Psalm 34 Questions, Notes, Headings / Outlines etc.

Some notes from / for our midweek meeting: 

PSALM 34

 

Questions:

 

If you got your highlighter pen out, what repeated words or ideas would you notice in this Psalm?

 

Can you spot a turning point / change / shift in the Psalm?

 

What does the Psalmist do and what does he want us to do (vv1-3)?

What was the Psalmist’s experience? What is the story behind / recounted in this Psalm?

How are his experience and ours connected?

What’s the relationship between what God has done for David and us?

When does the Psalmist want us to praise God (v1)?

What reasons / encouragements does the Psalm give us to do that?

What are the ultimate destinies of the believer and the wicked?

 

Looking at the whole Psalm, what does the Psalmist want his hearers / readers to do and why / how?

Who is the kind of person the LORD helps? What different ways is this person described?

What promises or warnings does the Psalm contain?

How does the Psalm persuade / encourage us?

 

What does this Psalm tell us about the experience of the believer?

To what extent might it involve trouble / suffering?

(see v19-20). Does the Lord always deliver his people? When? How?

 

What do people glory / boast in?

What are we tempted to glory / boast in?

Why should we glory in the Lord (v2)?

What would we normally think of boasting? What is this boasting? Is it a good thing?

 

Do you think it helps to praise God together (v3)? Why?

 

Look at vv6 and 7. According to them, who saves / delivers?

 

What is / isn’t meant by fear of the LORD (v9)?

 

What’s the point being made in v10: “The lions may grow weak and hungry”?

 

Do you think v10 is true?!

Is a Rolls Royce a good thing?

I lack one! Does that mean I don’t seek the LORD or that God’s promise has failed?

 

Vv15-16. The children will cry out that God has no body and no parts (Article 1 of the 39 Articles of Religion), so what are we to make of these expressions?

 

Who are the wicked / righteous in this Psalm / the Psalms?

Are we righteous? In what sense? How? etc.

 

Likely there’s a kind of justice in v21a. What? Why?

 

How might the Psalm be read as said / prayed / sung by Christ?

 

What difference does it make to read the Psalm as a New Testament believer?

 

Can you sum up the Psalm in a sentence?

What response do you think the Psalmist is hoping for?

How could this Psalm shape our praise / prayers / thinking / living?

 

Notes:

 

The hymn, Through All The Changing Scenes of Life (1696 New Version by Nahum Tate and Nicholas Brady), is based on vv1-10 Psalm.

https://www.jubilate.co.uk/songs/through_all_the_changing_scenes_of_life_jubilate_version

 

See Expositor’s Bible for links with Psalms 31-34: the blessing, the eye of Yahweh, around / surround, refuge / protection, hope, trust, the godly (p323f)

 

an individual thanksgiving / testimony Psalm for public use (barely addressed to God, more to listeners) – tora (instruction) has taken over from toda (thanksgiving)

 

The second half of the Psalm is in the style of the wisdom books

 

A glowing Psalm marked with relief and gratitude (? For a miraculous ? escape) – an invitation to share the singer’s joy and learn from his experience

 

Headings in the Psalms apparently part of the original texts (unlike all the other headings in our English Bibles)

Historical setting: 1 Samuel 21:10-15 – David’s life was in danger – fleeing from Saul and not finding the refuge he hoped for with Abimelech, the Philistine King of Gath, called Achish in 1 Samuel. Maybe Achish is his personal name and Abimelech his throne name cf. Edward VII, Bertie; George VI, Albert. Perhaps a deliberate echo of Abimelech King of Gerar whom Abraham and Isaac also attempted to deceive because of their fear (Gen 20; 26)

 

David escapes by using this ruse

 

Heading – ta’am often used for tasting food – sense – changed his taste / sense / put aside common sense / feigned madness / pretended to be insane – cf. v8, “taste”

 

A somewhat broken acrostic poem (cf. Psalms 9-10; 25; 111; 112; 119; 145), the 22 verses begin with successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet.

The last verse doesn’t begin with a successive letter but with an extra pe

The other exception is waw, the sixth letter, which is missing as in Ps 25 (v5 - unless v6b in the MT supplies it)

Does this stress the broken verse, v5?

Life is somewhat “broken” / uneven / unexpected.

