I will bless Yahweh at all times. His praise will always be in my mouth.
My soul shall boast in Yahweh. The humble shall hear of it and be glad.
Oh magnify Yahweh with me. Let’s exalt his name together.
I sought Yahweh, and he answered me, and delivered me from all my fears.
They looked to him, and were radiant. Their faces shall never be covered with shame.
This poor man cried, and Yahweh heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles.
Yahweh’s angel encamps around those who fear him, and delivers them.
Oh taste and see that Yahweh is good. Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.
Oh fear Yahweh, you his saints, for there is no lack with those who fear him.
The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger, but those who seek Yahweh shall not lack any good thing.
Come, you children, listen to me. I will teach you the fear of Yahweh.
Who is someone who desires life, and loves many days, that he may see good?
Keep your tongue from evil, and your lips from speaking lies.
Depart from evil, and do good. Seek peace, and pursue it.
Yahweh’s eyes are toward the righteous. His ears listen to their cry.
Yahweh’s face is against those who do evil, to cut off their memory from the earth.
The righteous cry, and Yahweh hears, and delivers them out of all their troubles.
Yahweh is near to those who have a broken heart, and saves those who have a crushed spirit.
Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but Yahweh delivers him out of them all.
He protects all of his bones. Not one of them is broken.
Evil shall kill the wicked. Those who hate the righteous shall be condemned.
Yahweh redeems the soul of his servants. None of those who take refuge in him shall be condemned.
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 17, 18, 19, 21 1. I will bless Jehovah at all times. “That…
1. I will bless Jehovah at all times. “That is, in all circumstances; in every posture of my affairs.” — Horsley.
“Quand il ne cesse de nous bien-faire?” — Fr. “When he never ceases from doing us good?”
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 10, 11, 12, 16, 18, 20, 21, 22 He promised never to become unmindful of God’s great…
He promised never to become unmindful of God’s great benefit for his deliverance.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv1–22 Psa 34:1 « [A Psalm] of David, when he…
Psa 34:1 « [A Psalm] of David, when he changed his behaviour before Abimelech; who drove him away, and he departed. » I will bless the LORD at all times: his praise [shall] continually [be] in my mouth.
Ver. 1. A Psalm of David] An alphabetical psalm, which David (newly delivered from the Philistines, who had taken him prisoner, and presented him to their king as a special prize) composed with singular art; as fit to be committed to memory by all godly people, who may here meet with many excellent lessons and cordial comforts. Semper in ecclesia hic psalmus piis fuit commendatissimus (Moller).
Read full note →
When he changed his behaviour] Heb. Gustum, hoc est gestum. This he did (being put to his shifts), but not without sin, for he was splendide mendax (as Horace, lib. iii. Od. 11, saith of Hypermnestra), at the best; neither can this dissimulation or officious lie of his be excused; as some have by distinctions endeavoured it, but in vain.
Before Abimelech] Or, Achish, king of Gath, 1Sa 21:10, for he was binominis, saith Aben Ezra; or else Abimelech, that is, father king, was his title of honour; as Augustus would be styled Pater Patriae, the father of his country. R. Solomon saith that Abimelech was a common name to all the Philistine kings, as Pharaoh to the Egyptian.
Who cast him out] For a mad man, 1Sa 21:15, wherein there was a sweet providence of God, who can order our disorders to his own glory and our good; like as a craftsman with a crooked tool can make straight work; or as an apothecary of a poisonous viper can make a wholesome treacle.
And he departed] Into some parts of Judea, where he might repent of his sin first (as Peter did when got into a corner), and then compile this psalm of thanksgiving to God, who had so graciously delivered him out of that hard and hazardous condition, not only above, but against his desert.
Ver. 1. I will bless the Lord at all times] As not satisfied with anything I can do herein at any time. The saints have large hearts, and could beteem the Lord a great deal more service than they are able to perform. A certain martyr said at the stake, I am sorry that I am going to a place where I shall be ever receiving wages and do no more work.
His praise shall continually be in my mouth] For this remarkable mercy especially, which I will still be telling of, and speaking good of God’s name to as many as I can possibly extend unto. This thankful man was worth his weight in the gold of Ophir.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 20, 21, 22 I will never forget to bless God for this…
I will never forget to bless God for this miraculous deliverance.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On vv1, 11 The title of this psalm tells us both who…
The title of this psalm tells us both who penned it and upon what occasion it was penned. David, being forced to flee from his country, which was made too hot for him by the rage of Saul, sought shelter as near it as he could, in the land of the Philistines. There it was soon discovered who he was, and he was brought before the king, who, in the narrative, is called Achish (his proper name), here Abimelech (his title); and lest he should be treated as a spy, or one that came thither upon design, he feigned himself to be a madman (such there have been in every age, that even by idiots men might be taught to give God thanks for the use of their reason), that Achish might dismiss him as a contemptible man, rather than take cognizance of him as a dangerous man. And it had the effect he desired; by this stratagem he escaped the hand that otherwise would have handled him roughly. Now, 1. We cannot justify David in this dissimulation. It ill became an honest man to feign himself to be what he was not, and a man of honour to feign himself to be a fool and a mad-man. If, in sport, we mimic those who have not so good an understanding as we think we have, we forget that God might have made their case ours. 2. Yet we cannot but wonder at the composure of his spirit, and how far he was from any change of that, when he changed his behaviour. Even when he was in that fright, or rather in that danger only, his heart was so fixed, trusting in God, that even then he penned this excellent psalm, which has as much in it of the marks of a calm sedate spirit as any psalm in all the book; and there is something curious too in the composition, for it is what is called an alphabetical psalm, that is, a psalm in which every verse begins with each letter in its order as it stands in the Hebrew alphabet. Happy are those who can thus keep their temper, and keep their graces in exercise, even when they are tempted to change their behaviour. In this former part of the psalm,
I. David engages and excites himself to praise God. Though it was his fault that he changed his behaviour, yet it was God's mercy that he escaped, and the mercy was so much the greater in that God did not deal with him according to the desert of his dissimulation, and we must in every thing give thanks. He resolves, 1. That he will praise God constantly: I will bless the Lord at all times, upon all occasions. He resolves to keep up stated times for this duty, to lay hold of all opportunities for it, and to renew his praises upon every fresh occurrence that furnished him with matter. If we hope to spend our eternity in praising God, it is fit that we should spend as much as may be of our time in this work. 2. That he will praise him openly: His praise shall continually be in my mouth. Thus he would show how forward he was to own his obligations to the mercy of God and how desirous to make others also sensible of theirs. 3. That he will praise him heartily: "My soul shall make her boast in the Lord, in my relation to him, my interest in him, and expectations from him." It is not vainglory to glory in the Lord.
Read full note →
II. He calls upon others to join with him herein. He expects they will (Psa 34:2): "The humble shall hear thereof, both of my deliverance and of my thankfulness, and be glad that a good man has so much favour shown him and a good God so much honour done him." Those have most comfort in God's mercies, both to others and to themselves, that are humble, and have the least confidence in their own merit and sufficiency. It pleased David to think that God's favours to him would rejoice the heart of every Israelite. Three things he would have us all to concur with him in: -
1. In great and high thoughts of God, which we should express in magnifying him and exalting his name, Psa 34:3. We cannot make God greater or higher than he is; but if we adore him as infinitely great, and higher than the highest, he is pleased to reckon this magnifying and exalting him. This we must do together. God's praises sound best in concert, for so we praise him as the angels do in heaven. Those that share in God's favour, as all the saints do, should concur in his praises; and we should be as desirous of the assistance of our friends in returning thanks for mercies as in praying for them. We have reason to join in thanksgiving to God,
(1.) For his readiness to hear prayer, which all the saints have had the comfort of; for he never said to any of them, Seek you me in vain. [1.] David, for his part, will give it under his hand that he has found him a prayer-hearing God (Psa 34:4): "I sought the Lord, in my distress, entreated his favour, begged his help, and he heard me, answered my request immediately, and delivered me from all my fears, both from the death I feared and from the disquietude and disturbance produced by fear of it." The former he does by his providence working for us, the latter by his grace working in us, to silence our fears and still the tumult of the spirits; this latter is the greater mercy of the two, because the thing we fear is our trouble only, but our unbelieving distrustful fear of it is our sin; nay, it is often more our torment too than the thing itself would be, which perhaps would only touch the bone and the flesh, while the fear would prey upon the spirits and put us out of the possession of our own soul. David's prayers helped to silence his fears; having sought the Lord, and left his case with him, he could wait the event with great composure. "But David was a great and eminent man, we may not expect to be favoured as he was; have any others ever experienced the like benefit by prayer?" Yes, [2.] Many besides him have looked unto God by faith and prayer, and have been lightened by it, Psa 34:5. It has wonderfully revived and comforted them; witness Hannah, who, when she had prayed, went her way, and did eat, and her countenance was no more sad. When we look to the world we are darkened, we are perplexed, and at a loss; but, when we look to God, from him we have the light both of direction and joy, and our way is made both plain and pleasant. These here spoken of, that looked unto God, had their expectations raised, and the event did not frustrate them: Their faces were not ashamed of their confidence. "But perhaps these also were persons of great eminence, like David himself, and upon that account were highly favoured, or their numbers made them considerable;" nay, [3.] This poor man cried, a single person, mean and inconsiderable, whom no man looked upon with any respect or looked after with any concern; yet he was as welcome to the throne of grace as David or any of his worthies: The Lord heard him, took cognizance of his case and of his prayers, and saved him out of all his troubles, Psa 34:6. God will regard the prayer of the destitute, Psa 102:17. See Isa 57:15.
(2.) For the ministration of the good angels about us (Psa 34:7): The angel of the Lord, a guard of angels (so some), but as unanimous in their service as if they were but one, or a guardian angel, encamps round about those that fear God, as the life-guard about the prince, and delivers them. God makes use of the attendance of the good spirits for the protection of his people from the malice and power of evil spirits; and the holy angels do us more good offices every day than we are aware of. Though in dignity and in capacity of nature they are very much superior to us, - though they retain their primitive rectitude, which we have lost; - though they have constant employment in the upper world, the employment of praising God, and are entitled to a constant rest and bliss there, - yet in obedience to their Maker, and in love to those that bear his image, they condescend to minister to the saints, and stand up for them against the powers of darkness; they not only visit them, but encamp round about them, acting for their good as really, though not as sensibly, as for Jacob's (Gen 32:1), and Elisha's, Kg2 6:17. All the glory be to the God of the angels.
2. He would have us to join with him in kind and good thoughts of God (Psa 34:8): O taste and see that the Lord is good! The goodness of God includes both the beauty and amiableness of his being and the bounty and beneficence of his providence and grace; and accordingly, (1.) We must taste that he is a bountiful benefactor, relish the goodness of God in all his gifts to us, and reckon that the savour and sweetness of them. Let God's goodness be rolled under the tongue as a sweet morsel. (2.) We must see that he is a beautiful being, and delight in the contemplation of his infinite perfections. By taste and sight we both make discoveries and take complacency. Taste and see God's goodness, that is, take notice of it and take the comfort of it, Pe1 2:3. he is good, for he makes all those that trust in him truly blessed; let us therefore be so convinced of his goodness as thereby to be encouraged in the worst of times to trust in him.
3. He would have us join with him in a resolution to seek God and serve him, and continue in his fear (Psa 34:9): O fear the Lord! you his saints. When we taste and see that he is good we must not forget that he is great and greatly to be feared; nay, even his goodness is the proper object of a filial reverence and awe. They shall fear the Lord and his goodness, Hos 3:5. Fear the Lord; that is, worship him, and make conscience of your duty to him in every thing, not fear him and shun him, but fear him and seek him (v. 10) as a people seek unto their God; address yourselves to him and portion yourselves in him. To encourage us to fear God and seek him, it is here promised that those that do so, even in this wanting world, shall want no good thing (Heb. They shall not want all good things); they shall so have all good things that they shall have no reason to complain of the want of any. As to the things of the other world, they shall have grace sufficient for the support of the spiritual life (Co2 12:9; Psa 84:11); and, as to this life, they shall have what is necessary to the support of it from the hand of God: as a Father, he will feed them with food convenient. What further comforts they desire they shall have, as far as Infinite Wisdom sees good, and what they want in one thing shall be made up in another. What God denies them he will give them grace to be content without and then they do not want it, Deu 3:26. Paul had all and abounded, because he was content, Phi 4:11, Phi 4:18. Those that live by faith in God's all-sufficiency want nothing; for in him they have enough. The young lions. often lack and suffer hunger - those that live upon common providence, as the lions do, shall want that satisfaction which those have that live by faith in the promise; those that trust to themselves, and think their own hands sufficient for them, shall want (for bread is not always to the wise) - but verily those shall be fed that trust in God and desire to be at his finding. Those that are ravenous, and prey upon all about them, shall want; but the meek shall inherit the earth. Those shall not want who with quietness work and mind their own business; plain-hearted Jacob has pottage enough, when Esau, the cunning hunter, is ready to perish for hunger.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv1–21 I will bless the Lord at all times,.... That…
I will bless the Lord at all times,.... That is, ascribe blessing, give honour, praise, and glory to him, both as the God of nature and providence, for every temporal mercy; and that every day, and at all times in the day; since these are renewed every morning, and continue all the day long: and as the God of grace, for all spiritual blessings; and that continually, because these last always; they are irreversible, unchangeable, and without repentance; yea, saints have reason to bless God in times of adversity as well as prosperity, since it might have been worse with them than it is; they have a mixture of mercy in all, and all things work together for their good;
his praise shall continually be in my mouth; not the "praise" of which God is the author, but of which he is the object; which is due unto him, and is given him on account of the perfections of his nature, and the works of his hands, and the blessings of his providence and grace; this, the psalmist says, should be in his mouth: his meaning is, that he should not only retain in his heart a grateful sense of the divine favours, but should express it with his lips; should both make melody in his heart to the Lord, and vocally sing his praise; and that "continually", as long as he lived, or had any being, Psa 146:2.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 12, 13, 14, 16, 18, 20 David praises God for his goodness to himself and…
David praises God for his goodness to himself and others, ver. 1-7. Encourages the righteous to trust in him, ver. 8-10. Exhorts them to fear God and depart from evil, ver. 11-14. God's favour to the righteous and displeasure at the wicked, ver. 15-22 A psalm of David, when he changed his behaviour before Abimelech: who drove him away, and he departed. Title of the psalm. When - A psalm made upon that occasion, though not at that time, when he counterfeited madness. Wherein whether he sinned or not, is matter of dispute; but this is undoubted, that his deliverance deserved this solemn acknowledgment. Abimelech - Called Achish, 1 Sam. xxi, 10. But Abimelech seems to have been the common name of the kings of the Philistines, Gen. xx, 2; xxvi, 1, as Pharaoh was of the Egyptians.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22 David praises God, and exhorts others to do the…
PSALM XXXIV
David praises God, and exhorts others to do the same, 1-3;
Read full note →
shows how he sought the Lord, and how he was found of him, 4-6.
All are exhorted to taste and see the goodness of God; with
the assurance of support and comfort, 7-10.
He shows the way to attain happiness and long life, 11-16;
the privileges of the righteous, and of all who sincerely seek
God, 17-22.
NOTES ON PSALM XXXIV
The title states that this is "A Psalm of David, when he changed his behaviour before Abimelech; who drove him away, and he departed." The history of this transaction may be found in 1Sa 21:10-15, on which chapter see the notes. But Abimelech is not the person there mentioned; it was Achish, king of Gath, called here Abimelech, because that was a common name of the Philistine kings. Neither MS. nor version reads Achish in this place; and all the versions agree in the title as it stands in our version, except the Syriac, which states it to be "A Psalm of David, when he went to the house of the Lord, that he might give the first-fruits to the priests."
Of the occasion of this Psalm, as stated here, I have given my opinion in the notes on 1Sa 21:10-15, to which I have nothing to add. On the whole I prefer the view taken of it by the Septuagint, which intimates that "David fell into an epileptic fit; that he frothed at the mouth, fell against the doorposts, and gave such unequivocal evidences of being subject to epileptic fits, and during the time his intellect became so much impaired, that Achish Abimelech dismissed him from his court." This saves the character of David; and if it cannot be vindicated in this way, then let it fall under reproach as to this thing; for hypocrisy, deceit, and falsehood, can never be right in the sight of God, whatever men may ingeniously say to excuse them.
This is the second of the acrostic or alphabetical Psalms, each verse beginning with a consecutive letter of the Hebrew alphabet. But in this Psalm some derangement has taken place. The verse which begins with ו vau, and which should come in between the fifth and sixth, is totally wanting; and the twenty-second verse is entirely out of the series; it is, however, my opinion that this verse (the twenty-second) which now begins with פ phe, פודה podeh, redeemeth, was originally written ופודה vepodeh or with פדה padah, as more than a hundred of Dr. Kennicott's MSS. read it, thus making ופדה vepodah, "and will redeem" and this reads admirably in the above connection. I shall here place the verses at one view, and the reader shall judge for himself:
Ver. 5. "They looked unto him, and were enlightened: and their faces were not ashamed."
Ver. 22. "AND the Lord will redeem the soul of his servants, and none of them that trust in him shall be desolate."
Ver. 6. "This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles."
Ver. 7. "The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them."
Thus we find the connection complete, with the above emendation.
