Questions where the Bible appears to say two different things, with the passages on each side set together.
Has there ever been a righteous person?Job 15:14, Isaiah 64:6, and Romans 3:10 deny anyone is righteous — all our righteousness is as filthy rags, there is none righteous, no, not one.
Do evildoers prosper?Job 12:6 says the tents of robbers prosper and those who provoke God are secure.
Psalms 34:17(v19)The righteous cry, and Yahweh hears, and delivers them out of all their troubles.
1 Peter 4:12-13(v19)Beloved, don’t be astonished at the fiery trial which has come upon you to test you, as though a strange thing happened to you. But because…
Psalms 34:6(v19)This poor man cried, and Yahweh heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles.
2 Corinthians 4:17(v19)For our light affliction, which is for the moment, works for us more and more exceedingly an eternal weight of glory,
John 16:33(v19)I have told you these things, that in me you may have peace. In the world you have trouble; but cheer up! I have overcome the world.”
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Psalms 34:4(v19)I sought Yahweh, and he answered me, and delivered me from all my fears.
2 Timothy 3:11-12(v19)persecutions, and sufferings: those things that happened to me at Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra. I endured those persecutions. The Lord…
Job 5:19(v19)He will deliver you in six troubles; yes, in seven no evil will touch you.
Proverbs 24:16(vv19, 21)for a righteous man falls seven times and rises up again; but the wicked are overthrown by calamity.
2 Corinthians 4:7-12(v19)But we have this treasure in clay vessels, that the exceeding greatness of the power may be of God, and not from ourselves. We are pressed…
Psalms 71:20(v19)You, who have shown us many and bitter troubles, you will let me live. You will bring us up again from the depths of the earth.
John 19:36(v20)For these things happened that the Scripture might be fulfilled, “A bone of him will not be broken.”
Hebrews 11:33-38(v19)who through faith subdued kingdoms, worked out righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire,…
1 Thessalonians 3:3-4(v19)that no one would be moved by these afflictions. For you know that we are appointed to this task. For most certainly, when we were with…
Psalms 103:4(v22)who redeems your life from destruction, who crowns you with loving kindness and tender mercies,
Acts 14:22(v19)strengthening the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that through many afflictions we must enter into…
Job 42:12(v19)So Yahweh blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning. He had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, one thousand yoke of…
Revelation 7:14-17(v19)I told him, “My lord, you know.” He said to me, “These are those who came out of the great suffering.They washed their robes, and made them…
2 Corinthians 11:23-27(v19)Are they servants of Christ? (I speak as one beside himself.) I am more so: in labors more abundantly, in prisons more abundantly, in…
James 5:10-11(v19)Take, brothers, for an example of suffering and of perseverance, the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. Behold, we call them…
Job 30:9-31(v19)“Now I have become their song. Yes, I am a byword to them. They abhor me, they stand aloof from me, and don’t hesitate to spit in my face.…
Psalms 31:5(v22)Into your hand I commend my spirit. You redeem me, Yahweh, God of truth.
1 Peter 1:18-19(v22)knowing that you were redeemed, not with corruptible things, with silver or gold, from the useless way of life handed down from your…
Psalms 71:23(v22)My lips shall shout for joy! My soul, which you have redeemed, sings praises to you!
2 Samuel 4:9(v22)David answered Rechab and Baanah his brother, the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, and said to them, “As Yahweh lives, who has redeemed my…
1 Kings 1:29(v22)The king swore, and said, “As Yahweh lives, who has redeemed my soul out of all adversity,
Romans 8:31-39(v22)What then shall we say about these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who didn’t spare his own Son, but delivered him up…
Revelation 5:9(v22)They sang a new song, saying, “You are worthy to take the book and to open its seals: for you were killed, and bought us for God with your…
Genesis 48:16(v22)the angel who has redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads, and let my name be named on them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and…
Psalms 84:11-12(v22)For Yahweh God is a sun and a shield. Yahweh will give grace and glory. He withholds no good thing from those who walk blamelessly. Yahweh…
Psalms 130:8(v22)He will redeem Israel from all their sins.
Lamentations 3:58(v22)Lord, you have pleaded the causes of my soul. You have redeemed my life.
Psalms 35:10(v20)All my bones shall say, “Yahweh, who is like you, who delivers the poor from him who is too strong for him; yes, the poor and the needy…
Psalms 94:23(v21)He has brought on them their own iniquity, and will cut them off in their own wickedness. Yahweh, our God, will cut them off.
John 10:27-29(v22)My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give eternal life to them. They will never perish, and no one will snatch…
1 Peter 1:5(v22)who by the power of God are guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
Psalms 9:9-10(v22)Yahweh will also be a high tower for the oppressed; a high tower in times of trouble. Those who know your name will put their trust in you,…
Psalms 91:12(v20)They will bear you up in their hands, so that you won’t dash your foot against a stone.
Isaiah 3:11(v21)Woe to the wicked! Disaster is upon them; for the deeds of his hands will be paid back to him.
Daniel 6:22-24(v20)My God has sent his angel, and has shut the lions’ mouths, and they have not hurt me; because as before him innocence was found in me; and…
Psalms 37:12-15(v21)The wicked plots against the just, and gnashes at him with his teeth. The Lord will laugh at him, for he sees that his day is coming. The…
Psalms 89:23(v21)I will beat down his adversaries before him, and strike those who hate him.
2 Thessalonians 1:9(v21)who will pay the penalty: eternal destruction from the face of the Lord and from the glory of his might,
Luke 19:14(v21)But his citizens hated him, and sent an envoy after him, saying, ‘We don’t want this man to reign over us.’
1 Samuel 19:4-5(v21)Jonathan spoke good of David to Saul his father, and said to him, “Don’t let the king sin against his servant, against David; because he…
Psalms 37:30-40(v21)The mouth of the righteous talks of wisdom. His tongue speaks justice. The law of his God is in his heart. None of his steps shall slide.…
Psalms 40:15(v21)Let them be desolate by reason of their shame that tell me, “Aha! Aha!”
Luke 19:27(v21)But bring those enemies of mine who didn’t want me to reign over them here, and kill them before me.’ ”
1 Thessalonians 2:15-16(v21)who killed both the Lord Jesus and their own prophets, and drove us out, and don’t please God, and are contrary to all men, forbidding us…
2 Thessalonians 1:6(v21)Since it is a righteous thing with God to repay affliction to those who afflict you,
Exodus 20:7(v21)“You shall not misuse the name of Yahweh your God, for Yahweh will not hold him guiltless who misuses his name.
1 Samuel 31:4(v21)Then Saul said to his armor bearer, “Draw your sword, and thrust me through with it, lest these uncircumcised come and thrust me through,…
1 Kings 22:8(v21)The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “There is yet one man by whom we may inquire of Yahweh, Micaiah the son of Imlah; but I hate him,…
1 Kings 22:37(v21)So the king died, and was brought to Samaria; and they buried the king in Samaria.
John 7:7(v21)The world can’t hate you, but it hates me, because I testify about it, that its works are evil.
John 15:18-23(v21)If the world hates you, you know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. But…
Luke 19:41-44(v21)When he came near, he saw the city and wept over it, saying, “If you, even you, had known today the things which belong to your peace! But…
57 distinct cross-references across this passage (58 total citations).
