Written by David, when he pretended to be insane before Abimelech, causing the king to send him away. 2
34:1 I will praise 3 the Lord at all times;
my mouth will continually praise him. 4
3:1 Therefore, if you have been raised with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.
1:17 He himself is before all things and all things are held together 5 in him.
1:18 He is the head of the body, the church, as well as the beginning, the firstborn 6 from among the dead, so that he himself may become first in all things. 7
1 sn Psalm 34. In this song of thanksgiving the psalmist praises God for delivering him from distress. He encourages others to be loyal to the Lord, tells them how to please God, and assures them that the Lord protects his servants. The psalm is an acrostic; vv. 1-21 begin with successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet. (Verse 6 begins with the letter he (ה) and v. 7 with the letter zayin (ז). The letter vav (ו), which comes between ה and ז, seems to be omitted, although it does appear at the beginning of v. 6b. The final verse of the psalm, which begins with the letter pe (פ), is outside the acrostic scheme.
2 tn Heb “By David, when he changed his sense before Abimelech and he drove him away and he went.”
3 tn Heb “bless.”
4 tn Heb “continually [will] his praise [be] in my mouth.”
5 tn BDAG 973 s.v. συνίστημι B.3 suggests “continue, endure, exist, hold together” here.
6 tn See the note on the term “firstborn” in 1:15. Here the reference to Jesus as the “firstborn from among the dead” seems to be arguing for a chronological priority, i.e., Jesus was the first to rise from the dead.
7 tn Grk “in order that he may become in all things, himself, first.”