Psalm 34
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Psalm 34

An in-depth analysis.

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Psalm 34
http://www.desiringgod.org/articles/resolved-to-read-the-bible

In Psalm 34, we hear David’s call to praise the Lord after being rescued from trouble. David not only shares a story of God’s redemption in his life, feeling relief and gratitude for this miraculous escape, but also gives us teaching and instruction on how to live in this world. We are to avoid wickedness, and to pursue righteousness. We learn that if we are able to do these things, God will hear us when we call to him, and will deliver us from calamity.

As seen in its title (the information at the top of the psalm), the context of this psalm is found in 1 Samuel 21, where David pretended to be insane before Abimelech, and then left in safety. This is one of thirteen Psalms that gives us the context as an experience in David’s life, and with this, we are able to have a more concrete picture of the type of deliverance that God provides. We see that David’s life was threatened by Abimelech, but that he was able to get away safely. Therefore, David received direct help from God through an answered prayer. The passage in 1 Samuel does not mention David asking God for help, but that he gives all the credit to God for his rescue. God acted on his behalf, and he wants to bring praise to God. There is an emphasis on fear/reverence to the Lord, as this is the reason for his deliverance.

This psalm's purpose is for people to learn from David’s experience, and to share in his joy. He vows to praise, and teaches us that there is wisdom in godliness. It is instruction for this world, that we are to be righteous, and it’s also warning against being wicked. He teaches that if we do these things and praise the Lord, we will be filled with true joy. It aims to give God credit for the rescue, to encourage others, and give hope.

Psalm 34 has many interesting traits in regards to structure. It is written as an alphabetic acrostic, its verses beginning with the successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet. In doing this, this psalm covers the subject from A to Z and seeks to wrest some kind of coherence out of the variety and seeming disconnectedness of the experiences of everyday life. This psalm can be seen as to have a chiastic structure, with the outside parts being on deliverance from distress, and the middle part urging the readers to follow his instructions that will lead to blessings that we can experience in this world, such as joy in life as well as long and happy days.

As a Declarative Praise Psalm, Psalm 34 is written in a time of reorientation from trouble, characterized by a statement of praise, recounting of the past, and the telling to others of the deed God has done. Maintaining these traits, it is written in the form of a testimony rather than thanksgiving. Unlike Psalm 30, another Declarative Praise Psalm, we see that no lines are addressed to God. Rather, they are addressed to other people, and the people are addressed through plural imperatives, emphasizing that this psalm consists of commands that apply to anybody reading this psalm. It begins with an invitation for other people to join him in praise, but we do not actually see David praising God directly in this psalm, further demonstrating that it is a psalm of teaching about the proper human attitude towards God, rather than actually worshipping God in this psalm. Being instructional in this way, it is actually similar to Proverbs. He even addresses those whom he is teaching as his “sons.”

In the first part, we are able to see David praising God from his deliverance. He says in verse 1 that he will extol the LORD at all times, and then goes to say that His praise will always be on his lips. We see synthetic parallelism here in an “A, what’s more, B” structure in that the two lines have the same basic meaning, but in making the second line more personal and practical, it seems to intensify the first line. He commits to praising God continually, in the good times and in the bad times, which is a significant vow of praise. A similar verse is found in 1 Thessalonians 5:18, which says to “give thanks in all circumstances.” Through this New Testament example, we see that praising the LORD at all times and in all circumstances is not only true to the original audience in the Old Testament, but that it is more universal because it still applies to the audience in the New Testament.

In verse 2, David continues this vow of praise, saying that his soul will boast in the LORD, but now also invites others to join in the praise when he says “Let the afflicted hear and rejoice.” Boasting in the LORD means to bring God praise, which echoes the previous verse, while the term soul likely refers to David’s inner being, distinguishing his soul from his physical body. An interesting thing to note is that in many translations, the word “afflicted” is translated as “humble”, but it seems that in this context the latter translation might be more fit, as David is emphasizing how God brought him out of his affliction. We see parallelism here again, once more with an “A, what’s more, B” synthetic structure. We see that it starts with David praising the LORD and then telling others to hear and rejoice with him, demonstrating that God will help out all who are afflicted. It appeals to a larger audience this way, and the third verse also has a similar parallelism, starting with the praise of God, but then becoming more personal in the praise of His Name. His Name is seen as the manifestation of His character, so it goes from abstract to more concrete and understandable for the original reader. The most revealing aspect of this verse might be that the afflicted will hear and “rejoice.” This demonstrates that the goal of this psalm is to show others that joy comes from trusting in God.

In verse 3, we finish the summary of David’s call to praise, leading us to verse 4 where we hear his testimony and reasons for praise. One interesting thing to pay attention to is that verses 4-7 actually shift from first person to third-person plural, which reveals that what God has done for him, he will also do for all those who fear Him. David begins verse 4 by saying that he sought the LORD in his fear. The word for fear here is actually stronger in the original text, and is more like the word “terror”. Therefore, this is meant to be striking to the reader as a moment of intense fear, not just mild anxiety.

This then shifts into the third-person plural in verse 5, saying that those who look to Him are radiant, having their faces never covered in shame. Having radiant faces can be symbolic of being joyful, as we see in Isaiah 60:5 that having a radiant face is associated with a heart swelled with joy. We read about Moses having a radiant face after seeing God, which in the New Testament can then be seen as growing likeness to the LORD, as seen in 2 Corinthians 2:18, which talks about being transformed into God’s glory with unveiled faces. It can be a symbol of transformation.

