The sweetness of the presence of God.

Psalm 34

1 I will extol the LORD at all times; his praise will always be on my lips.

2 My soul will boast in the LORD; let the afflicted hear and rejoice.

3 Glorify the LORD with me; let us exalt his name together.

4 I sought the LORD, and he answered me; he delivered me from all my fears.

5 Those who look to him are radiant; their faces are never covered with shame.

6 This poor man called, and the LORD heard him; he saved him out of all his troubles.

7 The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear him, and he delivers them.

8 Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.

9 Fear the LORD, you his saints, for those who fear him lack nothing.

10 The lions may grow weak and hungry, but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing.

11 Come, my children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the LORD.

12 Whoever of you loves life and desires to see many good days,

13 keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking lies.

14 Turn from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it.

15 The eyes of the LORD are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their cry;

16 the face of the LORD is against those who do evil, to cut off the memory of them from the earth.

17 The righteous cry out, and the LORD hears them; he delivers them from all their troubles.

18 The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.

19 A righteous man may have many troubles, but the LORD delivers him from them all;

20 he protects all his bones, not one of them will be broken.

21 Evil will slay the wicked; the foes of the righteous will be condemned.

22 The LORD redeems his servants; no one will be condemned who takes refuge in him. 

This is one of the sweetest Psalms to memorize and meditate upon.  The Psalmist is really describing the experience that transpires as he meditates upon the book of Psalms.  It is written to explain what happens when we seek God through the Psalms. Anytime the Psalmist talks about extolling God or praising God he is trying to describe the joy that he has in his heart as a result of speaking to God in the most pleasant way by having the Psalms on his lips. So we sort of walk around our house speaking the Psalms to God. 

This habit is of speaking the Psalms is described by David as skipping about the altar and praising God. This Psalm has been repeated over and over again in the process by which I seek God through the Psalms. Over the years Ive been on the edge of euphoria that breaks into my experience as I go through the day.When I begin to seek God through speaking the Psalms I begin to experience being in a beautiful garden where the air is fresh and through sight I  feel as if Ive been looking on the beauty of the flowers. Along with this i begin to experience a heightened sensitivity to my sight and my hearing. Its as if it is really happening in a physical way but its actually the sensations of the physical presence of being in that beautiful garden. And after many times that Ive sought God in this way it has become a normal experience in which my mind functions as its been trained by the habit. 

Along with this I begin to sense as if there is someone actually listening intently to me. I have come to believe after this experience that most of the communication that we have on a horizontal level is not really listening to people. When we speak to God through the Psalms His presence is manifested by this experience of Him listening to us. Its not like we are having a vision of someone who is there but its Him drawing us in to listening to us through our desires. Hes saying "I sought the Lord and He answered me." The experience is that we long for someone to listen to us. Its not something we actually think about unless we have sought God in the words of the Psalmist that are given to us so that as we speak them we experience God as if we our focus grew by experiencing the effects of how He has made us. When we have experienced the effects of how we feel when we have talked to someone who has really listened to us ...this is what I am talking about. 

This presence that we experience is powerful and glorious. And this is why the Psalmist says that he has a radiant face. Its like a time in our lives where we excelled in something and we became so impassioned about it that we experienced doing it under the influence of our endorphins. Its like being empowered like getting waves of tingles that we cannot stop.  The radiance is that there is nothing that is coming at us.... all the power is going from our inside out. In this sense we are acting in the proper context of doing the act with our whole being. We are experiencing the oneness of the pleasure of God in our created task. This is the radiance the Psalmist is talking about And so as we exercise in our meditation we begin to build this radiant image in us. 

But its not that we are experiencing God listening to us . We begin to taste and see the presence of God. And we begin to sense that we are being surrounded by angels. There is just something about this experience that I cannot explain. Its as if in this experience the Person is using the Psalms in imprinting in our minds a response to our speaking them to Him. This sense of God speaking back has been refined to me over the years. Sometimes I will be sitting and all of a sudden i will be hearing my thoughts speaking to me about something and its the same experience Ive had in this taste and see part of speaking the Psalms. Ill stop here.