Psalm 34: Facing & Erasing Fear, Part 2

Greetings, friends and new listeners. Welcome to The Sound of Faith.

I'm Sharon Otz, thanking you for joining us today, because we know that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Our message today is from Psalm 34. If you've ever faced a strong spirit of fear, you are not alone.

I certainly have, and recently a medical crisis has put me face to face with fear. But David gave us a powerful example of how to win victory over distress and despair and the fear they can spawn. But in order to appreciate how dire his situation was when he wrote Psalm 34, we must do a little digging into the back story of the catalyst for Psalm 34 in facing and erasing fear. So you have to work on your love in order for your faith to stand up against the spirit of fear.

That was 1 John 4.18. Because as long as we have fear, what did he say in 1 John 4.18? For fear has torment. Don't you hate that word, torment?

It just conjures all kinds of things in your mind. You know, they don't have to hang you by your fingernails for you to be tormented. You know, they don't have to hold your hand to the fire to torture you or torment you. You can be so tormented in your soul, in your heart, in your mind, in your thoughts that you almost cannot function. That comes from the spirit of fear. And if we do not get rid of that spirit of fear and fight against that spirit of fear, we will be tormented. We will be tormented and we will be double-minded and the devil will just have a field day with our thoughts and our minds.

Amen? He'll be able to come and say, what if, what if. And you know when he comes with that what if, do not walk through that door. Shut the door. Don't open that door and see what's in that room. I'm not going in the room that says what if on the door. Amen? Because all of it is suppositional, conjectury, hypothetical. Amen?

Speculative. The devil's not charging my life. My life and times are in God's hands. I ain't going in that door of what if.

Amen? So we have to know that we've got to face and erase the fear. Job said the thing I greatly feared has come upon me. He said I was afraid and the thing I greatly feared. He said greatly feared. Now this tells me that Job had a problem with chronic fear. Amen?

He obviously wrestled with a spirit of fear. Now we have to understand we can't be too hard on Job because unlike us, he didn't have the 66 books of the Bible. And he didn't have all the faith preachers on television. And he didn't have all the CDs and the books and the teachings that there's a plethora of them out there that we can avail ourselves to, to help us. Amen? Job didn't have any of that because Job is the first book written in the Bible. So we have to realize he did not have what we have. And like I preached last week, he didn't have that healing covenant. Amen? And so we need to understand that.

So we can't be too hard on him. But the fact is, he said, what I greatly feared has come upon me. So we have to claim what David claimed, and I want to stay in Psalm 34, but I do want to just quickly go to 56 because he also wrote that from the cave or about the cave, I should say, and read two verses, 56 and verses three and four. Remember the same experience is what prompted him to write in verse three, what time I am afraid, I will trust in thee. In God, I will praise his word.

In God, I have put my trust. I will not fear what flesh can do unto me. So David here admitted, obviously, that he was battling with fear. But he says, when I am afraid, because this is a human emotion, and we all will face it. Sometimes fear is for our benefit. Fear will keep us from doing something that may harm us. Amen? It's good to be afraid of rattlesnakes.

Amen? And it's good to be afraid of jumping off the pier if you can't swim. So there are some fears that we teach our little ones, and we're trying to tell little Braden now because we have a pellet stove in our living room, and of course right now it's cold.

It's just cold ceramic because it's not being used. So we're trying to teach him now when he goes over there, oh, it's hot. But it's not hot yet. And it will be hot in a few weeks. Amen? So we're trying to teach him, you don't touch that.

Oh, it's hot. Amen? And so there are some fears that we have for protection. But when they become out of balance, they become phobias that enemy tries to use. But David said, what time I am afraid, I will trust in thee.

How many have ever been there? You are trying not to say the words I am afraid because you're trying not to make them grow. And you don't want to magnify them.

And you don't want to give them life. But you know is that you are afraid. But that is when you say, nevertheless, I trust in you. I will pray. And I like what he said in this verse particularly, because we've been exalting and magnifying the name of God in verse 34. But here he said, I will praise his word. The best antidote for fear is his word. His word.

Amen. He said, I will praise his word. So somewhere in the midst of his soul searching and seeking of God, he got a word from heaven.