Verse 1. I will bless the Lord at all times] He has laid me under endless obligation to him, and I will praise him while I have a being.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 4, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, 15, 18, 19, 21, 22 Psa 34:1-2. I will bless the Lord at all…
Psa 34:1-2. I will bless the Lord at all times — I will never forget to bless God for this miraculous deliverance. My soul shall make her boast, &c. — Shall glory in this, that I have so powerful and gracious a Lord and Master. The humble shall hear — Or the meek, that is, the righteous; and be glad — Both from their love to me, and the public good, which they know that I design and seek above all things; and for the comfort and benefit of my example to them, in similar straits and difficulties.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv1–22 I will bless the Lord - I will praise…
I will bless the Lord - I will praise him; I will be thankful for his mercies, and will always express my sense of his goodness.
At all times - In every situation of life; in every event that occurs. The idea is, that he would do it publicly and privately; in prosperity and in adversity; in safety and in danger; in joy and in sorrow. It would be a great principle of his life, expressive of the deep feeling of his soul, that God was always to be regarded as an object of adoration and praise.
Read full note →
His praise shall continually be in my mouth - I will be constantly uttering his praises; or, my thanks shall be unceasing. This expresses the “purpose” of the psalmist; and this is an indication of the nature of true piety. With a truly pious man the praise of God is constant; and it is an indication of true religion when a man is “disposed” always to bless God, whatever may occur. Irreligion, unbelief, scepticism, worldliness, false philosophy, murmur and complain under the trials and amidst the dark things of life; true religion, faith, love, spirituality of mind, Christian philosophy, see in God always an object of praise. People who have no real piety, but who make pretensions to it, are disposed to praise and bless God in times of sunshine and prosperity; true piety always regards him as worthy of praise - in the storm as well as in the sunshine; in the dark night of calamity, as well as in the bright days of prosperity. Compare Job 13:15.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v1 Psalms 34
Psalms 34
A Psalm of David, when he changed his behaviour before Abimelech; who drove him away, and he departed
Read full note →
1 I will bless the Lord at all times:
His praise shall continually be in my mouth.
2 My soul shall make her boast in the Lord:
The humble shall hear thereof, and be glad.
3 O magnify the Lord with me,
And let us exalt his name together.
4 I sought the Lord and he heard me,
And delivered me from all my fears.
5 They looked unto him, and were lightened:
And their faces were not ashamed.
6 This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him,
And saved him out of all his troubles.
7 The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him,
And delivereth them.
8 O taste and see that the Lord is good:
Blessed is the man that trusteth in him.
9 O fear the Lord, ye his saints:
For there is no want to them that fear him.
10 The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger:
But they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing.
11 Come, ye children, hearken unto me:
I will teach you the fear of the Lord.
12 What man is he that desireth life,
And loveth many days, that he may see good?
13 Keep thy tongue from evil,
And thy lips from speaking guile.
14 Depart from evil, and do good;
Seek peace, and pursue it.
15 The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous,
And his ears are open unto their cry.
16 The face of the Lord is against them that do evil,
To cut off the remembrance of them from the earth.
17 The righteous cry, and the Lord heareth,
And delivereth them out of all their troubles.
18 The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart;
And saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.
19 Many are the afflictions of the righteous:
But the Lord delivereth him out of them all.
20 He keepeth all his bones:
Not one of them is broken.
21 Evil shall slay the wicked:
And they that hate the righteous shall be desolate.
22 The Lord redeemeth the soul of his servants:
And none of them that trust in him shall be desolate.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Its Title.—In the title there is a reference to the madness which David feigned, when he entered the land of the Philistines in his flight from Saul; was recognized there and brought before the king, who dismissed him as a madman, upon which he concealed himself in the cave of Adullam in the wilderness of Judah. Hitzig recognizes the fact that Abimelech, on account of Gen_20:2, compared with Psa_26:8, was probably not a proper name, but a name of rank of the Philistine kings. Comp. Hengst., Beiträge, 3:306 sq. With this vanishes the objection that the king of the narrative bore the name of Achish. If now the author of the title had this passage of Scripture before him as his authority, the change of name is not only remarkable, but the question remains unanswered, how he could have gained this authority for the Psalm. For the subject of this song, which is very general, and treats of deliverance by Jehovah from many and great dangers, more in a tone of reflection and instruction, than in that of a prayer of thanksgiving, contains no allusions or references to this particular event in David’s life. And the supposition, that the rare word טַעֲמוּ (= taste), Psa_34:8, reminded the compiler (De Wette, Hupf., Hitzig) of that טַעֲמוֹ, 1Sa_21:14 (= his understanding, Luther, after the Sept. and Vulg., incorrectly, his gesture), and that he besides this brought the תִּתְהַלֵלgloriaris, Psa_34:2, into connection with the יִתְהֹלֵלinsanivit in Samuel (Olsh.), not to say anything of the artificiality and trifling which is ascribed to the author, refutes itself; for the words compared are entirely different from one another in sound as well as in meaning. The idea of comparing them could only be entertained by comparing the consonants alone, entirely apart from the sense and context of the words; accordingly with only the written text in view. The question how our author came upon that text, is not in the least answered by this subtle hypothesis. Or are we to take refuge in chance and speak of blind conjecture (Hupf.)? Since it is yet more advisable to think of tradition and to explain the similarity of expressions by supposing a common source, namely, the annals of David, Psa_18:1, compare with 2Sa_20:1, (Delitzsch).
Its Contents and Form.—The last mentioned supposition enables us to set aside the objections made to the Davidic authorship from the didactic, in part reflective tone, the parabolic character of the individual verses, and their alphabetical order, which latter is exactly like Psalms 25 in that a strophe with ו is missing, and an extra verse with בּ is added at the end. All this however is only against a lyrical effusion occurring in the time of that event, yet not against a later use of it in order to general purposes of devotion by him who had experienced it, when he was seized with a very vivid remembrance of his remarkable preservation (Hengst.). The course of thought is in favor of this. The opening strophes (Psa_34:1-3) express the resolution and vow of continued praise of God in connection with an appeal to pious sufferers to do likewise. The reasons (Psa_34:4-10) strongly emphasize his personal experience and its application to the religious life of his companions in the congregation. Finally a paternal position is assumed (Psa_34:11), with the view of teaching to fear God, as the only, but reliable condition of Divine assistance, protection, and salvation (Psa_34:12-22). In all this there are such genuine Davidic features, that on the basis of tradition we have good reason to refer this Psalm as well as Psalms 56 to the same event,6 whilst we find its position in the collection determined by thoughts and expressions similar to the preceding Psalms. Comp. Psa_34:15 with Psa_33:18; furthermore the blessedness Psa_34:8 b with Psa_33:12; Psa_32:1-2; finally Psa_34:11 with Psa_32:8.—For the use of this Psalm at the Communion in the ancient Church, on account of Psa_34:8 a, comp. Const. apost. VIII. 13; Cyrill. cat. myst. V. 17.
Psa_34:2. The sufferer.—The ánavim are the pious (Hitzig) who have learned the disposition of the sufferer in the school of sorrow (Delitzsch), and therefore may likewise be designated as the meek (Hengst.). This reference disappears in the translation: miserable (Luther), or distressed (Hupf.), which can be applied better to ãniyyim, and used in Psa_34:6.
Psa_34:4. Cod. Alex, of the Sept., which is followed by all Latin Psalteries, has θλίψεών μου, the Cod. Vat. however παροικιῶν μου = those who dwell around me, by which some have understood, enemies, dangers, troubles. Symmach. has similarly συστάσεών μου.
Psa_34:5. They looked unto Him and became bright, and their faces needed not to blush.—The subject is not to be taken directly from Psa_34:2, but to be derived from the context as in Psa_34:17. This parallel example is against (Hupf.) gaining the subject by a relative or a hypothetical construction: those who looked, etc., or, if one look, etc. (Rabbins, Luther, Calvin, De Wette, Delitzsch).—נָהַר usually means, flow together, flow, in Aramaic, however; beam, shine; hence נְהָרָה (Job_3:4) light, day. The latter meaning, as an expression of cheerfulness and joy (Psa_4:7), applies here (Sept., Chald., Isaki, Aben Ezra, and recent interpreters), as Isa_60:5. Luther’s “anlaufen” originates from the first meaning, which is maintained by Kimchi and Geier. The contrast is the face covered with shame. The subjective negation אל is stronger than לֹא.
Psa_34:6. This distressed one.—Delitzsch translates this, the sorrowful. In this passage Venema, Köster, Hupf., take the singular as used for the plural. Most interpreters, however, refer it to the person of the Psalmist.
Psa_34:7. The angel of Jehovah.—It is questionable whether this expression is to be taken as collective, and referred to the host of angels, which surrounds the pious, protecting them, Psa_91:11; 2Ki_6:17 (Calv., Hupf., Camph.), or whether we are to think of the “angel of the presence,” Isa_63:9, the especial mediator of the revelation of Jehovah (most interpreters in all times). In favor of the former view is the predicate “encamped about,” which demands plurality (Aben Ezra), in favor of the latter, the fact that Maleach Jehovah has gained the meaning of a term. techn., and is stamped with a meaning in the Pentateuch itself, which is so often re-echoed in the Psalms. Hence it is, that apparently there is a reference in חנה to Mahanaim, the double camp of the angels, which Jacob beheld with the eye of faith as a fortress of chariots protecting his camp (Gen_32:2 sq.), and at the head of it we have to think of the angel of Jehovah, according to Gen_28:13; Gen_32:25 sq., the prince of the host of Jehovah (Jos_5:14; comp. 1Ki_22:19). Since now חנה is not only used of hosts, but likewise of captains, 2Sa_12:28 (Hengst.), so the captain might be mentioned here likewise, the host being supplied in thought. We may likewise suppose that this angel, so significant with reference to the history of redemption, is named, in so far as he can afford a protection on all sides, as a spiritual being above the limits of space. In favor of this is particularly Zec_9:8.—The Vulgate has not taken the παρεμβαλε͂ι of the Sept. as intransitive, but has translated it by immittet. Since this was obscure, the variation arose which was already rejected by Augustine: immittit anqelum (angelos) dominus.
[Psa_34:8-9. Taste and see.—Delitzsch: “Tasting, etc. (γεύσασθαι, Heb_6:4 sq.; 1Pe_2:3) stands before seeing; for spiritual experience leads to spiritual knowledge and not conversely. Nisi gustaveris, said Bernard, non videbis. David desires, that others likewise may experience what he has experienced, in order to know what he has known; the goodness of God. Therefore the appeal to the saints to fear Jehovah (יְראוּ for יִרְאוּ in order to distinguish veremini and videbunt, as Jos_24:14; 1Sa_12:24), for he who fears Him, has all things in Him.”—C. A. B.]
Psa_34:10. Young lions.—Luther after the Sept. has “rich.” Most ancient interpreters, finally, Hengstenberg and Hitzig, think of such rich (Sir_13:19) and mighty enemies (Psa_35:17). But the usual usage of this figure, which in Jer_2:15 is likewise applied to the heathen, cannot decide anything here, where the clear and comforting thought appears much more significant, if the proper meaning is retained (Kimchi, Calv., Ruding., Maurer,7 Hupf., Delitzsch). Comp. Job_4:10 sq.
[Psa_34:11. Come children.—Delitzsch: “These are not children in years or understanding, but it is an affectionate address of the Master who is experienced in the ways of God, to all and every one, as Pro_1:8, et al.” Similar is the use of τέκνα in the Epistles of John.—C. A. B.]
[Psa_34:12-14. Hupfeld: “The question, with the following imperatives, is only a lively expression of an antecedent and consequent instead of, He who loves—let him take care, etc. (vid.Psa_25:12). So 1Pe_3:10 sq.; Jam_3:13.—Life is not used in the common external sense, but in the higher sense, of a happy life, prosperity =parallel Good, and ‘way of life,’ ‘tree of life,’ frequent in the Proverbs (vid.Psa_16:11).—Days = parallel life, or more particularly long life, which in itself was a good in the Old Testament, as a promise of the Law.” Sins of the tongue, in the avoidance of which righteousness of speech consists, which manifests itself in accordance with its nature chiefly negatively. They are here as Psa_15:2, immediately against their neighbors, yet in general direct themselves likewise against God, comp. Psa_39:2-4. The Proverbs of all nations are full of this taming and training of the tongue, so likewise the Old Testament. Comp. Psa_39:2-4; Psa_141:3; Pro_4:24; Pro_13:3; Pro_21:23; Sir_28:25; Jam_3:2 sq. Righteousness of act; negatively, in being far from evil, positively in doing good. Both connected likewise, Psa_37:27 (comp. Isa_1:16 sq.; Amo_5:14), and indeed the usual formula; especially the first, as Pro_3:7; Job_28:28; Job_1:1; Job_1:8; Job_2:3.—Pursue = aspire after, Psa_38:21; Pro_21:21; Deu_16:20; Isa_51:1.—C. A. B.]
[Psa_34:15-16. Hupfeld: “The eyes of Jehovah are used as the organ of His gracious care, with אֶל and without a verb entirely like Psa_33:18. Parallel with this His ears as the organ of hearing their cry for help, their prayer, as Psa_18:6; Psa_145:19; comp. the parallel Isa_1:15.—In contrast with this is the face of Jehovah, in a bad sense with בְ (as all verbs of hostility): (‘directed) against evil doers,’ = the angry look, the judicial eye of God. (vid.Psa_21:9.”—C. A. B.]
[Psa_34:17. They (namely, the righteous) cry.—Vid. remarks upon Psa_34:5. Delitzsch supposes, with Hitzig, that this verse with פ originally stood before the previous one with ע in accordance with the order of Lamentations 2-4. Thus the subject would be in the previous verse. Delitzsch: “With the present order of thought, Psa_34:19 is formed in the same way as Psa_34:5 : Clamant et Dominus audit=si qui (quicunque) clamant. It is a crying out of the depths of a soul despairing of itself. Such crying finds a hearing with God, and a hearing which proves itself in the granting.”—C. A. B.]
[Psa_34:18. Delitzsch: “Broken in heart are those whose selfish, self-seeking life, which revolved about its own personality, has been broken at the root.—Contrite in spirit are those who have been brought down by severe experiences from the false height of proud self-consciousness, and have been led to repentance and thoroughly humbled. To such Jehovah is near, He preserves them from despair, He is ready to erect a new life in them in the ruins of the old, and to cover their infinite deficiency. He makes them as those who are susceptible of it and crave it, participants in His salvation.”—C. A. B.]
Psa_34:19. Many afflictions.—These are not punishments for their own sins, many of which the righteous man still has, so that he is here reminded of the imperfection of human righteousness and then is referred to the greatness of the Divine mercy (Hengst.). The context demands that we should think of the mortifications, afflictions, snares and persecutions which the righteous have to experience from other men. These are many, but Jehovah delivers out of them all.
Psa_34:20. Keeping all his bones,—expresses the most particular oversight and care by a figure differing from Mat_10:30, but with similar import and force. A Christian reader is reminded of its literal fulfilment in the care over the crucified. Yet this is not to be regarded as prophetical, because not a syllable of this Psalm hints at the righteous one in the perfect sense (Isa_53:11; Jer_23:5; Zec_9:9; Act_3:14; Act_22:14), but rather the absence of the Hebrew article in the context, shows that the singular represents the category, as then the Vulg. after the Sept. has used the plural. For the sake of clearness we therefore translate a righteous man and not the righteous man. Since now Joh_19:36. expressly states that the facts narrated from Psalm 34:33, took place in fulfilment of Scripture, and besides the title of the righteous one is not used of Christ in connection with this event, the conjecture, that John may have had in view not only, Exo_12:46, but likewise the present passage (Delitzsch, Hitzig), cannot be supported, although the remark is correct in itself, that not only the paschal lamb but likewise to a certain extent the sufferings of the righteous are typical (Delitzsch).8
Psa_34:21-22. The emphasis lies upon the word which begins each verse, so that the thought is, evil slayeth the ungodly, whilst Jehovah redeemeth the soul of the righteous=his life, out of all these troubles. In favor of this is likewise the context with Psa_34:19 sq. and the word רעה=misfortune, evil. If the thought was to be expressed here that wickedness slayeth the wicked (Delitzsch), we would have reason to expect רע which is usual in the Psalms.—אשׁם means not only to become guilty, but likewise to pay the penalty of guilt. Both sides of the idea of guilt flow into one another, and hence arises at times the double sense.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. Profound piety cannot be satisfied with once thanking God for His benefits, protection, answers to prayer and tokens of grace; it preserves, awakens, and strengthens, the remembrance of them in the soul, so that the desire arises for uninterrupted praise of God, and the thankful man invites his fellow-believers, particularly his fellow-sufferers, to similar experience, and encourages to similar action, whilst he calls them to share his joy and to commune with him in prayer. Thus the example of David in this Psalm of thanksgiving serves “as a general example for all the righteous, that they may learn how God does not despise the cries of His saints.”—(Luther).
2. The proclamation of the sure hearing of prayer, by the mouth of a believer who has experienced it, is as comforting to the afflicted sufferer, as the experience of the quickening enjoyment of the goodness of God is beneficial to the spiritual life, and the promise of the happiness of those who fear God is attractive to those who desire it. The true knowledge of the goodness of God and the seeing, is preceded by personal appropriation or tasting; but this presupposes readiness to bestow, on the part of God, and is conditioned on believing approach and laying hold of, on the part of the needy. The reference to the angel of Jehovah, the Mediator of the history of redemption, before all else encourages to this.
