Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 34:22
The LORD redeemeth the soul of his servants: and none of them that trust in him shall be desolate.
22. A second verse beginning with P, like Psa 25:22, where see note.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The Lord redeemeth the soul of his servants – The literal meaning of this is, that the Lord rescues the lives of his servants, or that he saves them from death. The word redeem in its primary sense means to let go or loose; to buy loose, or to ransom; and hence, to redeem with a price, or to rescue in any way. Here the idea is not that of delivering or rescuing by a price, or by an offering, but of rescuing from danger and death by the interposition of the power and providence of God. The word soul here is used to denote the entire man, and the idea is, that God will rescue or save those who serve and obey him. They will be kept from destruction. They will not be held and regarded as guilty, and will not be treated as if they were wicked. As the word redeem is used by David here it means God will save His people; without specifying the means by which it will be done. As the word redeem is used by Christians now, employing the ideas of the New Testament on the subject, it means that God will redeem His people by that great sacrifice which was made for them on the cross.
And none of them that trust in him shall be desolate – Shall be held and treated as guilty. See Psa 34:21, where the same word occurs in the original. They shall not be held to be guilty; they shall not be punished. This is designed to be in contrast with the statement respecting the wicked in Psa 34:21. The psalm, therefore, closes appropriately with the idea that they who trust the Lord will be ultimately safe; that God will make a distinction between them and the wicked; that they will be ultimately rescued from death, and be regarded and treated forever as the friends of God.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 34:22
None of them that trust in Him shall be desolate.
No condemnation
The R.V. accurately renders the words: None of them that trust in Him shall be condemned. When we read in the New Testament that we are justified by faith, the meaning is precisely the same as that of our text. Thus, however it came about, here is this psalmist, standing away back amidst the shadows and symbols and ritualisms of that Old Covenant, and rising at once, above all the mists, right up into the sunshine, and seeing, as clearly as we see it, that the way to escape condemnation is simple faith.
I. the people that are spoken of here. None of them that trust in Him. The word that is here translated, rightly, trust, means literally to fly to a refuge, or to betake oneself to some defence in order to get shelter there. There is a trace of both meanings, literal and metaphorical, in another psalm, where we read, amidst the psalmists rapturous heaping together of great names for God: My Rock, in whom I will trust. Now keep to the literal meaning there, and you see how it flashes up the whole into beauty: My Rock, to whom I will flee for refuge, and put my back against it, and stand as impregnable as it; or get myself well into the clefts of it, and then nothing can touch me. Then we find the same words, with the picture of flight and the reality of faith, used with another set of associations in another psalm, which says: He shall cover thee with His feathers, and under His wings shelf thou trust. That grates, one gets away from the metaphor too quickly; but if we preserve the literal meaning, and read, under His wings shalt thou flee for refuge, we have the picture of the chicken flying to the mother-bird when kites are in the sky, and huddling close to the warm breast and the soft, downy feathers, and so with the spread of the great wing being sheltered from all possibility of harm. There is one thing more that I would notice, and that is that this designation of the persons as them that trust in Him follows last of all in a somewhat lengthened series of designations for good people. They are these: the righteous–them that are of a broken heart–such as be of a contrite spirit–His servants, and then, lastly, comes, as basis of all, as, so to speak, the keynote of all, none of them that trust in Him. That is to say–righteousness, true and blessed consciousness of sin, joyful surrender of self to loving and grateful submission to Gods will, are all connected with or flow from that act of trust in Him. And if you are really trusting in Him, your trust will produce all these various fruits of righteousness, and lowliness, and joyful service.
II. the blessing here promised. None of them that trust in Him shall be condemned. The word includes the following varying shades of meaning, which, although they are various, are all closely connected, as you will see–to incur guilt, to feel guilty, to be condemned, to be punished. All these four are inextricably blended together. And the fact that the one word in the Old Testament covers all that ground suggests some very solemn thoughts.
1. Guilt, or sin, and condemnation and punishment, are, if not absolutely identical, inseparable. To be guilty is to be condemned.
2. This judgment, this condemnation, is not only present, according to our Lords own great words, which perhaps are an allusion to these: He that believeth not is condemned already; but it also suggests the universality of that condemnation. Our psalmist says that only through trusting Him can a man be taken and lifted away, as it were, from the descent of the thundercloud, and its bolt that lies above his head. They that trust Him are not condemned, every one else is; not shall be, but is, to-day, here and now.