He said, I put my trust in God, and I will not fear what flesh can do to me. We know that he meant that in a literal sense. We know he meant Saul and his armies.

We know we meant the Philistine armies. But we can take that for our enemies. They may not be physical enemies on the battlefield. Amen. They may be physical enemies on your job. They could be in your neighborhood.

They could be in your family where they actually physically do mean you harm. Amen. These things do come up in our lives. But even if that would not be the case, we face the powers of darkness. We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, the roars of the darkness of this age and spiritual wickedness in the heavens. And that's Ephesians 6 12. Amen. So he says, when I am afraid, I'm going to praise your word.

I'm going to trust in you, and I'm not going to be afraid of man. And so he said, this poor man cried, and the Lord heard him and delivered him out of all of his troubles. Poor man. He's not talking about his bank account. He's not talking about how much money he's got in his wallet. No, this has nothing to do with that. It has to do with the state that he was in.

Amen. He was in a place of helplessness. He saw himself as poor in that he had no resources of his own by which to bring about a victory over his enemies. He was out of resources. He has 600 men that were hanging out there with him, and they were very loyal to David, and they were rough and tough guys. They weren't some wimpy guys. They were rough and tough.

But in his condition and position, they could not possibly hold back the armies of Saul or the armies of the Philistines without divine intervention, without supernatural help. Amen. He said, I am poor. I am at the end of myself.

You ever been there? Have you ever been at the end of your resources? You know, sometimes God allows us to get there on purpose because until we get there, we're going to figure it out. I'm going to do it this way. Okay, well, that plan didn't work. I got plan B.

Well, here's plan C. Amen. And so we will try again and again, but when we come to that place where we have done all that we can do, he said, I cried. First he said, I sought the Lord about my fears, and now I just cry out to the Lord. It was not a cry of fear because God had delivered him from his fear.

It was a cry of desperation. Lord, my eyes are on you. I'm looking under the hills from whence cometh my help.

My help cometh from the Lord who made heaven and earth. He will not suffer my foot to be moved. He will watch over me. He doesn't slumber.

He doesn't sleep. Amen. He's going to protect me going out and coming in and sitting down and rising up.

Amen. He said, I'm looking to you Lord. And when he came to that place, God heard him. And this time God delivered him and saved him out of all of his troubles. Troubles. Job said, man born of a woman will see many troubles.

You ever had any trouble in your life? Amen. Oh yes. We're back in 34 obviously, but jump down to verse 19.

You'll recognize this one right away. Many are the afflictions of the righteous. We could say many are the troubles of the righteous. Many are the tribulations of the righteous. But the Lord delivers them out of them all.

My God. He didn't say you won't ever have trouble. He said, in fact, you'll have many troubles. But our God, when we cry out to him will deliver us out of them all. Amen.

Jesus said in John 16, 33, he said, in this world you shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer for I have overcome the world. Hallelujah. And he said in me, you will have peace. My peace I give unto you. My peace I leave with you. Not as the world gives give I unto you. So let not your heart be troubled and neither let it be afraid.

Amen. Quoting from John the 14th chapter. So yes, we will have troubles. We will have tribulations, but there's no affliction. There's no tribulation or trouble that God cannot handle and bring us out. So let's go back to verse seven.

And this is one of the ways God chooses to do it. The angel of the Lord encamps round about them that fear him and delivers them. The angel of the Lord encamps.

I ministered on this not too long ago, so it may seem like repetition, but to keep the message in its continuity, I'll go through it again today. Encamps roundabout. That literally means you are circled. Amen.

It's 360 degrees north, south, east, west, west, east, north, south. I don't care how you say it. Amen. You are encamped around about by the angel of the Lord. He's got you covered 360 degrees. Amen. And he's got you covered 24 seven. Doesn't matter what time of day or night it is.

It doesn't matter where you are. He's got you covered. And who am I speaking of? Says those that fear the Lord. Now we have here a different kind of fear. We've been talking about the bad fear, the phobia, the fear that Satan brings on us.

But this is a different fear. And really, if we were going to write it today in today's language, we would probably say those who have reverence, those who have respect unto God, those who revere him for who he is. You know, we're going to give you praise for who you are.

