Psalm 34

Verse 1...

I will bless the Lord at all times; 

His praise shall continually be in my mouth.

"If all we do may be done to the praise of God [see 1 Cor. 10:31], then certainly all we speak may be spoken to the praise of God; and indeed, seeing He never ceaseth to send forth continually His blessings, with what reason can we cease to set forth continually His praises?" (Sir Richard Baker, 1640)

Verse 2a... 

My soul makes its boast in the Lord.

"My confidence is that He who hath given me the resolution to will it, will give me also the power to perform it; that He who hath begun the work will also finish it." (RB)

Verse 4... 

I sought the Lord, and He answered me 

and delivered me from all my fears.

"To have delivered me from all my troubles had been a great favor, but a far greater to deliver me from all my fears; for where that would have freed me from present evil, this secures me from evil to come; that now I enjoy not only tranquility, but security, a privilege only of the godly." (RB)

Verse 8... 

Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good! 

Blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him!

"If you would but taste Him, you would never take pleasure in other meat; if you would but see Him, you would never delight in other object... He that trusteth in God, and he only, is like to be admitted to taste the sweetness and to see the goodness that is in God, which only are  the things that can make us blessed. What is it to trust in God but to depend wholly upon him, and to put all our confidence in him? To trust in the world, is to lean upon a broken reed; to trust in ourselves, is to lean upon a shadow; only to trust in God is the true terra firma where the angels pitch their tents, and where, if we fix ourselves, the gates of hell can never prevail against us." (RB)

Scottish Psalter:

1 God will I bless all times; his praise my mouth shall still express. 2 My soul shall boast in God: the meek shall hear with joyfulness. 3 Extol the Lord with me, let us exalt his name together. 4 I sought the Lord, he heard, and did me from all fears deliver. 5 They looked to him, and lightened were: not shamèd were their faces. 6 This poor man cried, God heard, and saved him from all his distresses. 7 The angel of the Lord encamps, and round encompasseth All those about that do him fear, and them delivereth. 8 O taste and see that God is good: who trusts in him is blessed. 9 Fear God his saints: none that him fear shall be with want oppressed. 10 The lions young may hungry be, and they may lack their food: But they that truly seek the Lord shall not lack any good. 11 O children, hither do ye come, and unto me give ear; I shall you teach to understand how ye the Lord should fear. 12 What man is he that life desires, to see good would live long? 13 Thy lips refrain from speaking guile, and from ill words thy tongue. 14 Depart from ill, do good, seek peace, pursue it earnestly. 15 God's eyes are on the just; his ears are open to their cry. 16 The face of God is set against those that do wickedly, That he may quite out from the earth cut off their memory. 17 The righteous cry unto the Lord, he unto them gives ear; And they out of their troubles all by him delivered are. 18 The Lord is ever nigh to them in heart that broken be; Those who in spirit contrite are he saveth graciously. 19 The troubles that afflict the just in number many be; But yet at length out of them all the Lord doth set him free. 20 He carefully his bones doth keep, whatever can befall; That not so much as one of them can broken be at all. 21 Ill shall the wicked slay; laid waste shall be who hate the just. 22 The Lord redeems his servants' souls; none perish that him trust.