When we read psalm thirty-four, and then find out what was going on with David that caused him to write it, it can be surprising. This psalm of praise, joy, and trust was written during one of the most desperate times of his life. We too, can find hope, peace and joy, no matter what we might be going through.

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Psalm thirty-four is one of my personal favourites. When I was in university, I learned a song that is made up entirely of words from this psalm. The song doesn’t contain the whole psalm, but all of the words of the song come from it. We use the song in our yearly Passover seder, and so for me, psalm thirty-four is a reminder of joy and thanksgiving, gathering with family and friends in the presence of the Lord.

Before we actually look at the words of the psalm, let’s dig into the background. There is a superscription (that is a note attached to the psalm in the original Hebrew text) to this psalm which reads: “Of David, when he changed his behavior before Abimelech, so that he drove him out, and he went away.” This sounds a lot like the incident described in 1 Samuel 21:10-15, with one exception. The person mentioned here before the psalm is Abimelech, but the name of the king of Gath in 1 Samuel 21 is Achish. However, like many ancient leaders, he probably had more than one name. It is also possible that Achish is his name, and Abimelech is a title, like “Pharoah.” (The Philistine civilization was relatively small and brief, and we don’t know everything there is to know about it).

Anyway, the situation was this: David was warned by Jonathan that king Saul was absolutely determined to kill him. So David fled to the Philistine city of Gath. Remember, the Philistines were the mortal enemies of the Israelites, and David had already, by this point, killed many of them in battle. This shows us how entirely desperate he was: he was trying to hide among his enemies. He left with absolutely nothing: no food, not even a weapon. Shortly after he arrived in Gath, he was recognized. Some of the Philistines said, “Isn’t this David, the hero of the Israelites? Aren’t the Israelites singing songs about how many of us Philistines he has killed in battle?” They grabbed him, and brought him before their leader: Achish/Abimelech. This was a terribly dangerous moment. David had just escaped one enemy, only to be captured by another. He had the idea to pretend that he was insane. The leader of Gath saw him acting like someone who had lost his wits, and in disgust, he told his men to escort David out of town. It isn’t clear if he believed that it was David, gone mad, or just a generic madman that his men had brought to him. Either way, they kicked him out of town without harming him seriously. He fled from there, and went and hid in a cave. So it was a tense time, and a very narrow escape for David. However, in the end, he was safe (for the moment), from both Saul, and the Philistines. Afterwards, David wrote this psalm. With all of that in mind, let’s see what David has to say.

1 I will bless the LORD at all times;
his praise shall continually be in my mouth.
2 My soul makes its boast in the LORD;

let the humble hear and be glad.
3 Oh, 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 Those who look to him 
are radiant,
and their faces shall never be ashamed.

6 This poor man cried, 
and the LORD heard him
and saved him out of all his troubles.

7 The angel of the LORD encamps
around those who fear him, and delivers them.

8 Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good!
Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!

9 Oh, fear the LORD, you his saints,
for those who fear him have no lack!

10 The young lions suffer want and hunger;
but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing.

11 Come, O children, listen to me;
I will teach you the fear of the LORD.
12 What man is there who desires life
and loves many days, that he may see good?
13 Keep your tongue from evil
and your lips from speaking deceit.
14 Turn away from evil and do good;
seek peace and pursue it.

15 The eyes of the LORD are toward the righteous
and his ears toward their cry.
16 The face of the LORD is against those who do evil,
to cut off the memory of them from the earth.

17 When the righteous cry for help, the LORD hears
and delivers them out of all their troubles.

18 The LORD is near to the brokenhearted
and saves the crushed in spirit.

19 Many are the afflictions of the righteous,
but the LORD delivers him out of them all.
20 He keeps all his bones;
not one of them is broken.

21 Affliction will slay the wicked,
and those who hate the righteous will be condemned.

22 The LORD redeems the life of his servants;
none of those who take refuge in him will be condemned. 

In the first place, the psalm shows us that in his time of great danger and fear, David put his hope entirely in the Lord. David isn’t just praising God because he happens to be happy. He isn’t writing a psalm like this because he’s never had any problems or experienced trouble. Already by this point in his life, he had faced a literal giant, and been in many battles. And then, just before writing this, he was in the very tricky situation I described above. So we can’t accuse David of being unrealistic about the serious challenges people face in their lives. Even so, he maintains that it is good and right to put our faith in the Lord, and praise him at all times.

