What I know from Scripture is that left to my own self, I am the “wicked” (in the words of Psalm 34:21) and I do evil (34:16). Isaiah 64:6 tells me that even my best works “are like a polluted garment” before the eyes of God; my sins, “like the wind, take me away.” I never have followed the word of Christ in the Sermon on the Mount perfectly, and he declares there “you must be perfect” (Matt. 5:48). I am not righteous. This cannot be denied from the Scripture or from experience.
So when I read Psalm 34, I must know that verse 16 and verse 21 should be pointed at me. “The face of the Lord is against those who do evil, to cut off their memory from the earth…. Affliction will slay the wicked, and those who hate the righteous will be condemned.” As Paul writes in Ephesians 2, I should be, and deservedly so, a child of wrath.
Not only this, but all the great promises of Psalm 34 should not be granted to me. Based on my merit, it should not be true that God hears and answers and delivers me. I should not have the experience of lacking no good thing. The Lord, because of me, should not be near me, a sinner, and I am in no way worthy of being saved. My life should not be redeemed and I am worthy of condemnation.
But the wonder of the gospel is that God justifies the ungodly (Psalm 32; Romans 4). I, who was not and am not worthy on my own, have been made worthy in Christ. In Christ I have been counted as a child of God and an heir of his promises, promises that Psalm 34 lays out so beautifully for me to see.
Though I deserve no answer from God, he hears my cry and delivers me. Where I deserve curse, he blesses me and calls me to take refuge in him. Whereas the angel of the Lord should slay me with the sword, he now “encamps around” me and delivers me. God has told me that I will lack no good thing as I seek him, and he has graciously instructed me on how to walk in the reverent fear of him. Where the wrath of God should be toward me, now he looks on me with compassion and he hears my cry. His face is no longer against me. He has forgiven and paid for the evil I have done. Although I should greatly fear his presence, as it should surely destroy me, now he is near me and he promises to save. Yes, my afflictions continue, but God delivers me from them all, and even if they bring death, he is now delivering me not finally away from him for eternity, but to his side forever. My life, worthy of nothing, has been redeemed; the condemnation that I earned will never meet me, for it has already been given to Another in my place.
