Psalm 34 (1928 BCP)
Psalm 34 (1928 BCP) is Benedicam Dominum in the Psalter of the 1928 Book of Common Prayer. It joins a personal vow of unceasing praise to an invitation to a congregation: the Lord hears the poor, teaches the fear of the Lord, is near to the contrite, and redeems those who take refuge in him. In the monthly cycle it closes Sixth-Day Evening Prayer, immediately before the Seventh Day begins.[1]
The 1928 Prayer Book text
I WILL alway give thanks unto the LORD; * his praise shall ever be in my mouth.
2 My soul shall make her boast in the LORD; * the humble shall hear thereof, and be glad.
3 O praise the LORD with me, * and let us magnify his Name together.
4 I sought the LORD, and he heard me; * yea, he delivered me out of all my fear.
5 They had an eye unto him, and were lightened; * and their faces were not ashamed.
6 Lo, the poor crieth, and the LORD heareth him; * yea, and saveth him out of all his troubles.
7 The angel of the LORD tarrieth round about them that fear him, * and delivereth them.
8 O taste, and see, how gracious the LORD is: * blessed is the man that trusteth in him.
9 O fear the LORD, ye that are his saints; * for they that fear him lack nothing.
10 The lions do lack, and suffer hunger; * but they who seek the LORD shall want no manner of thing that is good.
11 Come, ye children, and hearken unto me; * I will teach you the fear of the LORD.
12 What man is he that lusteth to live, * and would fain see good days?
13 Keep thy tongue from evil, * and thy lips, that they speak no guile.
14 Eschew evil, and do good; * seek peace, and ensue it.
15 The eyes of the LORD are over the righteous, * and his ears are open unto their prayers.
16 The countenance of the LORD is against them that do evil, * to root out the remembrance of them from the earth.
17 The righteous cry, and the LORD heareth them, * and delivereth them out of all their troubles.
18 The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a contrite heart, * and will save such as be of an humble spirit.
19 Great are the troubles of the righteous; * but the LORD delivereth him out of all.
20 He keepeth all his bones, * so that not one of them is broken.
21 But misfortune shall slay the ungodly; * and they that hate the righteous shall be desolate.
22 The LORD delivereth the souls of his servants; * and all they that put their trust in him shall not be destitute.
Praise learned in deliverance
The first person does not remain solitary. “My soul” becomes “with me” and “together”; testimony becomes corporate praise. The psalm's traditional heading connects it with David's escape from Gath (1 Samuel 21:10–15), but its acrostic form and its wisdom-teaching section mean that a particular rescue has been received as prayer for all who fear the Lord. It can therefore close an evening office without treating the day's mercies as private possessions.
Alexander MacLaren describes the movement accurately:
Whatever be the occasion of the psalm, its course of thought is obvious. There is first a vow of praise in which others are summoned to unite (vv. 1-3); then follows a section in which personal experience and invocation to others are similarly blended (vv. 4-10); and finally a purely didactic section, analysing the practical manifestations of “the fear of the Lord”.
The repeated language of hearing and crying does not turn prayer into a technique for securing ease. It names dependence: verse 6 calls the speaker “the poor,” and the community is taught to boast only in the Lord. Augustine sharpens that point by distinguishing the Giver from the gifts sought:
It is one thing to seek anything from the Lord, another to seek the Lord Himself. “I sought” (says he) “the Lord, and He heard me.”
This Christian reception need not deny the Psalm's historical voice. Rather, it lets its testimony shape the Evening Prayer congregation: praise is truthful when it recalls the Lord's saving presence and refuses to make wealth, safety, or a successful day its ground.
Fear of the Lord, peace, and the contrite heart
Verses 11–16 change from remembered rescue to instruction. “Fear” means reverent life before God, made visible in guarded speech, refusal of evil, positive good, and energetic peacemaking. The apostle Peter directly cites verses 12–16 while urging Christians to bless rather than return evil for evil (1 Peter 3:10–12). Thus the Psalm's desire for “good days” is not an authorization of self-protective prosperity, but a school of speech and conduct in a people called to pursue peace.
Augustine makes the moral logic deliberately concrete:
If he loves good days, let him hearken unto Him teaching and saying, “Come, you children, hearken unto Me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord.” What would you? Life and good days. Hear, and do. “Keep your tongue from evil.” This do.
The clause “seek peace, and ensue it” is therefore active. Peace is not merely an inward feeling or avoidance of conflict; the verb pictures a pursued good. In the Prayer Book's public recitation, that moral instruction is spoken by and to the whole assembly, including those harmed by false speech and those tempted to answer it in kind.
