Psalm 34:12-14

Psalm 34:12-14 

Keep on doing good     

There are three verses in this stanza that work together as a whole and must be viewed in that way. David starts with a kind of question; he is asking, “Who amongst you loves life and wants to live a long life with many good days?”The answer would surely be - all of us! But I think there may be a bit of a twist to this question, it may more accurately read, “Who amongst you desires life and would love many days so that he may see good?” In other words, there is a difference between the hope of living long and enjoying myself with good times and actually wanting to live long so that I may promote goodness.    

There follows a number of conditions that are worthy of our reflection. Long life with an abundance of good days does not just happen, there are many who fall far short of their expectations, who die young, who suffer terrible physical afflictions or who live lives full of fear, depression, anxiety or loneliness and the like. It’s not for me to comment on individuals, all I can say is that the Psalm offers four conditions that, if met, will help our days to be good ones! Here they are: -

·      Keep your tongue from evil

·      Keep your lips from telling lies

·      Turn from evil and do good

·      Seek peace and pursue it

These four simple statements tell us a lot about David’s state of mind; here he is in dire circumstances, on the run, an outlaw and a fugitive, who plays a mad man to escape the clutches of the local Philistine king. You would be forgiven for thinking that he must have brought this on himself, obviously these are his just desserts. Not so, David was suffering for doing good, his only indictment being that he loved the Lord and he was fleeing for being God’s man. Obviously he believed that good times would come and in the meantime he would do good anyway! What a lesson for us, when things are not going right, keep doing good. Don’t speak evil of your adversaries, don’t lie to get out of trouble, don’t let life drag you down into sin and however many enemies you may have, continue to seek peace with them. 

Those lessons were being learned by a young man who would go on to be one of the greatest kings ever. So, let us go on doing good, whatever the circumstances, and life will eventually be good to us. Thank You Lord.

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