Psalms 34

Psalms 1:41

Gordon Churchyard

Words in boxes are from the Bible.

The notes explain some of the words with a *star by them. Tap the * before a word to show an explanation.

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Introduction

Here are some of the things that you should know as you read the psalms in this book.

1. At the top of each psalm (say it "sarm") is a title in Dark Letters. This title is not in the Hebrew psalm. It is not part of the Bible. It is there to give us help to remember the psalm and what it is about.

2. Under the title are some words either that Jesus said, or that somebody said about him. These words are from the Gospels. They are part of the Bible.

3. The psalm itself is in a box. Everything that is in the box is part of the psalm. This includes the words at the top that tell us who wrote the psalm and why. In this book, we believe that these words are true and that they give us some help to understand the psalm. Other parts from the Bible are also in boxes, except the verses under the titles.

4. Words in brackets like this: () are not in the Hebrew Bible. They give us help to understand what the psalm means.

5. The Hebrew writers of the psalms used some words that we cannot translate into EasyEnglish words. These are in a word list after the psalm. Some words are very important, like LORD, covenant and righteous. You will more about these words after some of the psalms. Righteous is after Psalms 5, the Covenant is after Psalms 25 and the names of God (LORD, Lord and God) are also after Psalms 25.

6. After each psalm is the story of the psalm. Some of the psalms we know a lot about, as Psalms 18. Other psalms we do not know anything about, as Psalms 1. When that happens, we say "perhaps" or "maybe".

7. After the stories comes "what the psalm means". Sometimes Bible students are not sure what the writer meant. When that happens, the notes tell you.

8. At the end of each psalm, there is "something to do". This will give you help to learn more about the psalm.

The Fear of the Lord

Psalms 34

Gordon Churchyard

Jesus said, 'This is what I say to my friends. Do not be afraid of them that kill the body. They can do nothing else. I will tell you of whom you should be afraid. Be afraid of him that kills you and has the power to send you to hell. Yes, I tell you, be afraid of him'. (Luke 12:4-5) (Hell is where bad people go when they die.)

Psalms 34

For David, when he made Abimelech think that he was crazy.
Abimelech sent David away and he went.

v1 I will always say good things about the *LORD.
Every day my lips will sing psalms to him.

v2 My soul will boast about the *LORD.
*Humble people will hear it. It will make them happy.

v3 Let us all make people see that the *LORD is great.
We will make his name famous together.

v4 I prayed to the *LORD and he answered me.
He saved me from everything that made me afraid.

v5 (*Humble people) looked to (the *LORD) and were happy.
Their faces were not ashamed.

v6 This *humble man prayed and the *LORD heard (him).
The (*LORD) took him away from all his troubles.

v7 The angel of the *LORD made a *camp.
He stayed in it, round the people that *feared the *LORD.
He took them away (from danger).

v8 Oh, taste and see that the *LORD is good.
The man that trusts in him will be very happy.

v9 Oh, *fear the *LORD all his saints.
People that *fear him will need nothing.

v10 Young lions may need (food) and become hungry.
People that pray to the *LORD will not need any good (thing).

v11 Children, come and listen to me.
I will teach you the *fear of the *LORD.

v12 Which one of you finds pleasure in life?
Who wants time to see good (things)?

v13 Do not say anything evil,
or let your lips tell anything that is false.

v14 Turn away from evil and do good (things).
Look for peace and follow it.

v15 The *LORD'S face is against the people that do evil.
Nobody in all the earth will remember them.

v16 The eyes of the *LORD are on the righteous
and his ears (listen) when they pray.

v17 The *LORD hears them when they cry for help.
He saves them from all their troubles.

v18 The *LORD is near when their hearts break.
He saves those whose spirits are very sad.

v19 Many evil things happen to the righteous,
but the *LORD saves (the righteous) from them all.

v20 (The *LORD) keeps all their bones safe.
Not one of them becomes broken.

v21 Evil (things) will kill very bad people.
(The *LORD) will punish the people that hate righteous (people).

v22 The *LORD will make his servants free
and not punish anyone that trusts him.