Possibly in this broken form the beginning middle and end of the Psalm are meant to spell out ‘lp, learn / teach

We can’t be certain why the Psalm is broken. Evidently the compiler of the Psalms didn’t think he should “correct” it.

 

The A to Z format perhaps attempts to impose some kind of order on disordered life

 

Form & spontaneity – fixed liturgy can be helpful and authentic etc.

 

In the Psalms, words of praise don’t come from those who have known only blessings.

Those who praise God know suffering.

They praise God not because of native optimism but because of real deliverance.

Experience of suffering and deliverance can lead to praise and trust for the Psalmist and his hearers (maybe even for us if we learn from his experience rather than just from our own).

 

We might be tempted to hide our faces from God (when suffering and downcast etc.), but the Psalmist says look to God in faith and you will be radiant.

 

Cf. 1 Peter 2 and 3

 

Singing then sermon: the Psalm celebrates the blessings of those who fear the Lord and then explains what that fear means. (Wilcock)

 

The Psalmist comforts us with the comfort he himself has received from God (cf. 2 Cor 1:3-4)

 

These verses alternate between personal testimony (vv1-2a, 4, 6) and calls to praise.

 

V1 – Bless – cf. the Beatitudes – thematic links with this Psalm? - the poor persecuted who will see God, hunger, peace etc.

 

Vv1-3: I will extol / bless, praise, boast; Let us rejoice, glorify / make great, exalt / raise up

Vv4-7 – continued alternation between the one and the many, specific testimony (v4, v6) to general exhortation (v5, 7)

 

See Wilcock p115: he perhaps goes a bit far in finding an intriguing pattern here, the rhythm of the furiant, familiar to lovers of Czech music such as the Zither Carol!

 

V1 – at all times = at every time – cf. 1 Thess 5:18; Rom 8:28, 37

 

V2 – this kind of boasting doesn’t imply arrogance but the expression of joyful confidence

 

V2 – afflicted / Motyer: downtrodden / Kidner: humble – perhaps suggests oppression they need to be delivered from cf. 2 Cor 11:30-33

 

Vv1-2: I have reason to praise him; join me! Vv4-5: This was my experience; it can be yours!

 

V3 - extol (glorify) and exalt both spacial, enlarge (make much of, big up) and lift up

 

V4 – serious purposeful seeking not lost / confused wondering / wandering – not as if God or his location are unknown!

 

V4 – fears, a strong word akin to terror / horrors / dread, not the same word as the reverential fear of vv7, 9

 

V5 – From shame to shining - radiant / shine / beaming! – as in Is 60:5, a mother’s face lighting up at the sight of children she had long given up as lost – radiance implies delight, glory, transformation (Ex 34:29; 2 Cor 3:18)

 

V6 – poor / weak / helpless

 

Vv7-22: the first half dominated by imperatives; the second half entirely statements

 

V7 – The Angel of Yahweh (malak, aide) – more than 50X in OT - sometimes seems to be identical to Yahweh and distinct from him – see Genesis 16; Ex 33:2-3; often taken to be the pre-incarnate Son / a preview of Jesus. He is presumably the commander of an ample host cf. 2 Kings 6:17

 

V8, v22, “take refuge in him” repeated

 

V8 – see Heb 6:5; 1 Peter 2:3 – Kidner: “this tasting should be more than a casual sampling”

 

V8 – taste – as in the heading

 

V8 – lit. do not be ashamed, an imperative to express a future certainty, certainly will not be ashamed

 

V9b – S. Columba had been copying out the Psalms on Iona when he died. These were the last words he wrote (Wilcock).

 

Vv9-10 – David’s need for defence and supplies in 1 Sam 21 may be reflected in the Psalm

 

V10 – kephiyr – often translated young lion, that is, a lion in its prime – a lion suggests fierce strength, self-sufficiency etc. - Youth and vigour are no defence against disaster.

 

V11 – the fear of God – what is it? What is it not? How would it show itself?

 

V11 – peace, wholeness, shalom

 

Vv11-22 – Kidner: “The lessons of this part of the psalm are chiefly that the true good is to be in concord with God.”

 

V12 – Don’t all people in their right mind desire life and good days?

 

Good things (vv10, 12) come from Yahweh who is good (v8) to those who do good (v14)

To enjoy a good life (v12) you must lead a good life (vv13-14). The good you enjoy must go hand in hand with the good you do. If you desire good; do good!

