Psalm 34

Updated
2001-05-26; 14:33:29utc

The thirty-fourth psalm is the second acrostic in the Book of Psalms. Each of the twenty-two verses begins with a consecutive letter of the Hebrew alphabet. The only irregularities are between the verses 5 and 6 where the letter vau is omitted, and at the last verse. For the latter Adam Clarke's Commentary has a satisfactory explanation. He believes that the word "redeems" should be read as "shall redeem," which begins with the last letter of the alphabet. George Knight, in his Commentary on the Psalms, believes that the psalm was written for young people who were required to learn the psalm by heart. The alphabetization would be a help with this. He thinks that the historical reference in the heading of the psalm is an addition from the fourth century before Christ. He bases this supposition on the use of some "modern words" in the psalm, words which would not have been in use yet in David's days. It is not clear to me how such a supposition can be proved scientifically. I hold to the fact that this psalm was in fact written on the occasion of David's flight from Saul, which is recorded in I Samuel.^¹ The fact that in the account in I Samuel we read about Achish, and in the heading of this psalm about Abimelech, which means "The Father is King," should not be a problem, since Abimelech was, most likely, not the name of a person, but a title, like the Pharaoh in Egypt.

In I Samuel 21 David flees permanently from Saul. His life had been in danger before, but this time there would be no return; this threat was more serious than the first one. He had said to his friend Jonathan: "Yet as surely as the LORD lives and as you live, there is only a step between me and death."² David is in panic when he flees this time. He first goes to the priest Ahimelech in Nob to whom he tells a fictitious story of a secret mission which he supposedly had to accomplish for Saul. In doing this he endangers the lives of all the priests in Nob, and then he goes to Gath, the birthplace of Goliath to ask for asylum. Too late he realizes that he has entered the lions' den. He tries to save his life by acting like a lunatic.

David's conduct poses all kinds of ethical questions that are difficult to answer. He told outright lies, both to Ahimelech, the priest of Nob, and to King Achish. And Ahimelech was his friend. It is clear from this that David's relationship with God, at this point, was not what it should have been. He had no tender conscience towards God. His eating of the consecrated bread had also been a dubious matter,³ although Jesus seems to defend David's conduct in this affair when He said: "Haven't you read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? He entered the house of God, and he and his companions ate the consecrated bread-- which was not lawful for them to do, but only for the priests."⁴ We can say, though, that David certainly was not blameless when he wrote this psalm. When God saved him from the dangerous situation in which he found himself, it was not because he was innocent. God saved him because he was a sinner, not a saint. Nothing of what David had done could be classified as intentional sin. All of it was the result of the pressure of circumstances. This is the great difference between this psalm and Psalm 3. In this psalm David was dumb and inexperienced. He had not placed himself under God's protection, and that was the reason he found himself caught in the snares of the enemy. We cannot draw the lesson from this that it is not important to have a clear conscience, but we may conclude, and this is the important message of this psalm, that, if we fail morally, we have no reason to remain lying on the ground. We should never, never, give in to the devil's declaration that all is lost when we fall. Surrendering to Satan's deception ought to be inconceivable to us. This psalm has to be read against this background of forgiveness and rehabilitation. It gives a deeper meaning to the word grace. David certainly did not deserve to be saved.

Apart from the fact that I believe in the inspiration of Scripture, I do accept the title of this psalm as part of it, exactly because it is so surprising. In the situation in which David found himself, we would expect anything but this outburst of praise. David himself draws the line that places his present situation in the right perspective in connection with the rest of his life, by using the words: "at all times." This determines the mode of his existence on earth. He has come to the conclusion that, if God can save him from the kind of situations in which he finds himself, the praise of the Lord should be the main characteristic of his life. We do not know whether he was really able to maintain this level of praise consistently, but we find more notes of praise in the Bible from the pen of David, than from anybody else. With the resolve "I will extol the LORD at all times; his praise will always be on my lips," David places himself, so to speak, in the heavenly places. He sounds like the "four living creatures," and the "twenty-four elders" in the book of Revelation.⁵ It is overwhelming to realize that God is able to create such a sublime situation out of the condition of a weak, fearful, and dubious reaction of a refugee; a situation, which was the result of his own failures.

Next to the phrase "at all times" the word "always" draws our attention. This does not leave any room for changing moods. It presupposes a constant flow of praise, which is not bound to circumstances. It is a proven fact that determined praising of God in difficult situations has a liberating effect upon us, and it often gives the key to spiritual victory. James' advice: "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds,"⁶ should set the tone for the way we live. Boasting in the Lord is a New Testament concept that has gained depth in Paul's writings: "Therefore, as it is written: 'Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.' "⁷ It means, in the first place, that we do not take recourse of anything of ourselves to build a reputation for ourselves in this world. We will avoid projecting an "image" that would draw attention to ourselves and would give us a certain status among our peers. It is the essence of self denial, as Jesus taught His disciples: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me."⁸ Positively it means that we lean on the Lord Jesus Christ for the projection of our image in this world. We say to God: "If I am to occupy a place of any importance in this life, and if I am to do anything that has importance, You will have to bring this about." Nobody can live without some kind of boasting. God has created us in such a way that we need to be honored and respected. He allows us to use His honor and respect for ourselves. The implications of this are hard for us to imagine.

