In the Lord I Take Refuge: 31 Days in the PsalmsSample

We have all come across someone who constantly complains. No matter what good things wash into their lives, they focus on the bad. Psalm 34 takes that sinful impulse within all of us and flips it inside out. No matter how many bad things wash into our life, we can be someone who focuses on the good. “I will bless the Lord at all times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth” (v. 1). The rest of the psalm unpacks why and how we can praise God moment by moment as we move through life.

Notice one particular element of rejoicing in God in all of life. “Those who look to him are radiant” (v. 5). Have you ever met a radiant man or woman? Have you seen a countenance of brilliant light on someone else's face? This is on another plane beyond mere physical attractiveness or health. Have you ever spent time with someone with a certain glow and magnetic charm, and you knew it was because that person had lived a life of looking to the Lord?

Consider how the psalmist speaks of the abundant provision and care of the Lord. To look to the Lord and be radiant as a result is to walk through life in happy defiance of any circumstantial adversity sending your emotional life into meltdown. You have God. You are safe. You have everything.

This is true even when you are “brokenhearted” and “crushed in spirit” (v. 18). For God has demonstrated that he is not a stoic God, a distant God removed from our frailties and distresses. In Jesus, God drew near. He entered into our broken-heartedness. The Lord Jesus knows what it is to be crushed in spirit. He endured everything we do, with the sole exception of sin (Heb. 4:15). Enjoy life in Christ. Walk with him. Look to him. Become radiant and glorious (2 Cor. 3:18).