Psalm 34 — Trust the Lord is Good

A Psalm of David; when he changed his behaviour before Abimelech, who drove him away, and he departed.

1 I will bless the LORD at all times:
His praise shall continually be in my mouth.
2 My soul shall make her boast in the LORD:
The meek shall hear thereof, and be glad.
3 O magnify the LORD with me,
And let us exalt his name together.
4 I sought the LORD, and he answered me,
And delivered me from all my fears.
5 They looked unto him, and were lightened:
And their faces shall never be confounded.
6 This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him,
And saved him out of all his troubles.
7 The angel of the LORD encampeth round about them that fear him,
And delivereth them.
8 O taste and see that the LORD is good:
Blessed is the man that trusteth in him.
9 O fear the LORD, ye his saints:
For there is no want to them that fear him.
10 The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger:
But they that seek the LORD shall not want any good thing.
11 Come, ye children, hearken unto me:
I will teach you the fear of the LORD.
12 What man is he that desireth life,
And loveth many days, that he may see good?
13 Keep thy tongue from evil,
And thy lips from speaking guile.
14 Depart from evil, and do good;
Seek peace, and pursue it.
15 The eyes of the LORD are toward the righteous,
And his ears are open unto their cry.
16 The face of the LORD is against them that do evil,
To cut off the remembrance of them from the earth.
17 The righteous cried, and the LORD heard,
And delivered them out of all their troubles.
18 The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart,
And saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.
19 Many are the afflictions of the righteous:
But the LORD delivereth him out of them all.
20 He keepeth all his bones:
Not one of them is broken.
21 Evil shall slay the wicked:
And they that hate the righteous shall be condemned.
22 The LORD redeemeth the soul of his servants:
And none of them that trust in him shall be condemned.

This is a psalm of confidence and encouragement from one of our great heroes of faith. Daivid gives clean lines and images of our security and safety in the Lord. If we would but taste & trust, we would know God's goodness & reliability. Evil ones are not sustained, but the one who lives in the reverent fear of the Lord has no need to every be afraid.

Sometimes these confident lines are hard to hear and hard to bear. Sometimes, in our own troubles & sorrows, we do not want to hear words like these from people who seem to have it so easy and live in luxury. In our own confusion & trouble, we feel unique and alone - no one knows difficulty like we know difficulty.

Yet, take the time to read the story of events David lived through in 1 Samuel 19-21 and you'll gain a better image of David's confidence & ease. Didvid did not have a stretch of great accomplishments or behaviors in these chapters. Rather, he exhibited bad decisions through his fearful reactions to a bad environment. David does not praise the fearful trust in the Lord, leading to a godly & fearless life as his child, for nothing. He learned from his bad choices and desperately wants us to learn from them, too.

If we would but taste and see that the Lord is good, we might avoid so many of the pitfalls we find around us.