I. (34:1–3) Join Me in Blessing the Lord. After announcing his intention to “bless the Lord at all times,” the singer invites all the “humble” to join him in song. Behind this lies the idea that the ideal praise to God is his assembled people’s joining their voices in thanking him.

The idea behind the word “bless” (v. 1) is to speak a good word about someone. When God blesses someone (e.g., 29:11), he speaks a good word over that person for his or her well-being; when a human blesses God (e.g., 26:12), he or she speaks a good word about God’s kindness and generosity (cf. Eph. 1:3). Other terms along these lines appear in these verses: “Praise” is a general word for speaking about someone’s greatness (usually done in the public assembly). For the soul to “make its boast in the Lord” is to find in him alone one’s source of greatness (cf. Jer. 9:23–24; contrast Ps. 49:6). To “magnify the Lord” is to tell how great he is (cf. Luke 1:46), and to “exalt his name” is to lift it high in the hearers’ estimation.

The corporate setting of this celebration comes through in the wish that the “humble”—the faithful, especially those who encounter the troubles described in the rest of the psalm—would “hear and be glad” (Ps. 34:2), as it does in the inviting words “with me” and “together” (v. 3): by public recitation in a service of worship the members strengthen one another in their own faith and faithfulness.

II. (34:4–7) He Answered My Prayers. The psalm now moves to specific instances of God’s kindness: the psalmist “sought the Lord” for help in times of distress, and God rescued him from “all [his] fears.”

These verses use several terms for the earnest, and perhaps not fully articulate, prayer that arises in such desperate situations: “sought” (v. 4; i.e., turned one’s expectation and dependence toward him), “look to him” (v. 5; i.e., direct the eyes of their faith to God), and “cried” (v. 6; i.e., called out to God). The psalm variously describes God’s “answers” as he “delivered” the psalmist from all his “fears” (v. 4; i.e., from all the things he feared) and the Lord “heard” and “saved him out of all his troubles” (v. 6). These acts of deliverance receive further definition in verses 19–22 (cf. comment on 34:15–22).

To be “radiant” (v. 5) uses the image of faces beaming with light, which in turn likely depends on the image of God’s favor as his shining light.297 For the “face” to be “ashamed” is for someone to be disappointed at not finding what was hoped for (cf. Job 6:20; Pss. 35:4, 26; 40:14; “disappointed”). The faithful, though, will not find their prayers to have been in vain.298

Psalm 34:7 closes this section with assurance—an assurance grounded in these experiences: the Lord’s own angel encamps around the faithful (“those who fear him”) and “delivers them.” This evokes the incident of Genesis 32:1–2, in which the angels of God met Jacob, who declares, “This is God’s camp!” (the noun “camp” is related to the verb “encamps” in our passage). The assurance is not that no troubles can pass through the angelic cordon (cf. Ps. 34:19!) but rather that those that do pass through serve God’s own purposes. In 2 Kings 6:17 the heavenly army is only visible when God “opens [the] eyes,” but it is there nonetheless, to ensure the fulfillment of God’s will.

III. (34:8–14) Therefore Fear the Lord with Me. Now that the song has mentioned the humble (Ps. 34:2) and those who fear the Lord (v. 7), it moves on to encourage all who sing it to “fear the Lord,” (i.e., to revere him) and to teach them what it means to fear him (vv. 11–14). This section comprises two subsections (vv. 8–10 and vv. 11–14), each introduced by a call to trust. The second subsection, verses 11–14, displays a “wisdom” flavor, summing up the instruction in a fashion reminiscent of Proverbs.

The verb “taste” (v. 8), which in the OT is commonly used in the literal sense, is a metaphor for personal experience; the NT uses the metaphor widely (e.g., John 8:52; Heb. 2:9; 6:4). The particular kind of tasting here is that of directing one’s trust toward the Lord (cf. Ps. 34:4–7), here denoted as “the man who takes refuge in him” (for the expression cf. comment on 16:1–2). The “saints” (34:9; or “holy ones”) are those whom God has consecrated to himself, namely, his people. They should live holy lives in response to his kindness (Lev. 20:7–8); that is, they are to “fear” the Lord. The first subsection closes with assurance (Ps. 34:10): those who “seek the Lord” (cf. v. 4) are more secure than the ferocious “young lions” (the top of the food chain).