Second, as I mentioned, David wrote this sometime relatively soon after his narrow escape from both Saul, and the Philistines. However, even then, though the immediate danger was suspended for the moment, he was still in a pretty precarious position. He had to go live in a cave in order to hide from Saul’s men, and also from the Philistines. In other words, he had enemies in all directions around him. He had no guarantee even about the source of his next meal.

Therefore, when he wrote this psalm, it was almost certainly the lowest point in David’s life so far. Things had started so well, and then came crashing down spectacularly. He was anointed by Samuel to be Israel’s next king. Not long after, he challenged Goliath, and won. Then he became Israel’s foremost warrior, and he spent time also moonlighting as a musician. He became a personal favourite of King Saul. He even married Saul’s daughter. It seemed like everything was on track. His career was moving forward. But then suddenly, everything fell apart. Saul tried to kill him. His best friend warned him to run for his life. He left with nothing – no food, not even a weapon. He couldn’t even find shelter hiding anonymously with Israel’s enemies. So, finally, he ends up in the cave.

But David shows remarkable perspective. He had a great deal to complain about. Things had gone from terrific, to bad, to worse, to “living-all-alone-in-a-hole-in-the-ground.” But instead of complaining, he remembered that God had saved his life. I might have been complaining about why God allowed such things to happen. David, however, thanked God for saving him. Not only that, but he wrote this:

⁸ Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good!

Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!

Clearly, there is something going on here that transcends David’s actual experience. I don’t think he means: “Oh, how wonderful it is that that I’ve lost everything, and I was almost murdered twice and now I live in a cave with nothing to my name.” But something in his experience of God was much more significant to him than his experience of fear and loss. I do hesitate to use the word “experience,” here. True spiritual things transcend mere feelings. But at some level David connected with the truth of God’s love and care for him, even when his circumstances told him otherwise. I believe the essence of that connection was faith.

If you have read many of these messages, you have probably picked up on the fact that I have some kind of health issue. The short version is, I have a never ending phantom kidney stone. I am in a great deal of pain almost all the time. I am in pain as I write this. Sometimes, I feel sorry for myself, especially when other difficult things happen to me. At times, I think it is healthy to vent my feelings of frustration, and even to complain to God. We have already considered a psalm in which David did that. However, though God can handle our complaints, too much complaining is not good for us. Although venting my feelings can be cathartic, if I continue to complain for very long, I start to feel worse again. What does reliably help my heart is to surrender in faith to what the scripture says about God’s goodness and love. When I trust, in spite of the circumstances of my life, that God is good and that he loves me, it lifts my spirit, and brings me peace. I think that is exactly what is going on with David in this psalm.

David invites us to taste and see that the Lord is good. How do we do that? I think it begins with thanksgiving. For my part, I have learned that it is important for me to thank him for all things, and especially for the difficult things in my life; even for my literal pain. I am learning to trust that the Lord is with me in the middle of this suffering, and therefore, I can thank him for it.

You might say: “Great thought, Tom, but that’s not going to happen for me.” I might say: “Sure. How’re things working out for you doing it your way? Are you finding peace and grace in the midst of your struggles?” So, I encourage you to try it, even if it is hard, at first to thank God for difficult circumstances. I don’t mean feel thankful, I mean say “thank you” to God for what troubles you. You might be surprised at how much just that one act of will can change your heart.

You can almost feel David’s joy and peace in this psalm. The only explanation for it is that he trusted God beyond what he could see and feel. He said, “I will bless the Lord at all times.” This isn’t the peace of “everything is all right at this moment.” It is the peace of: “I have a hope that no tragedy on earth can destroy or touch.”

The overall point I am making is that in order to taste and see God’s goodness, we have to start by trusting that he is indeed good, whether or not we can feel his goodness at the moment. We taste his goodness when we surrender our own insistence that God do things our way, and instead trust that he is indeed good. Again, I think one way to help us do that is through thanksgiving.

