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Psalm 34 Commentary
by Brad Boyles
Many people do not realize that the Psalms were written with a specific poetic order and structure. That evidence is lost in our modern translation. Going back to the Hebrew, we are able to appreciate the various writing styles demonstrated by the psalmists. As you can imagine, there is an effect that is lost by ignoring the poetic aspects of the psalms and just taking them in as plain words.
Psalm 34 is known as one of the alphabetic psalms. It is one of nine found in the entire book. It is an acrostic which means that the first line of each stanza begins with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Some of this gets into geeky Bible stuff but the point being, the psalm would have sounded much different in the original text being sung as a worship song. If you really want to explore how amazingly this psalm was written according to the structure of the Hebrew language, you can visit this “basics of the Bible” website.
The psalm here is thought to be the experience of David after escaping Abimelech (1 Sam 21). This experience was a severe threat to David’s life. In order to escape Gath, he pretended to be insane.
“Afterward, the one who had appeared to be a “fool” wrote this psalm of wisdom and praise in honor of the Lord.”
Nelson’s New Illustrated Commentary
The evil that David experienced was directly opposed to God because it sought to silence truth and destroy a faithful follower.
“He will not only destroy the wicked, but he will blot out the very memory of them. They may become great and famous in their wickedness, but they shall not be kept in memory, as the righteous are. As Solomon says, “The name of the wicked shall rot.””
Charles Spurgeon
The name of the wicked shall rot. Where do you need to be reminded of this? Though it seems that injustice and evil are tolerated for a moment, it is only by the grace of God that they are able to exist. One day all evil will be swept away. Not only will their existence be demolished, but the lingering memories and experiences will also be swept away for eternity!