III. the sole deliverance from this universal pressure of the condemnatory influence of universal sin lies in that fleeing for refuge to God. And then comes in the Christian addition, to God, as manifested in Jesus Christ. You and I know more than this singer did, for we can listen to the Master, who says, He that believeth on Him is not condemned; and to the servant who echoes, There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
The Gospel before the Gospel
I. what trust is. We do not need to bewilder ourselves with metaphysical and theological subtleties. We know what it is to run to a refuge from storm or danger. So, then, none of them that flee to Him for refuge shall be condemned.
II. the accompaniments in the devout soul of true trust in God. Has it by its side a real penitence? Does there walk behind it a consistent and steadfast righteousness? Are we not only trusting the Lord, but serving Him? If our faith has drawn after it these things, it is true. If it has not, it is no real flight to the one Refuge. Righteousness in heart and in character and in conduct is the child of trust. True contrition accompanies it in its birth, but is nourished and nurtured by it thereafter.
III. the great reward and blessing of quiet trust. None of them that flee to Him for refuge shall be condemned. The word in its original and literal meaning, signifies desolate. And I would have you to think of the profound truth that is covered by the fact that such a word should afterwards take on the meaning of guilt. It teaches that guilt is desolation. Again, note the profound truth that lies in the other fact that the self-same word means guilty and punishment. For that says to us that criminality and retribution always go together, and that the same thing, in one aspect, is our sin, and, in another aspect, is our hell and punishment. Then, further, note that broad, unconditional, blessed assurance, cast into negative form, but involving a great deal more than a negation, None of them that trust in Him shall be condemned. The reason why they that trust in Him are not condemned is because they that trust in Him, stand in the full sunshine of His love, and are saturated and soaked through and through, if they will, with the warmth and the light and the felicity of its beams. They shall not be condemned, and whom He justifies them He also glorifies. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
A message to the desolate
To be desolate is to be devastated and destroyed. The ruin, whether of temple or of colosseum, is a picture of desolation. It is also loneliness. We have seen the solitary cottage among the Alps. There was no other cottage in sight, only the unbroken mountain range. We have seen the lone cabin on the plains, or the ship on the sea with nothing but the waters beneath and the sky above. These are pictures of desolation and loneliness which, I am inclined to think, find their duplicate in the life of men and women.
I. what are some of the causes?
1. To be misunderstood. The misunderstandings of life are nails to the hands or flames to the body. They cut one off from fellowship; they hurt and hinder and add to the solitude of life. Our Lord was misunderstood, lie was isolated by the very fact that lie was not understood. Therefore, upon at least three different occasions the Father encouraged Him. When He was baptized the voice of approval broke through the skies. When He was transfigured God spoke to Him and encouraged Him with the revelation of His presence, and in the Garden of Gethsemane the angel ministered unto Him. The satisfaction of His heart was found in the consciousness that while men did not understand Him God did. That saved Him from utter desolation. That saves us all from despair. To know that God knows us and understands us is to enjoy the highest spiritual companionship.
2. In proportion as we go far below or far above the common experiences of men do we experience isolation. The cathedral spire and the mountain peak are lonely. They are solitary. They enjoy no companionship. They are exceptions. So the shaft sunk deep in the earth is exceptional. A great emotion whether of joy or grief projects the life out of the ordinary; as an inlet of the sea. There is a loneliness and isolation in great thinking. Thomas Carlyle led a comparatively lonely life, a life of intellectual desolation, partly because he threaded his way up the dizzy heights of thought.
3. When you have a great sorrow it must be met and borne alone. Every soul goes through the valley of the shadow of death essentially alone so far as human help is concerned, which is to say, every heart knows its own sorrow and must bear its own burden. In the greatest griefs there is room only for the soul and God.
4. Sin leads to desolation. There is no real companionship in sin. Sin is destructive of brotherhood and fellowship. It narrows the life. The source of sin is selfishness, and the more selfish a life is the more narrow and lonely and desolate it is. Sin is desolation. It is a desert without a spring. Desolation is hell. We do not know much about the hell of the future, but we do know something of the hell of the present.