David must have been deeply shocked by his experience in Achish' court. The phrase "let the afflicted hear and rejoice," is variously translated as "the humble shall hear thereof, and be glad (KJV), or "The meek shall hear thereof, and be glad" (ASV), or "Let all who are discouraged take heart" (TLB). The word Hebrew word `anaawiym translated with "afflicted" has the opposite meaning of boasting. It is a form of `anav, which Strong Definitions describe as "depressed (figuratively), in mind (gentle) or circumstances (needy, especially saintly)." It has the same connotation as "the brokenhearted" in vs. 18. David does not speak about pious people, but about those who are irreparably wounded in their souls. David says, on the basis of his own experience, that there is hope for those whose spirit is crushed.

It is true that God does not crush His children spiritually. David had withdrawn from under the canopy of God's protection, and, consequently, he had started to slide and fall, and he ended up in a situation that looked hopeless. The devil was immediately on the spot to take advantage of this predicament. God's intervention, this resurrection from the dead, saved David from oppression. With the phrase: "let the afflicted hear and rejoice," David wants us to understand that our relationship with God should be strengthened by the reality of our experiences with Him. In this case it is the experience of others. Ultimately, our faith is based upon the experiences of our Lord Jesus Christ. Our own experiences with the Lord may strengthen our trust in Him, but they are not essential in the sense that they bring about our salvation. We are saved by the experiences Jesus had as a man in His relationship with the Father. This determines the healing of our crushed spirit. That brings the boasting into our lives. Thus David invites us into the fellowship of those who glorify the LORD, and let us exalt His name. His own great deliverance, and ours form the basis of this fellowship.

David prays to God while he fakes insanity. If I were God, I would have told David to first act normally. But God, evidently, answers David while he plays the crazy man. Achish' words: "Look at the man! He is insane! Why bring him to me? Am I so short of madmen that you have to bring this fellow here to carry on like this in front of me? Must this man come into my house?"⁹ were, obviously, inspired by the Holy Spirit.

The group of people David addresses in vs. 5 is the same as in the verses 2 and 3: "the afflicted," that is the broken hearted ones. Their healing is brought about in that they who "look to him are radiant; their faces are never covered with shame." The fact that they will not be covered with shame suggests faith in something that is invisible on earth. The Apostle Peter establishes the same connection between faith and the absence of shame when he writes: "For in Scripture it says: 'See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame.' "¹⁰ We should take another look at the tremendous transition between the brokenness of heart of a person and the look of radiance on his face. One glance at the face of the Lord brings about this transformation. Paul speaks of "the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ," when he writes to the Corinthians: "For God, who said, 'Let light shine out of darkness,' made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ."¹¹ That is what David is saying here also. It is "the knowledge of the glory of God" that makes us radiant, and brings about healing.

This radiance is a form of testimony to others. We have no control over this since we cannot radiate at will, as we would turn on a switch. It is in the measure that we see the Lord that our lives reflect some of His radiance.

David describes himself as "this poor man" when he flees for his life, away from Saul. It is hard for us to imagine how an outcast would feel. "Poor man" seems to be a mild expression. David had come out from under the protection of the law of the state of Israel to come under the protection of the Almighty. His act of lunacy in front of Achish was not a sly ruse, but an act of despair. Evidently, he acted convincingly, since they let him go. This, however, is not as normal as it seems. The Philistines were unscrupulous, and killing a lunatic would have caused no moral conflict for them, especially if this pertained to an Israelite. The fact that they let David go is an indication of God's intervention. David's fear of death was the cause of his oppression. The writer to the Hebrews puts his finger on this problem when he says: "that by [Christ's] death he might destroy him who holds the power of death-- that is, the devil-- and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death."¹² The devil uses our fear of death to hold us in slavery. God delivers us, first of all, from this fear.

Vs. 7 reads: "The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear him, and he delivers them." We know very little about angels, who are ambassadors of the invisible world. David says more than that they are invisible creatures who keep watch over us. He uses the term "The angel of the LORD," which designates our Lord Jesus Christ, the Second Person of the Trinity. David cannot have understood the exact meaning of the words he used. He may have been aware of the fact that the Holy Spirit urged him to use an exceptional term. What he meant to say was that there was more involved than the presence of angels; how much more, he cannot have known. We ourselves, for whom the whole truth has been written down in Scripture, have little understanding of what it means: "Christ in you, the hope of glory."¹³ We should interpret David's words, in the first place, as a prophecy about the dispensation in which we live. God protects us with the resurrection life of His own Son. This means more than help in difficult circumstances.

With the phrase: "Taste and see that the LORD is good," David appeals to our senses. He says that God's goodness can be appreciated by our five senses. Neo Orthodoxy also teaches that God is good, but that we can only accept this fact in blind faith, because the facts of life do not substantiated this. But David tells us that God's goodness is noticeable by anyone. This does not make God's goodness into a mere subjective experience. We cannot say that all we eat is a matter of taste alone. Food is an objective substance, whether we like the taste of it or not. Subjectivity is not excluded, but it cannot exist without the objective substance; so it is with the tasting and in the seeing of the goodness of the Lord. "Taste" pre-supposes eating and enjoying, but also being fed, and staying alive, being nourished, and built up by what we eat. If we taste the goodness of the Lord, this goodness will become part of us. God is good. Jesus confirms this by saying to the rich young man: "No one is good-- except God alone."¹⁴ Goodness is God's exclusive attribute which no man possesses unless he is in fellowship with Him. We often tend to project our human malice and hostility upon God. David had a personal experience of God's goodness, and he invites us to experience this goodness in our own lives. Such an experience convinces us of God's goodness. It is the presence of evil in this world that will often make us lose the trail of God's goodness, and make us hold God responsible for the existence of evil. The French author Beaudelaire even came to the conclusion: "If there is a God, He is the devil!"¹⁵