The Story of Psalms 34

Saul was King of Israel. He wanted to kill David. David ran away. Saul followed him. David went to Gath, which was a Philistine city. The king of Gath was Abimelech. He was not a friend to David. David became afraid. He should have trusted in the LORD. He did not, but made a plan of his own. He made Abimelech think that he, David, was crazy. For this reason, Abimelech did not kill David. In those days, they thought that it was wrong to kill crazy people. Abimelech sent David away. He went to a cave in Adullam, which was a few miles away. 400 people went to the camp that David made in Adullum. They were running away from a difficult life in Judah. Today we would say that they were refugees. The story is in a Part of the Bible that we call I Samuel, Chapter s 21 and 22 (see below). In Psalms 34 David thanked God that he was safe

Psalms 34 is an alphabet psalm. There are 22 verses in it. Each verse begins with a letter of the Hebrew Alphabet. Verse 1 begins with aleph, verse 2 with beth, and so on. We have put verse 16 before verse 15, because this makes it easier to understand. Because it is an alphabet psalm, there are a lot of different ideas in it. Other alphabet psalms are 9, 10, 25, 37, 111, 112, 119 and 145.

What Psalms 34 means

Verses 1 – 3: The Hebrew word for "say good things about" is "baruch". We often translate it "bless". The word "boast" usually means "tell people how great you are". Here, though, it means "tell everyone how great God is". Some people translate verse 3 as "Let us magnify the LORD". "Magnify" means "make bigger". We cannot make God bigger but we can bring him near to people. We do this by always obeying him. In this way we magnify him.

Verses 4 – 6: David was afraid. This was probably when he was with the Philistine king. David's crazy plan was working, but he wanted more. He asked God for help as well. God gave David help. David had a safe journey to Adullam. This made the humble people that came to him very happy. They were so happy that their faces shone!

Verse 7: The angel of the LORD is often a name for God himself in the Bible. Some Christians think that it was the angel Michael. He was the special angel of Israel. Jesus said that we all have an angel when we are children. Our angel may give us help. Many Christians believe that our angel stays with us all our life.

Verse 8: Hundreds of years ago the Church used this psalm when they met for The Lord's Supper. Other names for it include The Holy Communion and The Eucharist and The Mass. They used it because this verse says, "taste and see that the LORD is good". We eat bread to remember his broken body. We drink red wine to remember his blood that he gave for us.

Verse 9: If you find this verse difficult, then translate it: "Obey the LORD, all his saints. People that obey him will not need anything". The last bit means we will have what is necessary, not what we like!

Verse 10: Perhaps there were lions near the camp that David made for his men. Sometimes the lions were hungry. God will give his people all that they need.

Verses 11 – 14: These verses help us to understand the fear of the LORD. We show God that we fear him by obeying him. We also show him that we love him by obeying him! We call this strange mixing of fear and love by the word "worship". Look again at the note on verse 9.

Verses 16, 15 and 17: "The LORD'S face is against" means that "he is angry". He is looking at people that are his enemies. Verse 15 means that he can see and hear the righteous also. People are righteous not because they do good, but because God forgives them.

Verse 18: "A broken heart" means that we are "hurting in our minds, and very very sad". We must remember that God is near us when this happens to us. He wants to share our broken heart. He gives us help when we hurt inside.

Verse 19 – 20: Life is often very hard for God's people. God does not make life easy for them. He does give them help, though. This is what "saves" in verse 19 means. The promise in verse 20 came true for Jesus when he died. The story is in John 19:36. It is at the end of this psalm. The soldiers broke the body of Jesus, but not his bones. God kept the body of Jesus safe. God raised him from the dead 3 days later. For us, "all their bones" means "all their bodies". This is how the Jews said it. God will keep us safe until it is time to go to heaven. Then it does not matter what happens to our bodies, because our spirits (or souls) will be safe with God in heaven. Heaven is where God lives. God will raise our bodies, though. We do not know how he will do this. It will happen when Jesus returns to the earth.

Verse 21: In Australia, the aborigines have boomerangs. A boomerang is a bit of wood. The shape of it is as a letter V. When they throw it away, it comes back to them! "Throw" means "make it fly from your hand" The evil that bad men do is like a boomerang. It comes back to them and hurts them. It may take a long time, but it will happen. That is how God punishes people. Read Psalms 7: 15 for an example.

Verse 22: If we have done bad things, we must ask God to forgive us. Then he will not punish us. The evil that we do will not come back to us like a boomerang!

