Bible Truth Daily Devotion

Psalm 34

An Appeal Court just struck down a FCC law that had fined network TV for foul language spoken in primetime TV shows.  The reason for overturning the law is to protect free speech.  Prior to that, free speech is meant to protect the freedom of expression, i.e. opposing viewpoint.  Now the court has deviated from the essence of the law and expanded to include indecent language; it is clearly a step in the wrong direction. The Bible, teaching important truth, has something to say about that.  It is in today’s psalm.

Commentary:

Psalm 34:3. The psalmist makes a call for everyone to magnify the Lord.  Who will respond?  It is unlikely that everyone will respond.  The word “magnify” means to make the Lord important in one’s life.  People who have other priority are unlikely to put God first just because they hear the call.  Nevertheless, the humble people in v.2 will heed the call.  The humble people are the ones who know their insufficiency and would seek God for the forgiveness of sins.  They would put the Lord first in their life. 

Psalm 34:11. The psalmist here affectionately called the people who fear the Lord “children.”  They are the teachable.  They want to know what is right and do it. 

Psalm 34:12.  The motivation of fearing the Lord is rooted in the love of seeing good.  Good is absent of evil.  The world that God has made before Adam is good before he decided to try evil.  Adam was willing to face death in order to experience what life without God would be like.  God does not compel anyone to live according to His will, so He let Adam depart from His presence and experience evil, which led to death. 

Wanting to see good is equivalent to the desire to return to God.  The consequence of such desire means that the person would have eternal life. 

Psalm 34:13-14.  The action of the people who fear God is consistent with God’s character.  Like God, they would strive to keep their spoken words pure.  They do not have guile in their mouth and would not speak evil.  Evil would include anything from very dark, such as slander or malice, to indecent, such as foul language. 

Psalm 34:15-16. God makes clear to everyone who He is.  He would not have anything to do with evil.  Man can choose evil, but their ends would be eternal separation from God, who alone is the life giver.  God would save the righteous, because He is righteous. 

Psalm 34:19-21.  This part of the psalm is applicable to believers but it is also prophecy about Jesus.  Although the sins of the world were laid on him, God delivered the Lord from death.  In death, not any of his bones is broken (John 19:36). 

Meditation:

Many Christians have come to the Lord because they recognize Jesus and His work is the only way to eternal life.  Like the humble described in the psalm, we know that we cannot absolve ourselves from the consequence of our sins.  We need the Savior to deliver us from the punishment of sins.

Therefore, Christians must inherently love good.  They want to that God’s desire will reign on the earth.  Although everyone want “good”, the difference is whose good one chooses.  Christians cherish the good designed by God and seek after the spiritual fulfillment.  The world, on the other hand, tends to chase after the material desire and prefer its own way over God’s desire. 

Let’s do a gut check.  Ask yourself this question, “Do I genuinely love Jesus and His way?  Or do I prefer to go off and enjoy the world and am not faithful to read His word, do His will, and to preach His gospel?”  Just like the psalmist said in the psalm, Christians would like to rebel against evil.  We no longer desires the old way of life. 

Prayer:

Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you that you are good.  We pray that we would rebel against the world and put you first in our life.  In Jesus’ name we pray.  Amen.