Those who understand who God is. Amen. And we're in fear of him because he's so awesome and so majestic, even if he just sends one of his angels and actually let that angel appear unto us that we could actually see the angel, we would probably turn to Jell-O. And the first thing the angel would say is, fear not. I got a good word for you. Don't be afraid. I came with good news. So the thing is, is you've got a human body, a fleshly body, and it just does not know how to respond to the great supernatural power of God.

So he gets afraid. In every case, the angel has to say in the Bible, don't be afraid. I've come to give you good news.

I've come to help you. Amen. Imagine what it would be like if we actually got to see God and we don't know that we would ever get to do that. He would have to put some layers between us like he did Moses. When Moses said, I want to see your glory. And God said, well, you know, Moses, if I let you see my glory, you will turn into ashes. And I'm not done with you yet. You've still got a few things you've got to check off your bucket list. So I'll tell you what I'll do.

I'll stick you in this cleft of a rock and I'll walk past you and then I'll keep my hand over you while I'm walking past and just as I get past you, I'll let you see me from the back. Amen. And so we know that we're probably not going to see God face to face. And that's why we have such fear of him, better word, reverential fear because of who he is. And so he said, those who have that kind of reverence for God, they understand how mighty, how powerful, omnipotent, omniscient, infinite. I mean, you know, we could go on all day when they understand that.

Amen. Those are the ones that he sends his angels to watch over them. And let me tell you things like I told you before, his angels are not wimpy. Let me give you a few facts about God's angels.

It's written quite a bit. David writes of them quite often. Psalm 103 20. He said that his angels excel in strength. That means that their strength is greater than the strength of Satan's angels. They excel in strength. They're stronger.

They are excellent and that they actually are super abundantly above the enemy's forces. And he said they harken to the voice of his commands. When God commands them, immediately they obey. Amen. And sometimes they rescue us in the nick of time. Just about at that intersection, just another split second and you would have been on a head on, but the angel of the Lord intervenes.

And all you need was that split second to keep you out of that intersection at that exact time. Amen. And many, many things that we are not even aware of. We don't even know the times that we've been rescued from danger because God commanded his angels. He said in Psalm 104 four, he makes them a flaming fire.

And I brought this out before. I remember specifically reading a story about these missionary preachers that had gone down. I believe it was to Mexico and it was somewhere down there. But anyway, they went to minister and they got pulled over by these, um, I don't know if they were the cartel, the drugs, they were criminals. Let's put it that way. Bad guys. And I mean they were ready to kill them all because you know, they don't say, give me your money or your life. They say, give me your money and your life.

You know, it doesn't matter if you cooperate with some of these criminals. And anyway, all of a sudden they just got in their vehicles and took off and left them alone. And later on the story came out somewhere that they saw these, which they didn't know they were angels, but they saw these huge, huge giant men that had flaming swords and they took off.

Amen. So God makes his angels sometimes a flaming fire. And we're told in, um, Psalm 91, which we all know well, he gives his angels charge over us. When you charge somebody, that is their assignment. I am now, this is your assignment. I'm sending you forth to do this particular thing.

Doesn't that make you feel good? Angels on assignment. Hmm. I'm going to have to write something about that. Angels on assignment. I already know about the angels in the bushes. You know the messages where I preach where all of a sudden they jumped, God sent ambushments against the enemy and killed them all. My definition is not really, you know, it's not in the Bible, it's not in the dictionary, but my definition is angels in the bushes. Angels on assignment.

He says, this is your assignment to watch over Sharon, to watch over Tina, to watch over Murph, and you can put your name in there. Amen. And it gives them charge to keep us in all of our ways. And if necessary, they will bear us up in their own hands.

Lest we should dash our foot against the stone. And we're told in Hebrews, the first chapter in verse seven and verse 14, he sends them forth as ministering spirits to minister to the heirs of salvation. That's me.

Anybody else? Are you an heir of salvation? God has dispatched angels specifically to intervene on your behalf.

And as I said, they're not wimpy. They, let me tell you about just one. Can I type out one of God's angels? We don't know his name. We're not given his name. He's not Gabriel.