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (19 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
John Calvin1540 · Public DomainOn vv19, 2119. Many are the afflictions of the righteous. The…
19. Many are the afflictions of the righteous. The Psalmist here anticipates the thought which often arises in the mind, “How can it be that God has a care about the righteous, who are continually harassed with so many calamities and trials? for what purpose does the protection of God serve, unless those who are peaceably inclined enjoy peace and repose? and what is more unreasonable, than that those who cause trouble to no one should themselves be tormented and afflicted in all variety of ways?” That, therefore, the temptations by which we are continually assailed may not shake our belief in the providence of God, we ought to remember this lesson of instruction, that although God governs the righteous, and provides for their safety, they are yet subject and exposed to many miseries, that, being tested by such trials, they may give evidence of their invincible constancy, and experience so much the more that God is their deliverer. If they were exempted from every kind of trial, their faith would languish, they would cease to call upon God, and their piety would remain hidden and unknown. It is, therefore, necessary that they should be exercised with various trials, and especially for this end, that they may acknowledge that they have been wonderfully preserved by God amidst numberless deaths. If this should seldom happen, it might appear to be fortuitous, or the result of chance; but when innumerable and interminable evils come upon them in succession, the grace of God cannot be unknown, when he always stretches forth his hand to them. David, therefore, admonishes the faithful never to lose their courage, whatever evils may threaten them; since God, who can as easily deliver them a thousand times as once from death, will never disappoint their expectation. What he adds concerning their bones, seems not a little to illustrate the truth of this doctrine, and to teach us that those who are protected by God shall be free from all danger. He therefore declares, that God will take care that not one of their bones shall be broken; in which sense Christ also says, that
“the very hairs of our head are all numbered,” (Luke 12:7.)
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 translators1599 · Public DomainOn vv20–22And as Christ saith, all the hairs of his…
And as Christ saith, all the hairs of his head.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp1656 · Public DomainOn vv19–22Psa 34:19 Many [are] the afflictions of the righteous:…
Psa 34:19 Many [are] the afflictions of the righteous: but the LORD delivereth him out of them all.
Ver. 19. Many are the troubles, &c.] Dei sunt nuntii, these are God’s messengers, saith Kimchi, and they seldom come single. See Jas 1:2. {See Trapp on "Jas 1:2"} Sent they are also to the wicked, Psa 32:10, but on another errand, and for another end. The righteous, per augusta ad augustum, per spinas ad rosas, per motum ad quietem, per procellas ad portum, per crucem ad caelum contendunt, through many tribulations they enter into God’s kingdom. Not so the wicked; their crosses are but a typical hell.
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But the Lord delivereth him out of them all] No country hath more venomous creatures, none more antidotes, than Egypt; so godliness hath many troubles, and as many helps against trouble.
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 Poole1685 · Public DomainOn vv20–22All his bones, i.e. all the parts and members…
All his bones, i.e. all the parts and members of their bodies, which are synecdochically expressed by the bones, which are the stay and strength of the rest. God will not suffer any mischief to befall him; though he may be oft afflicted, yet he shall not be destroyed. But these words, though they are here spoken of the righteous men in general, of whom they are true in a metaphorical sense; yet they had a further meaning in them, being designed by the Spirit of God (which dictated to David, not only the matter, but the very words and expressions) to signify a great mystery, that none of Christ’s bones should be broken; to which purpose they are alleged, Joh 19:36.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill1763 · Public DomainOn vv19–21Many are the afflictions of the righteous,.... This may…
Many are the afflictions of the righteous,.... This may be understood of some one particular righteous person, since the singular number is here made use of; whereas the plural is always used before, when the righteous are made mention of; and the Lord Jesus Christ may be designed, who is eminently and emphatically "the righteous"; he is righteous both as God and man, and as Mediator, in the discharge of every branch of his office; and his afflictions were many, which he endured from men, from devils, and from God himself: many were the afflictions of his body, which he bore when buffeted, scourged, and crucified; and many were the afflictions of his soul, when he bore the sins of his people, endured the wrath of God for them, and was forsaken by him; though none of these were for any sins of his own, but for the sins of others; and out of them all the Lord delivered him at last, and set him at his own right hand; or this may be understood of everyone of the righteous; who, though they are justified from sin, and are saved from wrath, yet have many afflictions; which are "evils" in themselves, as the word (m) may be rendered, and are very troublesome and distressing; and these are great and grievous for quality, and many and abundant for quantity; though no more than it is the will of God should be, and not one too many;
but the Lord delivereth him out of them all; as Christ was, and all his people will be; if not in this life, by giving respites and intervals, as he sometimes does; yet hereafter, when the righteous are completely delivered out of all their trials and exercises, so as that they shall never return more upon them. The word translated "afflictions", as it signifies "evils", may be safely interpreted of moral evils, as well as of evils of afflictions: it is the same word that is used for moral evil in Psa 34:21; and then the sense is, that many are the sins committed by righteous persons; for there are none without sin, in many things they all offend; yet they shall not perish by them, but they shall be delivered from them; as, from the dominion of them by the power of grace, and from the guilt of them by the blood of Christ, and from condemnation for them through his righteousness; so hereafter from the very being of them, and all molestation and disturbance by them.
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(m) "mala", Pagninus, Montanus, Musculus, Cocceius, Gejerus, Michaelis; so Ainsworth.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley1765 · Public DomainOn v20Bones - All the parts and members of their…
Bones - All the parts and members of their bodies.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke1810 · Public DomainOn vv19–22Verse 19. Many are the afflictions of the righteous]…
Verse 19. Many are the afflictions of the righteous] No commander would do justice to a brave and skilful soldier, by refusing him opportunities to put his skill and bravery to proof by combating with the adversary; or by preventing him from taking the post of danger when necessity required it. The righteous are God's soldiers. He suffers them to be tried, and sometimes to enter into the hottest of the battle and in their victory the power and influence of the grace of God is shown, as well as their faithfulness.
Delivereth him out of them all.] He may well combat heartily, who knows that if he fight in the Lord, he shall necessarily be the conqueror.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson1811 · Public DomainOn vv19, 21, 22Psa 34:19-20. Many are the afflictions of the righteous…
Psa 34:19-20. Many are the afflictions of the righteous — In the world they may have tribulation, and their afflictions and troubles may be many, (for they must not promise themselves such prosperity as will exempt them from the trial of their faith and patience;) but the Lord delivereth him out of them all — That is, in due time, when it will be best for them to be so delivered. And in this they ought to think themselves happy, that God will both support them under their trials, and will also put an end to them when he hath sufficiently proved them thereby. He keepeth all his bones — Not only his soul, but his body, and all the parts and members thereof; not one of them is broken — God will not suffer any real mischief to befall him; though he may be often afflicted, yet he shall not be destroyed. But these words, though they may be understood of righteous men in general, of whom they are true in a metaphorical sense; yet have a further meaning in them, being designed by the Spirit of God to signify a great mystery, namely, that none of Christ’s bones should be broken when he was put to death, contrary to the usual custom of treating those who were crucified, whose legs were wont to be broken, in order to put them sooner out of their pain. See Joh 19:32; Joh 19:36. Dr. Kennicott’s translation of this and the preceding verse renders the application of them to Christ perfectly natural and easy, and is well worth the reader’s attention. It is thus, Many are the afflictions of the Just One; but from them all Jehovah delivereth him: Jehovah keepeth all his bones; not one of them shall be broken. This translation the Hebrew will well bear.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes1834 · Public DomainOn vv19–22Many are the afflictions of the righteous - This…
Many are the afflictions of the righteous - This is not intended to affirm that the afflictions of the righteous are more numerous or more severe than the afflictions of other men, but that they are subjected to much suffering, and to many trials. Religion does not exempt them from suffering, but it sustains them in it; it does not deliver them from all trials in this life, but it supports them in their trials, which it teaches them to consider as a preparation for the life to come. There are, indeed, sorrows which are special to the righteous, or which come upon them in virtue of their religion, as the trials of persecution; but there are sorrows, also, that are special to the wicked - such as are the effects of intemperance, dishonesty, crime. The latter are more numerous by far than the former; so that it is still true that the wicked suffer more than the righteous in this life.
But the Lord delivereth him out of them all - See the notes at Psa 34:17.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown1871 · Public DomainOn vv20–21bones--framework of the body.
bones--framework of the body.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges1878 · Public DomainOn vv19–2219. No exemption from evils is promised to the…
19. No exemption from evils is promised to the righteous man, but out of them all the Lord rescues him (Psa_34:4; Psa_34:17).
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 Readers1878 · Public DomainOn vv20–22(20) Broken.—See Joh_19:36, N. Test. Commentary.