II. what, then, shall we do to escape the life of desolation? How shall we people our little world with companions and brighten it with brotherhood and blessings?
1. By a right use of the mind. We do not know precisely what or where the mind is, but we do know that it is the measure of the man. It is the eternal within us. Whatever may happen to the body, if the minds sky is clear, what matters it? If our minds master us, rules and lead us, we will derive an immense amount of good from life, and each one, like St. Catherine of old, will have a secret oratory within which we may retreat.
2. Trust; trust in God. This is an old and well-worn injunction. For centuries men have been urged to trust in God. Why should they? Does it put bread in the pantry and money in the bank? Does it keep disease from the children or sorrows from the home? Why should we trust in God? We should believe that God is with us always. We do or do not believe this. If we do not we are desolate. If we do we are not desolate. (W. Rader.)
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Psa 35:1-28
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 22. The Lord redeemeth] Both the life and soul of God’s followers are ever in danger but God is continually redeeming both.
Shall be desolate.] Literally, shall be guilty. They shall be preserved from sin, and neither forfeit life nor soul. This verse probably should come in after the fifth. See the introduction to this Psalm.
ANALYSIS OF THE THIRTY-FOURTH PSALM
This Psalm is composed with great art, and this must be attended to by those who would analyze it. The scope of it is to praise God, and to instruct in his fear. Its parts are, in general, the following: –
I. He praises God himself, and calls upon others to follow his example, Ps 34:1-8.
II. He assumes the office of a teacher, and instructs both young and old in the fear of the Lord, Ps 34:9-22.
1. He praises God, and expresses himself thus: – 1. I will bless the Lord. 2. His praise shall be in my mouth. 3. It shall be in my mouth continually. 4. It shall be expressed by a tongue affected by the heart: “My soul shall make her boast in the Lord.” 5. And so long would he continue it till others should be moved to do the like: “The humble shall hear thereof, and be glad.”
2. Upon which he calls upon others to join with him: “O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together.” And to encourage them he proposes his own example: “I sought the Lord,” c. Should it be said this was a singular mercy shown to David which others are not to expect, he in effect replies, No, a mercy it is, but it belongs to all that seek God: “They looked unto him,” c. But should not this satisfy, and should they rejoin, This poor man (David) cried, and the Lord heard him, but David was in the Divine favour he may be supposed to reply by this general maxim: “The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him” and be they who they may, if they fear God, this is their privilege.
II. Now he assumes the chair of the teacher; and the lessons are two: –
1. That they make a trial of God’s goodness: “O taste and see that the Lord is good.”
2. That they become his servants: “O fear ye the Lord, for there is no want,” c.
And this he illustrates by a comparison: “The young lions (or, the rich and the powerful) may lack and suffer hunger,” but they that seek the Lord shall not.
These promises and blessings belong only to them that fear the Lord and lest some should imagine they had this fear, and were entitled to the promise, he shows them what this fear is.
Ale calls an assembly, and thus addresses them: “Come, ye children, and hearken unto me and I will teach you the fear of the Lord.” That fear of the Lord which, if a man be desirous of life, and to see many days, shall satisfy him and if he be ambitious to see good, the peace of a quiet soul and a good conscience shall lodge with him.
1. Let him be sure to take care of his tongue: “keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips that they speak no guile.”
2. Let him act according to justice: “Depart from evil.”
3. Let him be charitable, ready to do good works: “Do good.”
4. Let him be peaceable; “Seek peace, and pursue it.”
These are the characteristics of those who fear the Lord, and seek him; and they shall want no manner of thing that is good.
It may be objected: The righteous are exposed to afflictions, c., and ungodly men have power and prosperity to which it may be answered: Afflictions do not make the godly miserable, nor does prosperity make the wicked happy. 1. As to the righteous, they are always objects of God’s merciful regards: “For the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayers.” But, 2. “The face of the Lord is against those who do evil,” c.
These points he illustrates: –
1. The righteous cries, and the Lord heareth him, and delivereth him out of all his troubles either, 1. By taking them from him or, 2. By taking him from them.
2. “The Lord is nigh to them that are of a broken heart,” c. Thus he comforts, confirms and strengthens.