He's not Michael. He's not one of those arch angels that we know the name of, but this one angel was so powerful. He slew 185,000 men at one time, an army of 185,000 men. Can I tell you about it? I'm not going to have you read it because it would take too long.

So I'll paraphrase it. This was in the time of the reign of King Hezekiah, who was King over Judah. And he was one of the good Kings, a very good King. And so during his reign, there was the King of Assyria, who was always one of Israel's main enemies. And at this particular time, his name was Sennacherib. And this, this guy was really an egoist. He was full of himself and he did literally go marching through countries and destroying people. And then when he would go into their countries, he would get their gods and you know what I mean? The idols, the statues made out of wood or stone and throw them in a fire and laugh and say, your God didn't save you.

Did he? Can't save you out of my hand. You know who I am?

I'm King Sennacherib of Assyria and no God can deliver out of my hand. And you know what? Up until that point, it was true.

It was actually true. Amen. So he writes a letter, Sennacherib, writes a letter and spells out in detail, I'm coming to Jerusalem. And when I get there, I'm going to do in Jerusalem what I've done everywhere else I've been. I'm going to destroy everything and your God is not going to be able to deliver you out of my hand. And he talked to them. He threatened them in his letter. He said, don't be deceived into thinking that your God Jehovah can deliver you. When people are full of pride and boasting, they just get bigger and bigger and their words get more dangerous and more dangerous. Let them go.

They'll hang themselves, folks. He said, where are the gods of Hamath? And where are the gods of Arphad? And where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Did they deliver their people out of my hand?

Well, no, not, no. Actually they didn't. He said, who among all the gods of all the lands delivered their people and lands out of my hands. So he had this all written down, but he actually spoke it to the servants of Hezekiah that he was going to give the letter to and say, now you take this to your king. And they answered him not a word. They just stood there and listened to him.

They didn't give an answer at all. They took the letter. They went back to their king Hezekiah and they read it to him. And when Hezekiah heard those words, he rent off his robes. He put sackcloth in the ashes on his head and he went into the house of the Lord.

He did not say, oh woe is me. My God, we're done for. What are we going to do now?

We are in big trouble. The sackcloth in the ashes was not to show defeat. It was to show humility.

He was doing that showing, Lord, I'm way down here low. I'm humbling myself before you because I cannot save my people. My armies cannot deliver the people out of the hand of Sennacherib and his armies.

Amen. And he went into the house of the Lord to pray. And then he said to his servants, go and find the prophet of God. Go to Isaiah the prophet and tell him what Sennacherib has said. You see, he did not fall apart.

He didn't have a meltdown. It was very grave. Amen. He could not deny the threats and the taunts that Sennacherib made. They were true. But he sent for the prophet of God and they went and told Isaiah everything that Sennacherib had said.

And when they did, Isaiah sent an answer back to Hezekiah. And the first thing he said was, be not afraid of the words you have heard. The first thing you got to do is face and erase fear. He said, don't be afraid of these words. Don't be afraid of all his threats.

Don't be afraid of his taunts. I understand that we know that it's true up until this point. He has done all of that. And all of those gods ended up in the fire. Amen. He said, speaking now for the first person and for God, you know, he said, be not afraid.

But now he's speaking for God. I will blast him. I love that. I will blast him. God, we need you to come and blast some devils. We need you to blast some demons. We need you to blast some sicknesses.

We need you to blast some diseases. We need God to come and blast against our enemy. You mean God just cuts to the chase.

I will blast him. It's like God can't even think of a word. God is so insulted.

God is so insulted. He's like, well, I'm going to raise up the army and the army's going to all get in line. And don't you be afraid. And we're going to march around seven times and we're going to blow trumpets. I will blast him.

There was a time for marching for seven days. There was a time for blowing shofars, but this is time to blast, to blast the devil. That he stood up and said, your God Jehovah cannot deliver you.

He'll be just like all the other gods I threw into the fire. God said, I will blast him. And God said, he's going to hear a rumor. And when he hears a rumor, it's going to make him go home.

