Outline of Chapter 34:

       Inscription       Psalm 34 Inscription

       vv.    1–4        David Praises Jehovah God

       vv.    5–7        David Gives Reasons for His Praise

       vv.    8–10      David Exhorts His Listeners to Taste of Jehovah

       vv.   11–14      David Teaches the Fear of Jehovah

       vv.   15–18      God’s Direct Involvement in the Life of the Believer

       vv.   19–22      God’s Redemption of the Believer

Charts and Maps:

       Inscription       Why Do We Have Abimelech here rather than Achish?

       v.     14           Psalm 34:8–14: David Outlines the Spiritual Life for the Old Testament

       v.     22           Psalm 34:19–22 A View of the Messiah

I ntroduction: Psalm 34 was written by David after he had escaped from Ahimelech, the ruler of Gath, a major Philistine city (I Sam. 21:10–15). There is no telling whether this psalm began to formulate in David’s mind as he feigned madness, but my thinking is, David named his sins to God after leaving Gath, thought back on this experience, and then wrote the psalm. As David has to be filled with the Holy Spirit or empowered by the Holy Spirit when he writes Scripture, it would not make sense for him to be out of fellowship (as he apparently is in I Sam. 21), and still to write this psalm (or Psalm 56, which was apparently written at the same time). That God would still protect him, even though he is not guided or empowered by the Holy Spirit testifies to the faithfulness of God, despite David’s initial lack of confidence in God.

Psalm 34, interestingly enough, is thought to be one of the Messianic Psalms. Therefore, this leads us to the Doctrine of the Messianic Psalms, which we will examine first.

Psalm 34 is called an acrostic psalm, as each verse (more or less) begins with successive letters of the alphabet (the Emphasized Bible calls it an alphabetical psalm, which is a good English understanding). Interestingly enough, the wâw (ו), which is by far the most common letter to begin a sentence in Hebrew narrative, at first appear to be omitted. Psalm 25, also written by David, is also an acrostic psalm with the wâw missing (it’s time frame is less well-defined). However, in this psalm, the wâw does occur in the midst of v. 6, after the hê, which is where it should be found. But the rest of the letters begin pair of lines. Also, the final verse, v. 22 (v. 23 in the Hebrew), does not begin with the next letter in the alphabet, as we have run out of letters at the previous verse. The 17^th letter of the Hebrew alphabet, פ (pê), which begins v. 16, is repeated. These verses are opposite sides of the same coin: in v. 16, we have the disapprobation of God to those who have rejected Him (evildoers); and eternal approbation toward those who trust in Him.

in this psalm, David both praises and blesses Jehovah God, and exhorts others to join him in this (vv. 1–3). He speaks of God delivering him, and how God provides protection for His own (vv. 4–7). David then exhorts those listening to or reading this psalm to taste Jehovah, to see that He is good (vv. 8–9). Even though lions might go hungry, the believer will be provided for (v. 10). Then David promises to teach the listening the fear of Jehovah, which includes avoiding sins of the tongue, avoiding evil and seeking peace (vv. 11–14). God pays attention to and protects those who are His (vv. 15, 17–18) and is against those who are not (v. 16). David warns that the righteous will suffer to some degree (v. 19), but that there will be limits on this suffering (v. 20). Those who stand condemned will be slain by evil (v. 21), but God will redeem the soul of the righteous (v. 22).

The outline of a psalm is occasionally given simply to help us break the psalm down into bite-sized pieces. However, here there are portions of this psalm which demand separation from the rest of the psalm. In vv. 8–14, we have a series of imperatives which all end with the word good. What David is giving here is the spiritual way of life for the Old Testament believer. Later, at the very end of this psalm, David takes a radical departure from his problems and how he has trusted God, and he takes us to the cross, and the basis of our salvation. What we find in these final 4 verses (vv. 19–22) is a stanza with a double-meaning; it can be applied to David and his situation and it also applies to the Messiah and His work on our behalf on the cross.

Psalm 34 Inscription

Here is how others have translated this verse:

Early translations:

The Septuagint                      By David, when he changed his countenance before Abimelech; and he let him go and he departed.

Thought-for-thought translations; paraphrases:

CEV                                       [Written by David when he pretended to be crazy in front of Abimelech, so that Abimelech would send him away, and David could leave.]

NLT                                A psalm of David, regarding the time he pretended to be insane in front of Abimelech, who sent him away.

TEV                                       In Praise of God’s Goodness [HEBREW TITLE: By David, who left the presence of Abimelech after pretending to be crazy and being sent away by him].

Mostly literal renderings (with some occasional paraphrasing):

Updated Emphasized Bible   David’s. When he disguised his sanity before Abimelech, —who dismissed him and he departed. [An alphabetical psalm.]

God’s Word™                         By David when he pretended to be insane in the presence of Abimelech; Abimelech threw him out, so David left.

JPS (Tanakh)                        Of David, when he feigned madness in the presence of Abimelech, who turned him out, and he left. [This is v. 1 in the JPS, although presented as a title or inscription; all subsequent verses will be off by one].

