Psalm 34:15 - Printer Friendly

ESV: The eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous and his ears toward their cry.

NIV: The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are attentive to their cry;

NASB: The eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous, And His ears are toward their cry for help.

CSB: The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their cry for help.

NLT: The eyes of the Lord watch over those who do right; his ears are open to their cries for help.

KJV: The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears are open unto their cry.

NKJV: The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, And His ears are open to their cry.

David assures us that God watches over those who are "righteous," here meaning those who sincerely honor God in their lives (Psalm 34:9). He listens to our prayers and nothing is hidden from Him. He sees all our circumstances and provides what we need in each of them (Matthew 6:33–34). We can pray with confidence because He is listening to us. This verse implies that God attends and hears those who love Him—in contrast to the next verse, which depicts God judging and rejecting those who do not (Psalm 34:16).

Acts 12 relates that King Herod seized the apostle Peter and threw him into a dungeon, where four squads of soldiers guarded him. Herod fully intended to execute him by morning. But Herod did not count on the fact the Lord looks upon the righteous. He saw Peter and was fully aware of Peter's dire circumstances. While Peter was a prisoner and chained to two guards, his fellow believers were praying for him, and the Lord was attentive to their prayers. He dispatched an angel to free Peter. Peter's chains fell off, he got dressed, and followed the angel past the first and second deployment of guards and came to the iron gate that led into the city. When they entered a street, the angel left Peter, and Peter proceeded to the house of Mary, where his fellow believers were praying for him.

Nothing is too hard for God, who sees our circumstances and hears our prayers. What is hard, however, is for us to recognize that His will does not always mean miraculous rescue or immediate relief (John 17:15). That which we "need," according to His will (Romans 8:28–30), is not always what we want or what we expect.

Psalm 34:15–22 contrasts what the Lord does for those who fear Him against what happens to the wicked. God watches over the righteous and answers their cry for help. He delivers the righteous from their troubles and draws near to them. He protects the righteous and redeems them. On the other hand, He opposes the wicked and condemns them. While David certainly experienced victories in his life, he also understood that God's love and provision have an eternal perspective (Romans 8:28–30). Verse 20 includes a reference which the Gospel of John ties to Jesus' role as Messiah.

David praises the Lord for delivering him from the Philistines, and he invites others to join him in singing joyfully to the Lord. He extols the virtue of fearing the Lord and remembering His goodness. He encourages the Lord's people to respect God and offers wisdom leading to a long and blessed life. At the end of this psalm David emphasizes the distinction the Lord draws between the wicked and the righteous. He cares for the righteous and will not condemn them, but He condemns the wicked.

David composed this psalm after he escaped from the Philistines at Gath. He accomplished this by feigning insanity and later sheltered in the cave of Adullum. This experience is recorded in 1 Samuel 21:10—22:1. Like Psalm 25, this is an acrostic psalm. Every verse except the final one begins with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet. First Peter 2:3 alludes to the psalm's eighth verse, and 1 Peter 3:10–12 quotes verses 12–16 of Psalm 34. John 19:36 refers to Psalm 34:20.

The book of Psalms is composed of individual songs, hymns, or poems, each of which is a ''Psalm'' in and of itself. These works contain a wide variety of themes. Some Psalms focus on praising and worshipping God. Others cry out in anguish over the pain of life. Still other Psalms look forward to the coming of the Messiah. While some Psalms are related, each has its own historical and biblical context.