3. No creature, however strong he may be, is able to provide for himself and protect himself; but he who fears God and trusts in Him has no lack of anything. His righteousness does not protect him against afflictions; but the gracious nearness of God comforts him in affliction, and delivers him from all his afflictions; for God makes him free from guilt and punishment. The ungodly, however, perish; for in their misfortune, the punishment of their guilt overtakes them, and death as the wages of sin (Rom_6:23) is their sure and miserable end.
4. The true, that is the only and safe way of life and happiness, is accordingly the trusting exercise of the fear of God for the righteousness, which we are to have shown to us by those who have known it in their own experience, in order that we may fulfil it ourselves. The entire instruction may be comprehended in the clause, depart from evil and do good. But the extent of this prescription is so great, that the first includes bridling of the tongue and the latter seeking and pursuing, that is, the diligent and careful striving after peace, as the good understanding between God and man which is conditioned on good behaviour.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
The praise of God 1) as an expression of personal thankfulness, 2) as a means of general edification, 3) as a recognition of the honor due to God.—The fear of God and trust in God do not exclude one another, but are the common foundation of human happiness.—God is near to all men according to His Omnipotence, but only to the pious according to His grace—He who would lack no good thing, must not depend upon any other than God, but upon Him earnestly and constantly.—God allows us to seek Him, and likewise to find Him, and then there is great salvation and joy.—The knowledge of the goodness of God grows with experience, but only personal appropriation by faith helps us.—God’s goodness makes the man happy who finds refuge in Him.—All the help that there is on earth comes from the Lord, whether God sends His angels or uses other means.—The afflictions of the righteous have a different cause and issue from those of the ungodly.—It makes an essential difference, how a man expiates his guilt whether by penitence or punishment.—Human wisdom does not help out of real trouble, nor any strength of the creature, but only the grace of the Lord.—The care of God over the righteous, how it encourages us a) to praise God, b) to trust in God, c) to fear God.—We should learn, teach and do the will of God.—God will keep every bone of the pious, they should likewise serve Him with every member.—He who would live free from guilt and from punishment, must take refuge in God as His Redeemer.—Life, happiness and peace are good things, desired by all men, properly valued by few, and only found and retained by those who seek God.—All men have afflictions, but only the pious have a broken heart and thereby the way to true consolation and constant blessing.
Starke: How many beautiful plans would have failed, if the saints of God had undergone no danger.—To be miserable and yet rejoice and praise God with joyous mouth is foolish to the reason and hard for a troubled heart; nevertheless such a heart cannot and should not withdraw itself from this.—As one light kindles another so a believing heart seeks to awaken others and excite them to the righteous praise of God.—God will be no greater by our praise, we cannot exalt Him in Himself, but we exalt His name in ourselves when we praise Him in all His works and give Him alone the glory.—We must not only look to God, but must likewise run to Him.—Take care and do not wilfully deprive yourselves of the service of the holy angels.—If the ungodly knew how good the Lord is, understood how He alone is the highest good, in whom all blessedness meets—Why! they would make haste and turn to Him.—He who seeks God and finds Him, gains more, than the entire world besides, what should he lack?—Blessed business when we not only come to Christ ourselves, but likewise seek to persuade others, to give ear to the inviting voice of eternal Wisdom.—Children should early be accustomed to godliness, in order that they may not offer to the devil the best blood of their youth and only the residue of age to God. Ah! how many men destroy their peace by their own mouth.—When no one will hear and see the miserable, God sees and hears them; and when no one can overcome the ungodly persecutors, God can subdue and destroy them with an unfavorable look.—Although the pious have many troubles, yet they do not redound to their ruin as to the ungodly, but to their benefit.—The ungodly and those who hate the pious, are accustomed to be white hot and to throw all the blame on the righteous, but it is very different according to the Divine judgment.
Selnekker: The example of the saints when properly considered, works great good in the hearts of the pious and strengthens their faith, hope, prayer and patience.—Schnepf: We have angels to protect us, one of which is mightier than a whole army.—Menzel: It belongs to the doctrine of the cross, that we properly know; 1) upon what persons our Lord lays the cross first and chiefly; 2) why it is, notwithstanding, that He lays the dear cross upon such people in preference to others; 3) how the righteous are accustomed to feel and their experience under their cross; 4) how they act under it, what they should do and what not; 5) what God does to them in return.—Arndt: Our whole life should be nothing but one constant praise and confession of God—to God’s honor and the comfort and improvement of our neighbors.—Roos: Mighty men, who like lions live by prey, must at last suffer hunger and want: but those who seek the Lord will not lack, any good thing.—Guenther: The greatest calamity of our times is, that there are so few broken hearts and contrite spirits.—Taube: We must seek not so much the gift, as the Lord, the Giver.—What a God He is of whom His people can say, With Him we have no fear, no lack, no guilt!—Thym: The cross, the source of inexpressible comfort, 1) where the cross is great there is great comfort from the Lord; 2) where there is great comfort there is great joy in the Lord; 3) where there is great joy there is sure glory with the Lord.
[Matt. Henry: God’s praises sound best in concert, for so we praise Him as the angels do in heaven.—Would we pass comfortably through the world and out of the world, our constant care must be to keep a good conscience.—They that truly repent of what they have done amiss, will warn others to take heed of doing otherwise. Sad is the case of that man who by sin has made his Maker his enemy, and his destroyer.—Parents that are very fond of a child, will not let it be out of their sight; none of God’s children are ever from under His eye, but on them He looks with a singular complacency, as well as with a watchful and tender concern.—There is no rhetoric, nothing charming, in a cry, yet God’s ears are open to it, as the tender mother’s to the cry of her sucking child, which another would take no notice of.—No man is desolate but he whom God has forsaken, nor is any man undone till he is in hell.—Barnes: The most lonely, the most humble, the most obscure, and the poorest child of God, may have near him and around him a retinue and a defence which kings never have when their armies pitch their tents around their palaces, and when a thousand swords would at once be drawn to defend them.—Spurgeon: He who praises God for mercies shall never want a mercy for which to praise.—What a blessing one look at the Lord may be! There is life, liberty, love, everything in fact, in a look at the crucified One. Never did a sore heart look in vain to the good Physician; never a dying soul turned its darkening eye to the brazen serpent to find its virtue gone.—We little know how many providential deliverances we owe to those unseen hands which are charged to bear us up lest we dash our foot against a stone.—Positive virtue promotes negative virtue; he who does good is sure to avoid evil. Salvation is linked with contrition.—Believer, thou shalt never be deserted, forsaken, given up to ruin. God, even thy God, is thy guardian and friend, and bliss is thine.—C. A. B.]
Footnotes:
[6][Delitzsch: “Psalms 34 is one of the 8 Psalms, which are referred by their titles to the time of the persecution by Saul, and arose in that long way of suffering from Gibeah of Saul to Ziklag, (in about this chronological order; 7, 59, 56, 34, 52, 57, 142, 54.)”—C. A. B.]
[7][Hupfeld: “The hungry lions indicate the need of the creature when left to itself, even of the strongest beast of prey in contrast with the higher protection of the pious.”—C A. B.]
[8][For the meaning of bones, vid. Psa_6:2.—C. A. B.]
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17, 20, 21 make her boast--"glory" (Psa 105:3; compare Gal 6:14).
make her boast--"glory" (Psa 105:3; compare Gal 6:14).
humble--"the pious," as in Psa 9:12; Psa 25:9.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 15 1. Times—The word comprehends the idea of seasons, occasions,…
1. Times—The word comprehends the idea of seasons, occasions, as well as continued duration.
Continually—The spirit of praise (as of prayer, Eph_6:18) should be unintermitted, and the act habitual and regular.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv1–22 1. His praise] Cp. Psa_33:1.
1. His praise] Cp. Psa_33:1.
1, 2. Resolution of praise.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, 20, 21, 22 (2) Humble.—See Note on Psa_9:12. The LXX.
(2) Humble.—See Note on Psa_9:12. The LXX.
and Vulg., “the meek.” It means here those who have learnt patience in the school of suffering.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv1–22 THIS is the third of the alphabetical psalms, and…
THIS is the third of the alphabetical psalms, and appears to have a special connection with the second of them, Psalm 25. Like that psalm, it omits the vau, and has a second pe at the end, which, moreover, is furnished by the same word (podeh). According to the title, it is a psalm of David, and written on the particular occasion of his dismissal by Achish (Ahimelech), when he had foolishly feigned himself mad in consequence of what he had heard the servants of Achish say. (1Sa_21:10-15) As there is nothing in the psalm specially suggestive of this occasion, the statement in the title must, it would seem, embody an ancient tradition. It is a composition of a mixed character, being in part didactic (vers. 11-22), in part a psalm of thanksgiving (vers. 1-10). Metrically, it has been divided into four strophes (Kay), the first and second of five verses each, the third and fourth each of six verses. But there is no corresponding division of the matter.
I will Bless the Lord at all times; i.e. even in times of adversity. If the statement in the title may be relied upon, David"s fortunes were now at the lowest ebb. He had fled from the court of Saul on finding that Saul was determined to put him to death. (1Sa_20:31) He had hoped to find a safe refuge with Achish, but had been disappointed. He was on the point of becoming a fugitive and an outlaw, a dweller in dens and caves of the earth. (1Sa_22:1) He had as yet no body of followers. We cannot but admire his piety in composing, at such a time, a song of thanksgiving to God. His praise shall continually be in my mouth. (comp. Psa_92:1, 2 145:1, 2 146:1, 2 Eph_5:20 1Th_5:18) "Continually" must be understood as meaning either "every day" or "many times every day," but must not be taken quite literally, or the business of life would be at a stand.
Read full note →
A duty, a privilege, a purpose.
"I will bless," etc. A Christian man, burdened and oppressed with many troubles, was seeking relief in prayer. But even prayer was difficult, Suddenly these words came into his mind, "I will bless the Lord at all times. " "At all times?" he thought; "then now. " He began to think of his reasons for blessing God, and as the scale in which he weighed God"s mercies grew heavy, the scale in which he weighed his trials grew light by comparison. His sorrowful prayer was turned into thanksgiving; and he rose up strengthened and comforted. These words express a duty, a privilege, a purpose.
I A DUTY of perpetual obligation. God"s mercies are new every morning", (Lam_3:23) nay, every moment. Some signal instance may be the Moses" rod to make the stream of thankfulness gush forth, as, according to the title, was the case with this psalm. But as the clock is silently marking time every moment, and not only when it strikes the hour, so the silent sense of God"s goodness should never die out of the Christian"s heart, though there are special times for his lips to utter praise. Every breath, every heart-beat, is a new gift of life. (Act_17:28 Psa_107:1, Psa_107:8)
II A PRIVILEGE of the noblest kind. If it is true that every duty brings reward in some sense with it, this is eminently true here.
1. God accepts our praise, as glorifying him. (Psa_50:23)
2. Praise hallows our enjoyments; (Deu_7:11, Deu_7:12) and brings sunshine into our darkest seasons. (Act_16:25)
3. It is the noblest employment, that in which we rise nearest to heaven. Not seeking, as in prayer, from God, but striving to render somewhat to him, we lay our hearts open for his best blessings.
II A thoughtful, wise, and holy PURPOSE. The fulfilment of this duty and exercise of this privilege are not to be left to transient impulse or to rare occasions. "I will... at all times. " There are set occasions when "praise is comely" And there are sunny seasons, when God puts "a new song" in our mouth. But the text points to the habitual culture of a thankful spirit.
CONCLUSION.
1. Forget not God"s mercies. Review them.
2. Place over against them thy unworthiness.
3. Let the heart be often lifted up in thankfulness, when the lips are silent and the hands and eyes busy with the world.
"At all times;" "for his mercy endureth for ever.
HOMILIES BY C. CLEMANCE Vers. 1-22. Life"s experiences turned to manifold uses.
There is no sufficient reason for severing this psalm from the detail of history to which its title refers; and it is much to be wished that its writer had uniformly turned his own experience to a use as wise as that which he here urges upon others. But David"s pen might be golden, though sometimes his spirit was leaden; and we may study with great advantage the ideal of life which he sets before us, learning from his experience how we may realize that ideal, even though, in such a dimly lighted and corrupt age as his, he fell beneath it. We, who have far more than David"s privileges, ought to rise to a level far beyond that to which he attained. Let us first note the experience here recorded, and then see how varied are the uses to be made thereof.
I HERE IS A TOUCHING RECORD OF LIFE"S EXPERIENCE. In many respects it is such a one as thousands on thousands of God"s people may have passed through, and may be passing through now. If we number the points of experience one by one, the preacher may expand such as may be most appropriate to any ease or cases with which he may be dealing. Here is:
1. A first line of experience man wanting help from God.
(1) Trouble. (Ver. 6) A general term, yet conveying often the idea of strait-ness, narrowness, and perplexity. This may arise from bodily weakness, domestic trouble, personal bereavement, or any other of those manifold causes of anxiety to which we are liable.
(2) Fear. (Ver. 4) The dread of the future is often a heavier care than the distress of the present. How often would it be a great relief if we could see the forthcoming issue of things! But this cannot be. Hence fears arise, and we are tempted to say, "I shall one day perish.
(3) Looking up. (Ver. 5) We may, we can, look up above our weakness and helplessness to One who is a "Stronghold in the day of trouble". (Psa_61:2 Psa_121:1) Note: It is a part of the high and holy education of the saints that trouble teaches them to look up; and thus their whole natures become elevated, as they feel and know that they belong to a higher world than this.
(4) Crying. (Ver. 6; see Psa_18:6) In our darkest hours we know to whom we speak. (Psa_62:1) However dark the night and lonely the path, the child cannot help crying, "Father!" even when he cannot see him.
(5) Seeking. (Ver. 4) This is a prolongation of the cry. It indicates the attitude of the soul, continuously directed towards the great Friend and Helper.
(6) All this is in common with others. (Ver. 5) "They looked," etc. Not one alone, but millions, are at each moment looking up trustingly and hopefully, away from life"s cares and sorrows, to him who ruleth over all. Hence we need not wonder at:
2. A second line of experience God granting the help that is implored. As there are six stages along the first, so are there six features of the second.
(1) The prayer is heard. (Vers. 4, 6) Here is a grand field for exploration the Divine answers to prayer. To enumerate these would require volumes. The saint may well store them up in his memory for the encouragement of troubled ones afterwards. If we did but "give others the sunshine," and "tell Jesus the rest," how rich would be the tokens of mercy with which we should rise from our knees!
(2) Angelic ministry is granted. (Ver. 7) The existence and ministry of angels are clearly revealed in the Word of God. Abraham; Jacob; Elijah; Daniel. (Heb_1:14 Psa_68:17) The phrase, "delivereth them" is equivalent to "sets them free.
(3) Supplies are sent. (Vers. 9, 10) It is one of the testimonies most frequently given to those who visit God"s people in trouble, that supplies are sent to them exactly as they require them. (Psa_37:25)
(4) Deliverance is sent down. (Vers. 4, 7) God, in trouble, makes and shows "a way of escape." The dart has been turned aside just as it has seemed to be on the point of striking.
(5) The face has been brightened. (Ver. 5) The anxious look departs when help comes; a lightened heart makes a brightened face.
(6) Consequently, it is proved that those who wait on God will not be put to shame. (Ver. 5, Revised Version) No! it cannot be. The covenant of God"s promise is "ordered in all things, and sure." Not from one alone, but from a great multitude which no man can number, will the testimony come. "Not one thing hath failed of all that the Lord hath spoken." "Thus saith the Lord, They shall not be ashamed that wait for me.
II THESE VARIED EXPERIENCES OF LIFE ARE HERE TURNED TO MANIFOLD USES.
1. Towards God. (Vers. 1, 2) The psalmist vows that, having such manifold proof of what God is to him, and of his faithfulness to all his promises, his life shall be a perpetual song of praise; that he will make his boast in God"s goodness and grace, so that those who have, like him, been in the depths of affliction, may also, like him, be brought forth into a wealthy place. Note: Deliverances brought about in answer to prayer should be followed by long-continued and grateful praise.
2. Towards the saints. The psalmist
(1) exhorts the saints to join him in thankful song (ver. 3).
(2) He bids them try for themselves how good the Lord is (ver. 8), and he would have them know the blessedness of those who trust in him (ver. 8).
(3) He bids them loyally obey their God: this is what is meant by the word "fear" in ver. 9: not a fear of dread or of servility, but of loyal and obedient reverence. Note: However severe the pressure or great the trouble, we never need depart from the strict line of obedience to God.
(4) He assures them that no loyal souls shall ever be deserted (vers. 9, 10). God will see to it that his faithful ones have all needful supplies.
3. Towards all who have life before them. (Vers. 11, 12)
(1) He invites the young to come and listen to him, as out of the depths of his own experience he would show them the value of a godly life.
(2) He propounds a question, which may well evoke a response in many a young aspiring heart (ver. 12). See the use to which the Apostle Peter puts this passage. (1Pe_3:10-16)
(3) He gives a clear and definite answer, directing them how to govern the lips and the feet. The lips are to shun guile, and to speak peace and truth. The feet are to avoid evil, and to press after righteousness.
(4) He lays down for them a number of axiomata, which may well be their guide through life.