Literal, almost word-for-word, renderings:

NASB                                    A Psalm of David when he feigned madness before Abimelech, who drove him away and he departed.

Young's Updated LT              By David, in his changing his behaviour before Abimelech, and he drives him away, and he goes.

What is the gist of this verse? This tells us that David wrote this psalm either while feigning insanity before Ahimelech, the king of Gath, or while thinking back about it while he was escaping.

Translation: Belonging to David... As we have seen many times before, the lâmed preposition plus David means that David wrote this psalm.

Translation: ...(when he changed his behavior before Abimelech... The bêyth preposition combined with an infinitive construct gives us often a temporal sense; therefore, this psalm was written while thinking back to changing his behavior before Abimelech (it would have been difficult to write it while acting crazy). This takes us back to I Sam. 21:10–15.

Translation: ...and he drove him away and he departed. Ahimelech is not worried about David, but he apparently wants David out of his palace and probably out of town. David shared his sentiments.

We should set the scene for this psalm as we did for Psalm 56. David, in I Sam. 21, was running for his life in fear of Saul. He went to Nob, the city of priests, and endangered their lives (and he did not reveal that he was a fugitive). Then he went to Gath, a city of Philistines, and many of them were probably related to men that David had killed in battle. Furthermore, he had killed the greatest national hero, Goliath. However, he shows up there not as a conquering hero, but as a man needing refuge; and when that doesn’t seem to play well, then he presents himself as an insane person, which is what causes him to write this psalm. What doesn’t seem to cross his mind is that, he is endangering Israel by going to Gath and pretending to be insane. This tells the king of Gath, as well as all the people of Gath, that Israel’s greatest hero is no longer a threat. In other words, prior to this psalm, David exhibited some atrocious and faithless behavior (I am grading him on an objective scale of merit, not on a comparative scale with myself, as I would only come out looking much worse in similar circumstances). In Psalm 56, David rebounded—he named his sins to God, and for that psalm and this (and for his subsequent travels in Israel as a fugitive), David is back in fellowship. Therefore, these psalms will be written from a position of strength, even though David is probably alone (or with a very small group—a possibility that I doubt) and a fugitive.

You will recall just how carefully David structured Psalm 56? David also has given structure to this psalm, but a very different sort of structure. Each stanza begins with successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet. The letter is not by itself in the Hebrew; it is the first letter of the first word of each stanza. Some translations demonstrate this. The NJB and the JPS both put the Hebrew letter to the left of each stanza (a separate Hebrew letter does not occur in the Hebrew); and Rotherham precedes each stanza with the name of the letter written out. It would be equally accurate to precede each verse with a verse number (which is done in virtually every translation for every verse). In order to write this, David simply has to choose the first word of each verse so that it begins with the proper letter.

David Praises Jehovah God

Here is how others have handled this verse:

Early translations:

The Septuagint                      I will bless the Lord at all times; his praise is continually in my mouth.

Thought-for-thought translations; paraphrases:

CEV                                       I will always praise the Lord.

NJB                                        I will bless Yahweh at all times,

his praise continually on my lips.

NLT                                I will praise the Lord at all times.

I will constantly speak his praises.

Mostly literal renderings (with some occasional paraphrasing):

JPS (Tanakh)         א             I bless the Lord at all times;

praise of Him is ever in my mouth.

Literal, almost word-for-word, renderings:

God’s Word™                         I will thank the Lord at all times.

My mouth will always praise him.

NASB                                    I will bless the Lord at all times;

His praise shall continually be in my mouth.

Young's Updated LT              I do bless Jehovah at all times,

Continually His praise is in my mouth.

What is the gist of this verse? David can celebrate God’s care and guidance in all situations.

Translation: I will praise Y^ehowah at all times;... David, although he has spent the previous week or month out of fellowship, is now back in fellowship, and he recognizes that God is on his side in all circumstances. This is a very difficult thing to learn and to act upon. I have gone through some difficult times over the past several years, there were times when I was able to recognize God’s hand and His guidance and there were times that I fail this test miserably. I know that throughout all of this, God has been faithful, even though I have not been. I know that I could always trust God, even though there were many times when I did not. This is where David is—his life has gone through some very difficult changes. He has gone from being a national hero to a national fugitive, and he had trouble initially with that change. However, God hasn’t changed and God’s promises and protection have never changed. My less than literal translation may better convey the concept of this half of v. 1: I will praise Y^ehowah in all situations.

Barnes comments on at all times: In every situation of life; in every event that occurs. The idea is, that he would do it publicly and privately; in prosperity and in adversity; in safety and in danger; in joy and in sorrow. It would be a great principle of his life, expressive of the deep feeling of his soul, that God was always to be regarded as an object of adoration and praise.

Now you may think, well, sure David is praising God; God just delivered him from the hand of Abimelech. David put himself in that position. He was still being hunted by Saul, which is going to go on for the remainder of the book of I Samuel. So David is praising God, despite the fact that he was still in danger.