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Some Thoughts on Psalm 34
Introduction
This is one of my favourite
Psalms. I have found it to be very reassuring in many different situations
throughout my Christian life.
This is a Psalm of David,
written after pretending to be insane in order to escape from King Achish
(see 1 Samuel 21: 10 – 15). I understand that this Psalm is an acrostic,
with each verse of the Psalm beginning with successive letters of the Hebrew
alphabet.
We can learn several
important lessons from this Psalm. These include: -
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God wants us to praise Him at all times
(verses 1 – 3).
In spite of all the difficulties that David was facing at the time - he
still continued to praise the Lord. He also encouraged his companions to
do the same – v.3 ‘Glorify the Lord with me; let us exalt His name
together.’ Even when we are going through trying and testing times we
should continue to praise God for all the many blessings which we enjoy as
His children. |
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God hears and answers prayers ((verses 4 – 7).
When David sought the Lord, He delivered him from fear (v. 4), saved him
from his troubles, guarded him and delivered him from his enemies. God
knows all about us and always hears us when we cry to Him for help. |
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God is able and willing to bless us (verses 8 – 10)
When we become a Christian we soon realise what a blessing it is to be one
of God’s children. We can be then assured that He always has our best
interests at heart. See v.10 – ‘The lions may grow weak and hungry but
those who seek Lord lack no good thing.’ Although God may bless us
materially it does not mean that we will get everything we want. However,
we can be assured that we will receive enough spiritual nourishment to
satisfy all our spiritual needs. |
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God wants us enjoy the ‘good life’ (verses 11 – 14)
To enable us to enjoy the Christian life to the full we need to begin by
fearing the Lord. This means accepting God’s gift of salvation and showing
deep respect and honour to Him – we demonstrate this by our humble
attitude and reverent worship. God wants to teach us how to live in a way
that will please Him – by being truthful, avoiding evil, doing good and
seeking peace. |
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God takes a special interest in the righteous person
(verses 15 – 20)
The Lord assures us that He will always listen to the prayer of a
righteous person. However, if sin comes between God and us then He will
not hear us. (See Psalm 66: 18 – ‘If I had cherished sin in my heart,
the Lord would not have listened’). God promises to be close to the
broken-hearted, to be a source of power, courage and wisdom, helping
us through our problems. Sometimes He chooses to deliver us from those
problems, but if not, He will give us the grace to bear them. |
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God rewards those who trust in Him (verses 21 – 22)
There is a solemn warning for those who persist in wickedness and who
oppose the righteous. But we have the assurance that those who have been
redeemed by the Lord, through the death of His Son and have taken refuge
in Him, will not be condemned and are assured of Eternal Life. |
Footnote:
Verse 20 – ‘he protects all his bones, not one of them will be broken’
– is referred to in John 19:36 as a fulfilment of this prophesy concerning
Christ’s crucifixion. John 19:33 also records ‘But
when they came to Jesus and found that he was already dead, they did not
break His legs.’
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