3. Although the afflictions of the righteous are many, yet the Lord delivers him out of them all makes him patient, constant, cheerful in all, superior to all.
4. “He keeps all his bones.” He permits him to suffer no essential hurt.
But as to the ungodly, it is not so with them; the very root of their perdition is their malice which they show, 1. To God; 2. To good men.
1. “Evil shall slay the wicked.”
2. “And they that hate the righteous shall be desolate.”
And then David concludes the Psalm with this excellent sentiment; Though God may suffer his servants to come into trouble, yet he delivers them from it. For it belongs to redemption to free one from misery; for no man can be redeemed who is under no hardship. This shall be done, says David. The “Lord redeemeth the souls of his servants, and none of them that trust in him shall be desolate.” The Lord redeems from trouble and affliction, as well as from sin. He knows how to deliver the godly from temptation; and he knows how to preserve them in it. But it is his servants that he redeems, not his enemies. The servant may confidently look to his master for support.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
i.e. Their lives or their persons, from the malicious designs of all their enemies, and from desolation or utter ruin, as it follows.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
The Lord redeemeth the soul of his servants,…. Who are made so by his grace in the day of his power, and are willing to serve him, and to serve him with their minds, readily and cheerfully; and the soul of these, which is the more noble part of them, and is of more worth than a world, the redemption of which is precious, and requires a great price, the Lord redeems; not that their bodies are neglected, and not redeemed; but this is mentioned as the principal part, and for the whole; and this redemption is by the Lord, who only is able to effect it, and which he has obtained through his precious blood; and here it seems to denote the application of it in its effects; that is, the forgiveness of sin, justification, and sanctification, since it respects something that is continually doing;
and none of them that trust in him shall be desolate; or “be guilty” o, or “condemned”, or “damned”; because they are justified from all the sins they have been guilty of, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus; and having believed in him, they shall not be damned, according to Mr 16:16; and they shall be far from being desolate, and alone, and miserable; they shall stand at Christ’s right hand, be received into his kingdom and glory, and be for ever with him.
o “non rei fiunt”, Cocceius; “non punientur”, Gejerus; “shall not be condemned as guilty”, Ainsworth.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(Heb.: 34:23) The order of the alphabet having been gone through, there now follows a second exactly like Psa 25:22. Just as the first , Psa 25:16, is , so here in Psa 34:17 it is ; and in like manner the two supernumerary Phe’s correspond to one another – the Elohimic in the former Psalm, and the Jehovic in this latter.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
(22) Redeemeth.Comp. Psa. 25:22, which begins with the same letter, out of its place, and the same word.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 34:22. The Lord redeemeth the soul of his servants This is a detached sentence, added, as in Psalms 25 beyond the alphabet; perhaps that the same may sound well, in ending with a promise rather than a threat: the latter Jews, for the same reason, repeat a verse at the end of some books in the Old Testament. Shall be desolate, may be rendered, shall be guilty; which is the proper meaning of the original word ieeshemu. They are guilty, and liable to punishment. The word is frequently rendered thus in our version (see Lev 13:22.), and generally includes in it the idea of guilt, and the punishment incurred by it. Chandler; who observes, that this psalm is well adapted to the occasion on which it was penned. David was in a very dangerous situation at Gath, and seems to have been apprehensive that the Philistines would have treated him as an enemy and a spy. He was himself greatly afraid, Psa 34:4. His friends were in pain for him when they heard of his situation, and earnestly looked to God, that, as he had promised him the crown, he would protect and restore him to his country in safety: Psa 34:5. There is something very striking and pleasing in the sudden transitions, and the change of persons which is observable in these few verses. My soul shall boastThe humble shall hearI sought the LordThis poor man cried, &c. There is a force and elegance in the very unconnection of the expressions which, had they been more closely tied by the proper particles, would have been in a great measure lost. Things thus separated from each other, and yet accelerated, discover, as Longinus observes, the earnestness and vehemency of the inward working of the mind; and, though it may seem to interrupt or disturb the sentence, yet quickens and enforces it. De Sublim. cap. 19:
REFLECTIONS.1. He professes his fixed purpose, at all times, and in all places, to be shewing forth God’s praise; both as the grateful tribute which he owed, and that other humble men in distress might hear and be glad, encouraged by his mercies to hope for help and deliverance. In the Lord he will boast, ascribing all to him, and counting his interest in his favour the greatest and most invaluable acquisition.