(20) Broken.—See Joh_19:36, N. Test. Commentary.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary1880 · Public DomainOn vv19–22Many are the afflictions of the righteous. (comp. Job_36:8-10…
Many are the afflictions of the righteous. (comp. Job_36:8-10 Act_14:22 1Co_15:19 2Ti_3:12 Heb_11:33-38 Heb_12:5-10, etc.) The righteous suffer afflictions because they are so imperfectly righteous. They need purging, purifying, chastening, to rid them of the dross and defilement of sin which still clings to them, and from which they are never wholly freed while they continue in the flesh. "We must through mush tribulation enter into the kingdom of God". (Act_14:22) We must, like the Captain of our salvation, be "made perfect through suffering". (Heb_2:10) But the Lord delivereth him out of them all. When they have done their appointed work of purging, purifying, instructing, improving, or whatever else their work may be, God removes the afflictions with which he has visited us or allowed us to be visited, ultimately, when he takes us to himself, mercifully delivering us "out of them all."
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. Spurgeon1885 · Public DomainOn vv19–22Ver. 19. Many are the afflictions of the righteous.…
Ver. 19. Many are the afflictions of the righteous. Thus are they made like Jesus their covenant Head. Scripture does not flatter us like the story books with the idea that goodness will secure us from trouble; on the contrary, we are again and again warned to expect tribulation while we are in this body. Our afflictions come from all points of the compass, and are as many and as tormenting as the mosquitoes of the tropics. It is the earthly portion of the elect to find thorns and briars growing in their pathway, yea, to lie down among them, finding their rest broken and disturbed by sorrow. BUT, blessed but, how it takes the sting out of the previous sentence! But the Lord delivereth him out of them all. Through troops of ills Jehovah shall lead his redeemed scatheless and triumphant. There is an end to the believer's affliction, and a joyful end too. None of his trials can hurt so much as a hair of his head, neither can the furnace hold him for a moment after the Lord bids him come forth of it. Hard would be the lot of the righteous if this promise, like a bundle of camphire, were not bound up in it, but this sweetens all. The same Lord who sends the afflictions will also recall them when his design is accomplished, but he will never allow the fiercest of them to rend and devour his beloved.
Ver. 19. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, etc. Be our troubles many in number, strange in nature, heavy in measure; yet God's mercies are more numerous, his wisdom more wondrous, his power more miraculous; he will deliver us out of all. Thomas Adams.
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Ver. 19. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, etc. When David did behold his trouble, like the host of the Aramites 2Ki 6:16, he looked back unto God like Elisha, and spied one with him stronger than all against him. Therefore, respecting his afflictions he crieth, Many are the troubles of the righteous; respecting the promise he says, The Lord delivereth him out of all. Thus, by his own foot, David measures the condition of the righteous, and saith, Many are the troubles of the righteous; and then, by his own cure, he showeth how they should be healed, saying, The Lord will deliver him out of them all....The lawyer can deliver his client but from strife, the physician can deliver his patient but from sickness, the master can deliver his servant but from bondage, but the Lord delivereth us from all. As when Moses came to deliver the Israelites, he would not leave a hoof behind him, so when the Lord cometh to deliver the righteous he will not leave a trouble behind him. He who saith, "I put away all thine iniquities, " will also say, "I put away all thine infirmities." Henry Smith.
Ver. 19. Black and white, or bane and antidote.
Special people, special trials, special deliverances, special faith as a duty.
Psalms 34:20*
Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
The Biblical Illustrator1887 · Public DomainOn vv19, 21, 22Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the…
Psa_34:19-20
Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the Lord delivereth them out of them all.
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The trial of the righteous
The sum of this verse is as if he should say, Let the righteous look for more troubles than others, and likewise let them hope for greater comforts than others; for when they are well, they shall be eclipsed again, to show that their light was but borrowed; and when they are eclipsed, their light shall return, to show their difference from them whom God hateth, which fall from plague to plague, as they run from sin to sin.
I. what makes our troubles so hard to bear is our lack of patience, how great is our need of this grace! A sound spirit, saith Solomon, will bear his infirmity, but a wounded spirit what can sustain? (Pro_18:14). Therefore as the lid is made to open and shut, to save the eye, so patience is set to keep the soul, and save the heart; whole, to cheer the body again. Therefore if you mark, when you can go by an offence, and take a little wrong and suffer trouble quietly, you have a kind of peace and joy in your heart, as if you have gotten a victory, and the more your patience is, still the less your pain is. For as a light burden, borne at the arms end, weigheth heavier by much, than a burden of treble weight, if it be borne upon the shoulders, which are made to bear; so if a man set impatience to bear his cross, which is not fit to bear, it will grumble, and murmur, and let the burden fall upon his head, like a broken staff, which promiseth to help him over the water, and leaveth him in the ditch. But if you pug it to patience, and set her to bear it, which is appointed to bear, she is like the hearty spies that came from Canaan, and said, It is nothing to overcome them (Jos_2:1-24.). Among the strange cures of patience, David may report of his experience what this plaster hath done for him; for, being a figure of Christ, he was always hedged about with the Cross, which proved his patience like a touchstone every day. As Christ was contemned of his countrymen, so David was contemned of his brethren (1Sa_26:2); as Christ fled to Egypt, so David fled unto Gath; as Christ received food of women, so David received food of Abigail (Luk_8:2); as Herod persecuted Christ, so Saul persecuted David. Thus, by his own foot, David measured the condition of the righteous, and saith, Many are the troubles of the righteous; and then, by his own cure, he showeth how they should be healed, saying, The Lord will deliver him out of all. If ye mark, the Spirit hath directed David to those two things which make us take our troubles grievously: one, because we do not look for them before they come. Therefore, as Christ told Peter before he suffered, to strengthen him when he suffered (Joh_21:18); so the Holy Ghost doth run upon the cross to keep us in expectation of troubles, that we might prepare faith, and patience, and constancy for them, as Noah prepared an ark for the flood.
II. The second thing which makes us to start so at the cross is, because we are like the prophets servant, which did see his foes, but not his friends (2Ki_6:1-33.); so we see our sore, but not our salve, Comfort seems afar off, like Abraham in the heavens (Luk_16:1-31.), as though it would never come so low. Therefore we go about to deliver ourselves, as it is said, Psa_2:1-12., Let us break his bands, as though we could deliver ourselves. But hold your peace, saith Moses, the Lord shall fight for you (Exo_14:14). So David comes in like a pacifier, and saith, Vex not yourselves, for the Lord will deliver you. Bear both these sentences in mind, that you must go through a sea of troubles, and that then you shall come to the haven of rest, and no affliction shall take you before you be armed for it, or you be without your remedy: Many are the troubles of the righteous, but the Lord delivereth him out of all. Here be the two hands of God, like a wound and a plaster, one casteth down, and the other raiseth up. It is good for a man to know his troubles before they come, because afflictions are lightened in the expectation (Act_9:16; Mat_16:24; Joh_2:10). This is the manner of Gods proceedings to send good after evil, as He made light after darkness (Gen_1:3). The knife of correction must prune and lop off mens rotten twigs before they can bring forth fruit.
III. yet our troubles are but troubles. When God doth visit the wicked, His punishments are called plagues and destructions; the plagues of Egypt, the curse of Cain, the destruction of Sodom. But when He doth visit the righteous, His punishments are called corrections, and chastisements, and rods, which proceed from a Father, not to destroy us, but to try us, and purge us, and instruct us. And as Jacob was blessed and halted both at one time, so a man may be blessed and afflicted both together. Afflictions do not hinder our happiness, but our happiness cometh by affliction, as Jacobs blessing came with halting (Gen_32:1-32.), and as peace is procured by war. (Henry Smith.)
The good man under afflictions
I. afflictions often befall the best of men; some, that are common to them with the rest of mankind, and others, that are peculiar to persons of this character. The righteous man, as well as others, may be deserted by his friend, and abused by his enemies. Death may deprive him of those dear to him, and swell his heart with sorrow. His virtue will not secure him from infamy and contempt, from losses and disappointments in his worldly affairs; from poverty, and the thousand hardships that attend it, from bad health and painful distempers. Then, besides his own private afflictions, the good man, through the tenderness of his heart, feels the calamities of his fellow-creatures, and shares in the manifold evils he sees them suffer. Righteousness or virtue sometimes draws upon itself the hatred of bad men, with all the evils they are able to inflict. Eminent worth, which outshines others, and makes them appear despicable and mean, provokes their envy, the most bitter and deadly of human passions. Besides, integrity may lead a man to oppose the wicked in their unjust and mischievous designs; wherefore these will join themselves to such as envy him, and increase the number of his enemies.
