you, Father, for the victory that you've given us today in Jesus' name.

Amen.