What man is he that desireth life, [and] loveth days, that he may see good?
Here David turns from praising God to teaching. He asks a question nobody refuses: who does not want life, long days, and good? The answer he gives starts in a surprising place.
David's question is not theory. He had tried deception himself, and it gained him nothing.
He also learned from experience that deception and lying could not get good: "What man is there who desires life and loves many days, that he may see good? Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit" (vv. 12-13).
Verse 12 sits inside a block of teaching. David opens it by calling children to listen while he teaches them the fear of the Lord.
From verses eleven to sixteen, I think, the Psalmist gives us beautiful instruction about the secret of a happy, growing, blessed life. He says, "Come, you children, listen to me: I will teach you the fear of the Lord" (Ps. 34:11). The first part of the Psalm says a good deal about the fear of the Lord. Now he explains it fully to us. One verse in an earlier Psalm is very instructive here. "The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever" (Ps. 19:9). I think that gives you the keynote of the passage as regards the fear of the Lord. Without this you cannot make progress in practical holiness, or sanctification.
The word "life" in this verse is not about a pulse. It means life worth having.
When we think or speak of life in a practical way, everyone will admit that we do not mean simply the fact that we are alive. What is life to a criminal shut up in a solitary cell? It is true that he is as much alive as if he were free and among his family; but in the practical sense, is his "life" the same? Would he not describe his prison life as a living death?
The verse asks a question, and the verse after it names the price. The good days are real, but they are attached.
Do we desire life — the life that is vital, spiritual, unfailing? (v. 12). If we have many days of this kind of life, we shall see good, but only on condition that we keep our tongues from evil and our lips from speaking deceit. Before James writes of the evils that a hasty tongue may be guilty of (James 3:5-10), he assures us, "If anyone does not stumble in word, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle the whole body" (James 3:2). Such perfection (or maturity) should be cultivated by every child of God.
David does not ask this about people in general. He puts it to whoever is listening, and the answer shows up in how a person talks.
The fear of the Lord is presented as a daily practical thing. "What man is there who desires life and loves many days, that he may see good?" (Ps. 34:12). That question appeals to each of us. Do you love life? Do you want many days, and to see good? Is it good you are seeking? Here is the instruction on how to secure these blessings. "Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit" (Ps. 34:13). It does not begin here with my heart. It begins with my tongue... I know the people who are desiring good by the way they use their tongues.
The instruction that follows moves outward. It goes from what a person says, to what he does, to what he seeks.
If a man wants life, and to see good days, here is the divine preservative for him. Let him then keep his tongue from evil, and his lips from speaking deceit. For "out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks," and the government of the tongue is the sign of the perfect man. (Luke 6:45, James 3:2.) Let him order his walk so as to turn from evil — the negative side — and do good — the positive. Let him seek peace in this way, as "the effect of righteousness" (Isa. 32:17), and earnestly "pursue it."
This is not just advice that happens to work. It rests on how God rules the lives of His people, and Peter applies it to Christians.
Psalm 34 expands this theme, that God's government acts in favour of the godly. Verses 12 to 16 of this Psalm are quoted in 1 Peter 3:10 to 12. They establish that, if the Christian returns blessing for the evil and abuse he may receive from the world, he will inherit a blessing himself. If he sows blessing he will reap blessing. So it is ordained in the government of God.
- Desire — The verse begins with something everyone already wants: life, many days, and good. David asks it as a question so you will answer it yourself.
- Definition — The "life" offered is not mere existence. A prisoner in solitary is alive, yet he calls it a living death.
- Discovery — David asks it as a man who had tried deception and found it could not get good. He teaches what cost him something.
- Direction — The road to good days starts at the tongue, then the walk (turn from evil, do good), then the pursuit of peace. Speech is the first test because the mouth reports what the heart holds.
- Dependability — It holds because God governs. Sow blessing, reap blessing. Peter takes this from the psalm and applies it to Christians who are treated badly.
Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips from speaking guile;
David offers to teach the fear of the Lord, and his first lesson is not about the heart or the feet but about the tongue. The question hanging over the verse is why speech should be the starting point for anyone who wants a good life.
One writer ties this command to what David himself had learned about deception.
He also learned from experience that deception and lying could not gain anything good: "What man is there who desires life and loves many days, that he may see good?"
This is not an idea to admire but an order about everyday speech. One writer notes where the order does not begin.
"Come, O children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the LORD." He presents it as a daily, practical thing. Here is the instruction on how to secure these blessings. "Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit." It does not begin here with my heart. It begins with my tongue. "Keep your tongue." Oh, that is a most difficult job. How do you find it? We all know how hard it is to keep the tongue. Are you set to see good? That is the question. I know the people who are desiring good by the way they use their tongues.
Older translations call this deceit "guile." One writer explains what the word covers, and points to the one mouth where none of it was ever found.
Deceit. — This word is often translated "guile" in the New Testament. It means cunning, craftiness, plotting to deceive, and it usually has to do with what a person says. There was no guile found in the mouth of Christ (1 Peter 2:22)... Scripture says of Jew and Gentile alike that "with their tongues they have used deceit [guile]" (Rom. 3:13). Yet the apostle Peter quotes the psalmist: "Whoever desires to love life and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit" (Ps. 34:13; 1 Peter 3:10).
The verse names two evils, and Hamilton Smith aims them in different directions: one at other people, one at myself.
