How are your spiritual taste buds? Do they recognize and savor the goodness of the Lord? That was David’s testimony of his experience with the Lord’s deliverance, and his challenge to the readers / singers who would use Psalm 34 in their own worship. The heading of the Psalm reads “Of David. When he changed his behavior before Abimelech, so that he drove him out, and he went away.” The inspired account is found in 2 Samuel 16-18. That must have been one of the most painful experiences in David’s life. But this one whom God regarded as “a man after My own heart” (1 Samuel 13:14 and Acts 13:22) wrote of the Lord’s deliverance in this powerful Psalm, a portion of which has been set in metrical form as the hymn “Through All the Changing Scenes of Life.”
Psalm 34 is a literary as well as spiritual masterpiece. One is tempted to say that as a lyricist, David was his best in this Psalm. It is not only rich in theological instruction and in pastoral benefit. It also reflects great poetical skill in its composition. Like several other Psalms, it is composed in an acrostic form, with each verse beginning in sequence with the next letter in the Hebrew alphabet. If we were to follow that style in a series of statements in English, it might look like this.
All my hope is in the Lord
Before His throne I make my prayer
Covenant promises will sustain me
Despair shall not reign over me
Everlasting joy surely awaits me
Forever I will dwell in His holy temple
Goodness is central to His character
etc.