Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 34:12
What man [is he that] desireth life, [and] loveth [many] days, that he may see good?
12. The challenge with its answer in Psa 34:13-14 is a vivid and forcible equivalent for Whosoever desires let him &c. Cp. Psa 25:12.
life ] Not mere existence, but life worthy of the name (Psa 16:11; Psa 30:5); again a word characteristic of Proverbs, and connected there too with the fear of the Lord (Pro 14:27; Pro 19:23; Pro 22:4).
and loveth ] Lit., loving days for seeing good, explaining and emphasising the preceding line. Cp. Psa 34:10; Psa 4:6. Days = length of days (Pro 3:2; Pro 10:27).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
What man is he that desireth life? – That desires to live long. All people naturally love life; and all naturally desire to live long; and this desire, being founded in our nature, is not wrong. Life is, in itself, a good – a blessing to be desired; death is in itself an evil, and a thing to be dreaded, and there is nothing wrong, in itself, in such a dread. Equally proper is it to wish not to be cut down in early life; for where one has before him an eternity for which to prepare, he feels it undesirable that he should be cut off in the beginning of his way. The psalmist, therefore, does not put this question because he supposes that there were any who did not desire life, or did not wish to see many days, but in order to fix the attention on the inquiry, and to prepare the mind for the answer which was to follow. By thus putting the question, also, he has implicitly expressed the opinion that it is lawful to desire life, and to wish to see many days.
And loveth many days – literally, loving days. That is, who so loves days, considered as a part of life, that he wishes they may be prolonged and multiplied.
That he may see good – That he may enjoy prosperity, or find happiness. In other words, who is he that would desire to understand the way by which life may be lengthened out to old age, and by which it may be made happy and prosperous? The psalmist proposes to answer this question – as he does in the following verses, by stating the results of what he had experienced and observed.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 34:12
What man is he that desireth life, and loveth many days, that he may see good?
The happiness of life
Why is it we see man on all sides wearying himself in the effort to obtain this and that? It can only be because they imagine that these things will make them happy. But will they? Not so. Most men are hewing out cisterns, broken cisterns, which will field no water. The sad thing is, that men never seem to realize the accumulated experience of others. How many a man has made a lifelong trouble for himself by taking true for false, and false for true! There are small ambitions, remember, as well as large ones. A clerk or a labourer may be as ambitious, everybody may be as ambitious in his sphere, as a statesman or an author in his. I say nothing of meannesses to which men must often submit if they engage in that struggle; I say nothing of the free conscience sold, of the noble independence sacrificed, of the voice of protest silenced; nothing of the fact that fame, if it be anything like fame, will raise many a pang of envy in the breasts of others; I say nothing of the inevitable disappointment, of the disenchantments of fruition; nothing of the cup of success dashed away by death or by change at the very moment that our lips seem to touch it; the very best, and even the very best circumstances, the end gained, can give no real, no deep, no lasting satisfaction. But perhaps you belong to that much larger number of sensible, practical persons who do not think much of the empty bubbles of rank and fame; they want wealth, and what wealth brings. Now if the love of money were not a disease, if it were not the fruitful mother of vices, if it were not difficult for the rich man to be humble and heavenly, if the desire to gain were not a scourge, would Christ have said, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, etc.? There is a tribe of North-American Indians who are said to eat clay: I declare to you they seem to me to do no more for the body than the slaves of wealth in Britain do for the hungry soul, If there is no danger in wealth, or rather in the love of wealth, and the exaltation of wealth, would St. Paul have said, They that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition? There is only one kind of wealth which has or can have true happiness. It is a wealth far less plentiful than gold; it is the treasure, not of earth, but laid up in heaven,–the wealth which is spent in works of mercy and forethought, and the wealth which is increased by the limitation of reigning desires. And, lastly, are there none of you, especially among young men and young women, who fancy that happiness is to be found neither in rank, nor in wealth, but in the thing they call pleasure? What voices of the dead shall I invoke to describe the emptiness of selfish desire? Shall it be his, the glass of fashion and the mould of form of the last century, Lord Chesterfield? He says, I have enjoyed all the pleasures of the world, and consequently know their value; but I by no means desire to repeat that nauseous potion for the sake of a fugitive dream. Or shall it be his, the great lyric poet, Heinrich Heine, who in the last eight years of his lingering life, I am, he writes, no longer brave, smiling, cheerful; I am only a poor death-sick and shadowy image of trouble–an unhappy man? Enough: there is and can be no happiness in these things–ambition, money, unlawful pleasure. They are vanity; not only, alas, a mere vacuum, but a plenum of misery and wrong; not waterless clouds, but clouds that rain mildew; not empty cisterns, but cisterns full of poison and bitterness. If we want happiness at all, we must seek it everywhere, and everywhere it is of the heart. (Dean Farrar.)
