The beginning of all wisdom

Author Guardian

A word given

The Lords plans are greater and higher and unforeseen, but know this He only has plans for your good, this His heart that you should know Him and seek Him .

For your God is a Good God, who walks in Holiness and splendour, who lives in unapproachable Light and yet you can walk to Him and draw near to Him and walk into the Holy of Holies approaching His throne

Those who have clean hands and a pure heart who have sought after righteousness and loved peace, your eyes shall see the King

Fear not, for I am with you and walking with you and carrying you, fear me, that you would know and walk in my ways, for the fear of the Lord is the beginning of all wisdom

Draw near to me and I will draw near to you, I open the door to you , that you might walk in and feast with me and taste and see that I am good

The Lord your God , Father of lights He is your Father and has always been there with you, from the dawning of your first thought to your last breathe, I am with you and after your time is complete and you have breathed your last breathe, this is only the beginning

I have great plans for you and know and be confident that I who have started a good work in you will carry it through

amen

Lord Father God , Lord of lights and Lord of the Children of the Light, who walk in the light, show us your ways and bring revelation to us, that your light would bring revelation, and make us see things we have never seen before.

Bring light into the dark places of the heart and iluminate sin, expose and bring to the surface, those things you want to deal with

Lord God thankyou that we were once all like those who had gone astray, we all wandered off, we all went our own ways, we all walked the Damascus Road and saw that light and became conscious of the darkness that we walked in and your light lifted the scales from our eyes and we in fear and in trembling came to you

Lord although its hard to see why certain things happen to us, we thankyou that only when the fruit is crushed can the aroma be found, only when the fruit is crushed can the wine be produced, only when the fruit is crushed can we taste and see that you are good,

and your kindness and goodness extends and goes out to all generations.

We come to you now and we look to your word and we come with listening hearts and we open ourselves to your word, we eagerly seek to honour and obey, in fear and reverence,

in seeking you, we come in obedience in Jesus name amen

We have seen in recent studies and messages that salvation is free at a cost

We have seen that the Love of God is freely given , but also has requirements

Now we look to Psalm 34 and at Cross references in this nurture group message

And we find that there is no fear in love ( God )

But we see that we are to fear God

We find the double edged sword swooping accross from different directions and we ask the question..." What is the 'fear of the Lord ?'

We also see in Psalm 34 that David prayed to the Lord and at some point read through Psalm 34 yourself, slowly and digest this psalm

You see even at salvation we found a requirement, we found that salvation required an active participation on our part..we found ourselves responding, we found that even at salvation when we first found the Lord and came to Him and became Christians, that

there was a requirement..

So what was the requirement ? the requirement was that we prayed to God, in other words we responded back to Him, we asked Him to save us, this is a response...an active participation, an action, and we find that as we go on in our walk with God that He continues to save us and He requires us to take an active participation in responding to Him and in talking and crying out to God , God delivers us.

Not always in the way we think and not always in our small time scale, God is not a supermarket for purchasing items or meeting our requirements as and when it suits us.

In psalm 34 we find many promises and blessings, that call for an active participation on our part

David prayed to the Lord in Psalm 34:4 he prayed and asked God to free Him from all his fears...

And God freed him from his fears

Here we see a continued salvation, an ongoing salvation as God free's David from ongoing attack and ongoing fears and ongoing attacks from his enemies, you see it does,nt stop the moment we are saved..

In verse 6 we see that David prayed and asked the Lord to free him from his troubles,

And God freed him from his troubles

Then we see the fear that David had being turned to fear of God and this fear transforms and renews us as we seek to be obedient to God, for the fear of God brings us to obedience

This is the start of wisdom, we find wisdom as we fear God and seek His face, knowing that this fear of God leads us to know His voice and to be obedient to Him.

Solomon is known for wisdom and David has wisdom, this wisdom is available to all, because this wisdom is the wisdom of God that calls out in the streets to anyone who may hear her voice, the voice of wisdom and the wisdom of God comes as we see the

Holiness of God and the greatness of God and we seek God above all else, this led David to obedience time and time again and led Solomon back to God time and time again.

This obedience was seen in Jesus who was obedient even to the Cross

And here in Psalm 34:7 once again we see " the Angel of the Lord " mentioned who surrounds and defends all who fear Him

Remember we looked at the angel with the sword last week ?

Verse 8: Taste and see that the Lord is good

Again we see an active participation here on our parts, we taste and see, this requires action on our parts....to taste

We see Jehovah Jireh here as David speaks of the God who provides for our needs. in verses 9 and 10, and those who fear Him will have all they need, because as we walk in obedience to Him, He in turn will reward

Verse 11, Requires another repsonse...."Come my children and listen to me and I will teach you the fear of the Lord "

verses 17 and 18: " the Lord is close to the broken hearted "

And now we suddenly change to a prophetic word as David utters about the " Cross "

And this is where we tie into this series which is entitled " Cross references"

You see only at times when the fruit is crushed can the odour be found in a life

Sometimes only at the point of a person coming to the end of themselves do they find themselves

Sometimes only once the person has lost their life, do they find it

Sometimes only when a person cries out to God for help does God come and rescue them

Sometimes only once the pain and the suffering has ended do we find the wine

Sometimes only when a bone is broken can the shepherd stop the sheep from wandering off and only then can the Shepherd of the sheep carry the wandering lamb back to the fold

Here in Psalm 34: 20 we find a prophetic utterance as David speaks of the Cross, where " Not one bone shall be broken "

Now before we go on and see what lies behind this Psalm of David, lets look at some " Cross references " and you will see how these references tie in and come together as we go on

"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom" Proverbs . 1:7

Isaiah 66:2 (New King James Version)

2 For all those things My hand has made,And all those things exist,”Says the LORD.

“ But on this one will I look:On him who is poor and of a contrite spirit,And who trembles at My word.