(a) That the Lord does hear and answer prayer (vers. 15, 17-20). The experience of the faithful gives an overwhelming amount of proof of this.
(b) That in pressing on in life, they will find God"s judgments abroad in the earth, making a distinction between those who serve him and those who serve him not; rewarding one and condemning the other (ver. 21, Revised Version).
(c) That Divine deliverances will compass the righteous around (ver. 22, Revised Version). Loyal souls will ever be receiving new proofs of the goodness of the Lord, and of the blessedness of such as put their trust in him! "The wicked flee when no man pursueth, but the righteous are bold as a lion!
Note:
1. Amid all the changeful currents of human thought and sentiment, there are ever, ever, in all ages, climes, and lands, these two great lines of indisputable fact (vers. 15, 16), to which we do well to take heed that the Lord is on the side of good, and that "the face of the Lord is against them that do evil." No perplexity in the mazes of metaphysical or theological controversy ought ever to conceal or obscure These plain facts from view.
2. It behoves the young to profit by the experience of the old; for, though no two experiences are precisely the same in all details, and though each one must bear his own burden, yet the lives of our fathers, as rehearsed to us by them, do set forth clearly and distinctly certain great principles according to which God governed and guided them principles which are the same in every age, and which we cannot ignore, save at imminent peril both for the life that now is, and for that which is to come.
3. It behoves us to treasure up the experiences of life, to recount and to record them for the use and help of those who have yet to set out on life"s journey. We know not how our young ones may be exposed in life. Gladly would we give them the constant screen of home. But that cannot be. Out into the world they must go. With God"s Spirit in their hearts, they are safe anywhere. Without God, they are safe nowhere. We need not talk at them nor try to preach religion obnoxiously to them; but we may, we can, we must, tell them of our God and Saviour, telling them how he has helped us, and will help all who follow him; that they, too, may "taste and see how good the Lord is"! C.
HOMILIES BY W. FORSYTH Vers. 1-10. Links of grace.
I In this hymn we have first of all PRAISE. Praise is not an impulse, or an outburst of enthusiasm soon to die out, but it is the expression of the heart and the exercise of the life. It is good to have stated times for praise, but when the soul is in true fellowship with God it will find "continual" reason for praising him. "Praise" is for "all times," because God fills "all times." Thanksgiving has respect to special times, and to what God has done for us, but praise, in its highest sense, is called forth by contemplation of God, as he is in himself infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in his Being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth. "The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him," and if we truly fear him we shall learn the "secret" of praising him "continually.
II From praise the psalmist proceeds to CONFESSION. He does not speak of himself. When he does so it is not to exalt, but to humble himself. "Boasting is excluded." But he speaks of God, and proclaims with gratitude and joy his glorious Name. Whensoever we exalt God, there will be sure to be sympathizers. The confession of our faith will call forth like confessions from others, and "the humble shall be glad." When Paul was converted there were some who were "amazed," and others who were "afraid;" but when they knew the truth, "that he which persecuted the Churches in times past, now preacheth the faith which once he destroyed," then, says Paul, "they glorified God in me". (Gal_1:23)
III The psalmist next advances to FELLOWSHIP. (Ver. 3) "It is not good for man to be alone." This holds true of religion. There is something inspiring and comforting in being associated with others in worship. What we have found true, others also have found true; what we have seen of the glory of God, others also have seen, and with one mind and one heart we can rejoice together. We cannot by anything we do make God greater than he is, but we can "magnify" him as we make his glory more widely known; we can "exalt his Name" as we make his character stand higher in the sight of men, and as we more fully manifest our devotion to him as the Supreme Object of our trust and love. Thus not only with God"s people on earth, but "with angels and archangels, and all the company of heaven, we laud and magnify God"s glorious Name.
IV Lastly, we find here GRATEFUL COMMEMORATION OF DELIVERANCE. First the psalmist speaks for himself (ver. 4). But what is true of one is true of many (ver. 5). Let each of us put himself in "this poor man"s" place. Recall the peril and the prayer. Give thanks for the gracious deliverance. There may have been times when we too may have been in sore straits. In our perplexity and fear we may have resorted to our own devices, and stained our souls with sin. But God is merciful. He did not cast us off. When we cried to him, he forgave us our iniquity, and delivered us from all our fears. God"s deliverances bring gladness. We see in them the outshining of his love. We have looked to him in faith, and he has looked on us in mercy. His response has been quick and gracious as when the wounded Israelites looked to the brazen serpent, and were healed; (Num_21:9) as when Gideon looked to God, and was made strong. (Jud_1:6:13, 14) There is not only the grateful acknowledgment of past deliverances, but the sweet sense of security for all time to come, under the loving guardianship of God (ver. 27). Whether we take "the angel" here as one of the angelic host, or as the angel of Jehovah, the great Head and Lord of all, the meaning is the same. The great truth taught is the same which we find so often in the New Testament, as in the Hebrews, where it is said of the angels, "Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?"; (Heb 1 Joh 14) and in John"s Gospel, where we find our Lord saying, conceding his people, I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of my hand". W.F. (Joh_10:28)
HOMILIES BY C. SHORT Vers. 1-10. Deliverance and gratitude.
Occasion of the psalm uncertain. Celebrates some great deliverance which awakens praise and inspires him to teach others trust add the secret of a prosperous life.
I A GREAT DELIVERANCE CELEBRATED. (Vers. 4-6) Salvation.
1. He was in great trouble and danger. (Vers. 4-6) That the nature of the danger is not explained. Sin and sorrow our greatest trouble.
2. He earnestly sought deliverance. (Vers. 4-6) No salvation except to earnest seekers.
3. God answered him and saved him. His face was bright with the light of God"s face. God"s angel was the instrument of his deliverance. Christ our Mediator and Deliverer.
II HE IS FILLED WITH GRATITUDE. (Vers. 1-3)
1. His thankfulness was to be enduring. Not an evanescent thing, like the morning cloud and early dew, but lasting.
2. He calls upon all the afflicted (humble) to join in the praise. (Vers. 2, 3) Because they may experience a like deliverance. God"s salvation is for the whole world.
III HE INVITES MEN TO PUT THE GOODNESS OF GOD TO THE TEST OF EXPERIENCE. (Vers. 8-10)
1. They will find how blessed are they who trust in God.
2. All their true and real wants shall be satisfied. (Vers. 9, 10) S.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Charles H. Spurgeon 1885 · Public Domain On vv1–22 Title. Psalm of David, when he changed his behaviour…
Title. Psalm of David, when he changed his behaviour before Abimelech; who drove him away, and he departed. Of this transaction, which reflects no credit upon David's memory, we have a brief account in 1Sa 21:1-15. Although the gratitude of the psalmist prompted him thankfully to record the goodness of the Lord in vouchsafing an undeserved deliverance, yet he weaves none of the incidents of the escape into the narrative, but dwells only on the grand fact of his being heard in the hour of peril. We may learn from his example not to parade our sins before others, as certain vainglorious professors are wont to do who seem as proud of their sins as old Greenwich pensioners of their battles and their wounds. David played the fool with singular dexterity, but he was not so real a fool as to sing of his own exploits of folly. In the original, the title does not teach us that the psalmist composed this poem at the time of his escape from Achish, the king or Abimelech of Gath, but that it is intended to commemorate that event, and was suggested by it. It is well to mark our mercies with well carved memorials. God deserves our best handiwork. David in view of the special peril from which he was rescued, was at great pains with this Psalm, and wrote it with considerable regularity, in almost exact accordance with the letters of the Hebrew alphabet. This is the second alphabetical Psalm, the twenty-fifth being the first.
Division. The Psalm is split into two great divisions at the close of Ps 34:10, when the Psalmist having expressed his praise to God turns in direct address to men. The first ten verses are A HYMN, and the last twelve A SERMON. For further assistance to the reader we may subdivide thus: In Ps 34:1-3, David vows to bless the Lord, and invites the praise of others; from Ps 34:4-7 he relates his experience, and in Ps 34:8-10 exhorts the godly to constancy of faith. In Ps 34:1-14, he gives direct exhortation, and follows it up by didactic teaching from Ps 34:15-22 to the close.
Read full note →
Ver. 1. I will bless the Lord at all times. He is resolved and fixed, I will; he is personally and for himself determined, let others so as they may; he is intelligent in head and inflamed in heart --he knows to whom the praise is due, and what is due, and for what and when. To Jehovah, and not to second causes our gratitude is to be rendered. The Lord hath by right a monopoly in his creatures praise. Even when a mercy may remind us of our sin with regard to it, as in this case David's deliverance from the Philistine monarch was sure to do, we are not to rob God of his meed of honour because our conscience justly awards a censure to our share in the transaction. Though the hook was rusty, yet God sent the fish, and we thank him for it. At all times, in every situation, under every circumstance, before, in and after trials, in bright days of glee, and dark nights of fear. He would never have done praising, because never satisfied that he had done enough; always feeling that he fell short of the Lord's deservings. Happy is he whose fingers are wedded to his harp. He who praises God for mercies shall never want a mercy for which to praise. To bless the Lord is never unseasonable. His praise shall continually be in my mouth, not in my heart merely, but in my mouth too. Our thankfulness is not to be a dumb thing; it should be one of the daughters of music. Our tongue is our glory, and it ought to reveal the glory of God. What a blessed mouthful is God's praise! How sweet, how purifying, how perfuming! If men's mouths were always thus filled, there would be no repining against God, or slander of neighbours. If we continually rolled this dainty morsel under our tongue, the bitterness of daily affliction would be swallowed up in joy. God deserves blessing with the heart, and extolling with the mouth--good thoughts in the closet, and good words in the world.
Title. Abimelech was king of Gath, the same with Achish, 1Sa 21:20: who either had two names, or this of Abimelech, as it should seem, was a common name to all the kings of the Philistines (see Ge 20:2 26:8); as Pharaoh was to the Egyptian kings and Caesar to the Roman emperors: the name signifies a father king, or my father king, or a royal father; as kings should be the fathers of their country: before him David changed his behaviour, his taste, sense, or reason; he imitated a madman. John Gill.
Whole Psalm. (This Psalm is alphabetical.) The Alphabetical Psalms, the psalmi abcedarii, as the Latin fathers called them, are nine in number; and I cannot help thinking it is a pity that, except in the single instance of the hundred and nineteenth, no hint of their existence should have been suffered to appear in our authorised version. I will not take it upon me to affirm, with Ewald, that no version is faithful in which the acrostic is suppressed; but I do think that the existence of such a remarkable style of composition ought to be indicated in one way or another, and that some useful purposes are served by its being actually reproduced in the translation. No doubt there are difficulties in the way. The Hebrew alphabet differs widely from any of those now employed in Europe. Besides differences of a more fundamental kind, the Hebrew has only twenty-two letters, for our twenty-six; and of the twenty-two, a considerable number have no fellows in ours. An exact reproduction of a Hebrew acrostic in English version is therefore impossible. William Binnie, D.D.
Whole Psalm. Mr. Hapstone has endeavoured to imitate the alphabetical character of this Psalm in his metrical version. The letter answering to F is wanting, and the last stanza begins with the letter answering to R. One verse of his translation may suffice--
"At all times bless Jehovah's name will I;
His praise shall in my mouth be constantly:
Boast in Jehovah shall my soul henceforth;
Hear it, ye meek ones, and exult with mirth."
Ver. 1. I will bless the Lord at all times. Mr. Bradford, martyr, speaking of Queen Mary, at whose cruel mercy he then lay, said, If the queen be pleased to release me, I will thank her; if she will imprison me, I will thank her; if she will burn me, I will thank her, etc. So saith a believing soul: Let God do with me what he will, I will be thankful. Samuel Clarks's "Mirror."
Ver. 1. Should the whole frame of nature be unhinged, and all outward friends and supporters prove false and deceitful, our worldly hopes and schemes be disappointed, and possessions torn from us, and the floods of sickness, poverty, and disgrace overwhelm our soul with an impetuous tide of trouble; the sincere lover of God, finding that none of these affects his portion and the object of his panting desires, retires from them all to God his refuge and hiding place, and there feels his Saviour incomparably better, and more than equivalent to what the whole of the universe can ever offer, or rob him of; and his tender mercies, unexhausted fulness, and great faithfulness, yield him consolation and rest; and enable him, what time he is afraid, to put his trust in him. Thus we find the holy psalmist expressing himself: I will bless the Lord at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth. William Dunlop.
Ver. 1. S. Basil tells us that the praise of God, once rightly impressed as a seal on the mind, though it may not always be carried out into action, yet in real truth causes us perpetually to praise God. J. M. Neal's Commentary.
Ver. 1. Firm resolution, serious difficulties in carrying it out, helps for its performance, excellent consequences of so doing.
Six questions. --Who? "I." What? "Will bless." Whom? "The Lord." When? "At all times." How? Why?
Ver. 1. Direction for making a heaven below.
Meditations upon the XXXIV. Psalme, in Sir RICHARD BAKER'S Works.
Psalms 34:2*
Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 15, 18, 19, 21, 22 I will bless the Lord at all times: His…
Psa_34:1-22
I will bless the Lord at all times: His praise shall continually be in my mouth.
Read full note →
A devout hymn
I. an exemplification of true praise.
1. It is thorough.
(1) There is no praise without concentration of soul.
(2) Distracting forces are rife.
2. It is constant.
(1) In every department of action--intellectual, artistic, commercial, political.
(2) In every circumstance of life--sorrow, joy, adversity, prosperity, bereavement, friendship.
3. It is exultant. God is the sum total of all excellence, the primal fount of all joy; therefore let us boast in Him.
4. It is social. The true worshipper becomes magnetic; he draws others to the shrine before which he falls.
II. A reason for true praise.
1. Past deliverance (Psa_34:4).
(1) He had been delivered out of all his troubles. His troubles were great in their variety, number, but he was delivered.
(2) He had been delivered out of all his troubles by prayer. I sought the Lord, etc.
2. Constant protection (Psa_34:7). (Homilist.)
Blessing the Lord
I. A resolution to bless the Lord, or to thank the Lord.
1. The things for which we ought to bless or thank the Lord: temporal; spiritual; personal; family; national; and Christian.
2. Whom we are to bless: the Lord, the Giver of all; no mercy, except from Him; gives freely; bounteously, always.
3. When we are to bless the Lord:--at all times.
II. A resolution to praise the Lord.
1. This is a resolution which Nature even approves. All Thy works praise Thee, O Lord.
2. A resolution which reason sustains.
3. A resolution which Scripture examples encourage.
4. A resolution which is in analogy with the customs of social life.
5. A resolution which accords with our obligation.
6. A resolution which harmonizes with the employment of the heavenly inhabitants.
7. A resolution which, if carried out, will contribute much to lifes happiness, and promote the glory of God in our spheres of action. (J. Bate.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On v1 Psalms 34
Psalms 34
THE occasion of this psalm, according to the superscription, was that humiliating and questionable episode, when David pretended insanity to save his life from the ruler of Goliaths city of Gath. The set of critical opinion sweeps away this tradition as unworthy of serious refutation. The psalm is acrostic, therefore of late date; there are no references to the supposed occasion; the careless scribe has blundered "blindly" (Hupfeld) in the kings name, mixing up the stories about Abraham and Isaac in Genesis with the legend about David at Gath; the didactic, gnomical cast of the psalm speaks of a late age. But the assumption that acrostic structure is necessarily a mark of late date is not by any means self-evident, and needs more proof than is forthcoming; the absence of plain allusions to the singers circumstances cuts both ways, and suggests the question, how the attribution to the period stated arose, since there is nothing in the psalm to suggest it; the blunder of the kings name is perhaps not a blunder after all, but, as the Genesis passages seem to imply, "Abimelech" (the father of the King) may be a title, like Pharaoh, common to Philistine "kings," and Achish may have been the name of the reigning Abimelech; the proverbial style and somewhat slight connection and progress of thought are necessary results of acrostic fetters. If the psalm be Davids, the contrast between the degrading expedient which saved him and the exalted sentiments here is remarkable, but not incredible. The seeming idiot scrabbling on the gate is now saint, poet, and preacher; and, looking back on the deliverance won by a trick, he thinks of it as an instance of Jehovahs answer to prayer! It is a strange psychological study; and yet, keeping in view the then existing standard of morality as to stratagems in warfare, and the wonderful power that even good men have of ignoring flaws in their faith and faults in their conduct, we may venture to suppose that the event which evoked this song of thanksgiving and is transfigured in Psa_34:4 is the escape by craft from Achish. To David his feigning madness did not seem inconsistent with trust and prayer.
Read full note →
Whatever be the occasion of the psalm, its course of thought is obvious. There is first a vow of praise in which others are summoned to unite (Psa_34:13); then follows a section in which personal experience and invocation to others are similarly blended (Psa_34:4-10); and finally a purely didactic section, analysing the practical manifestations of "the fear of the Lord" and enforcing it by the familiar contrast of the blessedness of the righteous and the miserable fate of the ungodly. Throughout we find familiar turns of thought and expression, such as are usual in acrostic psalms.