2. He labours to excite others to join him in the work of praise, exalting and magnifying God’s holy name. And good reason was there for so doing: great was his distress, an exile in an enemy’s country; his life in danger; but he could be in no place where a throne of grace was not open: thither he flies, tells his compassionate Lord of all his fears, and is heard and holpen. Nor was his case singular; multitudes, like himself, had prayed, and were lightened, their darkness of soul dispelled, and their distressful circumstances cleared up: nor did ever God refuse the meanest, who thus were found waiting upon him. Angelic hosts disdain not the employment of ministering to the heirs of salvation; but, happy in obedience to their Lord’s commands, encamp around them. Thus God delivers his believing people from every danger, and they are bound to bless and praise him.
3. He invites all to taste and see that the Lord is good, to come and partake of the riches of his mercy in Christ, so freely offered, and so richly bestowed on the sinful sons of men. Blessed is the man that trusteth in him, accepts the gracious invitation, and rests on his merciful goodness for pardon, grace, and glory.
4. He exhorts his saints to fear him for his goodness’ sake, engaged thereby to more dutiful submission and service; and surely their interest is highly concerned in so doing, for there is no want to them that fear him. As much of this world’s good as is advantageous for them shall be given them; but especially the spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus, in all their rich abundance, shall be their happy portion. Thus, though the lions hunger through the scarcity of prey; or the covetous and ravenous oppressor is reduced to want, God’s faithful people shall be fed to the full, their soul and body both replenished, and nothing be wanting to make them truly and abidingly happy.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
REFLECTIONS
READER! think how gracious God the Holy Ghost is, in calling again and again upon the Church to view Christ in his ministry and in his triumphs, to prompt all, his redeemed to triumph in him and through him, when the Lord at any time gives new cause for praise. And shall not you and I, in Jesus’s name and righteousness, take up the same language? Is there a day, or a portion of a day, but what we find cause to say, The praise of a God in Christ shall be continually in my mouth? And shall we not invite the humble and the exercised to come, and magnify the Lord with us, and that we may bless his name together?
Blessed Mediator! let thine eyes be upon thy people for good! Let thine ears be ever open to their prayers! Surely, Lord, thou hast never put thyself into those near and tender connections with our nature for nothing! Thou hast come down to us in the most endearing ties of relationship for this express purpose, that we might mile Unto thee, and that our eyes may be always up unto thee as the eyes of a servant unto the hand of his master, and as the eyes of a maiden unto the hand of her mistress! And therefore, blessed Jesus, we would have our whole soul centered in thee, that our faces may never be ashamed.
O Holy Father! thou hast heard the cries of the poor man! thou hast delivered him out of all his troubles. And now, Lord, hear thy redeemed in Jesus. For his sake do thou redeem the souls of his servants, and let our souls never be ashamed nor confounded who trust in him, world without end. Amen.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 34:22 The LORD redeemeth the soul of his servants: and none of them that trust in him shall be desolate.
Ver. 22. The Lord redeemeth the souls of his servants ] Though to themselves and others they may seem helpless and hopeless, yet they shall not perish in their sins and for their sins, as do the wicked.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Psalms
NO CONDEMNATION
Psa 34:22
These words are very inadequately represented in the translation of the Authorised Version. The Psalmist’s closing declaration is something very much deeper than that they who trust in God ‘shall not be desolate.’ If you look at the previous clause, you will see that we must expect something more than such a particular blessing as that:-’The Lord redeemeth the soul of His servants.’ It is a great drop from that thought, instead of being a climax, to follow it with nothing more than, ‘None of them that trust in Him shall be desolate.’ But the Revised Version accurately renders the words: ‘None of them that trust in Him shall be condemned .’ There we have something that is worthy to follow ‘The Lord redeemeth the soul of His servants,’ and we have a most striking anticipation of the clearest and most Evangelical teaching of the New Testament.
