Rabbi Schneider - How God Can Save You

TOPICS: Psalm 34 Season 2, Salvation

Now, I know that David is one of the greatest heroes of our faith. In fact, in the book of Revelation, Yeshua identifies Himself, at the end of the book of Revelation, as the offspring of David. He was Israel's greatest king, a man after God's own heart. But oftentimes, when we look at David, we don't understand how difficult his life was at times. Running for his life, hiding out in caves. And many of the Psalms including Psalm 34 was written at a time that David was walking through great difficulty. Before we continue, because this is now the first episode in Season 2 of Psalm 34, before we continue, I want to just sing a little Hebrew short chorus that we sing in honor of King David. Once again.

Dovid Melech, Melech Yisrael
Dovid Melech, Melech Yisrael
Dovid Melech, Melech Yisrael
Dovid Melech, lai lai lai lai
Lai lai lai lai lai lai lai
Lai lai lai lai lai lai lai
Lai lai lai lai lai lai lai
lai lai, lai lai lai lai lai.

Then we pick it up again. "Dovid Melech, Melech Yisrael"... Well, it's easy enough. It just continues on like that. Once again, Yeshua at the very end of the book of Revelation says, "I am the offspring of David". In fact, in the prophetic writings, we read that the prophets Ezekiel and Jeremiah talking about the new covenant, speak of how during the time of the New Covenant, there'll be one shepherd, the Lord says, over all His people. And the Lord says it's going to be David. But He wasn't talking there about the physical David that lived thousands of years ago, that was the king of the 12 tribes of Israel. But rather He was speaking prophetically of Yeshua King Jesus, who's the offspring of David. So David's words are really so rich for us to connect with and to receive an impartation from. Particularly Psalm 34.

Now as we begin Season 2 today, I'm going to be covering fresh material as I get into the sixth verse. But to set the tone, let's begin just reading to prepare our hearts, beloved, with verse 1. The grass withers and the flowers fade, but Baruch HaShem, bless His name, the word of the Lord abides forever. "I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul will make its boast in the LORD; the humble will hear it and rejoice. O magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt His name together. I sought the LORD, and He answered me, and delivered me from all my fears. They looked to Him and were radiant, and their faces will never be ashamed. This poor man cried out, and the LORD heard him..." Now I covered those verses in Season 1 of Psalm 34. I encourage you to go to Discovering the Jewish Jesus; you can get the entire teaching there.

Now let's continue on with fresh material as we move in now to the second part of verse 6, which was not covered in Season 1. "This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him and saved him out of all," hear that word, "all his troubles". Beloved one, let me say something to you loud and clear, stark and bright. King Jesus either rose from the dead, or He didn't. If He did not arise from the dead, He can't save anybody from any of their troubles. But if in fact, Yeshua Hamashiach, Jesus of Nazareth really did rise from the dead, what that means is that no matter what your trouble is, He can save you from it because in rising from the dead, He conquered the greatest enemy of mankind of all-death itself. Now, let's consider this once again. David is making the claim that He saved me out of, listen, all my troubles.

I don't know what you're going through right now. Maybe you're having financial troubles. Maybe you're having relationship troubles. Maybe you're having health troubles. Maybe you can't find a job. Maybe you're struggling with emotional or mental illness. I don't know what it is. But this scripture is telling us that God saves His people, listen, out of all, A-L-L, their troubles. There's nothing too big for God. No matter what you're going through, the fact that King Jesus rose from the dead proves that He can save you. And I think back of my life. When I think about where I was in 1978, drowning in life, covered with waves and oceans of darkness, without hope, lost, confused, and how that bright night in August of 1978 Yeshua Hamashiach appeared to me in my bedroom in the middle of the night and saved me, beloved ones, listen, out of all my troubles.

Listen, everything didn't change overnight but a lot changed right then and there when I met Him. The first thing that happened was joy entered my heart. Confidence entered my heart. Suddenly there was light. Suddenly, there was a way. Suddenly I knew that I was going to overcome, that I was going to get out. That everything was going to be all right. And just that hope, just that faith that sprung up in my heart when I met King Jesus that night, and realized, as I later began to read the scriptures, that He rose from the dead, that He conquered death itself, that He ascended through every power of darkness, that all authority in heaven on earth is given to Him, knowing that and that I've been raised with Him and sitting with Him in the heavenly places, according to His Word, beloved, it changed everything for me.