II. why the righteous are afflicted. If God lays affliction upon the righteous, it is not because He has no distinguishing regard for them; but because their sufferings may answer many valuable purposes both to others and themselves.
1. I say, others may reap various advantages by observing the sufferings of good men. By such events God may intend to admonish us, that prosperity is not the best of blessings, nor adversity the worst of evils; since He frequently dispenses the one, and denies the other to His own children. The suffering of the righteous may also be of service to the world; as by this means their virtues are more clearly displayed, and recommended with greater force to the imitation of mankind.
2. Their afflictions often produce great advantages to the sufferers themselves. Among these, I am not afraid to mention the glory they derive from hence. Suffering virtue at least may surely be allowed to comfort itself with the foresight of that veneration, which is wrongfully withheld from it when living; but which posterity will pay with interest to its surviving memory. ,Nor is it a small advantage, that by means of their sufferings the righteous may attain a comfortable assurance of their own constancy. Sometimes also adversity is profitable to good men, as it helps to cure them of their remaining imperfections.
III. the righteous mans supports under afflictions.
1. The native strength of his virtue, which enables him to break their forte by opposing to them a firm and constant mind.
2. Religion also lends him a powerful aid. (John Holland.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren1905 · Public DomainOn v22
Psalms
NO CONDEMNATION
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Psa 34:22.
These words are very inadequately represented in the translation of the Authorised Version. The Psalmist’s closing declaration is something very much deeper than that they who trust in God ‘shall not be desolate.’ If you look at the previous clause, you will see that we must expect something more than such a particular blessing as that:-’The Lord redeemeth the soul of His servants.’ It is a great drop from that thought, instead of being a climax, to follow it with nothing more than, ‘None of them that trust in Him shall be desolate.’ But the Revised Version accurately renders the words: ‘None of them that trust in Him shall be condemned.’ There we have something that is worthy to follow ‘The Lord redeemeth the soul of His servants,’ and we have a most striking anticipation of the clearest and most Evangelical teaching of the New Testament.
The entirely New Testament tone of these words of the psalm comes out still more clearly, if we recognise that, not only in the latter, but in the former, part of the clause, we have one of the very keynotes of New Testament teaching. When we read in the New Testament that ‘we are justified by faith,’ the meaning is precisely the same as that of our text. Thus, however it came about, here is this Psalmist, David or another, standing away back amidst the shadows and symbols and ritualisms of that Old Covenant, and rising at once above all the mists, right up into the sunshine, and seeing, as clearly as we see it nineteen centuries after Jesus Christ, that the way to escape condemnation is simple faith. Let us look at both of the parts of these great words. We consider-
I. The people that are spoken of here.
‘None of them that trust in Him’-I need not, I suppose, further dwell upon the absolute identity shown by this phrase between the Old and the New Testament conceptions; but I should like to make a remark, which I dare say I have often made before-it cannot be made too often-that, whatever be the differences between the Old and the New, this is not the difference, that they present two different ways of approaching God. There are a great many differences; the conception of the divine nature is no doubt infinitely deepened, made more tender and more lofty, by the thought of the Fatherhood of God. The contents of the revelation which our faith is to grasp are brought out far more definitely and articulately and fully in the New Testament. But in the Old, the road to God was the same as it is to-day; and from the beginning there has only been, and through all Eternity there will only be, one path by which men can have access to the Father, and that is by faith. ‘Trust’ is the Old Testament word, ‘faith’ is the New. They are absolutely identical, and there would have been a flood of light-sorely needed by a great many good people-cast upon the relations between those two complementary and harmonious halves of a consistent whole, if our translators had not been influenced by their unfortunate love for varying translations of the same word, but had contented themselves with choosing one of these two words ‘trust’ or ‘faith,’ and had used that one consistently and uniformly throughout the Old and New books. Then we should have understood, what anybody who will open his eyes can see now, that what the New Testament magnifies as ‘faith’ is identical with what the Old Testament sets forth as ‘trust.’ ‘None of them that trust in Him shall be condemned.’
But there is one more remark to make on this matter, and that is that a great flood of light, and of more than light, of encouragement and of stimulus, is cast upon that saving exercise of trust by noticing the literal meaning of the word that is rightly so rendered here. All those words, especially in the Old Testament, that express emotions or acts of the mind, originally applied to corporeal acts or material things. I suppose that is so in all language. It is very conspicuously so in the Hebrew. And the word that is here translated, rightly, ‘trust,’ means literally to fly to a refuge, or to betake oneself to some defence in order to get shelter there.
There is a trace of both meanings, the literal and the metaphorical, in another psalm, where we read, amidst the Psalmist’s rapturous heaping together of great names for God: ‘My Rock, in whom I will trust.’ Now keep to the literal meaning there, and you see how it flashes up the whole into beauty: ‘My Rock, to whom I will flee for refuge,’ and put my back against it, and stand as impregnable as it; or get myself well into the clefts of it, and then nothing can touch me.
‘Rock of Ages! cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in Thee.’
Then we find the same words, with the picture of flight and the reality of faith, used with another set of associations in another psalm, which says: ‘He shall cover thee with His feathers, and under His wings shalt thou trust.’ That grates, one gets away from the metaphor too quickly; but if we preserve the literal meaning, and read, ‘under His wings shalt thou flee for refuge,’ we have the picture of the chicken flying to the mother-bird when kites are in the sky, and huddling close to the warm breast and the soft downy feathers, and so with the spread of the great wing being sheltered from all possibility of harm. This psalm is ascribed to David when he was in hiding. The superscription says that it is ‘a psalm of David, when he changed his behaviour before Abimelech; who drove him away, and he departed.’ And where did he go? To the cave in the rock. And as he sat in the mouth of it, with the rude arch stretching above him, like the wings of some great bird, feeling himself absolutely safe, he said, ‘None of them that take refuge in Thee shall be condemned.’
Does not that metaphor teach us a great deal more of what faith is, and encourage us far more to exercise it, than much theological hair-splitting? What lies in the metaphor? Two things, the earnest eagerness of the act of flight, and the absolute security which comes when we have reached the shadow of the great Rock in a weary land.
But there is one thing more that I would notice, and that is that this designation of the persons as ‘them that trust in Him’ follows last of all in a somewhat lengthened series of designations for good people. They are these: ‘the righteous’-’them that are of a broken heart’-’such as be of a contrite spirit’-’His servants,’ and then, lastly, comes, as basis of all, as, so to speak, the keynote of all, ‘none of them that trust in Him.’ That is to say-righteousness, true and blessed pulverising of the obstinate insensibility of self alienated from God, true and blessed consciousness of sin, joyful surrender of self to loving and grateful submission to God’s will, are all connected with or flow from that act of trust in Him. And if you are trusting in Him, in anything more than the mere formal, dead way in which multitudes of nominal Christians in all our congregations are doing so, your trust will produce all these various fruits of righteousness, and lowliness, and joyful service. ‘Faith’ or ‘trust’ is the mother of all graces and virtues, and it produces them all because it directly kindles the creative flame of an answering love to Him in whom we trust. So much, then, for the first part of my remarks. Consider, next-
II. The blessing here promised.
‘None of them that trust in Him shall be condemned.’ The word which is inadequately rendered ‘desolate,’ and more accurately ‘condemned,’ includes the following varying shades of meaning, which, although they are various, are all closely connected, as you will see-to incur guilt, to feel guilty, to be condemned, to be punished. All these four are inextricably blended together. And the fact that the one word in the Old Testament covers all that ground suggests some very solemn thoughts.
