What does Psalm 34:14 Mean?

We're invited to read Psalm 34:14 with a story from David's life in the background.

1 Samuel 21:10-15 tells of a time when David had to act insane in order to escape from Achish, the king of the Philistines. (Some scholars think Abimelech was a title for Philistine kings much like Pharaoh was for Egyptian rulers.)

Anyways, it's a remarkable moment in David's story. He has no safe place to turn. Saul would like to kill him and Achish would be happy to do the same thing. So, David acts insane to save his life and escape the Philistines.

It's in that context that we are supposed to hear the words of Psalm 34. These words come across as a defiant cry in the face of injustice. Psalm 34:14 tells us to "turn from evil." Don't fall to the level of your enemies. Reject that way of life. Instead, do what is good. Repay evil with kindness. Finally, seek peace and pursue it.

Again, remember the context and the meaning of the word peace.

Shalom, the Hebrew word for peace, is not about safety or individual comfort. It is about being whole. As Nancy De-Claisse Walford notes, "To pursue šālôm is to turn away from pursuing only one’s self-interest and instead to seek the welfare of others, especially the welfare of the most vulnerable."

This kind of peace has to be sought and pursued. It doesn't come easily or naturally. It requires us to reject evil and do what is good.

It requires us to refuse to play the game the world plays. Whereas David had to play the fool to escape Achish's grasp and avoid Solomon's wrath, Christians take up the cross, which is a foolishness of its own kind.

Bibliography:

Rolf A. Jacobson and Beth Tanner, “Book One of the Psalter: Psalms 1–41,” in The Book of Psalms, ed. E. J. Young, R. K. Harrison, and Robert L. Hubbard Jr., The New International Commentary on the Old Testament (Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, U.K.: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2014), 327.