David goes back into first person again in verse 6, saying that “this poor man called, and the LORD heard him” and saved him. Poor here does not mean not owning many possessions, but rather dependent on God for deliverance. Back into third-person in verse 7, we see that the angel of the LORD delivers those who fear Him. This could mean a term for God himself, or a representative of God. Either way, this would mean that God gives security to those who fear him.

After those verses of thanksgiving, we move into verses of exhortation, characterized more by imperative sentences, or commands. It is no longer about David’s personal testimony, but about how one should fear the LORD. Verse 8 tells the reader to “taste and see that the LORD is good,” and to take refuge in Him. “Tasting” the LORD implies that we should delight in the LORD, and enjoy him. This is the proper attitude to have towards the LORD. There are blessings to this type of attitude, and we see in Hebrews 6:5 that those who have tasted the LORD have been enlightened. In 1 Peter 2, we see that tasting the LORD is put in context with a baby craving spiritual milk, demonstrating that it is the beginning of experiencing God, that after tasting God, a person will want more of Him, because He is good.

In verse 9, David gives the readers the command of fearing the LORD in order to lack nothing. Fear is the key to survival, and having this attitude will ensure safety. This fear is an attitude of reverence for the LORD, which involves following His holy and righteous commands. This is echoed in verse 10, which says that those who seek the LORD lack no good thing. Here we see retribution theology, (which means that righteous people will be blessed, and wicked people will be cursed) in that if a person is to have the right attitude towards God, he or she will receive every good thing.

In verse 11, David refers to the listeners as his children, which is similar to other wisdom literature, like the Proverbs, which are from a father to a son. He is clearly instructing in this way, as he says that he will teach them the fear of the LORD. In verse 12, we see that this wisdom is meant to teach how to live in this world, to live a good life, as opposed to teaching about how to live towards the afterlife. We see here that David is giving advice to those who love life and desire to live long lives. Long lives to the original Israelite audience meant a blessed and complete life here on this earth. David tells them in verse 13 that in order to achieve this, they should keep their tongues from evil, and not to tell lies. Here we further see retribution theology when David is claiming that those who do evil are less likely to live prosperous lives here on this earth.

Furthermore in verse 13, we see contrast to those evil mentioned earlier in learning that God’s eyes are on the righteous, and his ears attentive to their cry. It is interesting that God is said to have ears and eyes, as He is incorporeal, having no body. To claim that God hears and pays attention to us and takes us seriously is truly a remarkable claim, demonstrating that the LORD is a personal God. This is directly correlated to the outcome of being evil in verse 16, which says that the LORD’s face is against those who do evil, and that He will cut off the memory of them from the earth. The readers are supposed to understand that they must be righteous then to be blessed by God, and that there are terrible consequences to being evil. This bounces right back to contrasting the wicked with the righteous in verse 17 that God hears the righteous and delivers from troubles. In saying this, David is saying that God had delivered him earlier because he is righteous, and that his example of righteousness should be followed, since the outcome is of being righteous is being blessed.

Verse 18 is a key verse, and it is more personal, saying that the LORD is close to the brokenhearted, saving the crushed in spirit. This would resonate with readers who feel this way, as they can seek comfort from God. This implies that God is in relation with the righteous. An interesting thing here is that David does not deny that righteous people can have their hearts broken, or be crushed in spirit. He simply says that although this does happen, that there is blessing despite this, and that God will ultimately still be with them. He can mend the broken hearts, but he will not always prevent the hearts from breaking. He can restore the spiritually crushed, but will not necessarily crush the forces that create oppression. He therefore must realize that there is a level of bad that will come to both the righteous and to the wicked. How a person responds to this affliction is the true test of a person’s character. A person is supposed to call out to the LORD in these times of broken heartedness and trouble, and if they do this, David says, he or she will be blessed.

Verse 19, continues this thought, as it says that “A righteous man may have many troubles, but the LORD delivers him from them all.” We can see here that God is a Warrior, and that He will deliver a righteous person from trouble. A key word here is “all,” in that God will rescue the righteous from all troubles. That is a bold statement, really showing retribution theology at work. This can perhaps most clearly be seen in the next verse though, saying that not one bone of the righteous will be broken. This is alluded to in John’s gospel, when John says that this is prophesying Jesus’ death. John is claiming that Jesus, as the most righteous man, is whom this verse is referring to.

After this we hear once more a warning from being wicked in verse 21, when David writes that “evil will slay the wicked,” and that the foes of the righteous will be condemned. Condemned here means to be dealt with as guilty, as they clearly are in the wrong if they are opposing the righteous. We see this in Jeremiah 2:3, as Israel is holy and its enemies were guilty and disaster overtook them. Therefore, the reader is supposed to read this and realize that they should refrain from doing evil, or else they may die. They may even read this and think they should seek to be righteous, and perhaps their enemies will then be condemned. The evil will face retribution and cursing, so it is important to live a righteous life. The final verse in Psalm 34, verse 22, is a reminder to then take refuge in the LORD, for then there will be security.

In this psalm, David was able to use his personal experiences to demonstrate that God helps the righteous, and therefore to instructs others to live holy and righteous lives. He points out that there are negative consequences for being wicked, and that God will redeem the righteous that are dealing with struggle. He sees the world to have a clear structure of consequences from doing good and evil, and urges the readers to trust in the LORD for true joy and peace.

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This article has not been reviewed by Odyssey HQ and solely reflects the ideas and opinions of the creator.
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