Mazmur 34:3

34:3 Magnify the Lord with me!

Let’s praise ¹  his name together!

Mazmur 34:1

Psalm 34 ² 

Written by David, when he pretended to be insane before Abimelech, causing the king to send him away. ³ 

34:1 I will praise ⁴  the Lord at all times;

my mouth will continually praise him. ⁵ 

1 Korintus 1:31

1:31 so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” ⁶ 

Galatia 6:14

6:14 But may I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which ⁷  the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.

[34:3]  ¹ tn Or “exalt.”

[34:1]  ² sn Psalm 34. In this song of thanksgiving the psalmist praises God for delivering him from distress. He encourages others to be loyal to the Lord, tells them how to please God, and assures them that the Lord protects his servants. The psalm is an acrostic; vv. 1-21 begin with successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet. (Verse 6 begins with the letter he (ה) and v. 7 with the letter zayin (ז). The letter vav (ו), which comes between ה and ז, seems to be omitted, although it does appear at the beginning of v. 6b. The final verse of the psalm, which begins with the letter pe (פ), is outside the acrostic scheme.

[34:1]  ³ tn Heb “By David, when he changed his sense before Abimelech and he drove him away and he went.”

[34:1]  sn Pretended to be insane. The psalm heading appears to refer to the account in 1 Sam 21:10-15 which tells how David, fearful that King Achish of Gath might kill him, pretended to be insane in hopes that the king would simply send him away. The psalm heading names the king Abimelech, not Achish, suggesting that the tradition is confused on this point. However, perhaps “Abimelech” was a royal title, rather than a proper name. See P. C. Craigie, Psalms 1-50 (WBC), 278.

[34:1]  ⁴ tn Heb “bless.”

[34:1]  ⁵ tn Heb “continually [will] his praise [be] in my mouth.”

[1:31]  ⁶ sn A quotation from Jer 9:24. The themes of Jer 9 have influenced Paul’s presentation in vv. 26-31. Jeremiah calls upon the wise, the strong, and the wealthy not to trust in their resources but in their knowledge of the true God – and so to boast in the Lord. Paul addresses the same three areas of human pride.

[6:14]  ⁷ tn Or perhaps, “through whom,” referring to the Lord Jesus Christ rather than the cross.