Oxygen from Psalm 34:12-22 (How to Live Long and Prosper)

12 Does anyone want to live long and prosper?

13 Then keep your tongue from speaking evil      and your lips from telling lies! 

14 Turn away from evil and do good.     Search for peace, and work to maintain it

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

16 But the LORD turns his face against those who do evil;     he will erase their memory from the earth.

17 The LORD hears his people when they call to him for help.
     He rescues them from all their troubles.

18 The LORD is close to the brokenhearted;

     he rescues those whose spirits are crushed.

19 The righteous person faces many troubles,

    but the LORD comes to the rescue each time.

20 For the LORD protects the bones of the Righteous One;

    not one of them is broken!
21 Calamity will surely overtake the wicked,

     and those who hate the Righteous One will be punished.
22 But the LORD will redeem those who serve him.

    No one who takes refuge in him will be condemned.

(Psalm 34:12-22)

I must admit that I've read this passage and others like it wrong for most of my life.  On the surface it appears to be a bouncy little proverb about the power of positive communication (Lord, forgive me for that sermon).  Control what you say and you will live a long and prosperous life; don't do bad things and God will protect you.  Just the stuff for another moralistic sermon like so many others: do more, try harder, be nice.

This is how the rabbinic Jews in Jesus' time interpreted passages like this.

" You see that wealthy, prosperous person over there?" asked the rabbi, dressed in his rich clothing. " Do you want to know how he got that way? Turn to Psalm 34. He kept his tongue in check and he surely must have done good else God would not reward him."

 This was not only the hermeneutic of rabbinic Judaism, but the confession of much of modern evangelical Christianity as it chases after success and ignores the small and powerless.  Jesus turned this health and wealth ethic upside down when He said the poor were blessed. The meek inherit the earth. Losers are close to God's heart (Mt. 5). Post-Biblical liberal Protestantism gets it all wrong, too.  Jesus isn't advocating "social justice," but the necessity of Gospel grace to fulfill the demands of a righteous God.

So, let's interpret this passage as Christians, from the Reformed perspective of law and gospel. First comes God's holy demand, a clear statement of a godly law: Control your tongue. Don't gossip. Don't tell lies. No false witness. Don't speak any untruth (v.13). Additionally, don't participate in anything evil but always do good. Don't think bad thoughts. Don't miss every opportunity to do good for someone else .  Don't cause trouble. Then, having found this perfect balance of self-control and social justice, what the Jews called shalom, maintain it for the rest of your life (v.14) .

As in all covenant ceremonies, there are blessings: long life, prosperity (v.12), summed up as God watching  over you (v.15).  Next are the curses for those who break these holy laws: God will ignore you and erase your memory from all your posterity (v.16).

God's law is perfect and demands perfection. If we're being honest, the problem soon becomes apparent: I'm nowhere near perfect.  And every time I try to be perfect, I make matters worse.  I lie to myself, I become hypocritical with others, trying to maintain a show of something I'm not.  I stop reading certain parts of the Bible.  I look for churches that assuage my guilt with easy-to-do rituals by which some holy man in funny clothes declares me holy and forgiven. Yikes --  I'm  deeply flawed. I can't even read God's righteous demand without knowing I'm... dead ... meat.  So I look for a preacher or a best-seller that tells me God doesn't mean I have to live this law perfectly, just the best I can. But then I read the Bible and discover the truth: break one part of the law, and I'm guilty of breaking it all. (James 2:10, Mt. 5:18).  Jesus did say, "You must be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect."

How's that good moral life working out for you? Those who try to live moralistically are doomed to frustration and despair (Gal. 3:10). But God never lays down law that He doesn't also provide grace. Do you see it in Psalm 34? "His ears are open to those who confess they need help" (v.15).  The law isn't there for us to ignore or for us to dumb down into moralistic claptrap.  The law exists  to drive us to our knees and call to God for help, for a Rescuer (v.17). Nothing crushes the spirit like the law. God's holy demands short-circuit the human control center of the heart ("the heart" in Jewish culture is not about emotions, but about will). I can decide to invite Jesus into my heart, I can make firm resolution, I can commit, I can dedicate and re-dedicate myself, I can promise and vow, but inevitably and always I … fail. And If tell myself that I haven't failed, the truth is not in me (I John 1:8-9).

It is at that moment when we experience the crushing power of God's law that grace shines through. God will hear and rescue (v.19). God will help and heal. God will forgive. God will do it himself. He doesn't ignore his righteous demands. He doesn't set aside his Word to help us feel better, for that would make God a liar. But he points us to Christ, the one who hung on the cross but none of whose bones were broken (v.20).  

There are two religious systems: one of self-reliant, moralistic striving, self-delusion, and ignoring the  Righteous Rescuer (v.21); the other for honest huddlers under the only refuge God provides, under the blood of the Lamb, under the cross of Jesus, our only confession: Justified by grace!

Righteous God:

Save me from my pitiable attempts

To justify myself 

     by myself 

     for myself.

Rescue me in Jesus blood

And for His sake.

Restore me to my rightful mind and destiny.

Amen.