1. Listen to the Podcast:
2. GG Questions
1/12/2020
Getting Real: Taste and See
Psalm 34
1. God! Save me!: David’s beautiful invitation to ‘taste and see’ (34:8) is housed within psalm celebrating God’s
deliverance of David from physical peril. Take a closer look at the story behind that physical peril in 1 Samuel
21:12-22:1. Some of us have been in mortal danger and have cried out to God as David did, but few would
claim this as a daily experience. What, then, do cries for God to, ‘save me’ mean in our daily lives? Were they
relevant to David then, but less so to us now? If not, what need of crying out to God do you have right now?
2. The Fear of the Lord: Notice how the center of the psalm, verses 8-14, is dominated by an exhortation to ‘the
fear of the Lord’. How many times is this concept used in this psalm. What does it mean to fear the Lord
(Prov. 9:10; Deut. 10:12-13) and how might this be connected to David’s call to righteousness in 34:13-14?
Given the above discussion, would you say that you ‘fear the Lord’? What might an increase in this area look
like in your life?
3. Picking Favorites: One inescapable conclusion drawn from this psalm is that God saves the righteous and not
the wicked. Look for this theme in 34:15-22 (esp. vv. 15-16 and 21). How do we reconcile this biblical truth
with the common, contemporary assumption that God should ‘be nice’ to everybody and how do you personally
deal with passages of scripture where ‘God behaves badly’? Lastly, coupled with Psalm 18:20-24, how do
these psalms urge us toward righteous living for our own good?
4. Rejoice Always: Though David doesn’t tell us the reason for his praise in 34:1-3, the rest of the psalm informs
us it was because God ‘delivered me’ (4) and ‘saved me’ (6). Praise and thanksgiving is the appropriate
response every time God intervenes in our lives for our good, but take a close look at 34:1. Though the psalm
is rooted in one specific time of deliverance, when does David promise to magnify the Lord in 34:1? How can
we cultivate a ‘rejoice always’ life (1 Thess. 5:16-18) as Paul exhorted and as David did?