First of all, it suggests this, that guilt, or sin, and condemnation and punishment, are, if not absolutely identical, inseparable. To be guilty is to be condemned. That is to say, since we live, as we do, under the continual grip of an infinitely wise and all-knowing law, and in the presence of a Judge who not only sees us as we are, but treats us as He sees us-sin and guilt go together, as every man knows that has a conscience. And sin and guilt and condemnation and punishment go together, as every man may see in the world, and experience in himself. To be separated from God, which is the immediate effect of sin, is to pass into hell here. ‘Every transgression and disobedience,’ not only ‘shall receive its just recompense,’ away out yonder, in some misty, far-off, hypothetical future, but down here to-day. All sin works automatically, and to do wrong is to be punished for doing it.
Then my text suggests another solemn thought, and that is that this judgment, this condemnation, is not only present, according to our Lord’s own great words, which perhaps are an allusion to these: ‘He that believeth not is condemned already’; but it also suggests the universality of that condemnation. Our Psalmist says that only through trusting Him can a man be taken and lifted away, as it were, from the descent of the thundercloud, and its bolt that lies above his head. ‘They that trust Him are not condemned,’ every one else is; not ‘shall be,’ but is, to-day, here and now. If there is a man or woman in my audience now who is not exercising trust in God through Jesus Christ, on that man or woman, young or old, cultivated or uncultivated, professing Christian or not, there is bound the burden of their sin, which is the crushing weight of their condemnation.
So my text suggests, that the sole deliverance from this universal pressure of the condemnatory influence of universal sin lies in that fleeing for refuge to God. And then comes in the Christian addition, ‘to God, as manifested in Jesus Christ.’ The Psalmist did not know that. All the more wonderful is it that without the knowledge he should have risen to the great thought of our text-all the more inexplicable unless you believe that ‘holy men of old spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.’
Wonderful it is still, but not unintelligible, if you believe that. But you and I know more than this singer did; for we can listen to the Master, who says, ‘He that believeth on Him is not condemned’; and to the servant who echoes-and perhaps both of them are alluding to our psalm-’There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.’ My faith, if it knits me to Jesus Christ, unties the bonds by which my sin is bound upon me, for it makes me to share in His Spirit, in His righteousness, in His glory.
And so, dear brethren! the Psalmist, though he did not know it, may point us away to the truth hidden from him, but sunlight clear for us, that by simple trust we may receive the Saviour through whom all our condemnation will pass away, and may be found in Him having the ‘righteousness which is of God by faith.’
‘Not condemned’-Is that all? Are the blessings of the Gospel all to be reduced to this mere negative expression? Certainly not. The Psalmist could have said a great deal more, and in the previous context he does say a great deal more. But to that restrained and moderate statement of the case, which is far less than the facts of the case, ‘he that trusteth is not condemned,’ let us add Paul’s expansion, ‘whom He called them He also justified, and whom He justified them He also glorified.’
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield1917 · Public DomainOn vv20, 22He keepeth
He keepeth
See Exo 12:46; Joh 19:36
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0On v21Evil will kill the wicked
Evil will kill the wicked
Evil is described as if it were a man who can kill people. AT: "The evil deeds of wicked people will kill them" (See: Personification)
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the wicked
This refers to wicked people. (See: Nominal Adjectives)
Those who hate the righteous will be condemned
This can be stated in active form. AT: "Yahweh will condemn those who hate the righteous" (See: Active or Passive)
the righteous
This refers to righteous people. (See: Nominal Adjectives)
None of those who take refuge in him will be condemned
This can be stated in active form. It can also be stated in positive form. AT: "Yahweh will forgive everyone who takes refuge in him" (See: Active or Passive and Litotes)
take refuge in him
Going to Yahweh for protection is spoken of as taking refuge in him. AT: "go to him for protection" (See: Metaphor)
Tyndale Open Study Notes2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0On vv19–2034:19-22 The godly might suffer, but the Lord will…
34:19-22 The godly might suffer, but the Lord will reward them in the end. Similarly, the wicked might prosper for a time, but ultimately they will perish (1:6; 34:15-16).
GEBible — Godless Engineer's Bible App
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv19, 21 19. Many are the afflictions of the righteous. The…
19. Many are the afflictions of the righteous. The Psalmist here anticipates the thought which often arises in the mind, “How can it be that God has a care about the righteous, who are continually harassed with so many calamities and trials? for what purpose does the protection of God serve, unless those who are peaceably inclined enjoy peace and repose? and what is more unreasonable, than that those who cause trouble to no one should themselves be tormented and afflicted in all variety of ways?” That, therefore, the temptations by which we are continually assailed may not shake our belief in the providence of God, we ought to remember this lesson of instruction, that although God governs the righteous, and provides for their safety, they are yet subject and exposed to many miseries, that, being tested by such trials, they may give evidence of their invincible constancy, and experience so much the more that God is their deliverer. If they were exempted from every kind of trial, their faith would languish, they would cease to call upon God, and their piety would remain hidden and unknown. It is, therefore, necessary that they should be exercised with various trials, and especially for this end, that they may acknowledge that they have been wonderfully preserved by God amidst numberless deaths. If this should seldom happen, it might appear to be fortuitous, or the result of chance; but when innumerable and interminable evils come upon them in succession, the grace of God cannot be unknown, when he always stretches forth his hand to them. David, therefore, admonishes the faithful never to lose their courage, whatever evils may threaten them; since God, who can as easily deliver them a thousand times as once from death, will never disappoint their expectation. What he adds concerning their bones, seems not a little to illustrate the truth of this doctrine, and to teach us that those who are protected by God shall be free from all danger. He therefore declares, that God will take care that not one of their bones shall be broken; in which sense Christ also says, that
“the very hairs of our head are all numbered,” (Luke 12:7.)
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 vv20–22 And as Christ saith, all the hairs of his…
And as Christ saith, all the hairs of his head.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv19–22 Psa 34:19 Many [are] the afflictions of the righteous:…
Psa 34:19 Many [are] the afflictions of the righteous: but the LORD delivereth him out of them all.
Ver. 19. Many are the troubles, &c.] Dei sunt nuntii, these are God’s messengers, saith Kimchi, and they seldom come single. See Jas 1:2. {See Trapp on "Jas 1:2"} Sent they are also to the wicked, Psa 32:10, but on another errand, and for another end. The righteous, per augusta ad augustum, per spinas ad rosas, per motum ad quietem, per procellas ad portum, per crucem ad caelum contendunt, through many tribulations they enter into God’s kingdom. Not so the wicked; their crosses are but a typical hell.
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But the Lord delivereth him out of them all] No country hath more venomous creatures, none more antidotes, than Egypt; so godliness hath many troubles, and as many helps against trouble.
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 vv20–22 All his bones, i.e. all the parts and members…
All his bones, i.e. all the parts and members of their bodies, which are synecdochically expressed by the bones, which are the stay and strength of the rest. God will not suffer any mischief to befall him; though he may be oft afflicted, yet he shall not be destroyed. But these words, though they are here spoken of the righteous men in general, of whom they are true in a metaphorical sense; yet they had a further meaning in them, being designed by the Spirit of God (which dictated to David, not only the matter, but the very words and expressions) to signify a great mystery, that none of Christ’s bones should be broken; to which purpose they are alleged, Joh 19:36.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv19–21 Many are the afflictions of the righteous,.... This may…
Many are the afflictions of the righteous,.... This may be understood of some one particular righteous person, since the singular number is here made use of; whereas the plural is always used before, when the righteous are made mention of; and the Lord Jesus Christ may be designed, who is eminently and emphatically "the righteous"; he is righteous both as God and man, and as Mediator, in the discharge of every branch of his office; and his afflictions were many, which he endured from men, from devils, and from God himself: many were the afflictions of his body, which he bore when buffeted, scourged, and crucified; and many were the afflictions of his soul, when he bore the sins of his people, endured the wrath of God for them, and was forsaken by him; though none of these were for any sins of his own, but for the sins of others; and out of them all the Lord delivered him at last, and set him at his own right hand; or this may be understood of everyone of the righteous; who, though they are justified from sin, and are saved from wrath, yet have many afflictions; which are "evils" in themselves, as the word (m) may be rendered, and are very troublesome and distressing; and these are great and grievous for quality, and many and abundant for quantity; though no more than it is the will of God should be, and not one too many;
but the Lord delivereth him out of them all; as Christ was, and all his people will be; if not in this life, by giving respites and intervals, as he sometimes does; yet hereafter, when the righteous are completely delivered out of all their trials and exercises, so as that they shall never return more upon them. The word translated "afflictions", as it signifies "evils", may be safely interpreted of moral evils, as well as of evils of afflictions: it is the same word that is used for moral evil in Psa 34:21; and then the sense is, that many are the sins committed by righteous persons; for there are none without sin, in many things they all offend; yet they shall not perish by them, but they shall be delivered from them; as, from the dominion of them by the power of grace, and from the guilt of them by the blood of Christ, and from condemnation for them through his righteousness; so hereafter from the very being of them, and all molestation and disturbance by them.