Do we want to find "life" in the middle of a world of death, and "see good" as we pass through a world of evil? Then let us walk in the fear of God. Then we will keep our tongues from the evil that would slander or injure others, and our lips from speaking guile when we try to excuse ourselves. Let us depart from evil and do good, and instead of striving with our opponents, let us seek peace and pursue it.
Guarding the tongue is not a small matter of manners. What comes out of the mouth shows what fills the heart, and one writer takes the command on from speech into the whole walk.
If a man wants life, and to see good days, here is the divine safeguard for him. Let him keep his tongue from evil, and his lips from speaking guile. For "out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks," and the government of the tongue is the sign of the perfect man (Luke 6:45, James 3:2). Let him order his walk so as to depart from evil — the negative side — and do good — the positive.
Peter lifts these words straight into a letter to Christians. He also stops his quotation before the psalm's closing threat.
Some people say to me, "All these Psalms are for the Jews." Peter does not leave them all for the Jews. He knew better than that... He leaves out the end of the sixteenth verse of the Psalm, which runs, "to cut off the memory of them from the earth." He does not go on with the Psalm. That will only happen later, when the Lord Christ reigns as a righteous King and righteousness judges all evil at once.
The command comes with a promise of good days. The same writer describes what life looks like without it.
You will not find a happy, bright Christian who allows himself the unrestrained use of his tongue. He will not be bright. He will not be happy. He does not see good days. Instead he sees miserable days, unhappy and dull. This is because he has done the thing the Lord told him not to do, and he suffers for it.
- Heart — What fills the heart comes out of the mouth, so controlling the tongue is the sign of a man who has himself in hand.
- Tongue — The fear of the Lord is a daily, practical thing, and it starts with speech, not with feelings.
- Two ways — Evil injures the other person; guile shields me. The verse shuts both doors.
- Walk — Guarded speech runs on into departing from evil, doing good, and pursuing peace.
- Days — The reward is life and good days now. A tongue let loose buys dull, unhappy ones instead.
Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it.
The verse sits inside a lesson in the fear of the Lord, offered to anyone who wants life and good days. It asks two things at once: a clean break with evil, and an active chase after peace. Commentators treat it as the daily shape of a life lived before God.
The instruction has two halves. One writer names each half, and ties the pursuit of peace to righteousness:
Let him order his life so as to depart from evil — the negative side — and do good — the positive. Let him seek peace like this, as "the effect of righteousness" (Isa. 32:17), and earnestly "pursue it."
The ESV reads "Turn away from evil"; older translations read "Depart from evil." One writer presses that stronger word, and shows what fills the time it frees up:
We are not only to keep away from evil, but to depart from it. That is, we are to have no association with it, and to leave the very place where it is practiced. This is the negative side, but a positive side follows at once: "and do good." Do we take advantage of the many opportunities we have for doing good? If so, we should not have time for useless pursuits.
Peace here is not left to chance. It reaches into every relationship a person has:
Along with this, we are to seek peace — the grace of harmony and well-being — in whatever relationships we are in. And we are to "pursue it" with steady purpose.
There is no neutral ground here. One writer traces the failure to make peace back to a lack of care before God:
The man that is not a peace-maker is, in the spirit of his soul, a peace-breaker. Why? Because he is not walking in carefulness before God.
The two commands together set out a whole way of life. Notice where they put us when others oppose us:
The verses that follow set before us the path of quietness and peace through a restless and hostile world. Do we want to find "life" in a world of death, and to "see good" while passing through a world of evil? Then let us live in the fear of God. Let us keep our tongues from the evil that would slander or injure others, and our lips from the lies we tell to excuse ourselves. Let us depart from evil and do good, and, instead of striving with our opponents, let us seek peace and pursue it.
Peace has a limit. One writer names it, and points to Paul as the man who paid for faithfulness with a life of conflict:
You are to seek peace and pursue it. Even so, you must never sacrifice truth or principle to keep it, either with the world or with Christians. The love of popularity traps many. Even a Peter could be drawn aside by it for a moment. But Paul could not have peace on such terms. (Gal. 2) The great apostle loved peace and wanted it. Yet because he was faithful, he knew very little of it his whole life.
The New Testament takes these words up and applies them to Christians. That makes the verse a rule of life now, and not only an ancient one:
But grace gives the Christian to understand and make good the moral government God carries on with His children. The apostle in verses 10-12 cites Psalm 34 for this even now… From that scripture he urges them to turn away from evil and do good, and to seek peace in practice, and to do it earnestly. For the Lord's eyes are on the righteous, and His ears are open to their prayer, while His face is against those who do evil.
The same pairing returns in Psalm 37:27. One writer names the one Man who lived it out in full:
So the important principle of departing from evil and doing good is stressed again in verse 27, taken from the earlier Psalm 34:14… This active, practical pursuit of good, in separation from evil, was seen in perfection in the altogether "Perfect Man" (v. 37). He is the One whose wonderful ways, works and words made our blessed God and Father fully known.
- Depart — not just distance from evil, but departure: leaving the place where it is practiced.
- Do — fill the empty space with good, and there is no time left for useless pursuits.
- Seek — peace grows out of righteousness, and it is to be sought in every relationship.
- Pursue — chase it with purpose; the one who does not make peace is already breaking it.
- Stop — peace has a boundary: never trade truth or principle to keep it.