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. When we read in the New Testament that ‘we are justified by faith,’ the meaning is precisely the same as that of our text. Thus, however it came about, here is this Psalmist, David or another, standing away back amidst the shadows and symbols and ritualisms of that Old Covenant, and rising at once above all the mists, right up into the sunshine, and seeing, as clearly as we see it nineteen centuries after Jesus Christ, that the way to escape condemnation is simple faith. Let us look at both of the parts of these great words. We consider-
I. The people that are spoken of here.
But there is one more remark to make on this matter, and that is that a great flood of light, and of more than light, of encouragement and of stimulus, is cast upon that saving exercise of trust by noticing the literal meaning of the word that is rightly so rendered here. All those words, especially in the Old Testament, that express emotions or acts of the mind, originally applied to corporeal acts or material things. I suppose that is so in all language. It is very conspicuously so in the Hebrew. And the word that is here translated, rightly, ‘trust,’ means literally to fly to a refuge, or to betake oneself to some defence in order to get shelter there.
There is a trace of both meanings, the literal and the metaphorical, in another psalm, where we read, amidst the Psalmist’s rapturous heaping together of great names for God: ‘My Rock, in whom I will trust.’ Now keep to the literal meaning there, and you see how it flashes up the whole into beauty: ‘My Rock, to whom I will flee for refuge,’ and put my back against it, and stand as impregnable as it; or get myself well into the clefts of it, and then nothing can touch me.
‘Rock of Ages! cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in Thee.’
Does not that metaphor teach us a great deal more of what faith is, and encourage us far more to exercise it, than much theological hair-splitting? What lies in the metaphor? Two things, the earnest eagerness of the act of flight, and the absolute security which comes when we have reached the shadow of the great Rock in a weary land.
But there is one thing more that I would notice, and that is that this designation of the persons as ‘them that trust in Him’ follows last of all in a somewhat lengthened series of designations for good people. They are these: ‘the righteous’-’them that are of a broken heart’-’such as be of a contrite spirit’-’His servants,’ and then, lastly, comes, as basis of all, as, so to speak, the keynote of all, ‘none of them that trust in Him.’ That is to say-righteousness, true and blessed pulverising of the obstinate insensibility of self alienated from God, true and blessed consciousness of sin, joyful surrender of self to loving and grateful submission to God’s will, are all connected with or flow from that act of trust in Him. And if you are trusting in Him, in anything more than the mere formal, dead way in which multitudes of nominal Christians in all our congregations are doing so, your trust will produce all these various fruits of righteousness, and lowliness, and joyful service. ‘Faith’ or ‘trust’ is the mother of all graces and virtues, and it produces them all because it directly kindles the creative flame of an answering love to Him in whom we trust. So much, then, for the first part of my remarks. Consider, next-
II. The blessing here promised.
First of all, it suggests this, that guilt, or sin, and condemnation and punishment, are, if not absolutely identical, inseparable. To be guilty is to be condemned. That is to say, since we live, as we do, under the continual grip of an infinitely wise and all-knowing law, and in the presence of a Judge who not only sees us as we are, but treats us as He sees us-sin and guilt go together, as every man knows that has a conscience. And sin and guilt and condemnation and punishment go together, as every man may see in the world, and experience in himself. To be separated from God, which is the immediate effect of sin, is to pass into hell here. ‘Every transgression and disobedience,’ not only ‘shall receive its just recompense,’ away out yonder, in some misty, far-off, hypothetical future, but down here to-day. All sin works automatically, and to do wrong is to be punished for doing it.
Then my text suggests another solemn thought, and that is that this judgment, this condemnation, is not only present, according to our Lord’s own great words, which perhaps are an allusion to these: ‘He that believeth not is condemned already’; but it also suggests the universality of that condemnation. Our Psalmist says that only through trusting Him can a man be taken and lifted away, as it were, from the descent of the thundercloud, and its bolt that lies above his head. ‘They that trust Him are not condemned,’ every one else is; not ‘shall be,’ but is, to-day, here and now. If there is a man or woman in my audience now who is not exercising trust in God through Jesus Christ, on that man or woman, young or old, cultivated or uncultivated, professing Christian or not, there is bound the burden of their sin, which is the crushing weight of their condemnation.
So my text suggests, that the sole deliverance from this universal pressure of the condemnatory influence of universal sin lies in that fleeing for refuge to God. And then comes in the Christian addition, ‘to God, as manifested in Jesus Christ.’ The Psalmist did not know that. All the more wonderful is it that without the knowledge he should have risen to the great thought of our text-all the more inexplicable unless you believe that ‘holy men of old spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.’
