We are told distinctly who wrote Psalm 34:“A Psalm of David, when he changed his behavior before Abimelech; who drove him away, and he departed.” Do you remember that incident in David’s life? He was afraid he was going to be slain by King Saul and fled to the court of the Philistines and waited on the king of the Philistines. Just think, David who had overcome the giant Goliath became so discouraged that instead of trusting God he fled to the enemies of his people. He was even ready to go with the Philistine king to battle and would have gone out with them against his own people. How terribly David had fallen! There is no telling how far a saint of God will fall if he gets his eyes off the Lord, if unbelief triumphs instead of faith. Of course it will be only a temporary thing.
The Philistines themselves said to Achish, King of Gath, “What are you doing with this fellow? This is the man who slew Goliath.” But Achish said, “Oh, Saul has turned against him, and he is going to be my keeper now; he is going to fight for us.” But they said, “We do not want this fellow around. If we go to battle he will turn against us.” They knew that his heart was really with his own people, and they said, no, he cannot go. David was afraid, and we read, He “feigned himself mad in their hands, and scrabbled on the doors of the gate” (1 Sam. 21:13). What a picture! David, the man after God’s own heart, God’s anointed, feigning himself to be crazy because he was now afraid of the Philistines. What a disgusting picture! But no more disgusting than for you or me to go off with the world and act like the world—we who have been called out from it to glorify the Lord Jesus. God came in grace and delivered David from all that, and when he got back among his own people again he wrote this Psalm. David was delivered because Achish would not have him. He was feeling better now; he was back in the right place; he was delivered from the association of the Philistines.
Verses 1 to 4 are an ascription of praise. “I will bless the LORD at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul shall make her boast in the LORD; the humble shall hear thereof and be glad. O magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt His name together. I sought the LORD and He heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.” If only he had done that in the beginning he would not have failed so dreadfully in the palace of the king of the Philistines; but he had to have that bitter experience to bring him to an end of himself and to thrust him upon God. How often that happens to children of God.
In verses 5 to 10 you have a wonderful story of his own personal experience of the delivering power of God. That fifth verse has a marvelous lesson, “They looked unto Him and were lightened; and their faces were not ashamed.” “They looked unto Him.” Unto whom? Unto the LORD. And what happened? “They were lightened:and their faces were not ashamed.” Literally it means, “they became radiant.” “They looked unto Him, and became radiant:and their faces were not ashamed.” Remember what the apostle tells us in 2 Corinthians:“But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord” (3:18). Do you want to become a radiant Christian? Do you want to be a Christlike believer? Then do not be self-occupied; do not be looking in all the time trying to see how you are getting along. If you are occupied with your bad self only, you will get discouraged; if occupied with your fancied goodness, you will get puffed up; but if you look away to Him, “Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith” (Heb. 12:2), what happens? “They looked unto Him, and became radiant.” They not only received light themselves, but also they gave out light. Moses went into the presence of God, and when He came from the mount he was radiant; the people could not stand it. What made him radiant? He had been gazing on the face of God. If you want to be a radiant believer, fix your eyes upon Christ. “We all, [reflecting as in a mirror] the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory.” There is not a great deal of radiancy about some of us. We are so grumpy; we are so dull. The Scots have a good word for that:it is “dour,” just glum, and it only tells the story that we are not looking unto Jesus. As we gaze upon His face we become like Him, and the loveliness of Christ shines out in our lives. “They looked unto Him, and became radiant:and their faces were not ashamed.” David says, as it were, “I know, for I remember when I was not radiant.” But he proceeds, “This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles” (34:6). Can you say that?
And now David learned that he did not need to go to the Philistines for protection. God had a protector for him. “The angel of the LORD encamps round about those who fear Him, and delivers them” (34:7). And he is so delighted at what he has found that he wants everybody else to share it with him and exclaims, “O taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the man who trusts in Him. O fear the Lord, you His saints” (34:8,9). When he speaks of fearing the LORD he does not mean to be afraid of Him, but he means that reverent godly fear that should characterize us. “For there is no want to those who fear Him” (34:9). If you are going about with head drooping all the time, it tells the story that you are not living in His presence, for “there is no want to those who fear Him. The young lions do lack and suffer hunger; but those who seek the LORD shall not want any good thing” (34:9,10). There are many things that you and I think we want that are not good for us, but if we seek Him, if the Lord withholds something that we wanted very much, we can be sure it would not be a good thing for us.
It is a great thing to learn to depend on Him. That verse we quote so often does not promise that He will do every thing we ask:“Be careful [or anxious] for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God” (Phil. 4:6). And then what? And you will get everything for which you ask? No, “And the peace of God, that passes all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus” (4:7). If you have told Him about it you can leave it with Him and be at perfect peace, and say, “I know that He will do the right thing.” “Those who seek the LORD shall not want any good thing.” The next group of verses, from 11 to 16, give us the path of life for the believer. “Come, children, hearken unto Me:I will teach you the fear of the LORD. What man is he who desires life, and loves many days, that he may see good? Keep your tongue from evil, and your lips from speaking guile” (34:11-13). What had David been doing in the court of Achish? He had been speaking guile, and he got nothing but misery out of it. Now he is saying that if you want happiness and peace, “Keep your tongue from evil, and your lips from speaking guile. Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it. The eyes of the LORD are upon the righteous, and His ears are open unto their cry. The face of the Lord is against those who do evil” (34:13-16).
Part of this passage (34:12-16)is quoted in 1 Peter 3:10-12. Notice that Peter stops at “The face of the Lord is against those who do evil” (3:12), but the psalmist continues, “to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth.” Why does Peter not quote that? Because this is not the day when God is cutting off the wicked; this is the day of grace. While the face of the LORD is against those who do evil, He is still dealing with them in mercy, giving them a chance to be saved. The day of judgment has not yet come.
The next verses give us the experience of the trusting soul:“The righteous cry, and the LORD hears, and delivers them out of all their troubles. The Lord is nigh unto those who are of a broken heart, and saves such as be of a contrite spirit” (34:17,18). What a lot of sad hearts there are in the world, and how the Lord loves to heal those hearts! “He heals the broken in heart, and binds up their wounds” (Psa. 147:3). The world is full of people with broken hearts and shattered hopes, but what a wonderful thing that “the LORD is nigh unto those who are of a broken heart.”
(From Studies on the Psalms, Horizon Press, San Diego, CA.)