Philippians 2:12-14 (New International Version)

Shining as Stars

12Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, 13for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.

NOR BREAK ANY BONE

OF IT: according to all the ordinances of the PASSOVER they shall keep it" Exodus 12:46 & Numbers 9:12.

Psalm 34:20

"HE KEEPETH ALL HIS BONES: NOT ONE OF THEM IS BROKEN"

John 19:36

"For these things were done, that the scripture should be fulfilled, A BONE OF HIM SHALL NOT BE BROKEN"

1 Corinthians 11:24

He brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is My body, which

is broken for you: this do in remembrance of Me."

1 Corinthians 10:16-17, Romans 12:4. & 1 Corinthians 12:12

"For as THE BODY IS ONE, and hath MANY MEMBERS, and all the members of that ONE BODY, being MANY, are ONE BODY: so also is CHRIST."

Psalm 51:7-8

"Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the BONES WHICH THOU HAST BROKEN may rejoice."

? ...The bones that you have broken may rejoice ?

Hold on....you see sometimes there is no fragrance until the fruit is bruised.

Sometimes the Shepherd may have to break the bone of the wandering lamb to stop it from its wanderings, not because The Shepherd is ill treating the lamb, but out of love the Shepherd has to stop the lamb from coming into harm, from walking into danger and from falling into a trap,

Once the lamb walks with a limp, and is unable to walk on its own the Shepherd will then take the lamb up in His Arms and carry the lamb back to the fold, where it is safe and will no more wander off, but will from that time onwards stay in the safety of the fold .

Genesis 32:22-31....remember Jacob who walked with a limp ?

Sometimes only when this has happened will the fruit become evident, sometimes and so many times this brokeness becomes the testimony that brings us to God and where we find salvation, that calls us back to the fold and brings us into the family of God, where

we fear God in obedience and protection and love and that love in itself casts out all fear

Although not one bone was broken in the body of Jesus , the bread is broken for all, that all might share in His body and be in unity in His body, the body that is united and not broken.

Here again we see the paradox as with one scripture we here the utterance of David proclaiming and prophesying about Jesus on the Cross and yet with another scripture we read of his body broken for all and we read about the brokeness that leads to salvation

of the sinner into His glorious light and into Gods riches and into Gods body, which is the body of Christ of which no bone shall be broken and yet the bread is broken which is the body of Christ

And in our brokenness he gives us beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the Spirit of praise for the spirit of heaviness....

Isaiah 61:3 (New International Version)

3 and provide for those who grieve in Zion—to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes,the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the LORD for the display of his splendor.

You see this psalm of David ...Psalm 34, was written at a time when David knew fear and David again speaks out of his life and experience and I challenge you to read through Psalm 34 again at some point and to read it with your heart.

Now we look to where David is coming from in this Psalm as we go to , I samuel 21:10

At the time of writing this Psalm David knew deliverance from fear as we read

1 Samuel 21:10-15 (New International Version)

David at Gath

10 That day David fled from Saul and went to Achish king of Gath. 11 But the servants of Achish said to him, "Isn't this David, the king of the land? Isn't he the one they sing about in their dances:" 'Saul has slain his thousands, and David his tens of thousands'?"

12 David took these words to heart and was very much afraid of Achish king of Gath.

13 So he pretended to be insane in their presence; and while he was in their hands he acted like a madman, making marks on the doors of the gate and letting saliva run down

his beard.

14 Achish said to his servants, "Look at the man! He is insane! Why bring him to me?

15 Am I so short of madmen that you have to bring this fellow here to carry on like this in front of me? Must this man come into my house?"

Here David is running from Saul in fear and what does he find ?

He finds himself in fear of king Achish

David prays that he be delivered from this fear and God hears his cries and delivers him.

Ongoing salvation ..................

And so we read Psalm 34 again in a fresh way as David speaks about " the fear of the Lord"

As David speaks of "deliverance from fear "...this is where David is coming from in Psalm

34,

And we come to another paradox and I leave you to think upon this paradox

Psalm 51:7-8

"Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the BONES WHICH THOU HAST BROKEN may rejoice."

Psalm 34:20

For the Lord protects the bones of the righteous,not one of them is be broken.

Lord God you poured out yourself on the Cross and took on yourself the sins of the world, that we might be free, your heart was broken that the hearts of the broken might be healed.

You did not have one bone broken, that the broken might come to you, having been broken, that we might be made whole and complete and be in unity as one body

You were bruised and crushed that your blood would be the new wine that takes away our sin and gives fredom and liberty to captives.

You never put out a smouldering wick nor crush or break a bruised reed as Isaiahs word proclaims and yet we find brokeness and bruising brings us to you and brings out the fragrance of yourself

We are one in Christ and are many, we come to you as broken that you would mend us

We find deliverance from fear and find fear in you delivering us from fear

We find your two edged swordm and we delight in you Lord

You are our all in all In Jesus name amen