Wonderful it is still, but not unintelligible, if you believe that. But you and I know more than this singer did; for we can listen to the Master, who says, ‘He that believeth on Him is not condemned’; and to the servant who echoes-and perhaps both of them are alluding to our psalm-’There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.’ My faith, if it knits me to Jesus Christ, unties the bonds by which my sin is bound upon me, for it makes me to share in His Spirit, in His righteousness, in His glory.
And so, dear brethren! the Psalmist, though he did not know it, may point us away to the truth hidden from him, but sunlight clear for us, that by simple trust we may receive the Saviour through whom all our condemnation will pass away, and may be found in Him having the ‘righteousness which is of God by faith.’
‘Not condemned’-Is that all? Are the blessings of the Gospel all to be reduced to this mere negative expression? Certainly not. The Psalmist could have said a great deal more, and in the previous context he does say a great deal more. But to that restrained and moderate statement of the case, which is far less than the facts of the case, ‘he that trusteth is not condemned,’ let us add Paul’s expansion, ‘whom He called them He also justified, and whom He justified them He also glorified.’
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
redeemeth = delivereth (by power). Hebrew. padah. See note on Exo 13:13; and compare Exo 6:6.
soul. Hebrew. nephesh. App-13.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
redeemeth
(See Scofield “Isa 59:20”). See Scofield “Exo 14:30”.
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
redeemeth: Psa 31:5, Psa 71:23, Psa 103:4, Psa 130:8, Gen 48:16, 2Sa 4:9, 1Ki 1:29, Lam 3:58, 1Pe 1:18, 1Pe 1:19, Rev 5:9
none: Psa 9:9, Psa 9:10, Psa 84:11, Psa 84:12, Joh 10:27-29, Rom 8:31-39, 1Pe 1:5
Reciprocal: Ezr 8:22 – The hand Psa 20:8 – They Psa 121:7 – he shall Psa 125:1 – that trust Isa 49:23 – for they Jer 39:18 – because Dan 3:28 – that trusted Act 12:11 – and hath
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Psa 34:22. The Lord redeemeth the soul of his servants That is, their lives, or their persons, from the malicious designs of all their enemies, from the power of the grave, and from the sting of every affliction. He keeps them from sinning in their troubles, which is the only thing that could do them a real injury, and keeps them from despair, and from being put out of possession of their own souls. None that trust in him shall be desolate Or, comfortless; for they shall not be cut off from communion with God. And no man is desolate, but he whom God has forsaken, nor is any man undone till he is in hell. Instead of, shall be desolate, in this and the preceding verse, the margin reads, shall be guilty; as the word , jeshemu, here used, is frequently and properly rendered. Indeed, it includes in it both the idea of guilt and the punishment incurred thereby. Now, they that in the way of true repentance, living faith, and new obedience, trust in the Lord, are both rescued from guilt and the punishment to which it had exposed them. It may not be improper to observe here that, as this is another of the alphabetical Psalms, every verse beginning with a distinct letter of the Hebrew alphabet, except the fifth, which includes two letters; so this verse is a kind of detached sentence, added, as in Psalms 25., beyond the alphabet, perhaps in order that the Psalm might end with a promise rather than a threatening. For a similar reason the Jews repeat a verse at the end of some books of the Old Testament.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
34:22 The LORD {o} redeemeth the soul of his servants: and none of them that trust in him shall be desolate.
(o) For when they seem to be overcome with great dangers and death itself, then God shows himself as their redeemer.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
This verse summarizes the reasons the godly should praise the Lord. This fact might not be clear from the content of the verse. We could understand it as another repetition of the thoughts expressed elsewhere in different terms. However, in the Hebrew Bible, this verse breaks the sequence of the acrostic structure of the psalm. It does not begin with the succeeding letter of the Hebrew alphabet, as all the preceding verses do. There is an omission of a line beginning with the letter waw, however, between Psa 34:5-6. Perhaps an ancient copyist overlooked this line.
We who are believers should be careful to give God praise for His deliverance from our spiritual enemies. We should view instances of His deliverance as opportunities to remind ourselves and one another to continue to walk in the ways of righteousness faithfully.