Psalms 34:1-20

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 

34:14 Turn away from evil and do what is right! ²⁶ 

Strive for peace and promote it! ²⁷ 

34:15 The Lord pays attention to the godly

and hears their cry for help. ²⁸ 

34:16 But the Lord opposes evildoers

and wipes out all memory of them from the earth. ²⁹ 

34:17 The godly ³⁰  cry out and the Lord hears;

he saves them from all their troubles. ³¹ 

34:18 The Lord is near the brokenhearted;

he delivers ³²  those who are discouraged. ³³ 

34:19 The godly ³⁴  face many dangers, ³⁵ 

but the Lord saves ³⁶  them ³⁷  from each one of them.

34:20 He protects ³⁸  all his bones; ³⁹ 

not one of them is broken. ⁴⁰ 

[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.”

[34:14]  ²⁶ tn Or “do good.”

[34:14]  ²⁷ tn Heb “seek peace and pursue it.”

[34:15]  ²⁸ tn Heb “the eyes of the Lord [are] toward the godly, and his ears [are] toward their cry for help.”

[34:16]  ²⁹ tn Heb “the face of the Lord [is] against the doers of evil to cut off from the earth memory of them.”

[34:17]  ³⁰ tn Heb “they” (i.e., the godly mentioned in v. 15).

[34:17]  ³¹ tn The three perfect verbal forms are taken in a generalizing sense in v. 17 and translated with the present tense (note the generalizing mood of vv. 18-22).

[34:18]  ³² tn The Hebrew imperfect verbal form highlights the generalizing statement and draws attention to the fact that the Lord typically delivers the oppressed and needy.

[34:18]  ³³ tn Heb “the crushed in spirit.”

[34:19]  ³⁴ tn The Hebrew text uses the singular form; the representative or typical godly person is envisioned.

[34:19]  ³⁵ tn Or “trials.”

[34:19]  ³⁶ tn The Hebrew imperfect verbal form highlights the generalizing statement and draws attention to the fact that the Lord typically delivers the godly.

[34:19]  ³⁷ tn Heb “him,” agreeing with the singular form in the preceding line.

[34:20]  ³⁸ tn The Hebrew participial form suggests such protection is characteristic.

[34:20]  ³⁹ tn That is, he protects the godly from physical harm.

[34:20]  ⁴⁰ sn Not one of them is broken. The author of the Gospel of John saw a fulfillment of these words in Jesus’ experience on the cross (see John 19:31-37), for the Roman soldiers, when they saw that Jesus was already dead, did not break his legs as was customarily done to speed the death of crucified individuals. John’s use of the psalm seems strange, for the statement in its original context suggests that the Lord protects the godly from physical harm. Jesus’ legs may have remained unbroken, but he was brutally and unjustly executed by his enemies. John seems to give the statement a literal sense that is foreign to its original literary context by applying a promise of divine protection to a man who was seemingly not saved by God. However, John saw in this incident a foreshadowing of Jesus’ ultimate deliverance and vindication. His unbroken bones were a reminder of God’s commitment to the godly and a sign of things to come. Jesus’ death on the cross was not the end of the story; God vindicated him, as John goes on to explain in the following context (John 19:38-20:18).