The glad vow of unbroken praise and undivided trust, which begins the psalm, sounds like the welling over of a heart for recent mercy. It seems easy and natural while the glow of fresh blessings is felt, to "rejoice in the Lord always, and again to say Rejoice." Thankfulness which looks forward to its own cessation, and takes into account the distractions of circumstance and changes of mood which will surely come, is too foreseeing. Whether the vow be kept or no, it is well that it should be made; still better is it that it should be kept, as it may be, even amid distracting circumstances and changing moods: The incense on the altar did not flame throughout the day, but, being fanned into a glow at morning and evening sacrifice it smouldered with a thread of fragrant smoke continually. It is not only the exigencies of the acrostic which determine the order in Psa_34:2 : "In Jehovah shall my soul boast,"-in Him, and not in self or worldly ground, of trust and glorying. The ideal of the devout life, which in moments of exaltation seems capable of realisation, as in clear weather Alpine summits look near enough to be reached in an hour, is unbroken praise and undivided reliance on and joy in Jehovah. But alas-how far above us the peaks are! Still to see them ennobles, and to strive to reach them secures an upward course.
The solitary heart hungers for sympathy in its joy, as in its sorrow; but knows full well that such can only be given by those who have known like bitterness and have learned submission in the same way. We must be purged of self in order to be glad in anothers deliverance, and must be pupils in the same school in order to be entitled to take his experience as our encouragement, and to make a chorus to his solo of thanksgiving. The invocation is so natural an expression of the instinctive desire for companionship in praise that one needs not to look for any particular group to whom it is addressed; but if the psalm be Davids, the call is not inappropriate in the mouth of the leader of his band of devoted followers.
The second section of the psalm (Psa_34:4-10) is at first biographical, and then generalises personal experience into broad universal truth. But even in recounting what befel himself, the singer will not eat his morsel alone, but is glad to be able at every turn to feel that he has companions in his happy experience. Psa_34:4-5 are a pair, as are Psa_34:6-7, and in each the same fact is narrated first in reference to the single soul and then in regard to all the servants of Jehovah. "This poor man" is by most of the older expositors taken to be the psalmist, but by the majority of moderns supposed to be an individualising way of saying, "poor men." The former explanation seems to me the more natural, as preserving the parallelism between the two groups of verses. If so, the close correspondence of expression in Psa_34:4 and Psa_34:6 is explained, since the same event is subject of both. In both is the psalmists appeal to Jehovah presented; in the one as "seeking" with anxious eagerness, and in the other as "crying" with the loud call of one in urgent need of immediate rescue. In both, Divine acceptance follows close on the cry, and in both immediately, ensues succor. "He delivered me from all my fears," and "saved him out of all his troubles," correspond entirely, though not verbally. In like manner Psa_34:5 and Psa_34:7 are alike in extending the blessing of the unit so as to embrace the class. The absence of any expressed subject of the verb in Psa_34:5 makes the statement more comprehensive, like the French "on," or English "they." To "look unto Him" is the same thing as is expressed in the individualising verses by the two phrases, "sought," and "cried unto," only the metaphor is changed into that of silent, wistful directing of beseeching and sad eyes to God. And its issue is beautifully told, in pursuance of the metaphor. Whoever turns his face to Jehovah will receive reflected brightness on his face; as when a mirror is directed sunwards, the dark surface will flash into sudden glory. Weary eyes will gleam. Faces turned to the sun are sure to be radiant.
The hypothesis of the Davidic authorship gives special force to the great assurance of Psa_34:7. The fugitive, in his rude shelter in the cave of Adullam, thinks of Jacob, who, in his hour of defenceless need, was heartened by the vision of the angel encampment surrounding his own little band, and named the place "Mahanaim," the two camps. That fleeting vision was a temporary manifestation of abiding reality. Wherever there is a camp of them that fear God, there is another, of which the helmed and sworded angel that appeared to Joshua is Captain, and the name of every such place is Two Camps. That is the sight which brightens the eyes that look to God. That mysterious personality, "the Angel of the Lord," is only mentioned in the Psalter here and in Psalms 35. In other places, He appears as the agent of Divine communications, and especially as the guide and champion of Israel. He is "the angel of Gods face," the personal revealer of His presence and nature. His functions correspond to those of the Word in Johns Gospel, and these, conjoined with the supremacy indicated in his name, suggest that "the Angel of the Lord" is, in fact, the everlasting Son of the Father, through whom the Christology of the New Testament teaches that all Revelation has been mediated. The psalmist did not know the full force of the name, but he believed that there was a Person. in an eminent and singular sense Gods messenger, who would cast his protection round the devout, and bid inferior heavenly beings draw their impregnable ranks about them. Christians can tell more than he could of the Bearer of the name. It becomes them to be all the surer of His protection.
Just as the vow of Psa_34:1 passed into invocation, so does the personal experience of Psa_34:4-7 glide into exhortation. If such be the experience of poor men, trusting in Jehovah. how should the sharers in it be able to withhold themselves from calling on others to take their part in the joy? The depth of a mans religion may be roughly, but on the whole fairly, tested by his irrepressible impulse to bring other men to the fountain from which he has drunk. Very significantly does the psalm call on men to "taste and see," for in religion experience must precede knowledge. The way to "taste" is to "trust" or to "take refuge in" Jehovah. "Crede et manducasti," says Augustine. The psalm said it before him. Just as the act of appealing to Jehovah was described in a threefold way in Psa_34:4-6, so a threefold designation of devout men occurs in Psa_34:8-10. They "trust," are "saints," they "seek." Faith, consecration and aspiration are their marks. These are the essentials of the religious life, whatever be the degree of revelation. These were its essentials in the psalmists time, and they are so today. As abiding as they, are the blessings consequent. These may all be summed up in one-the satisfaction of every, need and desire. There are two ways of seeking for satisfaction: that of effort, violence and reliance on ones own teeth and claws to get ones meat; the other that of patient, submissive trust. Were there lions prowling round the camp at Adullam, and did the psalmist take their growls as typical of all vain attempts to satisfy the soul? Struggle and force and self-reliant efforts leave men gaunt and hungry. He who takes the path of trust and has his supreme desires set on God, and who looks to Him to give what he himself cannot wring out of life, will get first his deepest desires answered in possessing God, and will then find that the One great Good is an encyclopaedia of separate goods. They that "seek Jehovah" shall assuredly find Him, and in Him everything. He is multiform, and His goodness takes many shapes, according to the curves of the vessels which it fills. "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and all these things shall be added unto you."
The mention of the "fear of the Lord" prepares the way for the transition to the third part of the psalm. It is purely didactic, and, in its simple moral teaching and familiar contrast of the fates of righteous and ungodly, has affinities with the Book of Proverbs: but these are not so special as to require the supposition of contemporaneousness. It is unfashionable now to incline to the Davidic authorship; but would not the supposition that the "children," who are to be taught the elements of religion, are the band of outlaws who have gathered round the fugitive, give appropriateness to the transition from the thanksgiving of the first part to the didactic tone of the second? We can see them sitting round the singer in the half-darkness of the cave, a wild group, needing much control and yet with faithful hearts, and loyal to their leader, who now tells them the laws of his camp, at the same time as he sets forth the broad principles of that morality, which is the garment and manifestation among men of the "fear of the Lord." The relations of religion and morals were never more clearly and strikingly expressed than in the simple language of this psalm, which puts the substance of many profound treatises in a nutshell, when it expounds the "fear of Jehovah" as consisting in speaking truth, doing good, abhorring evil and seeking peace even when it seems to flee from us. The primal virtues are the same for all ages and stages of revelation. The definition of good and evil may vary and become more spiritual and inward, but the dictum that it is good to love and do good shines unalterable. The psalmists belief that doing good was the sure way to enjoy good was a commonplace of Old Testament teaching, and under a Theocracy was more distinctly verified by outward facts than now; but even then, as many psalms show, had exceptions so stark as to stir many doubts. Unquestionably good in the sense of blessedness is inseparable from good in the sense of righteousness, as evil which is suffering is from evil which is sin, but the conception of what constitutes blessedness and sorrow must be modified so as to throw most weight on inward experiences, if such necessary coincidence is to be maintained in the face of patent facts.
The psalmist closes his song with a bold statement of the general principle that goodness is blessedness and wickedness is wretchedness; but he finds his proof mainly in the contrasted relation to Jehovah involved in the two opposite moral conditions. He has no vulgar conception of blessedness as resulting from circumstances. The lovingkindness of Jehovah is, in his view, prosperity, whatever be the aspect of externals. So with bold symbols, the very grossness of the letter of which shields them from misinterpretation, he declares this as the secret of all blessedness, that Jehovahs eyes are towards the righteous and His ears open to their cry. The individual experiences of Psa_34:5 and Psa_34:6 are generalised. The eye of God-i.e. His loving observance-rests upon and blesses, those whose faces are turned to Him, and His ear hears the poor mans cry. The grim antithesis, which contains in itself the seeds of all unrest, is that the "face of Jehovah"-i.e. His manifested presence, the same face in the reflected light of which the faces of the righteous are lit up with gladness and dawning glory-is against evil doers. The moral condition of the beholder determines the operation of the light of Gods countenance upon him. The same presence is light and darkness, life and death. Evil and its doers shrivel and perish in its beams, as the sunshine kills creatures whose haunt is the dark, or as Apollos keen light arrows slew the monsters of the slime. All else follows from this double relationship.
The remainder of the psalm runs out into a detailed description of the joyful fate of the lovers of good. broken only by one tragic verse (Psa_34:21), like a black rock in the midst of a sunny stream, telling how evil and evil-doers end. In Psa_34:17, as in Psa_34:5, the verb has no subject expressed, but the supplement of A.V. and R.V., "the righteous," is naturally drawn from the context and is found in the LXX, whether as part of the original text, or as supplement thereto, is unknown. The construction may, as in Psa_34:6, indicate that whoever cries to Jehovah is heard. Hitzig and others propose to transpose Psa_34:15 and Psa_34:16, so as to get a nearer subject for the verb in the "righteous" of Psa_34:15, and defend the inversion by referring to the alphabetic order in Lamentations 2, 3, and 4 where similarly Pe precedes Ayin; but the present order of verses is better as putting the principal theme of this part of the psalm-the blessedness of the righteous-in the foreground, and the opposite thought as its foil. The main thought of Psa_34:17-20 is nothing more than the experience of Psa_34:4-7 thrown into the form of general maxims. They are the commonplaces of religion, but come with strange freshness to a man, when they have been verified in his life. Happy they who can cast their personal experience into such proverbial sayings, and, having by faith individualised the general promises, can regeneralise the individual experience! The psalmist does not promise untroubled outward good. His anticipation is of troubled lives. delivered because of crying to Jehovah. "Many are the afflictions," but more are the deliverances. Many are the blows and painful is the pressure, but they break no bones, though they rack and wrench the frame. Significant, too, is the sequence of synonyms-righteous, broken-hearted, crushed in spirit, servants, them that take refuge in Jehovah. The first of these refers mainly to conduct, the second to that submission of will and spirit which sorrow rightly borne brings about, substantially equivalent to "the humble" or "afflicted" of Psa_34:2 and Psa_34:6, the third again deals mostly with practice, and the last touches the foundation of all service, submission, and righteousness, as laid in the act of faith in Jehovah.
The last group of Psa_34:21-22, puts the teaching of the psalm in one terrible contrast, "Evil shall slay the wicked." It were a mere platitude if by "evil" were meant misfortune. The same thought of the inseparable connection of the two senses of that word, which runs through the context, is here expressed in the most terse fashion. To do evil is to suffer evil, and all sin is suicide. Its wages is death. Every sin is a strand in the hangmans rope, which the sinner nooses and puts round his own neck. That is so because every sin brings guilt, and guilt brings retribution. Much more than "desolate" is meant in Psa_34:21 and Psa_34:22. The word means to be condemned or held guilty. Jehovah is the Judge; before His bar all actions and characters are set: His unerring estimate of each brings with it, here and now, consequences of reward and punishment which prophesy a future, more perfect judgment. The redemption of the soul of Gods servants is the antithesis to that awful experience; and they only, who take refuge in Him, escape it. The full Christian significance of this final contrast is in the Apostles Words, "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus."
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v1 “This psalm is assigned by the superscription to the…
INTRODUCTION
“This psalm is assigned by the superscription to the occasion when David, persecuted by Saul, fled to the Philistines, and being brought before Achish was driven away by him as a madman (1Sa_21:12, see Psalms 7). There is no sufficient reason for rejecting the historical validity of this statement. The psalms generally rise above the level of the particular occasion, and dwell on general principles, and so it is here. This psalm is eucharistic and didactic. It is full of thankfulness to the Almighty Deliverer, who defends the penitent against the ungodly. It is a lesson from experience for those who are tempted and afflicted. It is the second of the alphabetic psalms (Psalms 25), the letter vau being omitted, and a second pe added at the end.”—Murphy. “This psalm was selected by the ancient Church to be a communion song (Cyrill. Catech. Myst. 5:17); and from the expression, ‘Taste and see that the Lord is good,’ and from its evangelical strain, it was well adapted for this purpose.”—Murphy.
Read full note →
A SONG OF PRAISE
(Psa_34:1-7.)
“Every day of a pious man’s life is marked with the monuments and tokens of the mercy of God, so that he has every day to sing a new song. But each separate experience of that kind should fill our heart to such a degree, as to furnish the theme of gratitude and praise for the entire period of our lives. With a feeling of this kind we see David celebrate the deliverance he has just experienced.”—Tholuck. We should praise God—
I. For what He is in Himself. “The Lord ‘Jehovah.’ ” “This is the only name of God in the psalm. The self-existent Creator is the great watchword of the intelligent creation.”—Murphy. Contemplation of God’s character calls forth praise. This praise is,
1. Free. “I will.” It is from the heart It is a life, not form; a delight not a burden.
2. Constant. “At all times;” circumstances alter, but God changes not. In adversity and in prosperity, in the dark hour of sorrow as in the bright moments of joy, God claims our praise. “Continually,” the lamps, the shew-bread, the daily sacrifice, the priests ministering in the tabernacle continually, were witnesses to the perpetuity of spiritual worship (Exo_25:30; Exo_27:20; Exo_29:42).
3. Exulting. “Boast,” “glory,” i.e., “to exult in the possession and enjoyment of some admired and beloved object.”—Alexander. Many glory in their strength, in their riches, in their learning, in their religion. God is the true object of glory. He alone can satisfy and bless the soul for ever (Jer_9:23-24).
4. Influential. “The humble, i.e., the poor and needy, or the meek who bow their hearts to God. The boastings of the worldly are an offence. They have the bad odour of selfishness. But the extolling of the Lord is pleasant to the ear of His people, and strikes a chord of sympathy in their inmost hearts. As one touch of nature makes the whole world kin, so one touch of grace makes the whole Church kin. As one songster in the morning wakens the music of the grove, so one soul hymning the praise of Jehovah calls forth the voices of other kindred souls, till the Church resounds with songs of praise (Psa_34:3).
6. Social. “O magnify the Lord with me.” It is not that we can add to God’s glory, He is infinite, eternal, and unchangeable. Nothing we do can increase or diminish His glory. But His name may be said to grow in glory as it is made known; and His character to stand higher in the sight of men, as He becomes more and more the supreme object of trust and love. “Let us exalt His name together.” Here is the place for union and concert; social worship is the craving of the new heart, and the outgrowth of the new life. In heaven it finds its highest expression, and earth is the likest heaven, where it most abounds.
II. For what He does for His people (Psa_34:4-7).
1. Personal deliverances (Psa_34:4). This may refer to God’s rescue of David in the land of the Philistines. He was then in great peril. There were fears on every side. His own conscience was not free, for in his selfish care to save his life he had sinned against truth and against God. But in his straits he sought the Lord. Sin should not deter us from prayer. Rather should the sense of sin make us pray the more earnestly. We have an Advocate with God the Father. There are gifts even for the rebellious. Where sin abounded grace hath much more abounded. “He delivered me from all my fears.” “To have delivered me from all my troubles had been a great favour, but a far greater to deliver me from all my fears; for where that would have but freed me from present evil, this secures me from evil to come, that now I enjoy not only tranquillity, but security—a privilege only of the godly. The wicked may be free from trouble, but can they be free from fear? No; God knows, though they be not in trouble like other men, yet they live in more fear than other men.”—Baker.
2. Brighter days for the afflicted. “They looked,” viz., the afflicted mentioned in Psa_34:2; or it may only mean generally, “men looked;” others, i.e., besides myself, have in like manner experienced God’s lovingkindness. “Were lightened,” i.e.,” were bright with gladness because He heard them, reflecting, as it were, the light of His countenance” (cf. Psa_4:6).—Perowne. Here is the look of the soul to God, and the quick response of God, as when the Israelites looked to the serpent of brass and were healed (Num_21:9), and sinners look on Him whom they pierced (Zec_12:11), and their hearts are melted to penitential sorrow. “Lightened.” “This is the precise answer to a look. The light of the truth, the promise, and the countenance of God, fill and illuminate the eyes of the soul.”—Murphy. How often is this fulfilled. Remember Gideon. Hence, instead of the blush of shame, there is the brightness of joy; instead of the shudder of fear, there is the song of victory. Each one, as he remembers what God has done, speaks as for himself. “This poor man cried, and the Lord heard.”
3. Divine guardianship for the godly to the end. “The angel of the Lord.” This remarkable phrase occurs only twice in the psalms, here, and in the next psalm. It denotes one who is at the same time the angel of Jehovah and Jehovah Himself (Gen_16:7; Exo_23:20). “He is God manifest to man, and mediating for man.”—Murphy. “Encampeth.” There may be reference here to what Jacob said when the angels met him (Gen_32:1-2). “This is God’s host, and he called the name of that place Mahanaim” (two camps). The angel host is under the headship of Christ, and charged with the care of His people. “Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister to them who shall be heirs of salvation!”