The second subsection (vv. 11–14) lays out the kind of behavior that properly realizes the “fear of the Lord.” In verse 12 to desire life is parallel with loving many days, that he may see good; this resembles the expectation attached to the commandment in Deuteronomy 5:16, “Honor your father and your mother, as the Lord your God commanded you, that your days may be long, and that it may go well with you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you” (“the first commandment with a promise”; Eph. 6:1–2). The dominant characteristic of the holy life described here is its social orientation; that is, the faithful are to keep from speaking evil and deceit, which hurts their neighbors. They are to turn away from (doing) evil (cf. Job 1:1; Ps. 37:27; Prov. 3:7; 14:16; 16:6) in order to do good, that is, to act generously and kindly—which is further amplified as “seek peace and pursue it.”

The word “good” recurs throughout this section: “the Lord is good” (Ps. 34:8), and thus those who seek him “lack no good thing” (v. 10). The blessed person will “see good” (v. 12), perhaps the good that the Lord shows (evoking 27:13), and will “turn away from evil and do good” (34:14), suiting his own actions to the Lord’s character.

Texts from this section appear in 1 Peter. First Peter 2:3 adapts Psalm 34:8 (“you have tasted that the Lord is good”) where “the Lord” in this Petrine context refers to Jesus. First Peter 3:10–12 uses Psalm 34:12–16 to summarize the ideal behavior and lifestyle for Christians, which establishes the integrity of Christian witness in an unbelieving culture.

IV. (34:15–22) The Lord Cares for Those Who Trust Him. The final section speaks generally about how the Lord cares for his faithful ones—that is, it does not recount specific instances, as verses 4–7 do. There is also a stress here on the difference between the ways God treats the faithful and the wicked, even though both suffer “affliction” (vv. 19, 21).

Verses 15–18 contrast the differing ways in which the Lord responds to the prayers of the faithful (“the righteous”; vv. 15, 17) and the wicked (“those who do evil”; v. 16). These wicked (so also “the wicked” in v. 21) are likely unfaithful members of Israel, since they contrast with the exhortation to “do good” (v. 14), the life orientation of the faithful. The faithful can imagine God’s eyes and ears turned toward them, so that he sees their distress and hears their cry for help and “delivers them out of all their troubles” (v. 17; cf. v. 4). On the other hand, the Lord has set his face “against” the evildoers; not only will God not hear their prayers but he will “cut off the memory of them from the earth” (v. 16), which perhaps indicates his removal of their descendants (cf. 21:10).299

The Hebrew expressions “brokenhearted” and “crushed in spirit” (34:18) refer to people who are humbled before God, the pride and stubbornness in their hearts being subdued (cf. 51:17; 69:20; 147:3).

Psalm 34:19–22 contrasts God’s treatment of the faithful and the unfaithful in their “afflictions” (the word appears in both v. 19 and v. 21). Both the faithful (“the righteous”; vv. 15, 17) and the unfaithful (“the wicked” and “those who hate the righteous”; corresponding to “those who do evil,” v. 16) will have affliction—verses 4–6 have already insisted on this for the faithful! The difference between them is shown in the way in which the Lord “delivers” the one (v. 19; cf. vv. 4, 17) while allowing the affliction to “slay” the other. Indeed, the Lord “redeems” the life of his servants—he rescues and protects them (cf. comment on 25:22).

The difference shows itself only partially in this life; ultimately, the unfaithful “will be condemned” (v. 21), while none of those who “take refuge in” the Lord (cf. v. 8) “will be condemned.” The term “be condemned” has the nuance of “be found guilty, and given over to the penalty for one’s guilt.”

John 19:36 interprets the fact that the Roman soldiers did not need to finish Jesus off by breaking his bones to be the fulfillment of “the Scripture” that “Not one of his bones will be broken.” Psalm 34:20 LXX is quite close to the Greek in John; this would emphasize that Jesus died as a righteous sufferer, whom God would certainly vindicate. At the same time, Exodus 12:10, 46 LXX is also quite close, in which case the Gospel writer would be portraying Jesus as the Passover Lamb. Perhaps John has combined both themes (although he seems more closely to have evoked the psalm text).300