The serpent’s lie was that sin is the way to the good life. Remember the forbidden fruit looked good.

 

Vv12-16 – 1 Peter 3:10-12; cf. v13 and 1 Pt 2:1, 22

 

Vv15-22 – notice the stress on all as in vv1-6: rescue from all troubles (vv17-18); protecting all bones (v20); vindicating all those who take refuge (v22) – The Psalm offers a vision of total praise / reverence and protection / deliverance (appropriate to the A to Z).

 

Vv15-16 begin to teach the fear of the LORD (v12)

 

(vv17-18 – see Motyer on interpreting the verbs here: cry and deliver are in the perfect tense – do they suggest fixed attitudes, calling for a present tense translation or some notable past event? Save is imperfect – frequentative, what is customarily the case)

 

V18 – As it happens, we are studying Psalm 34, just after looking at Ruth. Psalm 18v34 says that Yahweh is near (qarobh) the broken-hearted. Motyer points out that this word is used of the next of kin in Ruth 2:20; 3:12, the one whose right it is to take on himself as his own the needs of his troubled relative. How wonderful that the LORD himself should do this for his people!

 

V17, 19 – possibly (deliverance from trouble) by death!?

 

V18 recognises that the believer can be broken and crushed by life, so for all the promises of this Psalm, this is not how we might imagine victorious Christian living

 

Vv18, 20 – word play on broken

 

V20 – none of Jesus bones broken – John 19:36 and Ex 12:46 – Kirkpatrick: “The promise to the righteous man found an unexpectedly literal realization in the passion of the perfectly Righteous One.”

Jesus the speaker of this Psalm – the righteous one / true believer – great king David’s greater son

 

V21 – Motyer: “Here again is the ‘boomerang’ nature of sin: it always infects us with the seeds of its own destruction.”

 

Vv21, 22 – condemned – made to bear their guilt – No condemnation in Christ (Romans 8:1)

 

Kidner: “The Christian can echo the jubilant spirit of the psalm with added gratitude, knowing the unimaginable cost of 22a and the unbounded scope of 22b.”

 

Riches can sometimes be found in dark mines.

 

OUTLINES / HEADINGS:

 

Godlingay:

 

Deliverance by Yhwh and Reverence for Yhwh

 

Kidner:

 

Thank God!

Vv1-10: Rejoice with me!

Vv11-22: Learn from me

 

Wilcock:

 

(1) The Lord to praised (vv1-3)

(2) The Lord of one and all (vv4-7)

(3) The Lord to be trusted (vv8-10)

(4) What the Lord requires (vv11-14)

(5) What the Lord does (vv15-18)

(6) What the Lord promises (vv19-22)

 

Expositor’s Bible:

 

Wise Counsel for the Poor of Heart

I. Thanksgiving for God’s Goodness and Justice (vv1-7)

A Individual and communal praise (vv1-3)

B Individual and communal experiences (vv4-7)

II. In Praise of Wisdom (vv8-22)

A Exhortation to Wisdom (vv8-14)

B The Rewards of Wisdom (vv15-22)

 

Motyer:

 

Vv1-2: introduction: Yahweh is to be praised in every circumstance

Vv11-12 mark the transition from testimony to teaching, drawing lessons from what is known of Yahweh

Vv21-22: conclusion: Yahweh who ransoms, and the security of those who take refuge

(vv3-10 and 13-20 balance testimony with matching truths)

 

A1. Framework: shared testimony (vv1-2)

B1. Full deliverance (vv3-4)

C1: Look and be saved (vv5-6)

D1: The camping angel (vv7-8)

E1: Fearing Yahweh, finding provision (vv9-10)

A2: Framework: shared teaching (vv11-12)

E2: The mark of a God-fearing life (vv13-14)

D2: The nearness of Yahweh (vv15-16)

C2: Cry out and be saved (vv17-18)

B2: Full deliverance (vv19-20)

A2: Framework (3): shared security (vv21-22)

 

Wilson, NIV application commentary

 

Invocation to Praise Yahweh (along with the Psalmist) (vv1-3)

Personal testimony of deliverance (and confidence) (vv4-7)

Proverbial instruction (encouraging faithful reliance on Yahweh) (vv8-22)