Psalms 34:1-13

Psalm 34 ¹ 

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 

34:2 I will boast ⁵  in the Lord;

let the oppressed hear and rejoice! ⁶ 

34:3 Magnify the Lord with me!

Let’s praise ⁷  his name together!

34:4 I sought the Lord’s help ⁸  and he answered me;

he delivered me from all my fears.

34:5 Those who look to him for help are happy;

their faces are not ashamed. ⁹ 

34:6 This oppressed man cried out and the Lord heard;

he saved him ¹⁰  from all his troubles.

34:7 The Lord’s angel camps around

the Lord’s ¹¹  loyal followers ¹²  and delivers them. ¹³ 

34:8 Taste ¹⁴  and see that the Lord is good!

How blessed ¹⁵  is the one ¹⁶  who takes shelter in him! ¹⁷ 

34:9 Remain loyal to ¹⁸  the Lord, you chosen people of his, ¹⁹ 

for his loyal followers ²⁰  lack nothing!

34:10 Even young lions sometimes lack food and are hungry,

but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.

34:11 Come children! Listen to me!

I will teach you what it means to fear the Lord. ²¹ 

34:12 Do you want to really live? ²² 

Would you love to live a long, happy life? ²³ 

34:13 Then make sure you don’t speak evil words ²⁴ 

or use deceptive speech! ²⁵ 

[34:1]  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.

[34:1]  ² tn Heb “By David, when he changed his sense before Abimelech and he drove him away and he went.”

[34:1]  ³ tn Heb “bless.”

[34:1]  ⁴ tn Heb “continually [will] his praise [be] in my mouth.”

[34:2]  ⁵ tn Heb “my soul will boast”; or better, “let my soul boast.” Following the cohortative form in v. 1, it is likely that the prefixed verbal form here is jussive.

[34:2]  ⁶ tn The two prefixed verbal forms in this verse are best taken as jussives, for the psalmist is calling his audience to worship (see v. 3).

[34:3]  ⁷ tn Or “exalt.”

[34:4]  ⁸ tn Heb “I sought the Lord.”

[34:5]  ⁹ tc Heb “they look to him and are radiant and their faces are not ashamed.” The third person plural subject (“they”) is unidentified; there is no antecedent in the Hebrew text. For this reason some prefer to take the perfect verbal forms in the first line as imperatives, “look to him and be radiant” (cf. NEB, NRSV). Some medieval Hebrew mss and other ancient witnesses (Aquila, the Syriac, and Jerome) support an imperatival reading for the first verb. In the second line some (with support from the LXX and Syriac) change “their faces” to “your faces,” which allows one to retain more easily the jussive force of the verb (suggested by the preceding אַל [’al]): “do not let your faces be ashamed.” It is probable that the verbal construction in the second line is rhetorical, expressing the conviction that the action in view cannot or should not happen. See GKC 322 §109.e.

[34:6]  ¹⁰ tn The pronoun refers back to “this oppressed man,” namely, the psalmist.

[34:7]  ¹¹ tn Heb “his”; the referent (the Lord) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[34:7]  ¹² tn Heb “those who fear him.”

[34:7]  ¹³ tn The prefixed verb with vav (ו) consecutive here carries the same generalizing force as the active participle in the first line. See GKC 329 §111.u.

[34:8]  ¹⁴ tn This verb is normally used of tasting or savoring food. The metaphor here appears to compare the Lord to a tasty meal.

[34:8]  ¹⁵ tn The Hebrew noun is an abstract plural. The word often refers metonymically to the happiness that God-given security and prosperity produce (see Pss 1:1, 3; 2:12; 41:1; 65:4; 84:12; 89:15; 106:3; 112:1; 127:5; 128:1; 144:15).

[34:8]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “man.” The principle of the psalm is certainly applicable to all people, regardless of their gender or age. To facilitate modern application, we translate the gender and age specific “man” with the more neutral “one.”

[34:8]  ¹⁷ tn “Taking shelter” in the Lord is an idiom for seeking his protection. Seeking his protection presupposes and even demonstrates the subject’s loyalty to the Lord. In the psalms those who “take shelter” in the Lord are contrasted with the wicked and equated with those who love, fear, and serve the Lord (Pss 2:12; 5:11-12; 31:17-20; 34:21-22).

[34:9]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “fear.”

[34:9]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “O holy ones of his.”

[34:9]  ²⁰ tn Heb “those who fear him.”

[34:11]  ²¹ tn Heb “the fear of the Lord I will teach you.” In vv. 13-14 the psalmist explains to his audience what it means to “fear” the Lord.

[34:12]  ²² tn Heb “Who is the man who desires life?” The rhetorical question is used to grab the audience’s attention. “Life” probably refers here to quality of life, not just physical existence or even duration of life. See the following line.

[34:12]  ²³ tn Heb “[Who] loves days to see good?”

[34:13]  ²⁴ tn Heb “guard your tongue from evil.”

[34:13]  ²⁵ tn Heb “and your lips from speaking deception.”