THREE VIEWS OF RELIGION
(Psa_34:8-10.)
I. What religion is. Plainly it is something belonging to the soul, not a ritual, but a life. It is also something personal, as between the soul and God, and not any service which can be rendered for us by priest or proxy. It is suggested here that religion consists in—
1. Personal faith that God is good.
2. Personal devotedness to God as good.
3. Personal communion with God as good.
“Religion in the understanding is the knowledge of God (Hos_4:1); of His will and commandments; it is the knowledge of His ‘mystery’ or secret counsel revealed in Christ (Eph_1:17). When the Jewish law had been given, religion was practically a ‘walking in the law of the Lord’s (Psa_119:1; cf. Luk_1:6); when the Christian revelation has been made it is an ‘acknowledgment of the truth which is after godliness’ (Tit_1:1). But in this truth, in that law, it seeks a Person; it is fundamentally the maintenance of a real relation with the Personal God, or with a Divine Person, really incarnate in Jesus Christ. Accordingly religion, both Jewish and Christian, is described as a covenant; it is a bond or understanding between the nature, or the soul, and God, or still more, from the point of view of a faith which worketh by love, it is personal communion with God (1Jn_1:3). Thus religious life is more than feeling, than knowledge, than obedience to a moral code. It is the sacred bond freely accepted, generously, enthusiastically, persistently welcomed, whereby the soul engages to make a continuous expenditure of its highest powers in attaching itself to the personal source and Object of its being.”—Canon Liddon.
II. What religion does. It is thoroughly practical. It is God’s power in the soul, and worketh in every one to bring us nearer and nearer to Himself.
1. Establishes right relations between the soul and God. Right relations are of great importance. It is so among men; much more with God. If the relations of the soul to God are wrong, all is wrong. If the relations of the soul to God are right, all will be right Now, in religion, “the heart is made right with God.” There is “trust” (Psa_34:8). There is reverential “fear” (Psa_34:9). There is holy aspiration and endeavour, the continual seeking of God (Psa_34:10).
2. Effects a moral transformation of character (Psa_34:9). “Fear the Lord, ye His saints.’ “This is the moral consequence of becoming acquainted with God and His goodness.”—Murphy. Those who are in a right relation to God, and who love and trust Him, are not only “His saints” in respect to consecration, but they become more and more “His saints” as regards character.
3. Ensures the highest blessedness of being (Psa_34:10). “The young lions are here the representatives of those who glory in their own strength and resources.”—Murphy. The meaning is, “that while the most powerful and least scrupulous of men may be reduced to want, the people of God shall be abundantly and constantly provided for.”—Alexander. (cf. Job_4:10-11; Psa_57:4; Nah_2:12-13; Eze_19:2; Eze_38:13; Isa_40:30-31). “They shall not want any good.”
III. What Religion deserves (Psa_34:10). This is the language of experience. It breathes faith, and hope, and love. It is an appeal to the deepest feelings of the heart It implies that if men would only make trial of religion for themselves, they could not fail to be convinced of its supreme excellence.
Religion deserves—
1. Earnest study. We are bound to investigate. That only is truth to us which commends itself to our own conscience. Our faith should stand, not in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. “Search the Scriptures.” Remember how the Boreans were praised for their independent and earnest examination of the truth (Act_17:11). Surely that which is the most wondrous thing in the world, and which concerns us all so nearly, should be personally and profoundly studied.
2. Personal Trial. “Taste and see.” Nothing is so convincing as experience. Only by trial can we truly realise what religion is and what it does. It is one thing to hear honey called sweet, and another thing to know that honey is sweet, because we have tasted it for ourselves. “He that believeth hath the witness in himself” (cf. 1Jn_5:10).
3. Hearty commendation. It is the duty of every godly man to commend religion to others. Loyalty to God and love to our brethren alike bind us to this. We should be careful to give a just representation, such as will attract instead of repel. By our humility, our patience, our love, our trust in God, and our purity in the sight of men, we should be true witnesses for our holy religion, true preachers of Christ.
“O taste and see that God is good.” This voice comes to us from nature, sounds throughout the Scriptures, and is echoed by the godly of all generations. Let us take it up for ourselves. “The inquiry of truth, which is the wooing of it, the knowledge of truth, which is the presence of it, and the belief of truth, which is the enjoyment of it, is the sovereign good of human nature.”—Bacon.
AN ADULLAM SERMON
(Psa_34:11-14.)
We may imagine that these words formed the substance of an address on some quiet Sabbath in the Cave of Adullam.
Consider
I. The Congregation
We learn from 1Sa_22:1-2, that David fled from Achish to Adullam in Judah. And “every one that was in distress, and every one that was in debt, and every one that was discontented, gathered themselves unto him, and he became a captain over them; and there were with him about four hundred men.” What a strange gathering! What diversities in age, and conduct, and experience! But they had much in common. They were involved in the same cruel fate, and animated with the same resolve, to stand by each other, and to struggle to the uttermost for life and liberty under their chosen leader.
II. The Preacher.
David was a man singularly fitted to address such an audience. His manly presence, his chivalrous nature, his romantic history, his fame as a soldier and poet, his identification with the poor and the oppressed, and with all that was noblest in his country’s history, and above all, his simple faith, must have given him an extraordinary position and power. While his men felt that he was truly one of themselves, they must have also felt that he was raised above them, with a higher character and destiny. He seemed to them born to be a king of men. With what rapt attention and eager hopes would they hang upon his lips.
“Children.” The word expresses both authority and tenderness. As Venema, in substance expounds, he might have called them children, “because he was about to be their teacher, and they his disciples; and again, because they were young men, in the flower of their age, and as sons, would be the builders up of his house; and still more, because as their leader, to whose discipline and command they were subject, he had a right to address them as his children.”—C. H. S.
III. The Sermon.
1. The subject was supremely important. “The fear of the Lord.” They had common trials, attachments, and hopes, but beyond these, they needed religion—the fear of Jehovah—to unite their hearts in the truest sense, and to make them strong.
2. The treatment was singularly appropriate and effective.
He invites their attention. “Hearken unto me.”
He addresses their understanding and conscience. “I will teach you the fear of the Lord.”
He appeals to their affections and hopes. “What man is he that desireth life and loveth many days, that he may see good?”
He demands the obedience of their hearts and lives (Psa_34:13-14). The tongue must be kept from evil, and the lips from guile. This could not be done without the renewal of the heart, and earnest personal effort. They had many temptations, wrongs to exasperate them, the prosperity of their enemies to make them envious and revengeful, and the hard struggle for existence to make their life bitter. Some might say, they could only succeed by fraud and violence, by returning evil for evil But not so. Let them trust in God and do the right Let them keep themselves pure, and be followers of peace. Only thus could they enjoy the favour of God.
“Life is happiness; good days are happy days. Happiness consists in enjoying God’s favour. His favour is life, His loving-kindness is better than life. To have His eye resting complacently on us, to be the objects of His love and care, to have His ear open to our prayers, to have Him, infinitely powerful, wise, and good, always ready to listen to our petitions, and supply our need; this is life, this is happiness. While, on the other hand, to have His face set against us, to have His countenance covered with frowns, to have Him looking out at us as He did, out of the pillar of cloud, on the Egyptians struggling with the billows, this is misery.”—Dr. J. Brown on 1st Peter.
GOD AND HIS PEOPLE
(Psa_34:15-22.)
In the sight of God society is divided into two classes. The principle of classification is not rank, wealth, learning, or worldly power, but character. On the one side are the righteous, and on the other the wicked. The difference between them is vital. They are utterly opposed in their principles and conduct, and God recognises this in His treatment of them. It is the old, old story, “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ.” God’s people are—
I. The objects of His Fatherly regard (Psa_34:15). “The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and His ears are open unto their cry.” The eyes and the ears are the great sources of intelligence. The terms as applied to God may imply—
1. Perfect knowledge.
2. Abiding sympathy.
3. Gracious interposition. As a father watches his child, and is ever ready to act for its good, so our heavenly Father deals with His people. They are individually the objects of His unceasing care. The awful contrast is depicted in the condition of the wicked (Psa_34:16). God is against them, and they are doomed to destruction.
II. The subjects of His holy discipline (Psa_34:17-21). They have trials as well as joys. This world is to them often a scene of suffering. But they are not forsaken. God is with them. They have the sense of His love to cheer them. They have the promises of His Word to comfort them. They have the ministers of His providence and Spirit to chasten and to profit them. And evermore the throne of grace is open to them, to which they may com boldly in the name of Jesus, “that they may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.”
The whole of God’s dealings with His people are disciplinary. They are weak and sinful, and God dealeth with them as with children. He is training them through suffering for glory. Affliction leads to prayer, prayer leads to increased faith, and increased faith to more of love, and patience, and humility, to wider sympathies, and nobler aims, and holier joys. “The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart.” What a comforting word! The Lord is nigh in all His tenderness and pity, in all His power and grace. “Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivereth them out of them all.”
Mark, again, the terrible contrast. “Evil shall slay the wicked, and they that hate the righteous shall be desolate.” Afflictions are to them calamities instead of chastisements. Under them they grow worse instead of better. Whatever seemed to be good in them is destroyed, and in the end they are left alone and hopeless in their misery and guilt.
III. The recipients of His redeeming grace (Psa_34:22). From first to last God’s purpose is to do them good. And all is of grace. The righteous did not of themselves merit God’s love and His deliverances. What He has done for them in providence and in grace has been done for them in and through Christ, and unto the praise of the glory of His name for ever and ever.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain On v1 Psa 34:1-8
Psa 34:1-8
I. David begins by saying, "I will bless the Lord at all times." This should be our resolution also. (1) There is a great power in praising. It leads one away from self-consciousness. (2) Praise is a very strengthening thing. Our Lord strengthened Himself for the last conflict by praise. The spirit of praise is the very essence of heaven, and the man who lives in praise will live in "heavenly places in Christ Jesus." (3) Praise is a very reasonable thing. There is always something to praise God for. Let us learn the lesson, "We will praise the Lord at all times, in the hour of adversity as well as in the day of joy;" and depend upon it, the more you are praising, the more you will have to praise for.
Read full note →
II. The second point is confession. David goes on to say, "My soul shall make her boast in the Lord, and the humble shall hear thereof and be glad." So far from there being anything presumptuous in this confession of our faith in the Lord Jesus, "the humble shall hear thereof and be glad." If you determine to hide your feelings in your heart, you will soon have nothing to hide.
III. The third point is fellowship: "O magnify the Lord with me," etc. When God made man, He made him first of all alone, and then He decided it was not good for him to be alone; and ever since then God has so arranged it that man is never left altogether alone, or only under very exceptional circumstances. We are born into the world of our fellow-men; when we are born again, we are introduced into a new society, with a fellowship far more real than is to be found in the society of the world.
IV. The Christian life must be (1) a life of security; (2) a life of faith; (3) a life of labour.
W. Hay Aitken, Mission Sermons, 1st series, p. 310.
Psa 34:3-8
I. Religion’s first object is to magnify the Lord. The exhortation is to do this in concert: "O magnify the Lord with me," etc. Here is the essential element and the pure spirit of religious worship.
II. The second verse shows us the reason for this praise. It is first alleged by the inviter, "I sought the Lord, and He heard me, and delivered me from all my fears." A man must know what he says, and have a reason for saying it. And this is the Psalmist’s reason for inviting us to exalt God’s name together. A gracious act of God towards one Christian is an act of grace or a manifestation of grace to all, and may well draw their hearts into concert.
III. The inviter has given his testimony and flung down his challenge. But it is soon found he does not stand alone in having occasion to magnify the name of the Lord. The pronoun in the next verse speaks of plurality: "They looked unto Him, and were lightened." There is contagion in joy, as well as in other Christian experiences.
IV. There is no partiality in the invitation. We began with a king, but we have got down now to the poor man; and God has been as good to him as He was to the king.
V. The fifth verse is a guarantee against relapse. When thou fallest, thou shalt again arise, for "the angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear Him, and delivereth them."
VI. The sixth verse gives the assurance to you that it is not only the king, not only the Church, not only this poor man or that poor man, but yourself and all who trust in God, who are welcome to come and exalt His name together.
A. Mursell, Lights and Landmarks, p. 165.
References: Psa 34:5.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. iv., No. 195; J. Wells, Thursday Penny Pulpit, vol. vi., p. 93. Psa 34:6.—G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons, p. 225.
Psa 34:7
I. It is generally supposed that the "angel of the Lord" here is to be taken collectively, and that the meaning is that the "bright-harnessed" hosts of these Divine messengers are as an army of protectors round them that fear God. But I see no reason for departing from the simpler and certainly grander meaning which results from taking the word in its proper force of a singular. For us the true Messenger of the Lord is His Son, whom He has sent, in whom He has put His name, and whose own parting promise, "Lo, I am with you always," is the highest fulfilment to us Christians of that ancient confidence, "The Angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear Him."
II. Whatever view we adopt of the significance of the first part of the text, the force and beauty of the metaphor in the second remains the same. If this Psalm were indeed the work of the fugitive in his rocky hold at Adullam, how appropriate the thought becomes that his little encampment has such a guard. (1) The vision of the Divine ever takes the form which our circumstances most require. David’s then need was safety and protection. Therefore he saw the encamping Angel, even as to Joshua He appeared as the Captain of the Lord’s host, and as to Isaiah in the year that the throne of Judah was emptied by the death of the earthly king was given the vision of the Lord sitting on a throne, the King eternal and immortal. (2) Learn, too, from this image, in which the Psalmist appropriates to himself the experience of a past generation, how we ought to feed our confidence and enlarge our hopes by all God’s past dealings with men. (3) Note, too, that final word of deliverance. This Psalm is continually recurring to that idea. All the writer’s thoughts were engrossed and his prayers summed up in the one thing—deliverance. He is quite sure that such deliverance must follow if the angel presence be there. But he knows, too, that the encampment of the Angel of the Lord will not keep away sorrows, and trial, and sharp need. So his highest hope is, not of immunity from these, but of rescue out of them. And his ground of hope is that his heavenly Ally cannot let him be overcome.
A. Maclaren, Weekday Evening Addresses, p. 29.
If, as we are told, the repentance of a single sinner adds sensibly to the enjoyment of the angelic host, and if these splendid creatures are but "ministering spirits, sent forth to minister to the heirs of salvation," may we not think that, whatever the tarnish which the Fall brought on our nature, redemption has invested that nature with a majesty and beauty altogether unrivalled? A high place man’s must be if creatures whom we are wont to reckon the highest are employed on his guardianship, and that they are thus employed is established by the words of the text.
I. This verse may be connected with a passage in the Gospel of St. Matthew: "In heaven their angels do always behold the face of My Father which is in heaven." Their angels—angels, it would seem, which are specially entrusted with their care and guardianship.
II. What is to be learned from the encouraging declaration of the text? It is a fair deduction from the general representation which the Scripture gives of the ministration of angels that there are what are termed guardian angels; that nations, and perhaps even individuals, are entrusted to the protection of one or more spirits. When, stretched on his deathbed, Jacob blessed Ephraim and Manasseh, he spoke of the angel which redeemed or delivered him from all evil; and this would appear to convey as the patriarch’s idea that some one angel had accompanied him in his wanderings, commissioned by God to watch over and assist him. So when the damsel Rhoda brought in word to the assembled disciples that Peter stood at the gate, the tidings seemed too good to be true, and the disciples said, "It is his angel." They undoubtedly thought that Peter was specially under the guardianship of one angel, and that this one angel had come with directions concerning his well-being.
III. What the Bible asserts as fact, reason must assent to as altogether possible. There is a greater resemblance to the association of life, and therefore a stronger appeal to the best sympathies of our nature, when we are told that each individual has his own ministering angel, engaging individually his watchfulness, than when we are informed that we share, in common with the rest of our species, the good offices of the company of spirits. If there be any motive to the avoiding sin and the pursuing holiness in the remembrance that the eyes of illustrious beings, eager for our welfare, are ever upon us, assuredly such motive will derive strength from the belief that one of these beings has attended us from our very birth, and that now, so far as his pure nature is accessible to grief, we shall cause him deep pain, in return for all his exquisite carefulness, if we yield to temptation and walk contrary to the commandments of God.
H. Melvill, Penny Pulpit, No. 2901.
References: Psa 34:7.—H. J. Wilmot Buxton, The Children’s Bread, p. 126; J. E. Vaux, Sermon Notes, 4th series, p. 94.
Psa 34:8
The excellence and desirableness of God’s gifts is a subject again and again set before us in Holy Scripture. All images of what is pleasant and sweet in nature are brought together to describe the pleasantness and sweetness of the gifts which God gives us in grace. And as it is natural to feel satisfaction and comfort in these gifts of the visible world, so it is but natural and necessary to be delighted and transported with the gifts of the world invisible; and as the visible gifts are objects of desire and search, so much more is it, I do not merely say a duty, but a privilege and blessedness, to "taste and see how gracious the Lord is."
I. I wish it were possible to lead men to greater holiness and more faithful obedience by setting before them the high and abundant joys which they have who serve God. Most persons do not at all deny either the duty or the expedience of leading a new and holy life, but they cannot understand how it can be pleasant; they cannot believe or admit that it is more pleasant than a life of liberty, laxity, and enjoyment.
