Psalm 34 Commentary
The psalmist makes bold claims about the LORD, his God.
He prayed to the LORD, and the LORD answered him. He freed him from all his fears.
Further, the oppressed look to Him and are never disappointed.
Indeed, these are bold claims. So he invites his audience to “Find out for yourself how good the LORD is”.
The core message of the gospel is an invitation to “taste” the goodness of the LORD. The message is important to undo the lie that the LORD God “doesn’t care”. In the Garden of Eden, satan sponsored this lie against the perfection of the goodness of the LORD.
The psalm speaks more than we can immediately see. This message should be louder in a world that presents satan as the strong man, the strong man ready to provide mortals with the needed solutions.
But it’s all deception. Let the individuals find out for themselves how good the LORD is.
Let the evangelist point the seeker to Jesus, and let Jesus do the rest. Let the seeker find out for themselves how good the LORD is.
But what exactly has happened to the psalmist to motivate him to write this psalm? Probably the Book of First Samuel 21 provides the context for this chapter. But what is David doing at Gath of the Philistines, the enemy territory?
Well, Gath is a safe haven for David, so he reasoned. He is running away from King Saul.
The account in the Book of Samuel doesn’t give us the impression that David had as much time as to even breathe. His head was on the chopping board. In great fear, he pretended to be insane, and that is how he survived what was definitely a death situation.
Don’t run to the enemy camp despite many battles within the Kingdom of righteousness. The enemy camp is not a safe haven. This should be an easy pick from the chapter that motivated David to write this psalm.
Even in this moment of sudden danger and consequently great fear, David still had time to call upon the LORD. There is probably no event that can be too sudden for a prayer. The grace of the LORD always allows for one.
But who is not shocked by this kind of deliverance! Of all the means (in a world of limitless power and options), the LORD decided to save David in this way!
Regardless, David returns to the LORD and thanks Him for the deliverance, albeit a strange deliverance. He has seen the finger of God behind it all.
Rather than a very long complaint letter to heaven and a “do-it-better” lecture, David is full of praise. He acknowledges God’s presence in all his circumstances.
“Fear the LORD, you his holy people.” There is one fear against which David sought deliverance. But there is another fear he seeks for God’s holy people, the fear of the LORD. Probably because with this fear, we cannot fear anything else.
“The righteous person may have many troubles, but the Lord delivers him from them all; he protects all his bones, not one of them will be broken.”
This psalm is messianic as verse 20 becomes the subject of John 19 verse 36. It applies to the man Jesus Christ. The same thought here can be applied. The sovereign God chose Gethsemane as the means for the salvation of humanity. That is sovereignty – electing Gethsemane as the means of salvation for humanity.
We are reminded that no bone was broken at this point as a strong indication that the process was still under the rigid control of Heaven. We can look back at our own and appreciate all the deliverances, small or great, flowery or ugly, dignified, or shameful escape. It is a point of maturity if the saint can see through it all and sit down to write his own song of praise from his experiences.
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