Psalms 34:1-4

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.

[34:1]  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.”