I want you to hear me. No matter what you're going through right now, look to King Jesus. The Scripture says those that look to Him became radiant. You will overcome every trouble. The Bible says, whether it's things past, things present, things to come, or any created thing that we're facing that's our enemy, all those things we overwhelmingly conquer in Him. Beloved, you are more than a conquerer through Christ Jesus. Just keep looking to Him. Keep on taking in His Word. Keep on talking to Him. Keep on praying. Keep on surrounding yourself with other believers. Cut out from your life those things that will bring you down, those things that will allow the enemy to speak to you and snag you. Cut out listening to music whose lyrics don't line up with the truth of God's word. Cut out relationships that are atheistic relationships, that are their voices that would speak into your life that would draw you away from Faith. Seize God's Word, don't let anything else in, stay faithful to him as best you can, and God will cause you to rise above every single one of your troubles.

Let me get back to restate where I started. Either Yeshua rose from the dead or He didn't. If Yeshua, in fact, did rise from the dead, then He is the Savior of all mankind. If He did not rise from the dead, He's the savior of no one. You know what the Apostle Paul said? He said, if Jesus did not rise from the dead, that you and I, then, you and I, then as believers in Him are the biggest fools on the earth, for believing something that didn't happen. We've wasted our lives, Paul said. "If we're living for Jesus," Paul said, "and Yeshua did not actually rise from the dead," Paul said, "then that would mean that you and I are fools, for putting our whole life, staking our whole life on something that didn't happen if Yeshua has not risen from the dead". But Paul said, "But He did rise from the dead". Then Paul goes ahead and he lists all the people that Yeshua personally appeared to after He rose from the dead.

Five hundred of them He appeared to, Paul said, at one time, and most of those five hundred that Yeshua appeared to after He had risen from the dead were still living at the time of Paul's writing. Think about Paul himself. Paul's a Jew, a Pharisee, antagonistic towards Yeshua. He thought Yeshua was a false messiah. He thought Jesus was a problem for Israel and the Jewish people. He was on his way to arrest any Jew that was believing Jesus for spreading a false message. But on his way to arrest any Jew that was proclaiming Jesus, Paul himself had an encounter with Yeshua of Nazareth. A bright light shone from heaven, knocked Paul off his horse on his tuckus. Paul was laying there terrified, petrified. He says, "Who are you"? And the voice from the light says to him, "I am Jesus, I am Yeshua, whom you're persecuting. Now get up and it will be told what you must do for me". Paul himself met the risen Jesus.

And you know what? As a by note, Paul said that when Yeshua appeared to him, Paul said, Yeshua spoke to him in the Hebrew dialect. Just speaking to us about the Hebraic roots of our faith. It all started with the King of the Jews, Yeshua Hamashiach, who rose from the dead and is able, beloved, to save you and save me out of all our troubles. I just want to encourage you. Keep your hope in Him, keep reaching out to Him, keep praying, and beloved, you will find yourself rising up out of whatever it is that's got you bound right now. David continued in the seventh verse. "The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear Him, and rescues them".

Now, this is somewhat similar to the verse that we just read, that the Lord rescues His people. But I want to just for a moment, look at the fact that David here is speaking about deliverance coming from Listen, the angels of the Lord. A lot of times we don't hear much about the reality of angelic ministry. But the truth is, the Lord carries out a lot of His purposes and plans through angels. You look, for example, at Daniel and the vision that he had, and how when he began to pray to the Lord, help began to come to him through an angel. But there was another demonic angel that was trying to inhibit the angel of the Lord from getting to Daniel. The angel of the Lord broke through and got to Daniel, but it took a little bit of time, because there was an angelic fight going on in heavenly places. God carries out a lot of His purposes on earth through angels.

