BIBLE CHAPTER STUDY
Psalms 34 — Praise, Refuge, and the Fear of Jehovah
A Hebrew acrostic psalm in which David praises Jehovah for delivering the righteous, invites others to taste God's goodness, and teaches the fear of the Lord as the path to life.
Scripture
1A Psalm of David; when he changed his behavior before Abimelech, who drove him away, and he departed. I will bless Jehovah at all times: His praise shall continually be in my mouth.
2My soul shall make her boast in Jehovah: The meek shall hear thereof, and be glad.
3Oh magnify Jehovah with me, And let us exalt his name together.
4I sought Jehovah, and he answered me, And delivered me from all my fears.
5They looked unto him, and were radiant; And their faces shall never be confounded.
6This poor man cried, and Jehovah heard him, And saved him out of all his troubles.
7The angel of Jehovah encampeth round about them that fear him, And delivereth them.
8Oh taste and see that Jehovah is good: Blessed is the man that taketh refuge in him.
9Oh fear Jehovah, ye his saints; For there is no want to them that fear him.
10The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger; But they that seek Jehovah shall not want any good thing.
11Come, ye children, hearken unto me: I will teach you the fear of Jehovah.
12What man is he that desireth life, And loveth many days, that he may see good?
13Keep thy tongue from evil, And thy lips from speaking guile.
14Depart from evil, and do good; Seek peace, and pursue it.
15The eyes of Jehovah are toward the righteous, And his ears are open unto their cry.
16The face of Jehovah is against them that do evil, To cut off the remembrance of them from the earth.
17The righteous cried, and Jehovah heard, And delivered them out of all their troubles.
18Jehovah is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart, And saveth such as are of a contrite spirit.
19Many are the afflictions of the righteous; But Jehovah delivereth him out of them all.
20He keepeth all his bones: Not one of them is broken.
21Evil shall slay the wicked; And they that hate the righteous shall be condemned.
22Jehovah redeemeth the soul of his servants; And none of them that take refuge in him shall be condemned.
What this passage means
Psalm 34 is structured as a Hebrew acrostic, moving from 'aleph through tav, with each stanza expanding a single theme. Verses 1–4 frame the psalm with continual blessing and boasting in Jehovah; David declares that whoever seeks God receives an answer and is delivered from fear. The repetition of 'I sought' and 'he answered' (verse 4) establishes the psalm's foundational claim: praise flows from answered prayer, not the reverse.
Verses 5–14 turn from individual testimony to communal instruction. The 'meek' or 'humble' (עָנָוִים) are invited to glorify God with David (v. 3), and the worshipper is summoned to 'taste and see that Jehovah is good' (v. 8). The psalm then shifts into a wisdom-style lesson in verses 11–14, where David addresses 'children' and warns that whoever loves life must guard the tongue, turn from evil, do good, and pursue peace. The vocabulary of 'seek,' 'fear,' and 'taste' ties the worship section to the ethical section.
Verses 15–22 close with a theology of divine attention: Jehovah's eyes and ears are toward the righteous, while his face opposes evildoers. The psalm reaches its climax in verse 22 — redemption for those who take refuge in him — and verse 18's image of a 'broken heart' and 'contrite spirit' anticipates later prophetic and New Testament echoes of God's nearness to the suffering.
Context
The chapter opens with a historical superscription referencing David 'when he changed his behavior before Abimelech, who drove him away, and he departed.' The provided material does not elaborate this episode further; readers should consult 1 Samuel 21–22 for the narrative background. Within the psalm itself, the only contextual anchor is the 'meek' who 'hear thereof, and be glad' (v. 2), linking the king's praise to those who respond.
The psalm's middle section (vv. 11–14) functions as a wisdom-style sermon addressed to 'children,' echoing the instruction language of Proverbs. Its vocabulary — guarding the tongue, turning from evil, pursuing peace — overlaps with the broader wisdom tradition without naming any specific setting.
Key words in the original
- H3068 The covenant name Jehovah (יְהוָה) appears throughout Psalm 34 as the object of blessing, boasting, seeking, fearing, and tasting. The psalm's theology centers on this personal name: it is Jehovah who hears, delivers, encamp, and redeem.
- H6035 The Hebrew עָנָוִים ('humble' or 'meek') in verse 2 names those who 'hear' David's boast and 'be glad.' The psalm locates its listening audience among the lowly rather than the powerful, shaping the tone of the call to 'taste and see.'
- H2940 In verse 8 the verb 'taste' (טָעַם) moves from literal sense-experience to a call for experiential knowledge of Jehovah's goodness. The same root underlies the noun translated 'perception' or 'intelligence,' tying sensory knowing to spiritual understanding.
Related verses
- Psalms 18:6 Both psalms open with the same pattern: distress, crying out, and being heard. Psalm 34:4's 'I sought Jehovah, and he answered me' mirrors 18:6's confession that God heard the cry from his temple, linking the two psalms as twin testimonies to answered prayer.
- Psalms 119:103 Verse 8's 'taste and see that Jehovah is good' resonates with Psalm 119:103's 'How sweet are thy words unto my taste!' Both psalms use the metaphor of tasting to describe personal, sensory knowledge of God's word and character.
- Hebrews 6:4 The New Testament writers echo Psalm 34:8's language of tasting when they speak of those who have 'tasted of the heavenly gift' and 'tasted the good word of God,' applying David's call to the Christian community's experience of grace.
- Psalms 147:3 Verse 18's image of Jehovah being 'nigh unto them that are of a broken heart' pairs closely with Psalm 147:3's promise that God 'healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds,' extending the theme of divine nearness to the wounded.
Common questions
What is the structure of Psalm 34?
Psalm 34 is a Hebrew acrostic poem in which each stanza begins with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Thematically it moves from David's individual praise (vv. 1–4), through communal invitation and wisdom instruction (vv. 5–14), to a closing confession of Jehovah's nearness to the righteous and contrite (vv. 15–22).
Why does David tell the reader to 'taste and see'?
The command 'taste and see that Jehovah is good' (v. 8) shifts the call to know God from abstract belief to direct, experiential knowledge. Following verses 5–7, where those who 'looked unto him' were radiant, David treats the knowledge of God's goodness as something the reader can verify personally rather than simply accept on testimony.
Does Psalm 34 promise that the righteous will not suffer?
No. Verse 19 explicitly states, 'Many are the afflictions of the righteous,' and verse 20 affirms that God preserves the righteous's bones without promising immunity from suffering. What the psalm offers is that Jehovah delivers the righteous 'out of them all' (v. 19) and is 'nigh unto them that are of a broken heart' (v. 18) — divine presence through affliction, not exemption from it.