Psalms 34 KJV
Taste and See the Lord Is Good
About This Psalm
Written after David escaped danger by pretending to be insane. Taste and see that the LORD is good - an invitation to experience God firsthand.
1 will bless the LORD at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth.
2 My soul shall make her boast in the LORD: the humble shall hear thereof, and be glad.
3 O magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt his name together.
4 I sought the LORD, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.
5 They looked unto him, and were lightened: and their faces were not 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 encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them.
8 O taste and see that the LORD is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him.
9 O fear the LORD, ye his saints: for there is no want to them that fear him.
10 The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger: but they that seek the LORD shall not want any good thing.
11 Come, ye children, hearken unto me: I will teach you the fear of the LORD.
12 What man is he that desireth life, and loveth many days, that he may see good?
13 Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips from speaking guile.
14 Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it.
15 The eyes of the LORD are upon the righteous, and his ears are open unto their cry.
16 The face of the LORD is against them that do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth.
17 The righteous cry, and the LORD heareth, and delivereth them out of all their troubles.
18 The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.
19 Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the LORD delivereth him out of them all.
20 He keepeth all his bones: not one of them is broken.
21 Evil shall slay the wicked: and they that hate the righteous shall be desolate.
22 The LORD redeemeth the soul of his servants: and none of them that trust in him shall be desolate.
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Did You Know?
The superscription references Davidโs feigned madness before Abimelech (a dynastic title for Philistine rulers), deliberately linking the psalm to 1 Samuel 21 while using the anachronistic name to evoke patriarchal echoes from Genesis 20 and 26.
Psalm 34 forms an alphabetic acrostic that intentionally omits the sixth Hebrew letter waw between verses 5 and 6, a structural gap scholars interpret as mirroring Davidโs fractured circumstances or the incompleteness of human deliverance apart from God.
Verse 20โs assertion that none of the righteous manโs bones are broken is later read christologically in John 19:36, transforming an original statement about providential protection into a prophecy of the unbroken Passover lamb.
The imperative โtaste and seeโ in verse 8 draws on ancient Near Eastern hospitality imagery of sampling a hostโs food as an act of covenant trust, later informing both Jewish meal blessings and early Christian eucharistic language.
Extensive reuse of verses 12โ16 in 1 Peter 3:10โ12 recontextualizes the psalmโs wisdom ethic within a Greco-Roman household code, applying Old Testament fear-of-the-Lord instruction to Christian wives and slaves facing persecution.