Now, this is a blessing, but it's also a potential danger when we start to talk about angels. Let me tell you why. It's a blessing to know that Father God is surrounding us with angels. Remember when Yeshua was before Pilate, and Pilate began to tell Yeshua, "Don't you know I've got the power to crucify you. Don't you understand what's going on here"? And Yeshua said, "You would have no power to crucify me unless it was given to you from above". And then Yeshua said, "Don't you think I could ask my Father for legions of angels to come down and rescue me"? But Yeshua knew that this was the purpose that He was born for-to be crucified. He also knew that no man could harm Him unless the Father let him. But the point that I'm making that I wanted to focus on here is the fact that Yeshua said, "Don't you realize, Pilate, that I could ask the Father for legions of angels right now that would come and deliver me if that was His purpose".

The point being, once again, that he realized that much of the Father's activity on earth takes place through angelic ministry. So just to be aware of the fact that we're living in a spiritual world, we don't pray to angels, we don't look to angels. We look to the Lord. And as we look to the Lord, he carries out His purpose in our life, sometimes through the agency of angels. And by the way, you see a lot of this taught in Judaism as well. In fact, we have a song that we sing on Shabbat in Judaism as we're welcoming Shabbat. And in this song, basically, what Jewish homes are doing is they're welcoming, through the grace of Hashem, through the grace of Father God, His angelic presence through His ministering angels in their home during the Shabbat experience. Again, we don't pray to angels, but we realize that we're surrounded by angelic activity.

Let's continue on. "O taste and see that the LORD is good..." Have you ever had an experience where somehow in your physical and spiritual senses, you've been able to taste the Lord? Let me give you some examples of what that means. I've never had this experience. But I know several people that have where they've actually had brief experiences where they have been able to smell the fragrance of the Lord. Now, some of you that are hearing that right now might think, "Wow, that's really farfetched. That's really out there". But for every physical sense that we have, there's a corresponding spiritual sense. In other words, we have physical ears to hear what's going on in the natural world but we also have spiritual ears to be able to sense what the Spirit is saying.

This is why Yeshua said seven times, in Revelation 2 and 3, "He that has ears to hear, let him hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches". I've got several books that I've written that talk about being able to hear the Lord, being able to hear the voice of the Lord. I've heard the Lord speak to me precisely exact words. Not with my natural ears most of the time, but in my Spirit. So for every physical sense that we have, there's a corresponding spiritual sense. We have spiritual ears. Our spiritual ears consist of literally hearing the voice of Hashem when He wants us to hear Him that clearly. I've heard the Lord speak in the night, audibly. I've heard his voice in the night. I mean, specific words, specific sentences, just like Solomon. Solomon had a visitation from the Lord in the night. Right? The Lord said to Solomon, specifically, "Ask me what you will". Solomon literally heard the voice of God.

Now did he hear that with his natural ears? No, but he heard it precisely and exactly with his spiritual ears. So I'm making the point once again, beloved children of God, that even as we have physical senses, we have corresponding spiritual senses. And so when David says, "Taste and see that the Lord is good," he's talking about you and I experiencing Hashem, experiencing the fullness of God's presence in a real way. Usually, this involves experiencing Him in one of our spiritual senses, whether it be in the realm of feeling, in the realm of spiritual sight, seeing a prophetic picture, in the realm of scent, in the realm of spiritual hearing. The point that David is making is, God is real and can be experienced.

Now, I'm not suggesting that the primary way that we experience God is with some type of sensory experience. No, we experience Him through peace. We experience Him through beauty. We experience Him when the Lord puts an anointing on a song that we're listening to and the music so moves our heart, it can bring us to tears. We experience Him through the love of others. We experience Him in a worship service when everybody is praising Him together and our heart just melts, and we're filled with faith and love and adoration for Him. We experience Him when we see Him do a miracle in our life. There's so many ways that we experience the Lord. And we need to be consciously looking at what is going on in our life so that we can give God credit and give Him glory when we do experience Him.

In other words, when you look outside and you see something beautiful, don't just take it for granted. Recognizing instead that that beauty that you're seeing is God's creation, and the beauty, beloved one, that you're experiencing, either in looking at creation, listening to music, or experiencing His love through a friend, all of that is from the Lord. And in experiencing that, you're tasting and seeing that the Lord is good. So let's be on the lookout for every good thing that the Lord is bringing into our life, recognizing that we're tasting and experiencing His goodness as His presence is being released to us.

Father, we worship you today. We thank you today that we are experiencing and tasting your goodness in the land of living.