A manual of the book of Psalms · Martin Luther
PSALM XXXIV.
_David praiseth God, and exhorteth others thereto by his experience.—They are blessed that trust in God.—He exhorteth to the fear of God.—The privileges of the righteous._ A Psalm of David, when he changed his behaviour before Abimelech; who drove him away, and he departed. I will bless the LORD at all times: his praise _shall_ continually _be_ in my mouth. My soul shall make her boast in the LORD: the humble shall hear _thereof_, and be glad. O magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt his name together. I sought the LORD, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears. They looked unto him, and were lightened; and their faces were not ashamed. This poor man cried, and the LORD heard _him_, and saved him out of all his troubles. The angel of the LORD encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them. O taste and see that the LORD _is_ good: blessed _is_ the man _that_ trusteth in him. O fear the LORD, ye his saints: for _there is_ no want to them that fear him. The young lions do lack and suffer hunger: but they that seek the LORD shall not want any good _thing_. Come, ye children, hearken unto me, I will teach you the fear of the LORD. What man _is he that_ desireth life, _and_ loveth _many_ days, that he may see good?
Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips from speaking guile. Depart from evil, and do good, seek peace, and pursue it. The eyes of the LORD _are_ upon the righteous, and his ears _are open_ unto their cry. The face of the LORD _is_ against them that do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth. _The righteous_ cry, and the LORD heareth, and delivereth them out of all their troubles. The LORD _is_ nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit. Many _are_ the afflictions of the righteous: but the LORD delivereth him out of them all. He keepeth all his bones: not one of them is broken. Evil shall slay the wicked; and they that hate the righteous shall be desolate. The LORD redeemeth the soul of his servants; and none of them that trust in him shall be desolate. This Psalm is a remarkable thanksgiving, and is nearly of the same import with the preceding, as the title of the Psalm, and the sixth verse show: for David here sets forth himself as an example and proof before all the godly, to show, that God always hears the prayers and supplications of the godly, and them that believe, and does not despise the sighings of the afflicted.
David here, after a majestic opening of the Psalm, promises that he will set forth the sum of all godliness. “What man is he (saith the Psalmist) that desireth life, and loveth many days. Keep thy tongue from evil, &c.” Here, he requires before all things, the fear of the Lord, and the worship of the First Commandment: that, cleaving closely to the word, we might avoid hypocrisy and lying doctrines, and that we might truly trust in God, endure his will, and not rebel or murmur against him. And then, that we should live in peace with our neighbour, not rendering evil for evil, but blessing even our adversaries and our enemies, and, as much as in us lies, living in peace with all men, whether they be good or evil. For thus does the counsel of God stand, which cannot be changed or altered,—that the saints should live in affliction in this life. Wherefore, if thou wilt be a godly man, if thou wilt cleave unto God, prepare thy soul (as David here saith) to temptations, to the cross, and to afflictions: for thus it is immutably decreed of God, (as he says again afterwards) “Many are the afflictions of the righteous.” And again, this firm and eternal counsel of God stands also immutably fixed,—that it is God’s will to deliver the saints from all these evils, and so wholly and faithfully so, that not even the least bone of them shall perish: nay, in the resurrection, and in glorification, every bone shall return to the body with greater perfection than ever; as Christ says in his Gospel, “Even the very hairs of your head are all numbered.”
What then is this light and momentary tribulation, in comparison with that eternal weight of glory, which shall be revealed in us? For although the bones and members of the saints are, above all others, cruelly scattered and broken, burnt in the fire, and left to rot in graves; yet, even though they be thus sown in ignominy, they shall be raised in glory: they shall be quickened again with all their limbs and bodies; and all their bones shall be restored; and the just shall shine like the sun in the kingdom of their father. For that maddened and insatiable fury of the devil, shall not be able to mangle the bones of the saints, or so to extinguish the church as that it shall be annihilated altogether. The death, and the cruel bruising of the bones of the saints, shall be temporary only: but their glorification in God, shall be for ever and ever. And observe, how remarkably this Psalm speaks of the resurrection, and also concerning angels. For this is the first Psalm which we have yet treated on, that speaks of angels. This Psalm shows that they are ministers and helpers to the saints, being sent forth to minister unto them who shall be heirs of salvation. David shows that they are not only present with us, but that they most diligently and unceasingly watch over us, and stand up for our defence; that they encamp round about us, and fight for us perpetually, as if in open battle, that they may defend us against the horrible violence, and infinite snares of Satan and his members. All which things are the greatest consolation to the godly, and them that believe.
This is all confirmed by the example of the prophet Elisha, 2 Kings vi. 16. when he said concerning the ministration of angels, “Fear not, for they that be with us, are more than they that be with them.” The prophet makes an allusion here, after the manner of the prophets, who drew all their matter from Moses, as it were from a fountain. Moses says of Jacob, Gen. xxxii. when he feared the cruelty and rage of his brother Esau, “And the angels of God met him. And when Jacob saw them, he said, this is God’s host.” So it is said, that angels came to Elisha, and encamped round about him; as we have it in the present Psalm.
Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain in the United States.