Magnify the Lord with Me: A Psalm 34 Meditation

I recently stumbled upon Psalm 34:1–10. I found myself reflecting on the first half of it, and here are some of my thoughts. Pardon any inconsistencies, I was thinking as I wrote.

In the first part, David says, “I will bless the Lord at all times.” I have noticed that in the Bible, when God ‘blesses’ men, they are thereby helped, strengthened, and made better off than they were before. But when men ‘bless’ God, He is not helped, strengthened, or made better off. Rather, men blessing God is an “expression of praising thankfulness.” When Scripture speaks of blessing God, it does not “designate a process that aims at the increase of God’s strength.” It is an “exclamation of gratitude and admiration.”

David blesses the Lord here for several reasons. When he sought Him, He answered him and delivered him from all his fears. When David, this poor man, cried, the Lord heard him. Because of his testimony, he could then confidently say that those who look to God are radiant and shall never be ashamed. He says those who seek the Lord lack no good thing. And because of all this, he calls us to magnify the Lord with him.

When the Israelites were trapped between Pharaoh’s army and the sea, they looked up and cried out to the Lord. The problem is that we want an answer from God that we can already see. As I pray, I can’t help but have romantic imaginations and expectations about what God’s answers to my prayers will be. For instance, when I pray for a job, I often place my faith in a specific outcome, like God moving my uncle, who is a CEO, to help my plight. Stick with me. At that point, trapped between Pharaoh’s army and the sea, the Israelites probably thought there were only two possible outcomes to their situation: either God would arm them to fight, or they would return to Egypt. But God had plans to answer them in ways that none of them, or us for that matter, could ever have imagined.

God has been there for us. He has answered our prayers in times past. We have prayed for the salvation of souls at church, and we have seen people getting baptised. We have prayed for our ministries to grow, and God has brought more people. We have prayed for loved ones who were sick, and God has healed them. We have prayed for God to help us prepare for exams, and we have passed those exams. We have prayed for help in preparing for weddings, and He has provided.

Acts 14:17 reminds us that God has not left Himself without a witness, for He did good by giving us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying our hearts with food and gladness.

Beyond physical provision, we bless Him for sending His Son, who lived a perfect life, died on the cross, and rose again. We bless Him for saving us when we were dead in our trespasses and sins, following the course of this age, full of disobedience and children of wrath. We bless Him for when we didn’t think to pray or repent, He made us alive together with Christ.

We never, of ourselves, thought to ask for forgiveness, yet He answered. We never conceived of eternal life, yet He secured it anyway. We never knew the horror of the word hell, the glory of the word grace, the wonder of the word gospel, the life in the name Jesus, yet while the twisted prayer of our dead hearts was for more of this world, He answered us with heaven, His Spirit, His Son, and Himself. We bless and exalt Him, more than for anything else, for this!

Let us magnify the Lord; let us exalt His name forever for His goodness towards us. Let us bless the Lord and recognise His great richness and gracious bounty, and express our gratitude and delight in seeing and experiencing it. Then let us approach His throne with boldness, addressing Him as Paul did: “Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think” and let us hold on to His promises that never fail.