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(m) "mala", Pagninus, Montanus, Musculus, Cocceius, Gejerus, Michaelis; so Ainsworth.
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 v20 Bones - All the parts and members of their…
Bones - All the parts and members of their bodies.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv19–22 Verse 19. Many are the afflictions of the righteous]…
Verse 19. Many are the afflictions of the righteous] No commander would do justice to a brave and skilful soldier, by refusing him opportunities to put his skill and bravery to proof by combating with the adversary; or by preventing him from taking the post of danger when necessity required it. The righteous are God's soldiers. He suffers them to be tried, and sometimes to enter into the hottest of the battle and in their victory the power and influence of the grace of God is shown, as well as their faithfulness.
Delivereth him out of them all.] He may well combat heartily, who knows that if he fight in the Lord, he shall necessarily be the conqueror.
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 vv19, 21, 22 Psa 34:19-20. Many are the afflictions of the righteous…
Psa 34:19-20. Many are the afflictions of the righteous — In the world they may have tribulation, and their afflictions and troubles may be many, (for they must not promise themselves such prosperity as will exempt them from the trial of their faith and patience;) but the Lord delivereth him out of them all — That is, in due time, when it will be best for them to be so delivered. And in this they ought to think themselves happy, that God will both support them under their trials, and will also put an end to them when he hath sufficiently proved them thereby. He keepeth all his bones — Not only his soul, but his body, and all the parts and members thereof; not one of them is broken — God will not suffer any real mischief to befall him; though he may be often afflicted, yet he shall not be destroyed. But these words, though they may be understood of righteous men in general, of whom they are true in a metaphorical sense; yet have a further meaning in them, being designed by the Spirit of God to signify a great mystery, namely, that none of Christ’s bones should be broken when he was put to death, contrary to the usual custom of treating those who were crucified, whose legs were wont to be broken, in order to put them sooner out of their pain. See Joh 19:32; Joh 19:36. Dr. Kennicott’s translation of this and the preceding verse renders the application of them to Christ perfectly natural and easy, and is well worth the reader’s attention. It is thus, Many are the afflictions of the Just One; but from them all Jehovah delivereth him: Jehovah keepeth all his bones; not one of them shall be broken. This translation the Hebrew will well bear.
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 vv19–22 Many are the afflictions of the righteous - This…
Many are the afflictions of the righteous - This is not intended to affirm that the afflictions of the righteous are more numerous or more severe than the afflictions of other men, but that they are subjected to much suffering, and to many trials. Religion does not exempt them from suffering, but it sustains them in it; it does not deliver them from all trials in this life, but it supports them in their trials, which it teaches them to consider as a preparation for the life to come. There are, indeed, sorrows which are special to the righteous, or which come upon them in virtue of their religion, as the trials of persecution; but there are sorrows, also, that are special to the wicked - such as are the effects of intemperance, dishonesty, crime. The latter are more numerous by far than the former; so that it is still true that the wicked suffer more than the righteous in this life.
But the Lord delivereth him out of them all - See the notes at Psa 34:17.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv20–21 bones--framework of the body.
bones--framework of the body.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv19–22 19. No exemption from evils is promised to the…
19. No exemption from evils is promised to the righteous man, but out of them all the Lord rescues him (Psa_34:4; Psa_34:17).
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 vv20–22 (20) Broken.—See Joh_19:36, N. Test. Commentary.
(20) Broken.—See Joh_19:36, N. Test. Commentary.
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 vv19–22 Many are the afflictions of the righteous. (comp. Job_36:8-10…
Many are the afflictions of the righteous. (comp. Job_36:8-10 Act_14:22 1Co_15:19 2Ti_3:12 Heb_11:33-38 Heb_12:5-10, etc.) The righteous suffer afflictions because they are so imperfectly righteous. They need purging, purifying, chastening, to rid them of the dross and defilement of sin which still clings to them, and from which they are never wholly freed while they continue in the flesh. "We must through mush tribulation enter into the kingdom of God". (Act_14:22) We must, like the Captain of our salvation, be "made perfect through suffering". (Heb_2:10) But the Lord delivereth him out of them all. When they have done their appointed work of purging, purifying, instructing, improving, or whatever else their work may be, God removes the afflictions with which he has visited us or allowed us to be visited, ultimately, when he takes us to himself, mercifully delivering us "out of them all."
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 vv19–22 Ver. 19. Many are the afflictions of the righteous.…
Ver. 19. Many are the afflictions of the righteous. Thus are they made like Jesus their covenant Head. Scripture does not flatter us like the story books with the idea that goodness will secure us from trouble; on the contrary, we are again and again warned to expect tribulation while we are in this body. Our afflictions come from all points of the compass, and are as many and as tormenting as the mosquitoes of the tropics. It is the earthly portion of the elect to find thorns and briars growing in their pathway, yea, to lie down among them, finding their rest broken and disturbed by sorrow. BUT, blessed but, how it takes the sting out of the previous sentence! But the Lord delivereth him out of them all. Through troops of ills Jehovah shall lead his redeemed scatheless and triumphant. There is an end to the believer's affliction, and a joyful end too. None of his trials can hurt so much as a hair of his head, neither can the furnace hold him for a moment after the Lord bids him come forth of it. Hard would be the lot of the righteous if this promise, like a bundle of camphire, were not bound up in it, but this sweetens all. The same Lord who sends the afflictions will also recall them when his design is accomplished, but he will never allow the fiercest of them to rend and devour his beloved.
Ver. 19. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, etc. Be our troubles many in number, strange in nature, heavy in measure; yet God's mercies are more numerous, his wisdom more wondrous, his power more miraculous; he will deliver us out of all. Thomas Adams.
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Ver. 19. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, etc. When David did behold his trouble, like the host of the Aramites 2Ki 6:16, he looked back unto God like Elisha, and spied one with him stronger than all against him. Therefore, respecting his afflictions he crieth, Many are the troubles of the righteous; respecting the promise he says, The Lord delivereth him out of all. Thus, by his own foot, David measures the condition of the righteous, and saith, Many are the troubles of the righteous; and then, by his own cure, he showeth how they should be healed, saying, The Lord will deliver him out of them all....The lawyer can deliver his client but from strife, the physician can deliver his patient but from sickness, the master can deliver his servant but from bondage, but the Lord delivereth us from all. As when Moses came to deliver the Israelites, he would not leave a hoof behind him, so when the Lord cometh to deliver the righteous he will not leave a trouble behind him. He who saith, "I put away all thine iniquities, " will also say, "I put away all thine infirmities." Henry Smith.
Ver. 19. Black and white, or bane and antidote.
Special people, special trials, special deliverances, special faith as a duty.
Psalms 34:20*
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 vv19, 21, 22 Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the…
Psa_34:19-20
Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the Lord delivereth them out of them all.
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The trial of the righteous
The sum of this verse is as if he should say, Let the righteous look for more troubles than others, and likewise let them hope for greater comforts than others; for when they are well, they shall be eclipsed again, to show that their light was but borrowed; and when they are eclipsed, their light shall return, to show their difference from them whom God hateth, which fall from plague to plague, as they run from sin to sin.
