Psalm 34
David, pretending to be insane so his captors would release him. Giving credit to God.
This Psalm, in summary: God protects good people. But we know that’s not always true. And the writers of the Bible know it, too. Yet they still write, “A righteous man may have many troubles, but the Lord delivers him from them all” (verse 19).
We know better. Or do we? We know bad things happen to good people. Therefore, we can throw away this Psalm and never read it again. No?
“The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit” (verse 18).
If the Lord is close to the brokenhearted, why are they still brokenhearted? If the Lord saves those who are crushed in spirit, why are they still crushed in spirit?
Why were they ever?
I suppose, in this mood, I should read the book of Job. But I hear the ending isn’t very satisfying.
The world forces us to disagree with this Psalm. Obviously. But then what? If your goodness doesn’t make your life good, then maybe it’s better to be bad. That’s the problem.
It can’t be better to be a bad person.
If we thought so, everything would truly be bad. Evil, even. So we must at least try to believe it’s better to be good. Though it’s not always true. Believing something that’s not always true is a tricky thing.
Maybe it is always true in the long run. Eternity is a long time.
Or maybe it’s more like this. If you think it’s better to be bad, your life will definitely be bad. If you think it’s better to be good, your life might be good. No guarantees. But at least there’s a chance.
I don’t pretend to know about suffering. But Victor Frankl said people in concentration camps sometimes died because they gave up. You have to want life.
This Psalm is not only for comfortable people. It’s for suffering people. But not to tell them it’s their fault (unless it is). They didn’t cause their own suffering by being bad people (unless they did). Rather, to tell them life is still good. Not their circumstances, but Life. Reality does not hate you. Keep going. Don’t add suffering to suffering. Believe in goodness.