Psalm 34 — Praise for Deliverance

If you have chanced upon enemies and yet have prudently fled from them and their schemes, call together people of gentle disposition and give thanks in the words of Psalm 34

Athanasius, On the Interpretation of the Psalms

The inscription of this psalm certainly makes me sit up and pay attention:

Of David. When he pretended to be insane before Abimelech, who drove him away, and he left.

I didn't remember this incident at all but it happened when David was on the run from Saul and had to go into enemy territory to escape. When he's recognized by the Philistine king, David feigns insanity and is sent away. Whew! Read it in 1 Samuel, chapter 21.

You would certainly thank the Lord for all his favors when that insanity idea worked out the way it did for David. Surely it seemed like a long shot at the time.

Psalm 34 by Ephraim Moses Lilien.
The musical instruments are drawn after the rich archaeological material;
also the way of holding and playing them is reproduced from the sources.

I like the way that St. Augustine tied it to modern, everyday life in his day. Our days are no different in the way that we think we have it worse than anyone ever did. After all, even God's favored one, David, had a lot to put up.

34:12 Who Desires Life?

Good Days. Augustine. Do you not grumble every day, "How long do we have to put up with this? Things get worse and worse by the day. Our parents had happier days, things were better in their time." Oh, come on! If you questioned those parents of yours, they would moan to you about their days in just the same way. ... So you are looking for good days. Let us all look for them together, but not here. ... There are always evil days in this world, but always good days in God. Abraham enjoyed good days, but only within his own heart; he had bad days when a famine forced him to migrate in search of food. But everyone else had to search, too. What about Paul: did he have good days, he who had "often gone without food, and endured cold and exposure?" (2 Cor. 11:27). But the servants have no right to be discontented; even the Lord did not have good days in this world. He endured insults, injuries, the cross and many a hardship.  Expositions of the Psalms.

Psalms 1-50 (Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture)

An index of psalm posts is here.