I. what makes our troubles so hard to bear is our lack of patience, how great is our need of this grace! A sound spirit, saith Solomon, will bear his infirmity, but a wounded spirit what can sustain? (Pro_18:14). Therefore as the lid is made to open and shut, to save the eye, so patience is set to keep the soul, and save the heart; whole, to cheer the body again. Therefore if you mark, when you can go by an offence, and take a little wrong and suffer trouble quietly, you have a kind of peace and joy in your heart, as if you have gotten a victory, and the more your patience is, still the less your pain is. For as a light burden, borne at the arms end, weigheth heavier by much, than a burden of treble weight, if it be borne upon the shoulders, which are made to bear; so if a man set impatience to bear his cross, which is not fit to bear, it will grumble, and murmur, and let the burden fall upon his head, like a broken staff, which promiseth to help him over the water, and leaveth him in the ditch. But if you pug it to patience, and set her to bear it, which is appointed to bear, she is like the hearty spies that came from Canaan, and said, It is nothing to overcome them (Jos_2:1-24.). Among the strange cures of patience, David may report of his experience what this plaster hath done for him; for, being a figure of Christ, he was always hedged about with the Cross, which proved his patience like a touchstone every day. As Christ was contemned of his countrymen, so David was contemned of his brethren (1Sa_26:2); as Christ fled to Egypt, so David fled unto Gath; as Christ received food of women, so David received food of Abigail (Luk_8:2); as Herod persecuted Christ, so Saul persecuted David. Thus, by his own foot, David measured the condition of the righteous, and saith, Many are the troubles of the righteous; and then, by his own cure, he showeth how they should be healed, saying, The Lord will deliver him out of all. If ye mark, the Spirit hath directed David to those two things which make us take our troubles grievously: one, because we do not look for them before they come. Therefore, as Christ told Peter before he suffered, to strengthen him when he suffered (Joh_21:18); so the Holy Ghost doth run upon the cross to keep us in expectation of troubles, that we might prepare faith, and patience, and constancy for them, as Noah prepared an ark for the flood.
II. The second thing which makes us to start so at the cross is, because we are like the prophets servant, which did see his foes, but not his friends (2Ki_6:1-33.); so we see our sore, but not our salve, Comfort seems afar off, like Abraham in the heavens (Luk_16:1-31.), as though it would never come so low. Therefore we go about to deliver ourselves, as it is said, Psa_2:1-12., Let us break his bands, as though we could deliver ourselves. But hold your peace, saith Moses, the Lord shall fight for you (Exo_14:14). So David comes in like a pacifier, and saith, Vex not yourselves, for the Lord will deliver you. Bear both these sentences in mind, that you must go through a sea of troubles, and that then you shall come to the haven of rest, and no affliction shall take you before you be armed for it, or you be without your remedy: Many are the troubles of the righteous, but the Lord delivereth him out of all. Here be the two hands of God, like a wound and a plaster, one casteth down, and the other raiseth up. It is good for a man to know his troubles before they come, because afflictions are lightened in the expectation (Act_9:16; Mat_16:24; Joh_2:10). This is the manner of Gods proceedings to send good after evil, as He made light after darkness (Gen_1:3). The knife of correction must prune and lop off mens rotten twigs before they can bring forth fruit.
III. yet our troubles are but troubles. When God doth visit the wicked, His punishments are called plagues and destructions; the plagues of Egypt, the curse of Cain, the destruction of Sodom. But when He doth visit the righteous, His punishments are called corrections, and chastisements, and rods, which proceed from a Father, not to destroy us, but to try us, and purge us, and instruct us. And as Jacob was blessed and halted both at one time, so a man may be blessed and afflicted both together. Afflictions do not hinder our happiness, but our happiness cometh by affliction, as Jacobs blessing came with halting (Gen_32:1-32.), and as peace is procured by war. (Henry Smith.)
The good man under afflictions
I. afflictions often befall the best of men; some, that are common to them with the rest of mankind, and others, that are peculiar to persons of this character. The righteous man, as well as others, may be deserted by his friend, and abused by his enemies. Death may deprive him of those dear to him, and swell his heart with sorrow. His virtue will not secure him from infamy and contempt, from losses and disappointments in his worldly affairs; from poverty, and the thousand hardships that attend it, from bad health and painful distempers. Then, besides his own private afflictions, the good man, through the tenderness of his heart, feels the calamities of his fellow-creatures, and shares in the manifold evils he sees them suffer. Righteousness or virtue sometimes draws upon itself the hatred of bad men, with all the evils they are able to inflict. Eminent worth, which outshines others, and makes them appear despicable and mean, provokes their envy, the most bitter and deadly of human passions. Besides, integrity may lead a man to oppose the wicked in their unjust and mischievous designs; wherefore these will join themselves to such as envy him, and increase the number of his enemies.
II. why the righteous are afflicted. If God lays affliction upon the righteous, it is not because He has no distinguishing regard for them; but because their sufferings may answer many valuable purposes both to others and themselves.
1. I say, others may reap various advantages by observing the sufferings of good men. By such events God may intend to admonish us, that prosperity is not the best of blessings, nor adversity the worst of evils; since He frequently dispenses the one, and denies the other to His own children. The suffering of the righteous may also be of service to the world; as by this means their virtues are more clearly displayed, and recommended with greater force to the imitation of mankind.
2. Their afflictions often produce great advantages to the sufferers themselves. Among these, I am not afraid to mention the glory they derive from hence. Suffering virtue at least may surely be allowed to comfort itself with the foresight of that veneration, which is wrongfully withheld from it when living; but which posterity will pay with interest to its surviving memory. ,Nor is it a small advantage, that by means of their sufferings the righteous may attain a comfortable assurance of their own constancy. Sometimes also adversity is profitable to good men, as it helps to cure them of their remaining imperfections.
III. the righteous mans supports under afflictions.
1. The native strength of his virtue, which enables him to break their forte by opposing to them a firm and constant mind.
2. Religion also lends him a powerful aid. (John Holland.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On v22
Psalms
NO CONDEMNATION
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Psa 34:22.
These words are very inadequately represented in the translation of the Authorised Version. The Psalmist’s closing declaration is something very much deeper than that they who trust in God ‘shall not be desolate.’ If you look at the previous clause, you will see that we must expect something more than such a particular blessing as that:-’The Lord redeemeth the soul of His servants.’ It is a great drop from that thought, instead of being a climax, to follow it with nothing more than, ‘None of them that trust in Him shall be desolate.’ But the Revised Version accurately renders the words: ‘None of them that trust in Him shall be condemned.’ There we have something that is worthy to follow ‘The Lord redeemeth the soul of His servants,’ and we have a most striking anticipation of the clearest and most Evangelical teaching of the New Testament.
The entirely New Testament tone of these words of the psalm comes out still more clearly, if we recognise that, not only in the latter, but in the former, part of the clause, we have one of the very keynotes of New Testament teaching. When we read in the New Testament that ‘we are justified by faith,’ the meaning is precisely the same as that of our text. Thus, however it came about, here is this Psalmist, David or another, standing away back amidst the shadows and symbols and ritualisms of that Old Covenant, and rising at once above all the mists, right up into the sunshine, and seeing, as clearly as we see it nineteen centuries after Jesus Christ, that the way to escape condemnation is simple faith. Let us look at both of the parts of these great words. We consider-
I. The people that are spoken of here.
‘None of them that trust in Him’-I need not, I suppose, further dwell upon the absolute identity shown by this phrase between the Old and the New Testament conceptions; but I should like to make a remark, which I dare say I have often made before-it cannot be made too often-that, whatever be the differences between the Old and the New, this is not the difference, that they present two different ways of approaching God. There are a great many differences; the conception of the divine nature is no doubt infinitely deepened, made more tender and more lofty, by the thought of the Fatherhood of God. The contents of the revelation which our faith is to grasp are brought out far more definitely and articulately and fully in the New Testament. But in the Old, the road to God was the same as it is to-day; and from the beginning there has only been, and through all Eternity there will only be, one path by which men can have access to the Father, and that is by faith. ‘Trust’ is the Old Testament word, ‘faith’ is the New. They are absolutely identical, and there would have been a flood of light-sorely needed by a great many good people-cast upon the relations between those two complementary and harmonious halves of a consistent whole, if our translators had not been influenced by their unfortunate love for varying translations of the same word, but had contented themselves with choosing one of these two words ‘trust’ or ‘faith,’ and had used that one consistently and uniformly throughout the Old and New books. Then we should have understood, what anybody who will open his eyes can see now, that what the New Testament magnifies as ‘faith’ is identical with what the Old Testament sets forth as ‘trust.’ ‘None of them that trust in Him shall be condemned.’