Something to do

1. Look in the psalm for:

a) when there was danger from the Philistines that made David afraid

b) when David made a camp for himself and his men

c) when David remembered the lions that lived near his camp

d) when David remembered what he did not do in Gath

e) when David was sorry that he tried to save himself

f) when God saved David from death

g) What David taught his men (or his children)

Answers

a) verses 4, 6

b) verse 7

c) verse 10

d) verse 13

e) verses 18 - 19

f) verse 20

g) verse 11

2. Look for important words that happen more than once in the psalm. The words include: saved or saves; hear or hears; righteous; good; evil; trust

3. How many times does the word LORD happen in Psalms 34?

4. Find out all you can about the Lord's Supper. What else is it called? Does it matter what we call it?

1 Samuel Chapter 21(end) and 22(start)

v​10 On that day David ran away from Saul. He went to Achish. Achish was the king of Gath.

v​11 The servants of Achish said to him, "Is not this David? He is king of the land (of Judah). They sing about him when they dance. They say, Saul has killed thousands (of people), but David has killed tens of thousands".

v​12 David thought about what they said. He became very afraid of Achish king of Gath.

v​13 David made them think that he (David) was crazy, but this was not true. While he was with them, he tried to make them think that he was crazy. They had to hold him down. He made a noise on the doors by the gates. He made his beard dirty with spit.

v​14 Achish said to his servants, "Look at him. The man is crazy. Why have you brought him to me?

v​15 Are there not enough crazy men here already? Why let this man do all this in front of me? Must he come into my house?"

v​1 David left Gath. He got away from (Achish) and went to the Cave of Adullam. His brothers heard about it. So did the people that lived with his father. They went to David.

v​2 A lot of people that were in trouble went as well. People that did not have money to pay their bills went. People that were unhappy went. They all went to David and he became their leader. There were about 400 of them.

Notes

1. Abimelech was probably an old word for "king". The name of the Abimelech of Gath was Achish. Gath was one of the 5 Philistine cities. The other 4 were Ashdod, Ashkelon, Ekron and Gaza. These were on the coast by the Mediterranean Sea. Gath was 20 miles from the sea.

2. Gath was a town to the west of Judah. It was about 30 miles from Jerusalem. Adullam was between Gath and Jerusalem. A cave is a big hole in the side of a hill. David probably made a camp there. The psalm tells us that the Angel of the Lord also made a camp there. He made David and his men safe.

3. A thousand is 1000. "Tens of thousands" means "a lot of thousands". David tried to make people in Gath think that he was crazy. Crazy people do strange things. David hit the doors to make a noise and to make marks on them. He also made his beard dirty. He let what was in his mouth fall on to it. The servants of Achish tried to stop him by holding him down. They did not kill him for the reason given above.

Angels

Here are some parts of the Bible that tell us about angels. The first is something that Jesus said. The other is something in a letter to the Hebrew Christians.

1. Matthew 18:10 Be careful that you do not hate any of these children. I tell you that in heaven their angels are always looking at my Father's face. My Father lives in heaven.

2. Hebrews 1:13; Hebrews 1:14 To which of the angels did he (God) ever say, "Sit on my right, until I put your enemies under your feet. Are the angels not spirits that help? They are sent to give help to everyone who will become saved".

In psalm 34:7, God sent the angel to give help to David. The angel probably brought others with him. Where David made a camp the angel made a camp. Many Christians believe that angels still come to give to them help. God sends these angels. We do not often see them, but they are there. We must not worship them or pray to them. God tells them what to do, not us.

The Death of Jesus

Here is part of what John wrote about the death of Jesus in John 19.

v​32 The soldiers came. They broke the legs of the 2 men that they crucified with Jesus.

v​33 When they came to Jesus, they saw that he was already dead. They did not break his legs.

v​34 One of the soldiers made a hole in his side with a long knife. Blood and water came out from it.

v​37 All this happened so that this would come true: "One bone of him will not become broken"

People that they crucified died slowly. They broke their legs to make them die in a shorter time. We think that the "someone" in verse 35 was John. People that they crucified died slowly. They broke their legs to make them die in a shorter time.

LORD ~ a special word for God; only his people use it
Lord ~ someone with authority, sometimes a name for God
humble ~ people who think that they are not important
humble ~ people who think that they are not important
camp ~ a place that soldiers live in
fear ~ what we feel inside when we are afraid