Because at that time, Sennacherib was in the middle of destroying another country. He was right in the middle of that. And he was sending word when I'm done here, I'm coming for you. God said, he will hear a rumor. And when he hears that rumor, he will go home. And when he goes home, he will fall by the sword in his own land. So God said to Hezekiah, I've got this.

I've got this. You trust me, but you know the enemy is relentless. You need to understand this. The enemy is relentless. Do you know that Sennacherib sent messengers a second time to repeat his taunts and threats again? A second time. And this time he added six more.

Amen. He added six more nations to it and he repeated it. He said, shall you be delivered out of my hand?

Is your God going to deliver me? And he named all of the ones he named before. And he added six more and said, their gods didn't help them.

And your God's not going to help you. But what Hezekiah did next. I love it.

It's so remarkable. He took that letter. He already got a word from Isaiah.

No sentencing going back to Isaiah. Isaiah gave him the word of the Lord. So now you would think that would have been the end of it all, but no Sennacherib comes with a second letter.

Write it all over again. Hezekiah takes that letter, goes back into the house of the Lord and lays it down and says, Lord, you've got mail. You've got mail. This letter is not to me. This letter is not to Hezekiah. God, this letter's for you.

You need to answer this letter. Amen. You need to go on HOL, heaven online and say, God, you've got mail. Do you hear what this wicked King has said? And Hezekiah said, he's reproached you God. This reproach isn't on me.

We all know I can't do it. He's reproached you the living God. And that's what he said, the living God. Those other gods got burned up in the fire. See how he boasts how he's going to utterly destroy all the nations he's invaded, how he casts their gods into the fire.

And then I like what he adds. And you know, it's true God, because they weren't gods anyway. The reason why he did that and he did do it is because they weren't gods to start with.

All they were is dominoes made by man's hands who fashioned them to be a God and gave them a name. So of course he was able to throw them in the fire, but you are the living God. And he has reproached you the living God. And then he said, now, Oh Lord, our God, Jehovah, save us from his hand, that all the Kings kingdoms of the earth may know that you are God alone. You are God alone from before time began. You are on your throne. You are God alone.

And right now in the good times and in the bad, you are on your throne. You are God alone. You're unshakable. You're unchangeable. You're unstoppable.

You're immutable. You're impeccable. You are God alone. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. He's got all by himself.

He doesn't need your help and my help. He needs us to trust him. He needs us to trust and obey. And when he said that to God, God turned to one of his angels.

He said, you go down there and take care of my business. And one angel slew 185,000 men. Now, somehow Sennacherib escaped and he got back home and you know, when he got back home, you know what happened?

Two of his own sons slew him with a sword. Just like God said in your own land, it will happen. Amen. So what Hezekiah did is what we have to do. And you know, you might find this surprising that David is not the only person who wrote the Psalms. He wrote the majority of the Psalms, but he's not the only Psalmist. Moses wrote Psalm, Asaph wrote Psalm, and Hezekiah wrote Psalm. Now there's one Psalm that I particularly want to finish two verses in Psalm 112.

If you want to, you can turn there. You will like it when we get there because it concludes what we've just learned. There is no author, does not say who wrote this Psalm and Bible scholars are not sure who wrote it. But I want to just suppose that Hezekiah may have written Psalm 112 and I want to look at verses seven and eight. He shall not be afraid of evil tidings. His heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord. His heart is established. He shall not be afraid until he sees his desire upon his enemies.

If he didn't write it, it still is a good commentary. Amen. He shows us what to do when evil tidings come and fear hits us. Amen. In the face with a strong wind. What are we going to do? We're going to go into the house of God and we're going to say, God, you got mail. How you going to answer this?

What are you going to do? Because our eyes are on you. He is God and God alone. Do you believe it? Come on, stand on your feet. I'll tell you what, the anointing in this place is so powerful. It's mighty. It's a mighty powerful anointing here today. Amen. I want you to close your eyes now and just pray in the spirit. I need to get the mind of the Lord here. I need the mind of the Lord. Amen.

Lord, how you want me to do this. Amen. I've carried a heavy anointed and it's still on me very powerfully, but if I call a prayer line and pray for all of you, I might push myself past a threshold.