But there is one more remark to make on this matter, and that is that a great flood of light, and of more than light, of encouragement and of stimulus, is cast upon that saving exercise of trust by noticing the literal meaning of the word that is rightly so rendered here. All those words, especially in the Old Testament, that express emotions or acts of the mind, originally applied to corporeal acts or material things. I suppose that is so in all language. It is very conspicuously so in the Hebrew. And the word that is here translated, rightly, ‘trust,’ means literally to fly to a refuge, or to betake oneself to some defence in order to get shelter there.
There is a trace of both meanings, the literal and the metaphorical, in another psalm, where we read, amidst the Psalmist’s rapturous heaping together of great names for God: ‘My Rock, in whom I will trust.’ Now keep to the literal meaning there, and you see how it flashes up the whole into beauty: ‘My Rock, to whom I will flee for refuge,’ and put my back against it, and stand as impregnable as it; or get myself well into the clefts of it, and then nothing can touch me.
‘Rock of Ages! cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in Thee.’
Then we find the same words, with the picture of flight and the reality of faith, used with another set of associations in another psalm, which says: ‘He shall cover thee with His feathers, and under His wings shalt thou trust.’ That grates, one gets away from the metaphor too quickly; but if we preserve the literal meaning, and read, ‘under His wings shalt thou flee for refuge,’ we have the picture of the chicken flying to the mother-bird when kites are in the sky, and huddling close to the warm breast and the soft downy feathers, and so with the spread of the great wing being sheltered from all possibility of harm. This psalm is ascribed to David when he was in hiding. The superscription says that it is ‘a psalm of David, when he changed his behaviour before Abimelech; who drove him away, and he departed.’ And where did he go? To the cave in the rock. And as he sat in the mouth of it, with the rude arch stretching above him, like the wings of some great bird, feeling himself absolutely safe, he said, ‘None of them that take refuge in Thee shall be condemned.’
Does not that metaphor teach us a great deal more of what faith is, and encourage us far more to exercise it, than much theological hair-splitting? What lies in the metaphor? Two things, the earnest eagerness of the act of flight, and the absolute security which comes when we have reached the shadow of the great Rock in a weary land.
But there is one thing more that I would notice, and that is that this designation of the persons as ‘them that trust in Him’ follows last of all in a somewhat lengthened series of designations for good people. They are these: ‘the righteous’-’them that are of a broken heart’-’such as be of a contrite spirit’-’His servants,’ and then, lastly, comes, as basis of all, as, so to speak, the keynote of all, ‘none of them that trust in Him.’ That is to say-righteousness, true and blessed pulverising of the obstinate insensibility of self alienated from God, true and blessed consciousness of sin, joyful surrender of self to loving and grateful submission to God’s will, are all connected with or flow from that act of trust in Him. And if you are trusting in Him, in anything more than the mere formal, dead way in which multitudes of nominal Christians in all our congregations are doing so, your trust will produce all these various fruits of righteousness, and lowliness, and joyful service. ‘Faith’ or ‘trust’ is the mother of all graces and virtues, and it produces them all because it directly kindles the creative flame of an answering love to Him in whom we trust. So much, then, for the first part of my remarks. Consider, next-
II. The blessing here promised.
‘None of them that trust in Him shall be condemned.’ The word which is inadequately rendered ‘desolate,’ and more accurately ‘condemned,’ includes the following varying shades of meaning, which, although they are various, are all closely connected, as you will see-to incur guilt, to feel guilty, to be condemned, to be punished. All these four are inextricably blended together. And the fact that the one word in the Old Testament covers all that ground suggests some very solemn thoughts.
First of all, it suggests this, that guilt, or sin, and condemnation and punishment, are, if not absolutely identical, inseparable. To be guilty is to be condemned. That is to say, since we live, as we do, under the continual grip of an infinitely wise and all-knowing law, and in the presence of a Judge who not only sees us as we are, but treats us as He sees us-sin and guilt go together, as every man knows that has a conscience. And sin and guilt and condemnation and punishment go together, as every man may see in the world, and experience in himself. To be separated from God, which is the immediate effect of sin, is to pass into hell here. ‘Every transgression and disobedience,’ not only ‘shall receive its just recompense,’ away out yonder, in some misty, far-off, hypothetical future, but down here to-day. All sin works automatically, and to do wrong is to be punished for doing it.
Then my text suggests another solemn thought, and that is that this judgment, this condemnation, is not only present, according to our Lord’s own great words, which perhaps are an allusion to these: ‘He that believeth not is condemned already’; but it also suggests the universality of that condemnation. Our Psalmist says that only through trusting Him can a man be taken and lifted away, as it were, from the descent of the thundercloud, and its bolt that lies above his head. ‘They that trust Him are not condemned,’ every one else is; not ‘shall be,’ but is, to-day, here and now. If there is a man or woman in my audience now who is not exercising trust in God through Jesus Christ, on that man or woman, young or old, cultivated or uncultivated, professing Christian or not, there is bound the burden of their sin, which is the crushing weight of their condemnation.
So my text suggests, that the sole deliverance from this universal pressure of the condemnatory influence of universal sin lies in that fleeing for refuge to God. And then comes in the Christian addition, ‘to God, as manifested in Jesus Christ.’ The Psalmist did not know that. All the more wonderful is it that without the knowledge he should have risen to the great thought of our text-all the more inexplicable unless you believe that ‘holy men of old spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.’
Wonderful it is still, but not unintelligible, if you believe that. But you and I know more than this singer did; for we can listen to the Master, who says, ‘He that believeth on Him is not condemned’; and to the servant who echoes-and perhaps both of them are alluding to our psalm-’There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.’ My faith, if it knits me to Jesus Christ, unties the bonds by which my sin is bound upon me, for it makes me to share in His Spirit, in His righteousness, in His glory.
And so, dear brethren! the Psalmist, though he did not know it, may point us away to the truth hidden from him, but sunlight clear for us, that by simple trust we may receive the Saviour through whom all our condemnation will pass away, and may be found in Him having the ‘righteousness which is of God by faith.’
‘Not condemned’-Is that all? Are the blessings of the Gospel all to be reduced to this mere negative expression? Certainly not. The Psalmist could have said a great deal more, and in the previous context he does say a great deal more. But to that restrained and moderate statement of the case, which is far less than the facts of the case, ‘he that trusteth is not condemned,’ let us add Paul’s expansion, ‘whom He called them He also justified, and whom He justified them He also glorified.’
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On vv20, 22 He keepeth
He keepeth
See Exo 12:46; Joh 19:36
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v21 Evil will kill the wicked
Evil will kill the wicked
Evil is described as if it were a man who can kill people. AT: "The evil deeds of wicked people will kill them" (See: Personification)
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the wicked
This refers to wicked people. (See: Nominal Adjectives)
Those who hate the righteous will be condemned
This can be stated in active form. AT: "Yahweh will condemn those who hate the righteous" (See: Active or Passive)
the righteous
This refers to righteous people. (See: Nominal Adjectives)
None of those who take refuge in him will be condemned
This can be stated in active form. It can also be stated in positive form. AT: "Yahweh will forgive everyone who takes refuge in him" (See: Active or Passive and Litotes)
take refuge in him
Going to Yahweh for protection is spoken of as taking refuge in him. AT: "go to him for protection" (See: Metaphor)
translationWords
evil
condemn
servant
refuge
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 vv19–20 34:19-22 The godly might suffer, but the Lord will…
34:19-22 The godly might suffer, but the Lord will reward them in the end. Similarly, the wicked might prosper for a time, but ultimately they will perish (1:6; 34:15-16).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.