Some of the verses in this psalm raise certain issues for me. There are many such troublesome verses in other psalms as well. For instance:

⁹ Oh, fear the LORD, you his saints,

for those who fear him have no lack!

¹⁰ The young lions suffer want and hunger;

but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing.

The reason this verse troubles me is because it seems to me that at times, I have suffered a lack of good things. For instance, in my particular case, I think it’s fair to say that while, like all human beings, I struggle and fail, at the same time, I do, by any reasonable measure, fear the Lord, and seek the Lord. Even so, I lack healing. Setting aside my own issue, I have travelled all over the world, and there are millions of Christians in other countries, even today, who lack good things like freedom, justice, access to good medical care, and even sufficient food. What do we do with this?

One thing to keep in mind with verses like this, is that this, like all psalms, is poetry. Because of the genre (poetry) we know we aren’t meant to take this in a overly literal way. The psalm invites us to enter into praising God. It also expresses certain truths, but those truths are general, and they are consciously exaggerated in order to express the feeling that David wants to convey. So this is not meant to be a straightforward teaching telling us that all believers will always have every single thing that they think they need. Instead, it invites us to see how good God is to his people, and how much he cares for them.

Secondly, and most importantly, we only receive all the fulness of God’s promises in eternity. That is, we don’t get the “full package” until we die in faith, and then stand with Jesus in our resurrected bodies. So, in that sense, we could say: “The Lord promises that he will completely, and utterly deliver us from every single trouble that we experience in this life.” He does promise that. And we get that total and complete deliverance, along with our new resurrected bodies, in the New Creation. Until then, we still do get some good from God, even when we don’t deserve it. But the complete version of the promise must wait until we step into eternity. Some people might think that’s a bit of a raw deal, but actually, if it were the other way round, that would be the raw deal.

Let’s do a thought experiment to understand why. Imagine you are a kid at a game arcade. In order to play any of the games, you need tokens that only work in that arcade. The tokens will also allow you to buy any of the food sold on the property. As it happens, your dad is a billionaire. You say, “Hey Dad, why don’t you give me a hundred million game tokens, so I can play these games and eat here whenever I want to?”

He says: “I’ll give you some tokens, because I love you, and like seeing you enjoy yourself. But too much time here, and too much of this cheap food would actually be bad for you.” Almost certainly, you don’t understand how just having fun and eating hot dogs could be bad for you. But your dad goes on: “What I actually want to give you is a hundred million dollars in real money. Then you can use it, even when you leave this place. But I have to wait until you are ready to handle it.”

Would you rather have a hundred million dollars worth of game tokens that you can only use in the arcade, or a hundred million dollars of legal tender? Obviously, any mentally competent adult would pick the real money. The game tokens are of limited use. When the kid gets older, he’ll probably stop enjoying the games that much, and he’ll certainly be sick of the cheap hot dogs and stale chips that the concession stand serves. The dad refrains from giving his child everything the child wants in order to give him something far, far better.

So, God does give us good things to enjoy in this present life. But his best promises are only fully realized in our eternity with Him. Jesus told us that the best kind of treasure is the stuff that lasts forever:

¹⁹ “Don’t store up treasures here on earth, where moths eat them and rust destroys them, and where thieves break in and steal. ²⁰ Store your treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal. ²¹ Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be.

(Matthew 6:19-21, NLT)

The best “good thing” I can have in this life will still be destroyed. At most, I will get to enjoy whatever it is until I die. But the Lord promises good to us that will last forever. He is still kind to us, to bless us and give us many things to enjoy in this present life. But those are weak and cheap compared to the real things, which we will be able to enjoy for eternity.

David writes: “The righteous person faces many troubles, but the LORD comes to the rescue each time,” (verse 19, NLT). So we aren’t promised a trouble-free life. In fact, that verse says that those who follow the Lord will indeed face many struggles. But we do not face them alone. And again, the promise will be completely fulfilled in the New Creation, but even now we get partial fulfillments.

Finally, there is this: “The LORD redeems the life of his servants; none of those who take refuge in him will be condemned.” The Lord is merciful. If we take refuge in Him, we will not be condemned. Hear these promises. Trust that they are true, and receive them, and praise him in response.