II. God’s service is not pleasant to those who like it not; true: but it is pleasant to those who do. The pleasures of sin are not to be compared in fulness and intensity to the pleasures of holy living.
III. Let no persons then be surprised that religious obedience should really be so pleasant in itself when it seems to them so distasteful. It is a secret till they try to be religious. Men know what sin is by experience. They do not know what holiness is; and they cannot obtain the knowledge of its secret pleasure till they join themselves truly and heartily to Christ, and devote themselves to His service—till they "taste" and thereby try.
IV. If a religious life is pleasant here, in spite of the old Adam interrupting the pleasure and defiling us, what a glorious day it will be if it is granted to us hereafter to enter into the kingdom of heaven! "Be not weary in welldoing, for in due season we shall reap if we faint not."
J. H. Newman, Parochial and Plain Sermons, vol. vii., p. 192.
Psa 34:8
Religion is a thing that all must try for themselves. Notice a few things that it is well to try and "taste."
I. Prayer. Find out in the Bible some promise, then go to God with that promise, and ask that it may be true to you, that you may enjoy it for Christ’s sake. If you go on waiting and praying, you will "see."
II. Read the Bible. You may not always find it pleasant, because some things we must do as a duty, and the pleasure will follow. "O taste and see."
III. The pleasantest thing in the world is to feel forgiven—to feel that God loves you. It is the happiest feeling anybody ever has this side of heaven. "O taste and see."
IV. It is a happy thing to conquer one’s sins, to keep one’s heart clear. It is a pleasant thing to weed a garden; but the pleasantest of all is to keep your heart free from weeds.
V. Work. Knowledge in the head will not do without love in the heart, and that will not do without work in the fingers. Do something useful. Be kind. Do good to somebody.
VI. Everything is sweet till you have tasted a sweeter. The pleasures of the world are sweet to those who have never tasted religion, but people who have tasted Divine pleasures care not much for the pleasures of the world. They say that heavenly pleasures are better than earthly ones. Having once tasted the upper spring, they cannot go back to the nether spring. "O taste and see."
J. Vaughan, Children’s Sermons, 1875, p. 57.
References: Psa 34:8.—S. Cox, Expositor, 2nd series, vol. iv., p. 411; G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons, p. 115.
Psa 34:8-9
I. "Taste and see how gracious the Lord is." We may do this, it is true, but we may also refuse to do it. It would be a mere waste of words to say, "Taste of pleasure, and see how sweet it is;" but to say, "Taste and see how gracious the Lord is," is a very different thing from saying, "Taste of and enjoy your pleasure," even although it is most true that that pleasure cannot come without God’s permission. Those who have tasted Christ’s goodness in the strengthening and refreshing of their souls may well receive from His hand no less His gift of earthly blessings.
II. Nor wilt those who have tasted and are ready to taste again of God’s graciousness, and of the blessedness of trusting in Him, be unwilling also to hear the Psalmist’s next exhortation, when he says, "O fear the Lord, all ye His saints, for they who fear Him lack nothing." He who fears God will be certainly most likely to love Him also, and he will be free from all other fear in the world.
T. Arnold, Sermons, vol. v., p. 163.
References: Psa 34:10.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. ii., No. 65. Psa 34:11.—Homiletic Quarterly, vol. ii., p. 133; Outline Sermons to Children, p. 53. Psa 34:11, Psa 34:12.—Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. xx., p. 210.
Psa 34:11-15
In the first place, David sums up his advice in one grand affection, which he calls the fear of the Lord. Then he proceeds to detail what is comprehended in "the fear of the Lord."
I. Notice, first, the details of the prescription. (1) "Keep thy tongue from evil." The tongue is a great mischief-maker, and not easily ruled. The root of this ill-governed member is in the unseen world of the soul; the force which animates and moves the tongue is generated in our spiritual nature. When the spirit which excites and controls the tongue is not love to God and love to man, the speaker by his words sows a curse in his own constitution. It is one of the laws of thy health that thou "keep thy tongue from speaking evil." (2) "And thy lips, that they speak no guile." The absence of guile exceedingly endears a man or a woman to Heaven. No sin is imputed where there is no guile. Except ye become as guileless as babes, your friends in the kingdom of God will behold you afar off, as persons who are unable to come nigh. (3) "Depart from evil, and do good." We cleave to a delight, and we abhor that which is contrary thereto. Let it be the fixed purpose of your will to be transparently good, and to do good; and by the instinct of your affections you will depart from the whole art and circle of evil. The currents which will flow into you from the infinite sources of good will leave no room in you for the deceitful ungood. (4) "Seek peace, and pursue it." Peace is the eternal health of goodness. No one can perfect peace except in the perfect good. When the joy of God and of heaven flows into and through the whole man, that is salvation, that is health, that is peace.
II. Notice the unity of these details in the spirit. If the spirit of man be fully and cordially open to God, so that the Divine and human wills become one will, and if the soul of the man be open to his God-filled spirit, and if his natural body be open to the influx and irradiation both of his soul and spirit, his renewal in eternal health is in daily, actual process. The spirit of glory and of God in a man’s soul, and thence in his body, must be the most ethereal and health-giving virtue that the soul and body can have. Farther, the indwelling of the glowing Divine essence must give to all the senses and emotions a new intensity.
III. This law of human renewal and health is the very law by which all evil will be ultimately expelled from our planet. The energies which flow from God through His renewed sons and daughters, as their numbers increase, will purge and renew the soil, the atmosphere, and both vegetable and animal races.
J. Pulsford, Our Deathless Hope, p. 50.
The teaching and training which the Christian needs is such as will not only carry him through things temporal, but may also fit him for things eternal, a training such as will enable him not only to do his part well here and live respectably and die peacefully, but such as may be an earnest and preparation for heaven. And what alone can do either? Godliness.
I. In the world the days are always evil days; in God they are always good days. What have we to do but to trust to His promise that so long as we are followers of Him and that which is good, imitating His example and keeping His commandments, nothing shall harm us, nothing shall really hurt us, which does not separate us from Him? The end of the Christian, the true end of his love of life and of his desire to see good days, is simply the sight of Christ. And his training and education amidst a world of trial and temptation must be the training of an immortal soul for life and immortality, the training of a child of God in this world to be a child of the resurrection in the next.
II. How inexpressibly touching and solemn are the words of the text as addressed to the children of God, old or young, by their God and Saviour: some who, though disobedient children, are called His children still; others who are yet His. Has not the fear of the Lord, which might have been an affectionate, filial, reverential fear, now become to many of us what we by our sins have made it: a fear which hath torment? Is not what should have been the loving, confiding fear of a tender Father now the fear of a righteous Judge? Yet well were it for such to understand the terror of the Lord, so that it may bring them to repentance, and lead them back, like the prodigal, to His fear and love.
III. In the training of children we must remember that they have not only minds and memories to read and understand, but hearts and consciences to mark and inwardly digest what they learn by heart, not only minds and memories to make them scholars, but hearts and consciences to make them Christians, Christian disciples. They have hearts, which need careful and tender nurture to train them in the love of God, and consciences, which need watchful examination and strict admonition to awaken them and lead them on in His holy fear.
Plain Sermons by Contributors to "Tracts for the Times" vol. vii., p. 172.
References: Psa 34:12-14.—Homiletic Magazine, vol. viii., p. 121. Psa 34:15, Psa 34:16.—G. Moberly, Sermons in Winchester College, 2nd series, p. 1.
Psa 34:16
I. Consider the lofty and patient method of God in guiding and ruling mankind. The face of the Lord is against them that do evil, not the weight of His hand as yet. His hand is still open, still dropping, broadcast, blessings on our life. It is the face of God which is against our evil. For a while He restrains the might of His terrible hand.
II. Notice the forms in which the face of God is against man’s evil, and how it bears upon his life. (1) There is the face of God in the daylight of creation. There is a steady, calm, but mighty set of things against the evildoer. Nature, the current of things, does not help, but mightily hinders, him. (2) The face of the Lord is against them that do evil in the moral instincts, the moral judgments, of their fellows, and in the whole order of the human world. (3) The face of the Lord looks out on men through the various forms of the discipline of life. (4) The face of the Lord looks out against them that do evil through the gathering glooms of death.
J. Baldwin Brown, Christian World Pulpit, vol. ix., p. 200.
Psa 34:18
One idea is embodied in these two sentences. According to a very common construction in the book of Psalms and in the book of Proverbs, and in other books of Holy Scripture, the latter sentence simply repeats the declaration of the former, in order to increase the emphasis and the force, for the "broken heart" is the same as the "contrite spirit," and the Lord being "nigh" is the same as the Lord "saveth."
I. Consider the broken heart and contrite spirit. The heart before us may be considered to be like a piece of fine mechanism disordered or some work of art fractured, or like flesh when worn and wasted and bruised and mangled. God is looking at the broken heart and crushed spirit, and as He looks at it He sees all the natural susceptibilities of sorrow awakened. The heart may be broken (1) by the consciousness and the remembrance of sin; (2) by fears and perplexities which are not explained simply by sin, and which are not explained by external circumstances; (3) by some tremendous outward affliction, like that of the widow or the widower. To such a heart God is nigh, and such a spirit God seeks to save.
II. Look at the position which God occupies in relation to the broken heart and crushed spirit. (1) He is nigh in knowledge. He knows the broken heart better than it knows itself. (2) He is nigh in ministration and salvation.
III. The doctrine of this passage instructs us (1) to check all morbid craving for creature help and fellowship; (2) to avoid thinking, feeling, and acting as though God were a distant help; (3) to remember that the resources of God are available in the hour of greatest need. (4) Guided by this passage, do not let feelings of despondency and despair creep into your spirit and take possession of it. (5) A broken heart and crushed spirit are named as not uncommon things. (6) God’s being nigh is mentioned as something ordinary also.
S. Martin, Sermons, p. 35.
Psa 34:19-20
I. "Great are the troubles of the righteous," and who was ever so righteous as Jesus Christ? No wonder His troubles were so great, for we have all contributed something to them! The Lord hath afflicted Him therewith in the day of His fierce anger against our sins. If those troubles were nothing to us, we might well feel compassion for them; as it is, we may well feel compunction for them too.
II. "The Lord delivereth Him out of all." The Pharisees and rulers did not think so; in their great confidence they challenged Him to the fulfilment of this saying, as a crucial test of His pretensions. And as far as this world of common experience is concerned, He was not delivered out of His troubles. How then was He delivered? By death, which hath eternal life for the righteous, was He delivered from all His troubles. The last enemy rescued Him out of the hands of all His other enemies, but the last enemy only received his royal Prisoner in order to become at once His captive and to swell His triumph.
III. Lest we should still feel any doubt as to Jesus Christ being the Righteous spoken of by the Psalmist, he adds, "He keepeth all His bones," etc. St. John notes of Him that the soldiers broke the legs of the others, but not His, and he testified that this happened that the Scripture should be fulfilled. This incident marked the providential character of all that befell our Lord. Even in His death it showed that all the malice of man was being overruled unto Divine ends.
R. Winterbotham, Sermons and Expositions, p. 81.
References: Psalm 34—A. Maclaren, Life of David, pp. 86, 139. Psa 35:3.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. vii., No. 384; Ibid., Evening by Evening, p. 65. Psa 35:13.—H. Melvill, Penny Pulpit, No. 2086. Psalm 35—J. Hammond, Expositor, 1st series, vol. iv., p, 64; Ibid., 2nd series, vol. vii., p. 7. Psa 36:5, Psa 36:6.—Homiletic Quarterly, vol. i., p. 108.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
F. W. Grant 1903 · Public Domain On v1 Jehovah with us, and its consequences in divine government.
Jehovah with us, and its consequences in divine government.
[A psalm] of David when he changed his behavior before Abimelech, who drove him away and he departed.
Read full note →
The thirty-fourth psalm, according to its title, was written when David escaped from Gath, from Achish, here called Abimelech, which seems to have been a common title of the Philistine kings. He had failed sadly, as we know, and as on Philistine ground he always did; and, not honoring Jehovah, had not been honored by Him. This is itself a general principle of divine government, of which the psalm speaks, and which needs little insisting on. Yet God had in mercy delivered him, and he had learned, no doubt, for the time, a lesson from it, though the root of failure, we may well believe, had not been reached. The circumstances seem thus to suit the psalm, though we may be able to point out no precise link of connection between them.
The theme of the psalm, as already said, is that Jehovah is at all times to be blessed, for, whatever the circumstances, He abides the unfailing help and sanctification of His people. As Governor of all things, they too are subject to His government, for what blessing every step of the way the subject soul shall realize, but the end shall declare to all.
1. In the first section it is what Jehovah is that fills the heart and mouth. He is and shall be the constant theme of the soul -its perpetual praise. For this "all times" are alike; all seasons have their summer fruit. The exhortation of the apostle in the New Testament agrees with this resolve of the psalmist in the Old Testament: "Rejoice in the Lord alway; and again I will say, Rejoice." If the eye is fully upon Him, this will be realized.
There is a testimony in praise like this, which will be felt. No doubt, it will awaken opposition; but that is not what is spoken of here: it is that the humble will hear, and be glad. "No flesh shall glory in His presence," and we have need thus to be brought down, to receive testimony of such a character.
The heart that is filled with praise will seek associates also in it; and His Name will be common joy: for His Name is but the revelation of Himself. The exhortation to magnify His Name is followed by the experience which makes the text, as it were, of the exhortation. The living God had heard and answered him, and delivered him from all his fears.
2. Now we have this salvation of God, which makes Him known, displayed in its various features. There is first of all in it light, for God is light. Things appear as they are, and we learn to recognize them, -to have truth in the inward parts, and certainty as to the way. And is not an exceptional experience, -it is the universal rule for those that look to Him. They are enlightened; and their faces are never "ashamed." Confusion as to one’s thoughts and ways naturally leads to confusion of face as to the result. Where the soul truly seeks God, this is impossible; and thus there is provision made for the simplest and poorest, amid all the babble of tongues that the world is witness of. Nor could it be otherwise, God being what He is.
Again he recurs to his own deliverance. He in his poverty had been heard and delivered: not simply from his fears now, but in fact. And he will go further and maintain that round about those that fear Jehovah the angel of Jehovah camps: and this is deliverance from all that may come, from any quarter.
Then he appeals to men to make the experiment for themselves: let them taste and see that Jehovah is good; for happy is the man (gebher, the strong man, -evidently finding his strength in this) that takes refuge in Him. And then His saints are exhorted to His fear: there is no want to them that fear Him. Finally this is affirmed in the fullest way with regard to those who seek Him; the number showing, no doubt, their "mastery" of circumstances, as the parallel, too, implies: for the lions might seem, amid the lesser animals by which they are surrounded, to be masters if any are. Yet they might lack; but not the man who seeks Jehovah.
3. The third section emphasizes the holiness of the Lord in His ways: a holiness to which he must be conformed with whom He goes. As supreme over all, the fear of Him is for His creature the "beginning of wisdom." A government, to be respected, must first of all he strong; and it is by the exhibition of His power that God humbles Job. He must maintain His place, or all would be lost. We are in His hands, and He will have His way; but then His goodness will make us delight that He should have it. "The fear of Jehovah is clean, enduring forever;" and the psalmist now proposes to instruct men in this fear. If a man wants life, and to see good days, here is the divine preservative for him. Let him keep, then, his tongue from evil, and his lips from speaking guile. For "out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh," and the government of the tongue is the sign of the perfect man. (Luk 6:45, Jas 3:2.) Let him order his walk so as to depart from evil -the negative side -and do good -the positive. Let him seek peace thus, as "the effect of righteousness" (Isa 32:17), and earnestly "pursue it." And the psalmist urges the blessing for the righteous, and the end of the wicked: the first, in the continual favor of Jehovah; the last, to be cut off, even in remembrance.
4. This is the holy way of the Lord, then; and this is the portion of the righteous. True as that is, it is not all the truth. There is trial also, and that for the righteous; and, as he presently acknowledges, even much of it. What then, is the meaning of this? Well, first, that it is in being brought down by it that men cry to God, and learn His delivering grace. And then it is to the broken of heart that He is nigh; and the contrite that He saveth. There is thus abundant reason for all the trial of which the world is full.
5. But that is not recompense: it is really mercy. When we think of recompense, it is true that even the righteous suffer; nay, their afflictions are many; but the principle already given applies to them also, and in result it is not forgotten who they are: deliverance out of all awaits them. Suppose they die even: Jehovah guards their bones, and suffers them not to be broken, -an example of such perfect care, as in the case of the Lord was shown in the fullest way, and under circumstances which mark Him as the absolutely Righteous One. None could claim such care in the same sense as He; and so it became for Him a prophecy that needs must be fulfilled (Joh 19:36), and that to the letter. To others it applies, one would say, in the spirit of it. The application to the Lord in this way does not, of course, make the psalm as a whole Messianic, but the contrary: everything seems as general as possible, though His unique perfection makes it seem intended for Himself alone.
The full realization of these governmental ways of God is given in the last two verses, which manifestly go together as paired opposites, and in a striking way. They remind one of the apostle’s language (Rom 6:23), that "the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." So here the judgment of sin is, as it were, mere congruity: "Evil shall bring death to the wicked; and the haters of the righteous shall bear their guilt." But the deliverance of the soul of His servants is on Jehovah’s part a true salvation work, -congruous, of course, with His holiness, and yet only by the grace which shines through all: "Jehovah redeemeth the soul of His servants; and none shall bear guilt that take refuge in Him."
