Psalms 34

Psalms 34:1-10

This psalm was penned upon a particular occasion, as appears by the title. 1. He praises God for the experience which he had of his goodness, ver. 1—6. 2. He encourages God’s people to trust in him, ver. 7—10. 3. He cautions all to take hold of sin, and make conscience of duty, ver. 11—14. 4. To enforce this, he shows God’s favour to the righteous, and his dishonesty against the wicked, ver. 15—22.

¶ A psalm of David, when he changed his behaviour before Abimelech: who drove him away, and he departed.

1. WILL bles the LORD at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth. 2. My soul shall make her death in the LORD: the humble shall hear thereof, and be glad. 3. O magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt his name together. 4. I sought the LORD, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears. 5. They looked unto him, and were lightened: and their faces were not ashamed. 6. This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him; and saved him out of all his troubles. 7. The angel of the LORD encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivered them. 8. O’ safe, and see, that the LORD is good: blessed is the man that tristeth in him. 9. O fear the LORD, ye his saints: for there is no want to them that fear him. 10. The young lion do lack and suffer hunger: but they that lack the LORD shall not want any good thing.

Abimelech was the Philistine king called Achish, 1 Sem. xxi. 10. to whoever court David, in his desperate circumstances, flew for refuge, and there ran the most imminent danger of being destroyed by the suggestions of the courtiers. By feigning himself an idiot, a device which was not perhaps altogether justifiable, he escaped; however, the hand of God was evident, and the deliverance deserved a song of praise.

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2. He professeth his fixed purpose, at all times, and in all places, to be shewing forth God’s praise; both as the grateful tribute he owed, and that other humble men in distress might hear and be glad, encouraged by his mercies to hope for help and deliverance. In the Lord he will heath, ascribing all to him, and counting his interest in his favour the greatest and most invaluable acquisition.

3. He labours to excite others to join him in the work of praise, enabling and magnifying God’s holy name. And good reason was there for so doing: great was his distress, an exile in an enemy’s country; his life in danger; but he could be in no place, where a throne of grace was not open: thither he dies, tells his compassionate Lord of all his fear, and is heard and holpen. Nor was his case singular; multitudes, like himself, had prayed, and were lightened, their darkness of soul dispelled, and their distressful circumstances cleared up: nor did ever God refuse the means, who thus were found waiting upon him. This past man, probably he means himself, in the abject state to which he was reduced, or some other lowly faint, cried, and instant help appeared, v. 9. Angelic hosts disdain not the employment of muniting to the heirs of faltration, but, happy in obedience to their Lord’s commands, encamp around them. Thus God delivers his people from every danger, and they are bound to bless and praise him. Note, (1.) Though we may sometimes be in fear, God will not suffer us to fall. (2.) God abuts, by a sense of his returning favour, brighten up the countenance of the dejected. (3.) None ever waited upon him, and went away from a throne of grace disappointed. (4.) It angels are our guard, yea, if the God of angels be with us, we need not fear what men or devils can do against us.

4. He invites all to soils and for that the Lord is good, to come and partake of the riches of his mercy in Christ, so freely offered, and so richly bestowed on the sinful sons of men. Blessed is the man that trespasseth in him, accepts the gracious invitation, and rests on his merciful goodness for pardon, grace, and glory.

5. He exhorts his faints to fear him, v. 9. for his goodness take, engaged thereby to more dutiful submission and service; and surely their interest in highly concerned in so doing, for there is no want to them that fear him. As much of this world’s good as is advantageous for them, shall be given them; but especially the spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus, in all their rich abundance, shall be their happy portion. Thus, always the sons hunger, through the scarcity of prey; or, figuratively, the covetous and ravenous oppressor is reduced to want; God’s people shall be fed to the full, their soul and body both replenished, and nothing wanting to make them truly and abidingly happy.

6. Come ye children, hearken unto me: ‘I will teach you the fear of the LORD. 12. ‘What man is he that deseth life, and loveth many days, that he may see good? 13. ‘Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips from speaking guile. 14. ‘Depart from evil, and do good: ‘Seek peace and pursue it. 15. ‘The eyes of the LORD are upon the righteous, and his ears are open unto their cry. 16. ‘The face of the LORD is against them that do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth. 17. ‘The righteous cry, and the LORD heareth, and delivereth them out of all their troubles. 18. ‘The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart: and saveth such as be of a concrete spirit. 19. ‘Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the LORD delivereth him out of them all. 20. He keepeth all his bones: ’not one of them is broken. 21. ‘Evil shall slay the wicked: and they that hate the righteous shall be deisolate. 22. The LORD redeemeth the soul of his servants: and none of them that trust in him shall be desolate.’

Psalms 34:11-22

David was not only a great king, a mighty warriour, a sweet musician, but a holy preacher, and we here enjoy some of his divine instructions.