Protection without the promise of an easy life
The angel “tarrieth round about” those who fear the Lord, and verses 17–20 repeat the promise of deliverance. Christians also hear verse 20 in John 19:36, where the unbroken bones of Jesus on the cross fulfill Scripture. But the Psalm itself does not invite a shallow inference that righteous people avoid affliction: it says plainly, “Great are the troubles of the righteous.” Its assurance is that trouble does not have the last word.
MacLaren's reading of the angel's encampment keeps those two truths together:
He knows too that the encampment of the Angel of the Lord will not keep away sorrows, and trial, and sharp need. So his highest hope is not of immunity from these, but of rescue out of them.
Augustine similarly refuses to make outward release the sole measure of God's hearing:
Fear not: only do what He commands; and if He deliver you not bodily, He will deliver you spiritually.
That is an interpretation, not a revision, of the Psalm's literal cry for rescue. It helps the Church pray verses 17–22 beside the passion and resurrection of Christ, and beside the real suffering of his members, without pretending that either has been bypassed.
Taste, trust, and redemption
“O taste, and see” gives the Psalm an unusually bodily image for knowledge of God. It calls for experienced trust, not detached observation. In Christian Eucharistic tradition the words have often been sung or heard at Communion; Augustine reads them sacramentally in relation to Christ's gift of his body and blood. That later reception should not erase the Psalm's original summons to take refuge in the good Lord, but it does explain why the verse has been so at home in Christian worship.
Now will He speak openly of the same Sacrament, whereby He was carried in His Own Hands. “O taste and see that the Lord is good”.
The final verse speaks in the 1928 Psalter of servants who “shall not be destitute.” MacLaren notes that the Hebrew term can also carry the judicial sense rendered “condemned” in the Revised Version; that observation is a theological expansion, not an alteration of the Prayer Book's wording. It connects redemption and refuge with the New Testament's language of faith while preserving the Psalm's concrete confession that God does not abandon his servants.
The entirely New Testament tone of these words of the psalm comes out still more clearly, if we recognise that, not only in the latter, but in the former, part of the clause, we have one of the very keynotes of New Testament teaching.
Psalm 34 consequently forms the Church in a pattern of worship that is neither triumphalist nor resigned: bless the Lord in every season, seek him rather than mere advantage, learn truthful speech and pursued peace, bring a contrite heart, and take refuge in the God who redeems.
See Also
External Links
- 1928 Book of Common Prayer: Psalms 1–37
- Alexander MacLaren on Psalm 34
- Augustine, Exposition on Psalm 34
References
- ↑ The Protestant Episcopal Church, The Book of Common Prayer (New York: The Church Pension Fund, 1928), The Psalter, Psalm 34, pp. 405–406, and Sixth-Day Evening Prayer; text and office appointment checked against Justus Anglican, The Book of Common Prayer, 1928: Psalms 1–37.
- ↑ The Protestant Episcopal Church, The Book of Common Prayer (1928), The Psalter, Psalm 34, verses 1–10, p. 405; verified against Justus Anglican, The Book of Common Prayer, 1928: Psalms 1–37.
- ↑ The Protestant Episcopal Church, The Book of Common Prayer (1928), The Psalter, Psalm 34, verses 11–16, p. 406; verified against Justus Anglican, The Book of Common Prayer, 1928: Psalms 1–37.
- ↑ The Protestant Episcopal Church, The Book of Common Prayer (1928), The Psalter, Psalm 34, verses 17–22, p. 406; verified against Justus Anglican, The Book of Common Prayer, 1928: Psalms 1–37.
- ↑ Alexander MacLaren, Expositor's Bible: The Psalms, vol. 1 (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1892), pp. 321–322, “Psalm XXXIV”; Christian Classics Ethereal Library transcription.
- ↑ Augustine of Hippo, Exposition on Psalm 34, §8 (Psalm 33 in the Vulgate/LXX numbering), in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, vol. 8, trans. J. E. Tweed (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1888); New Advent transcription.
- ↑ Augustine of Hippo, Exposition on Psalm 34, §17 (Psalm 33 in the Vulgate/LXX numbering), in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, vol. 8, trans. J. E. Tweed (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1888); New Advent transcription.
- ↑ Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture: Psalms (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1908), “The Encamping Angel,” on Psalm 34:7; Christian Classics Ethereal Library transcription.
- ↑ Augustine of Hippo, Exposition on Psalm 34, §21 (Psalm 33 in the Vulgate/LXX numbering), in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, vol. 8, trans. J. E. Tweed (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1888); New Advent transcription.
- ↑ Augustine of Hippo, Exposition on Psalm 34, §11 (Psalm 33 in the Vulgate/LXX numbering), in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, vol. 8, trans. J. E. Tweed (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1888); New Advent transcription.
- ↑ Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture: Psalms (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1908), “No Condemnation,” on Psalm 34:22; Christian Classics Ethereal Library transcription.