Psalms 34

Psalms 34:1-22

Jehovah with us, and its consequences in divine government. [A psalm] of David when he changed his behavior before Abimelech, who drove him away and he departed. The thirty-fourth psalm, according to its title, was written when David escaped from Gath, from Achish, here called Abimelech, which seems to have been a common title of the Philistine kings. He had failed sadly, as we know, and as on Philistine ground he always did; and, not honoring Jehovah, had not been honored by Him. This is itself a general principle of divine government, of which the psalm speaks, and which needs little insisting on. Yet God had in mercy delivered him, and he had learned, no doubt, for the time, a lesson from it, though the root of failure, we may well believe, had not been reached. The circumstances seem thus to suit the psalm, though we may be able to point out no precise link of connection between them. The theme of the psalm, as already said, is that Jehovah is at all times to be blessed, for, whatever the circumstances, He abides the unfailing help and sanctification of His people. As Governor of all things, they too are subject to His government, for what blessing every step of the way the subject soul shall realize, but the end shall declare to all.

1. In the first section it is what Jehovah is that fills the heart and mouth. He is and shall be the constant theme of the soul -its perpetual praise. For this “all times” are alike; all seasons have their summer fruit. The exhortation of the apostle in the New Testament agrees with this resolve of the psalmist in the Old Testament: “Rejoice in the Lord alway; and again I will say, Rejoice.” If the eye is fully upon Him, this will be realized. There is a testimony in praise like this, which will be felt. No doubt, it will awaken opposition; but that is not what is spoken of here: it is that the humble will hear, and be glad. “No flesh shall glory in His presence,” and we have need thus to be brought down, to receive testimony of such a character. The heart that is filled with praise will seek associates also in it; and His Name will be common joy: for His Name is but the revelation of Himself. The exhortation to magnify His Name is followed by the experience which makes the text, as it were, of the exhortation. The living God had heard and answered him, and delivered him from all his fears.
2. Now we have this salvation of God, which makes Him known, displayed in its various features. There is first of all in it light, for God is light. Things appear as they are, and we learn to recognize them, -to have truth in the inward parts, and certainty as to the way. And is not an exceptional experience, -it is the universal rule for those that look to Him. They are enlightened; and their faces are never “ashamed.” Confusion as to one’s thoughts and ways naturally leads to confusion of face as to the result. Where the soul truly seeks God, this is impossible; and thus there is provision made for the simplest and poorest, amid all the babble of tongues that the world is witness of. Nor could it be otherwise, God being what He is. Again he recurs to his own deliverance. He in his poverty had been heard and delivered: not simply from his fears now, but in fact. And he will go further and maintain that round about those that fear Jehovah the angel of Jehovah camps: and this is deliverance from all that may come, from any quarter. Then he appeals to men to make the experiment for themselves: let them taste and see that Jehovah is good; for happy is the man (gebher, the strong man, -evidently finding his strength in this) that takes refuge in Him. And then His saints are exhorted to His fear: there is no want to them that fear Him. Finally this is affirmed in the fullest way with regard to those who seek Him; the number showing, no doubt, their “mastery” of circumstances, as the parallel, too, implies: for the lions might seem, amid the lesser animals by which they are surrounded, to be masters if any are. Yet they might lack; but not the man who seeks Jehovah.
3. The third section emphasizes the holiness of the Lord in His ways: a holiness to which he must be conformed with whom He goes. As supreme over all, the fear of Him is for His creature the “beginning of wisdom.” A government, to be respected, must first of all he strong; and it is by the exhibition of His power that God humbles Job. He must maintain His place, or all would be lost. We are in His hands, and He will have His way; but then His goodness will make us delight that He should have it. “The fear of Jehovah is clean, enduring forever;” and the psalmist now proposes to instruct men in this fear. If a man wants life, and to see good days, here is the divine preservative for him.

Let him keep, then, his tongue from evil, and his lips from speaking guile. For “out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh,” and the government of the tongue is the sign of the perfect man. (Luke 6:45, James 3:2.) Let him order his walk so as to depart from evil -the negative side -and do good -the positive. Let him seek peace thus, as “the effect of righteousness” (Isaiah 32:17), and earnestly “pursue it.” And the psalmist urges the blessing for the righteous, and the end of the wicked: the first, in the continual favor of Jehovah; the last, to be cut off, even in remembrance. 4. This is the holy way of the Lord, then; and this is the portion of the righteous. True as that is, it is not all the truth. There is trial also, and that for the righteous; and, as he presently acknowledges, even much of it. What then, is the meaning of this? Well, first, that it is in being brought down by it that men cry to God, and learn His delivering grace. And then it is to the broken of heart that He is nigh; and the contrite that He saveth. There is thus abundant reason for all the trial of which the world is full. 5. But that is not recompense: it is really mercy. When we think of recompense, it is true that even the righteous suffer; nay, their afflictions are many; but the principle already given applies to them also, and in result it is not forgotten who they are: deliverance out of all awaits them. Suppose they die even: Jehovah guards their bones, and suffers them not to be broken, -an example of such perfect care, as in the case of the Lord was shown in the fullest way, and under circumstances which mark Him as the absolutely Righteous One. None could claim such care in the same sense as He; and so it became for Him a prophecy that needs must be fulfilled (John 19:36), and that to the letter. To others it applies, one would say, in the spirit of it. The application to the Lord in this way does not, of course, make the psalm as a whole Messianic, but the contrary: everything seems as general as possible, though His unique perfection makes it seem intended for Himself alone. The full realization of these governmental ways of God is given in the last two verses, which manifestly go together as paired opposites, and in a striking way. They remind one of the apostle’s language (Romans 6:23), that “the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” So here the judgment of sin is, as it were, mere congruity: “Evil shall bring death to the wicked; and the haters of the righteous shall bear their guilt.” But the deliverance of the soul of His servants is on Jehovah’s part a true salvation work, -congruous, of course, with His holiness, and yet only by the grace which shines through all: “Jehovah redeemeth the soul of His servants; and none shall bear guilt that take refuge in Him.” Thus fittingly the second series of these remnant psalms is closed.