1. He begins with the first principles for his children’s instruction, the fear of God, which is the beginning of wisdom. The children here spoken of were his subjects, or young persons in general, or more particularly those, whose tractable tempers rendered them attentive to the lessons he should teach. Note, (1.) It is the greatest mercy, when children from earliest infancy are instructed in the word of God. (2.) Negligent powers and matters will have a heavy charge to answer in the day of God, if, for lack of knowledge, their children and servants perish.

2. He answers the enquirers into the path of life and happiness, v. 12, with full instructions, v. 13, 14, by observing which we may secure not only all the comfort that this miserable world is capable of affording, but infinitely more, even a life of glory and happiness eternal. Keep thy tongue from evil; under the influence of divine grace, let all thy words be directed, that no cor. Vol. I.

rupt communication, nothing profane, lewd, malicious, censorious, may proceed out of thy mouth, but such as it is to the use of edifying; and thy lips from pleasing guile: let all your dealings be with integrity, that no man go beyond or defraud his brother in any matter; and that your speech may be ever the language of your hearts. Depart from evil, as the abominable thing which God hates; let no allowed iniquity be indulged; avoid the perils, and then the places, that would be a share to you; and do good, the works of faith, and labours of love, that are truly good, as proceeding from the right principle, guided by God’s word, the right rule, and directed to God’s glory, the right end. Seek peace, in such a kind, affectionate, and obliging temper and conduct, as may justly give some offence; and pursue it: if, through the pride and perversons of others, the bond of peace is broken, though offended, be the first to seek reconciliation, ready to forgive and forget every provocation and injury. Blessed and happy are they who have thus their convertation in the world.

3. He enforces the holy ways he recommends by their blessed issue to those who follow them, and by the misery of those who forsake them.

(1.) Great is the blessedness of the righteous. (1.) God takes the greatest complacency in them, v. 12; whilst cloathed with the righteousness of his dear Son, they appear without spur or blemish, and adorned with the graces of his holy Spirit, are all glorious within. (2.) He is ever attentive to their prayers. The tenderest parent never hears the lispings of his darling son with such readiness to pray, or feels such bowels of compassion for his means, when afflicted or hurt, as God does towards his children: no prayer is unnoticed, no groan unheard, no request denied. (3.) He is nigh to them that are of a broken heart; whether sin or suffering, or both, be the cause, he is near to help and heal them; and the concrete spirit feels the balms of his grace poured in at every wound. (4.) Though their afflictions be many, v. 19, as well as heavy, and such are often the lot of God’s dearest children, yet he never leaves them to look under them. Whether they be wants of body, or distress of soul, the Lord delivereth them out of all, strangle to sometimes working for them by his providence, and manifesting more astonishingly to them the wonders of his grace. (5.) A peculiar care is over the righteous: not a loss of him shall be broken, which may emphatically be referred to our righteous Head, and, in a more general sense, to every faithful soul, whose concerns of every sort are in the hands of a faithful guardian. (6.) Their eternity is secured: The Lord redeemeth the souls of his servants; the price is paid in the blood of Jesus; and whatever distresses or temptations they may be yet exposed to, his redemption is eternal, and therefore the refuse as sure from the power of corruption, as from the guilt of sin; and none that trust in him shall be desolate, or guilty, or damned. God hath justified them from all things; they shall never enter into condemnation, and therefore no fears of death or judgment need make their spirits disconsolate: no one shall be lost of all the parachute remnant, but they shall come with Jesus in the day of his appearing, to grace his triumphs, and to be everlasting trophies of his victory.

[2.] Deplorable is the end of the ungodly. The face of the Lord is agony them that do evil; his curle follows them as their shadow, embitters all their comforts, takes off their wheels, when most eager in their pursuit of carnal joy, and impresses a bitterness, that only the heart which feels it, knows. The stroke of God’s judgments purifies them, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth. Evil shall slay the wicked; the sting of death, the wages of sin, shall pierce them; sickness and pain, beyond the power of medicine to alluge, shall torment the wretched body; and bitterer anguish in their minds, and dark forebodings of approaching judgment, more terribly distressed their souls; till the awful hour comes, their eyes are fixed, convulsions seize them, and in a groan they expire. Happy for them if death ended there; but they that hate the righteous shall be desolate, or guilty, or damned: as they shunned them and their ways on earth, an eternal separation shall part them at death. Guilt, with all its horrors, shall go down with them into the grave; and at the day when body and soul must be again united, their damnation subliceth not: eternal desitations are determined upon them; abandoned of God, and driven from his pretence with wrath intolerable to bear, yet impossible to escape, into that place of torment, where the worms doth not, and the fire is not quenched.

If such blessedness then attends the ways of grace and holiness; if such miseries await the paths of evil; shall we madly spurn our mercies, and court our ruin? God forbid!