Amen. And God doesn't need my hand. Doesn't have to be my hand on you for you to receive this anointing.

I believe God wants to do it this morning. I believe he wants to touch every sick body. So I want all of you that have sickness in your body. I want you right now to put your hand where that sickness is, wherever the sickness is.

If you can, if you can't, then you just put your hand on your heart. Amen. And we're going to ask God to just penetrate you with the healing power of Jesus Christ. If you're facing something else in your life, it could be a legal matter, a financial matter, a marital matter, something to do with your family, whatever it might be.

Amen. Maybe the enemy does war against your mind. Maybe you're a very controlling person and you're always trying to be a step ahead of God. You're always, God's talking to somebody.

You're always trying to figure it out. You always got, well, if that don't work, this is what I'm doing next. And this is your, this is your MO. This is how you operate.

And this is how you've been operating. And God says, I want you to let it go and trust me, bring the reports to me, bring the situation to me, tell me God, this mail's for you, bring it to the Lord and say, now, Lord, you've heard what the enemy has said, and you have even seen what he has done in other situations, but I'm looking to you. My trust is in you.

My trust is in you. You know, many people give me all these many stories and it really, I do not know what's wrong with people when they want to tell me all these stories about all these people that have died. I'm thinking, why are you telling me that I don't need to hear about people that have died.

I need to hear about people that live. Amen. Because I don't know where they were with God. I don't know where their faith was. I don't even know if they knew God.

I don't know where they were in the, in their faith walk with the Lord. Amen. I want to hear what God's word says, and I want the Lord to let me know what is right for me.

He might've directed them one way, but he's directed me another. We got to give it to the Lord and say, Lord, here it is. What are you going to do about it? What shall we do? What is it that you want us to do, Lord? We're going to obey you.

Are you going to do that today? Father, right now in the name of Jesus, I ask you Lord to touch every sick body. Those who've been struggling for a while and they've been prayed for many times and they're discouraged because they think I've gotten in all the prayer lines and I'm no better.

The devil is a liar. You can't give up. You've got to press on. You've got to exalt the Lord and worship the Lord and magnify his name and thank him for the victory while you're still in the cave, while you're still in that low place, while you're still being oppressed by the enemy, you've got to magnify and exalt the Lord and thank him for the victory. Father, right now in the authority that you've given us to use your name, I command every sickness and disease and infirmity to leave these people's bodies. I come against every spirit of fear. You foul spirit of fear. I take authority over you in Jesus name. I command you to be cast out of their minds, their thoughts, their emotions, and even the people that surround them Lord. I bind them from speaking fearful things. I bind those vessels that try to speak fear into their hearts and into their spirits and negative reports. We shall believe the report of the Lord.

Even when we get a report that is negative, we will bring it to you God and say we believe the report of the Lord. I command you to be well. I command you to be whole. I command you to be free to go forth with joy and victory in the name of Jesus and let the church say amen.

Amen. I hope you're uplifted by this message Psalm 34 facing and erasing fear. You know I preached this in the midst of my own medical crisis of breast cancer diagnosis.

The warfare and anxiety that accompany this type of life event is great. I found out it's one thing to preach faith in the pulpit. It's another thing to walk it out when you were in the fiery trial of faith and facing fear. When I read Psalm 34, I heard a man who was in great distress, so much so he actually pretended to be insane, so Achish the king of Gath would give him refuge from King Saul who was hunting him down to kill him. Imagine David the giant killer having to flee his to his worst enemies the Philistines and to Gath Goliath's hometown. You talk about a low place, but in that cave of despair beset by fear David called upon the Lord and God delivered him from his fears.

Then he cried again and God delivered him out of his troubles because fear must be faced first and David showed us how in Psalm 34. To order Psalm 34 facing fear, send a love gift of at least $10 for the radio ministry to sound of faith P.O. Box 1744 Baltimore Maryland 21203. Request SK 192. You may also go online to soundoffaith.org where you can order it on mp3s. But to order by mail, send your minimum love gift of $10 to P.O. Box 1744 Baltimore Maryland 21203 and request offer SK 192. Until next time, this is Sharon Ott saying Maranatha.