Psalm 34

Bible Passage:  Psalm 34

As I read the chapter, the first thing that I noticed was the circumstance that it was written…

“A Psalm of David when he pretended madness before Abimelech, who drove him away, and he departed.”

Cf. 1 Sam 21:11-15 – though the passage here writes it was Achish the king of Gath that made David afraid.

Abimelech was the priest who gave David bread to eat. David lied to get his bread and in the end Saul murdered all the priests of Nob for helping David.

It is definitely not very easy to feign madness convincingly. What was on David’s mind when he feigned madness? So when did David write this psalm? He probably wrote the psalm right after he was driven away from Achish whom he was afraid of.

The title of the psalm is called “The Happiness of Those Who Trust in God”. David would have been very happy when he escaped from danger.

It made me think… when do we feel such happiness? Do we feel such happiness all the time? Do we feel the happiness even when circumstances are against us?

Do we feel happy only when we get out of our predicament?

The psalm began in verse 1 saying “I will bless the Lord at all times, His praise shall continually be in my mouth.”

How many of us are able to praise the Lord continually even when we are in a predicament?

But if we have our faith in God, and we trust in Him and wait patiently for Him, indeed we will never feel hopeless even though we come to a dead end as what we can do, because the end of man’s works is not the end of God’s works. In fact recently I have been reminded many times by my companion that every time a problem arises, there might be an opportunity for the goodwill of God.

Of course we often hope that life is smooth, everyone we love are doing well, healthy and successful in life.

But we also know that life without problems usually only make us complacent, drifting away from God without realizing, making man feel that he has more faith than he actually does, and for people without faith, no reason for them to seek God. I myself have realized a great testing of my patience and faith recently due to a great change in my life giving me constant tests and challenges. It is not easy to realize all at once how weak I am most of the time, how lack of love and lack of patience, how much anger I can have.

But God never test us beyond our ability, and if we trust in Him, indeed we can look forward to seeing the light at the tunnel at some point of time.

Sometimes I feel so weak it just seems simpler to go home after work on Tuesday and skip church, but again my companion reminds me that whenever we feel tired and weak, that’s when we need to approach the house of God and kneel before Him. Sure we can do it in our own homes, but if we push ourselves out of our convenience, surely God looks and God will hear, surely it will bring us one step nearer to God.

Did David lose faith in God’s anointing for him to become king? Instead of smoothly attaining the throne, he was pursued for his life, and he did not know how long he had to remain a fugitive.

But he knows what he ought to do to remain in the pleasure of God.

v. 4: seek the Lord

v. 7: fear Him

v. 13: keep your tongue from evil, and your lips from speaking deceit

v. 14: depart form evil and do good, seek peace

v. 15: be righteous

v. 18: a broken heart and contrite spirit

Verse 20 says that God will guard the bones of the righteous, so that not one of them is broken. Immediately what comes to my mind is Jesus who died on the cross but His bones were not broken.

What does this mean? I am not 100% sure what it means. But I read it as that the righteous will go through sufferings for upholding righteousness, but there is always a special perseverance of God. It reminds me of one of my favorite verses in 2 Cor 4:8-9:

8 We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed— 10 always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.

Let us always have faith in God’s perseverance and have a joyful happy heart.