Thus fittingly the second series of these remnant psalms is closed.
F. W. Grant, The Numerical Bible (4th ed., 1903) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On vv7, 10, 22
Psalms
THE ENCAMPING ANGEL
Read full note →
Psa 34:7.
If we accept the statement in the superscription of this psalm, it dates from one of the darkest hours in David’s life. His fortunes were never lower than when he fled from Gath, the city of Goliath, to Adullam. He never appears in a less noble light than when he feigned madness to avert the dangers which he might well dread there. How unlike the terror and self-degradation of the man who ‘scrabbled on the doors,’ and let ‘the spittle run down his beard,’ is the heroic and saintly constancy of this noble psalm! And yet the contrast is not so violent as to make the superscription improbable, and the tone of the whole well corresponds to what we should expect from a man delivered from some great peril, but still surrounded with dangers. There, in the safety of his retreat among the rocks, with the bit of level ground where he had fought Goliath just at his feet in the valley, and Gath, from which he had escaped, away down at the mouth of the glen {if Conder’s identification of Adullam be correct}, he sings his song of trust and praise; he hears the lions roar among the rocks where Samson had found them in his day; he teaches his ‘children,’ the band of broken men who there began to gather around him, the fear of the Lord; and calls upon them to help him in his praise. What a picture of the outlaw and his wild followers tamed into something like order, and lifted into something like worship, rises before us, if we follow the guidance of that old commentary contained in the superscription!
The words of our text gain especial force and vividness by thus localising the psalm. Not only ‘the clefts of the rock’ but the presence of God’s Angel is his defence; and round him is flung, not only the strength of the hills, but the garrison and guard of heaven.
It is generally supposed that the ‘Angel of the Lord’ here is to be taken collectively, and that the meaning is-the ‘bright-harnessed’ hosts of these divine messengers are as an army of protectors round them who fear God. But I see no reason for departing from the simpler and certainly grander meaning which results from taking the word in its proper force of a singular. True, Scripture does speak of the legions of ministering spirits, who in their chariots of fire were once seen by suddenly opened eyes ‘round about’ a prophet in peril, and are ever ministering to the heirs of salvation. But Scripture also speaks of One, who is in an eminent sense ‘the Angel of the Lord’; in whom, as in none other, God sets His ‘Name’; whose form, dimly seen, towers above even the ranks of the angels that ‘excel in strength’; whose offices and attributes blend in mysterious fashion with those of God Himself. There may be some little incongruity in thinking of the single Person as ‘encamping round about’ us; but that does not seem a sufficient reason for obliterating the reference to that remarkable Old Testament doctrine, the retention of which seems to me to add immensely to the power of the words.
Remember some of the places in which the ‘Angel of the Lord’ appears, in order to appreciate more fully the grandeur of this promised protection. At that supreme moment when Abraham ‘took the knife to slay his son,’ the voice that ‘called to him out of heaven’ was ‘the voice of the Angel of the Lord.’ He assumes the power of reversing a divine command. He says, ‘Thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, from Me,’ and then pronounces a blessing, in the utterance of which one cannot distinguish His voice from the voice of Jehovah. In like manner it is the Angel of the Lord that speaks to Jacob, and says, ‘I am the God of Bethel.’ The dying patriarch invokes in the same breath ‘the God which fed me all my life long,’ ‘the Angel which redeemed me from all evil,’ to bless the boys that stand before him, with their wondering eyes gazing in awe on his blind face. It was that Angel’s glory that appeared to the outcast, flaming in the bush that burned unconsumed. It was He who stood before the warrior leader of Israel, sword in hand, and proclaimed Himself to be the Captain of the Lord’s host, the Leader of the armies of heaven, and the true Leader of the armies of Israel; and His commands to Joshua, His lieutenant, are the commands of ‘the Lord.’ And, to pass over other instances, Isaiah correctly sums up the spirit of the whole earlier history in words which go far to lift the conception of this Angel of the Lord out of the region of created beings-’In all their affliction He was afflicted, and the Angel of His face saved them,’ It is this lofty and mysterious Messenger, and not the hosts whom He commands, that our Psalmist sees standing ready to help, as He once stood, sword-bearing by the side of Joshua. To the warrior leader, to the warrior Psalmist, He appears, as their needs required, armoured and militant. The last of the prophets saw that dim, mysterious Figure, and proclaimed, ‘The Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to His temple; even the Angel of the Covenant, whom ye delight in’; and to his gaze it was wrapped in obscure majesty and terror of purifying flame. But for us the true Messenger of the Lord is His Son, whom He has sent, in whom He has put His name; who is the Angel of His face, in that we behold the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ; who is the Angel of the Covenant, in that He has sealed the new and everlasting covenant with His blood; and whose own parting promise, ‘Lo! I am with you always,’ is the highest fulfilment to us Christians of that ancient confidence: ‘The Angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear Him.’
Whatever view we adopt of the significance of the first part of the text, the force and beauty of the metaphor in the second remain the same. If this psalm were indeed the work of the fugitive in his rocky hold at Adullam, how appropriate the thought becomes that his little encampment has such a guard. It reminds one of the incident in Jacob’s life, when his timid and pacific nature was trembling at the prospect of meeting Esau, and when, as he travelled along, encumbered with his pastoral wealth, and scantily provided with means of defence, ‘the angels of God met him, and he named the place Mahanaim,’ that is, two camps-his own feeble company, mostly made up of women and children, and that heavenly host that hovered above them. David’s faith sees the same defence encircling his weakness, and though sense saw no protection for him and his men but their own strong arms and their mountain fastness, his opened eyes beheld the mountain full of the chariots of fire, and the flashing of armour and light in the darkness of his cave.
The vision of the divine presence ever takes the form which our circumstances most require. David’s then need was safety and protection. Therefore he saw the Encamping Angel; even as to Joshua the leader He appeared as the Captain of the Lord’s host; and as to Isaiah, in the year that the throne of Judah was emptied by the death of the earthly king, was given the vision of the Lord sitting on a throne, the King Eternal and Immortal. So to us all His grace shapes its expression according to our wants, and the same gift is Protean in its power of transformation; being to one man wisdom, to another strength, to the solitary companionship, to the sorrowful consolation, to the glad sobering, to the thinker truth, to the worker practical force-to each his heart’s desire, if the heart’s delight be God. So manifold are the aspects of God’s infinite sufficiency, that every soul, in every possible variety of circumstance, will find there just what will suit it. That armour fits every man who puts it on. That deep fountain is like some of those fabled springs which give forth whatsoever precious draught any thirsty lip asked. He takes the shape that our circumstances most need. Let us see that we, on our parts, use our circumstances to help us in anticipating the shapes in which God will draw near for our help.
Learn, too, from this image, in which the Psalmist appropriates to himself the experience of a past generation, how we ought to feed our confidence and enlarge our hopes by all God’s past dealings with men. David looks back to Jacob, and believes that the old fact is repeated in his own day. So every old story is true for us; though outward form may alter, inward substance remains the same. Mahanaim is still the name of every place where a man who loves God pitches his tent. We may be wandering, solitary, defenceless, but we are not alone. Our feeble encampment may lie open to assault, and we be all unfit to guard it, but the other camp is there too, and our enemies must force their way through it before they get at us. We are in its centre-as they put the cattle and the sick in the midst of the encampment on the prairies when they fear an assault from the Indians-because we are so weak. Jacob’s experience may be ours: ‘The Lord of Hosts is with us: the God of Jacob is our refuge.’
Only remember that the eye of faith alone can see that guard, and that therefore we must labour to keep our consciousness of its reality fresh and vivid. Many a man in David’s little band saw nothing but cold gray stone where David saw the flashing armour of the heavenly Warrior. To the one all the mountain blazed with fiery chariots, to the other it was a lone hillside, with the wind moaning among the rocks. We shall lose the joy and the strength of that divine protection unless we honestly and constantly try to keep our sense of it bright. Eyes that have been gazing on earthly joys, or perhaps gloating on evil sights, cannot see the Angel presence. A Christian man, on a road which he cannot travel with a clear conscience, will see no angel, not even the Angel with the drawn sword in His hand, that barred Balaam’s path among the vineyards. A man coming out of some room blazing with light cannot all at once see into the violet depths of the mighty heavens, that lie above him with all their shimmering stars. So this truth of our text is a truth of faith, and the believing eye alone beholds the Angel of the Lord.
Notice, too, that final word of deliverance. This psalm is continually recurring to that idea. The word occurs four times in it, and the thought still oftener. Whether the date is rightly given, as we have assumed it to be, or not, at all events that harping upon this one phrase indicates that some season of great trial was its birth-time, when all the writer’s thoughts were engrossed and his prayers summed up in the one thing-deliverance. He is quite sure that such deliverance must follow if the Angel presence be there. But he knows too that the encampment of the Angel of the Lord will not keep away sorrows, and trial, and sharp need. So his highest hope is not of immunity from these, but of rescue out of them. And his ground of hope is that his heavenly Ally cannot let him be overcome. That He will let him be troubled and put in peril he has found; that He will not let him be crushed he believes. Shadowed and modest hopes are the brightest we can venture to cherish. The protection which we have is protection in, and not protection from, strife and danger. It is a filter which lets the icy cold water of sorrow drop numbing upon us, but keeps back the poison that was in it. We have to fight, but He will fight with us; to sorrow, but not alone nor without hope; to pass through many a peril, but we shall get through them. Deliverance, which implies danger, need, and woe, is the best we can hope for.
It is the least we are entitled to expect if we love Him. It is the certain issue of His encamping round about us. Always with us, He will strike for us at the best moment. The Lord God is in the midst of her always; ‘the Lord will help her, and that right early.’ So like the hunted fugitive in Adullam we may lift up our confident voices even when the stress of strife and sorrow is upon us; and though Gath be in sight and Saul just over the hills, and we have no better refuge than a cave in a hillside; yet in prophecy built upon our consciousness that the Angel of the Covenant is with us now, we may antedate the deliverance that shall be, and think of it as even now accomplished. So the Apostle, when within sight of the block and the headsman’s axe, broke into the rapture of his last words: ‘The Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me to His heavenly kingdom: to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.’ Was he wrong?
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain On v1 The reliability of this title (A Psalm of David;…
The reliability of this title (A Psalm of David; when he feigned madness (RM) before Abimelech, who drove him away, and he departed) is doubtful, both because the Philistine king in question is called Achish and not Abimelech in 1Sa_21:13, and because the contents of the Ps. are akin to the proverbial wisdom of a later age than David's. The Ps. is an alphabetic or acrostic one, with some of the same irregularities which are found in Psalms 25. Psa_34:10-16 are quoted in 1Pe_3:10-12.
1. At all times.. continually] the utterance of a faith which can maintain gratitude in adversity as well as in prosperity.
Read full note →
2. Humble] RV 'meek,' all patient and trustful souls.
5. They] The Psalmist's individual experience is also a general one.
6. This poor man] may refer to the Psalmist himself, but if so it is as a type of others.
7. The angel of the lord] a Being frequently mentioned in the OT.: see Exo_23:20; Isa_63:9. He is not merely an angelic messenger, but is in some sense identified with God Himself. He may be said to stand for God in His self-revealing character, and in His activity among men.
Encampeth] cp. 2Ki_6:17.
10. Young lions] proverbially strong and courageous, and able to provide for themselves.
11. Come, ye children] an address in the tone of the book of Proverbs: see Proverbs 4
15. Are upon] RV 'are toward,' not only in watchfulness, but in favour. See the contrast in the next v.
16. The remembrance of them] their 'memorial' or 'name': see on Psa_9:6; Psa_30:4.
21. Evil shall slay the wicked] Sin is selfdestructive, and works out its own punishment. Or perhaps the words mean simply, 'a calamity shall slay the wicked.' Desolate] RV 'condemned.' So in Psa_34:22.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On vv7, 9, 11, 20, 22 (See Scofield "Heb 1:4")
angel
(See Scofield "Heb 1:4")
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain On v1 Psalm 34
Psalm 34
The Perfect Praise of His Redeemed People
Read full note →
1. His praise for salvation (Psa 34:1-10)
2. The instructions of the righteous (Psa 34:11-16)
3. His redemption remembered (Psa 34:17-22)
This is another alphabetical Psalm, only one letter is omitted. It is primarily the praise of David after his escape from Gath, as the inscription tells us. Prophetically it is the praise of His redeemed and delivered people, delivered from all their fears (Psa 34:4) and saved out of all their troubles (Psa 34:6). Such will be their worship and praise in the coming day, while they themselves will be teachers and instructors in righteousness (verses 12-16; see 1Pe 3:10-12).
Psa 34:20 is a literal prophecy concerning our Lord and was literally fulfilled (Joh 19:36). But the believer also can claim this promise, for we are His bones. “It intimates to the believer the limitation within which the power of the oppressor is confined, with whom he is in ceaseless conflict. As the same Scripture which contains the record of Messiah’s sufferings provided also that no bone of Him should be broken, so it is with the saint.” They will be kept by His own power. The last two verses of this Psalm shows the judgment of the wicked and the deliverance of the righteous in that day. We have seen once more how Psalm is linked with Psalm.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On vv1, 11 Thanksgiving and Instruction of One Delivered out of Great…
Thanksgiving and Instruction of One Delivered out of Great Trouble.
A psalm of David when he changed his behavior before Abimelech, this being the title of the Philistine rulers, Gen 20:2, the name of this king of Gath being Achish; who drove him away, and he departed, 1Sa 21:10 to 1Sa 22:1. Under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, David embodied the lessons of this incident in his life in the present hymn.
Read full note →
David Praises God for His Deliverance
v. 1. I will bless the Lord at all times, in every season, David’s own cheerfulness being so notable because his troubles at that time were by no means at an end, since he was obliged to hide in the cave Adullam, in the wilderness of Judah; His praise shall continually be in my mouth, for there is never an occasion when praise is not proper in the believer’s mouth.
v. 2. My soul shall make her boast in the Lord, glory in Jehovah, setting forth His majesty and goodness; the humble, that is, the sufferers, the pious who have been humbled in the school of sorrows, shall hear thereof and be glad, their own faith will be strengthened by the experiences of David.
v. 3. O magnify the Lord with me, ascribing greatness to Him, in an act of praise, and let us exalt His name together, acknowledging His loving-kindness and tender mercies.
v. 4. I sought the Lord, eagerly entreating Him for help, and He heard me and delivered me from all my fears, the evils and dangers which inspired terror in his heart.
v. 5. They, all sufferers in the class of David, looked unto Him, in eager longing for salvation, and were lightened, they became bright, reflecting the beaming kindness of the heavenly Father; and their faces were not ashamed, they did not need to be abashed and blush with disappointment, with vain crying.
v. 6. This poor man cried, this distressed one, the reference being to David in particular, but applying in all similar cases as well, and the Lord heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles, not merely from the danger threatening him in Gath. From this fact David draws a general conclusion:
v. 7. The Angel of the Lord, that powerful minister of Jehovah, in whose person the Son of God so often revealed Himself in the Old Testament, who is always near to the believers with His mighty and gracious protection, encampeth round about them that fear Him, like an armed host, affording the safest protection, and delivereth them, setting them free from all dangers and oppressors.
v. 8. O taste, trying it out as something extremely palatable, and see, enjoying it also with the eyes, that the Lord is good, the psalmist urging the believers to seek the experience, to make certain for themselves. Blessed is the man that trusteth in Him, makes Jehovah his refuge; for he who fears Him has all blessings in Him.
v. 9. O fear the Lord, ye His saints; for there is no want to them that fear Him, they have the fullness of all they need.
v. 10. The young lions do lack and suffer hunger; but they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing; that is, it will sooner happen that the irrational animals, for whom the providence of God provides so regularly, Psa 145:16, will suffer hunger, than that those who strive after the true fellowship with God will be in any kind of need. So much all believers should learn from the deliverance which David experienced in Gath.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 2, 4, 7, 10, 12, 15, 18, 21 General Information:
General Information:
Parallelism is common in Hebrew poetry. (See: Poetry and Parallelism)
Read full note →
A psalm of David
Possible meanings are 1) David wrote the psalm or 2) the psalm is about David or 3) the psalm is in the style of David's psalms.
pretended to be insane
"acted like a crazy person"
before Abimelech
This refers to a specific historical event that the Hebrews knew well. AT: "when he was in Abimelech's house" or "when he was Abimelech's prisoner" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
drove him out
"forcefully sent him away"
his praise will always be in my mouth
Here "in my mouth" refers to David speaking about Yahweh. AT: "I will always praise him out loud" (See: Metonymy)
translationWords
psalm
David
Abimelech
praise
Yahweh
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 5, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 18, 19, 20 Ps 34 This wisdom psalm includes a thanksgiving hymn…
Ps 34 This wisdom psalm includes a thanksgiving hymn (34:1-7) that celebrates the Lord’s care for and protection of godly sufferers. It also includes an invitation to wisdom (34:8-14) and an exposition of wisdom concerning the Lord’s care for the needy and the suffering of the wicked (34:15-22).
34:title Abimelech is another name for Achish (see 1 Sam 21:10-15). The body of the psalm makes no explicit connection to this event.
Read full note →
34:1-3 The psalmist exhorts the helpless to join him in praise.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.