Life
I. life is a serious thing. Many do not take it seriously. Their great object is to get through it pleasurably. They glide along the stream of time into the ocean of eternity without ever having realized that life is real, life is earnest. It is a serious thing because–
1. It is the preparation-time for eternity. The time to seek and find in Christ the salvation of our souls.
2. It is the believers working-time for God.
3. It is a time of conflict with evil.
II. life is also a source of joy. Seriousness and joy are not incompatible, It is a serious thing to have the charge of a young life. Is it any the less a source of joy to have that precious charge committed to one? Life is a source of joy because–
1. God gives us innumerable blessings.
2. If we live it well it is a time of success. Even in this world God ever rewards His toilers with a sense of His presence and favour, and He often grants them true success.
3. Even here we may be conquerors in the conflict with evil through Him who loved us. (H. P. Wright, B. A.)
The way to a happy life
I. To bridle the tongue. Innumerable evils grow from this root of bitterness.
1. Perjury.
2. Slander and calumny; the inventing evil things of men, and falsely imputing them to them; this injurious practice to others is apt to provoke the like usage from them again.
II. To depart from evil, and do good.
1. The practice of virtue and religion is the natural cause of happiness. What can more highly conduce to the health of a mans body, to the vigour and activity of his mind, to the improving of his estate, to the flourishing of his reputation, to the honour and safeguard of his whole life, than this, his departing from evil and doing good? Virtue seldom fails of its reward in this world.
2. The practice of virtue and religion never fails to obtain the patronage and protection of Divine providence. Righteousness is the image of God; true goodness, wheresoever it is, is a beam derived from that fountain of light, which God cannot choose, if He loves Himself, but cherish and bless with a peculiar favour.
III. To seek peace, and pursue it.
1. What is to be done by us in order to peace?
(1) A quiet and peaceable subjection to that government we live under.
(2) That every man keep in that place and station Divine providence hath set him, and not venture to act out of his own sphere. Did every under-mariner in a storm leave the pump and his own particular charge to instruct the pilot, or every common soldier in time of battle quit his post to instruct his captain, what tumults and confusions would this breed!
(3) A constant and conscientious adhering to the Church.
(4) That laying aside all pride and passion and self-interest, we pursue after truth with purity and simplicity of intention.
(5) That we bear with one anothers weaknesses and infirmities (Col 3:13). Human nature is indispensably subject to blindness, impatience and levity, mightily prone to mistake and mis-behaviour; the nature of a mans soul is as far from infallibility as the constitution of his body is from immortality, and we can no more hope in all cases to be free from error and mistake, than we can at all times to be exempted from sickness and death. Now how reasonable is it that they should forgive, who so often themselves stand in need of forgiveness!
(6) That we pray for peace. The lusts and passions of men are by the psalmist compared to the raging waves of the sea, and the same almighty Power that sets bounds to the one, must also quiet and restrain the other.
2. How great a blessing peace is, and how highly it tends to make our days many and good.
(1) As it whets and excites diligence and industry in mens several callings, by giving them hopes of success in them.
(2) As it gives men security in the enjoyment of their estates and possessions; in times of popular tumults the fears of losing what a man has creates him more trouble than the enjoyment gives him content.
(3) As it affords the fittest opportunity for the practice of religion and virtue, and so conduces to the happiness of the future state as well as of this. (S. Freeman, M. A.)
The elixir of life
Rosenmuller, the celebrated sacred critic, quotes the following instructive anecdote from the book of Mussar:–A certain person, travelling through the city, continually called out, Who wants the elixir of life? The daughter of Rabbi Joda heard him, and told her father, who bade her call the man in. When the man entered, the Rabbi asked, What is the elixir of life which thou sellest? He answered, Is it not written, What man is he that loveth life, and desireth to see good days? let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips from speaking guile. This is the elixir of life, and is found in the mouth of man. The hero of this anecdote wisely says, This is the elixir of life. The government of the tongue–consisting, of course, in a proper regulation of the passions–will do more both to sweeten life and to lengthen it, than all the medicines in the world. The tongue is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison; it setteth on fire the course of nature, and it is set on fire of hell. Most of the wars which desolate the earth, most of the tumults which afflict society, and many of the excitements which produce anxiety, sleeplessness, fever, and multitudinous disease, arise from rash, false, or malicious speaking. None but a Christian has this elixir,–no soul, but such as has been created anew in Christ Jesus, can enchain the malignant passions, making them captive under a reign of holy love, and pour a balm of honeyed words into the wounds of his own or his neighbours miseries. The tongue can no man tame. God alone can achieve the deed. Whoever would find the elixir of life, must seek it in that Heavenly Physicians laboratory, who healeth all our diseases, who satisfieth our mouth with good things, and who reneweth our youth like the eagles.
Keep thy tongue from evil.—
Keeping the tongue from evil
1. There are different ways of sinning with the tongue. Our words may be–
(1) Exaggerated. It is easy to make light of the common expressions, terrible, awful, and the like; but they are on the road to sin, and betray a tendency to make more of things than they deserve, which is at bottom self-conceit.
(2) Insincere. Saying pleasant things without meaning them–the wrong and sinful side of politeness.
(3) Malicious. Speaking falsely about a person so as to hurt him.
(4) Profane. The use of vulgar and blasphemous words which young people adopt as a sign of manly independence. And that often goes further, and becomes filthy and immoral.
2. The tongue may be kept:
(1) By keeping the heart right.
(2) By persistent effort to break a bad habit.
(3) By the choice of good friends.
(4) By prayer. (G. M. Mackie, M. A.)
Keeping guard over ones words
The Chinese have a proverb we shall do well to remember: A word rashly spoken cannot be brought back by a chariot and four horses. The Hindoos have a similar one: Of thy unspoken word thou art master, thy spoken word is master of thee; and many a heartache is caused in this world of ours by the passionate utterance of the hasty and the unkind word. Let us remember the adage trite and true: Speech is silvern, silence is golden; and, if we cannot speak gently, let us try not to speak at all.
Seek peace, and pursue it.—
The pursuit of peace
The more a man advances in piety the more his inward tranquillity ought to increase. The day grows calmer as the sun draws near its setting. (J. W. Alexander.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 12. What man is he that desireth life] He who wishes to live long and to live happily, let him act according to the following directions. For a comment upon this and the four ensuing verses, see the notes on 1Pe 3:10-12.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Desireth, to wit, seriously and in good earnest, so as to be willing to use any endeavours which shall be prescribed to him: for otherwise the question were needless; for there is no man but desires it, at least coldly and faintly.
Life; a long and happy life, begun in this world, and continued for ever in the next. And thus life is oft used, as Psa 16:11; 30:5.
Loveth many days, that he may see good, Heb. loveth days to see (i.e. in which he may see, i.e. enjoy) good, to wit, prosperity or happiness.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
12. What manWhoever desiresthe blessings of piety, let him attend.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
What man [is he that] desireth life?…. Every man desires life, even a natural life; it is more desirable than all things in it; especially an healthful life, without which the blessings and mercies of life cannot be comfortably enjoyed; and still more a life of prosperity; life, with an affluence of good things, and even a long one: though it may be rather that a spiritual life is here meant, and a comfortable one; a life free from the remorses of a guilty conscience, from the fear of hell, damnation, and wrath; from the bondage of the law, and the dread of death; a life of faith on Christ, and communion with him; and a life of sobriety, righteousness, and holiness; and perhaps it may be best of all to understand it of eternal life, which is life eminently and emphatically; it follows,
[and] loveth [many] days; that is, good ones; as they are interpreted in 1Pe 3:10; not of this life, for the days of it are evil, and especially when they are lengthened out; the days of old age, Ec 12:1; unless the days of the son of man, the days of enjoying the presence of God in his house and ordinances, should be intended; though rather the good and many days of eternity, even length of days, for ever and ever, in which will be fulness of joy, and never ceasing and never fading pleasures;
that he may see good; there is good to be seen and enjoyed in this life, which if the saints did not believe they should see and enjoy, they would often faint; and this good lies in the participation of the blessings of grace, and in fellowship with Father, Son, and Spirit: but the great and lasting good to be seen and enjoyed is in the world to come, when God shall be all in all, be seen as he is, and the saints shall inherit all things.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
12. Who is the man who desireth life? The prophet does not inquire if there be any man so disposed, as if all men voluntarily brought upon themselves the miseries which befall them; for we know that all men without exception desire to live in the enjoyment of happiness. But he censures severely the blindness and folly which men exhibit in the frowardness of their desires, and the vanity of their endeavors to obtain happiness; for while all men are seeking, and eagerly intent upon acquiring what is for their profit, there will be found scarcely one in a hundred who studies to purchase peace, and a quiet and desirable state of life, by just and equitable means. The prophet therefore admonishes his disciples, that nearly the whole world are deceived and led astray by their own folly, while they promise themselves a happy life from any other source than the divine blessing, which God bestows only upon the sincere and upright in heart. But there is in this exclamation still greater vehemence, the more effectually to awaken dull and drowsy minds to the course of this world; as if he had said, Since all men earnestly desire happiness, how comes it to pass, that scarcely any one sets himself to obtain it, and that every man, by his own fault, rather brings upon himself various troubles?
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(12) Desireth life.Better, the man delighting in life. These gnomic sayings are echoes from the book of Proverbs. (See especially Pro. 4:23.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
12-14. Contain instructions for useful and happy living: first in the government of the tongue, and an honest and sincere habit of speech; secondly in the avoidance of evil, and the diligent pursuit of peace.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
4). He Points Out To Them The Way To True Life (12-14).
Psa 34:12-14
M ‘What man is he who desires life,
And loves many days, that he may see good?’
N Keep your tongue from evil,
And your lips from speaking guile.
S Depart from evil, and do good,
Seek peace, and pursue it.’
The Psalmist now raises the question as to how a man may enjoy a long and true life. This is the Old Testament equivalent to the quest for eternal life, the life that is God-given (compare Psa 16:11, ‘you will show me the path of life, in your presence is fullness of joy, and at your right hand are pleasures for evermore’; Psa 30:5, ‘in His favour is life’). And he then describes the kind of man who will find that life. The idea in mind here is found in Lev 18:5, ‘You shall therefore keep my statutes, and my judgments, which if a man do, he will live in them. I am YHWH.’ The thought was to have the quality of life that would extend life. Such a person would both live long and see much good. The words are literally, ‘loving days for seeing good’. They want to live long for the good that they can do.
He then outlines in detail something of what such living would involve. They were to keep their tongues from evil and their lips from speaking guile. In other words, their tongues were to speak in openness and honesty and for men’s genuine good. Their ‘yes’ was to be ‘yes, and their ‘no’ was to be ‘no’ (Mat 5:37). There must be no deceitfulness and lying, no tale-bearing, no backbiting and cruelty of word. Every word should be surrounded by love. This emphasis on spoken words becomes a New Testament theme. ‘The tongue — is a little member — which is set on fire by Hell’ (Jas 3:5-6). So ‘let your words always be with grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you should answer every man’ (Col 4:6). Because ‘for every idle word that men shall speak, they will give account of them in the Day of Judgment’ (Mat 12:36).
They were to ‘depart from evil and do good’. Compare Isa 1:16-17, ‘wash yourselves thoroughly, make yourselves clean, put away the evil of your doings from before My eyes, cease to do evil, learn to do well’. It is not enough just to ‘stop sinning’. The real test of whether we have become His is whether our lives make a positive contribution towards good. ‘By their fruits you will know them’ (Mat 7:16; Mat 7:20). For ‘to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin’ (Jas 4:17).
‘Seek peace, and pursue it.’ Finally they were to search out peace, and then chase it as hard and as persistently as they could like the hunter his prey. All dissension, all disharmony, and all bitterness was to be disposed of and removed. ‘Let us follow after things which make for peace’ (Rom 14:19). ‘Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God’ (Mat 5:9).
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Psa 34:12. And loveth many days, that he may see good And loveth days to see or enjoy good. Houbigant. The meaning of the verse is, “Who is the man that desires a long and happy life?”
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Psa 34:12 What man [is he that] desireth life, [and] loveth [many] days, that he may see good?
Ver. 12. What man is he that desireth life? ] This is David’s doctrine; and to draw company about him, he proclaimeth and promiseth that which he well knew every man coveteth, happy life, many days, and a comfortable enjoyment of all. Now, who is it that would have these? saith he. Austin bringeth in all sorts, saying, Ego et ego, I would, and I would. But as all men desire health, but few take a right course to get it, and keep it; so all would be happy, but few hearken to this wholesome counsel, for the compassing of true happiness.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
What . . . ? Referred to in 1Pe 3:10-12.
life. Figure of speech Metonymy (of Adjunct), App-6, put for all that makes life worth living.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
What: Psa 21:4, Psa 91:16, Deu 6:2, Deu 30:20, 1Pe 3:10, 1Pe 3:11
that he: Psa 4:6, Job 7:7, Ecc 2:3, Ecc 12:13
Reciprocal: Gen 19:16 – the Lord Deu 11:9 – prolong Deu 25:15 – that thy days Job 32:7 – General Psa 15:2 – speaketh Psa 94:14 – forsake Ecc 6:6 – yet Isa 65:20 – There shall Amo 5:14 – Seek Mat 5:9 – are
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Psa 34:12. What man is he that desireth life A long and happy life, begun in this world and continued for ever in the next: namely, who is he that seriously and in good earnest desires it, so as to be willing to use any endeavours which shall be prescribed to him? for otherwise the question would be needless, there being no man but desires it, at least, coldly and faintly. And loveth many days Hebrew, loveth days to see, that is, in which he may see, or enjoy, good, namely, prosperity and happiness.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
34:12 What man [is he that] desireth life, [and] loveth [many] days, that he may {i} see good?
(i) Seeing all men naturally desire happiness, he wonders why they cast themselves willingly into misery.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
God had promised long life to the godly in Israel as a reward for righteous behavior (cf. Exo 20:12; Deu 5:33). Therefore the psalmist urged truthful speech, good deeds, and peaceful conduct.