Psalms 34:16

34:11-22 Let young persons set out in life with learning the fear of the Lord, if they desire true comfort here, and eternal happiness hereafter. Those will be most happy who begin the soonest to serve so good a Master. All aim to be happy. Surely this must look further than the present world; for man's life on earth consists but of few days, and those full of trouble. What man is he that would see the good of that where all bliss is perfect? Alas! few have this good in their thoughts. That religion promises best which creates watchfulness over the heart and over the tongue. It is not enough not to do hurt, we must study to be useful, and to live to some purpose; we must seek peace and pursue it; be willing to deny ourselves a great deal for peace' sake. It is the constant practice of real believers, when in distress, to cry unto God, and it is their constant comfort that he hears them. The righteous are humbled for sin, and are low in their own eyes. Nothing is more needful to true godliness than a contrite heart, broken off from every self-confidence. In this soil every grace will flourish, and nothing can encourage such a one but the free, rich grace of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The righteous are taken under the special protection of the Lord, yet they have their share of crosses in this world, and there are those that hate them. Both from the mercy of Heaven, and the malice of hell, the afflictions of the righteous must be many.

The face of the Lord is against them that do evil,.... Not against everyone that sins; for the righteous are not without sin; they have sin in them, and they do no good without it; but against them that live in sin, whose course of life is a series of wickedness, and they are workers of iniquity; and have no sense of sin, nor sorrow for it, go on in it without shame or fear; against these the face of the Lord is, he shows his resentment, and stirs up his wrath. For the Lord to be against a man is dreadful; a fearful thing it is to fill into his hands as a God of vengeance; there is no standing before him when once he is angry: and to have the face of God against a man is intolerable, when it is to destroy, and to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth; so that they shall be no more thought of, nor spoken of, but with contempt and reproach; an everlasting mark of infamy being upon their names; see Proverbs 10:7.

(16) To cut off. —Notice the fear, so intense and recurring to the Semitic mind, of the extinction of race. (Comp. Psalm 21:10 ; Job 18:17 , &c) This verse, according to the sense, should certainly change places with Psalm 34:15. This would disarrange the acrostic, bringing pe before ayin; but, as in Lamentations 2, 3, 4 the same sequence of letters occurs, we are led to the conclusion that the order of the alphabet was not definitely or invariably fixed in respect of these two letters, a license intelligible enough when we remember that tsadde, which follows pe, was often interchanged with ayin, which precedes it.

Verse 16. - The face of the Lord is against them that do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth. Conversely, God turns away his face from the wicked, and punishes them by causing their very memory to perish from among men (comp. Job 18:17 ; Psalm 109:13 ; Proverbs 10:7 ). The natural wish for continuance, which causes men to build themselves monuments, and erect other great works, and delight in offspring, and seek to establish their families, and create entails, and have their portraits taken, and "call the lands after their own names" ( Psalm 49:11 ), was especially strong in the Hebrew race, and made the threat that their remembrance should be cut off peculiarly terrible to them. Psalm 34:16

The face of the Lord, i.e. his anger, oft called his face , as Leviticus 17:10 20:5 Jeremiah 44:11 Lamentations 4:16 , because anger discovers itself in the face. Them that do evil, i.e. whose common course, and study, arid business it is to do evil; for else there is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not , Ecclesiastes 7:20 . To cut off the remembrance of them from the earth ; utterly to deprive both them and their children of that worldly happiness, which is the only thing that they desire, and seek by their wicked courses.

16 . The face of the Lord means the manifestation of His Presence, either as here in wrath (cp. Psalm 9:3 ), or as in Numbers 6:25 , in blessing. See Oehler’s O.T. Theology , § 57. Comp. “The Lord looked forth upon the host of the Egyptians … and discomfited them” ( Exodus 14:24 ). the remembrance of them ] Or, their memorial ; even the name by which they might be remembered. Cp. Psalm 9:5-6 ; Job 18:17 . Contrast Psalm 112:6 .

The face of the Lord - This phrase is synonymous with that in the previous verse: "The eyes of the Lord." The meaning is, that the righteous and the wicked are alike under the eye of God; the one for protection, the other for punishment. Neither of them can escape His notice; but at all times, and in all circumstances, they are equally seen by Him. Is against them that do evil - The wicked; all that do wrong. In the former verse the statement is, that the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, that is, for their protection; in this case, by a change of the preposition in the original, the statement is, that His face is "against" them that do evil, that is, He observes them to bring judgment upon them. To cut off the remembrance of them from the earth - To cut off themselves, - their families - and all memorials of them, so that they shall utterly be forgotten among people. Compare Psalm 109:13-15. So, in Proverbs 10:7, it is said, "The memory of the just is blessed; but the name of the wicked shall rot." Two things are implied here: (1) That it is "desirable" to be remembered after we are dead.

There is in us a deep-rooted principle, of great value to the cause of virtue, which prompts us to "desire" that we may be held in grateful recollection by mankind after we have passed away; that is, which prompts us to do something in our lives, the remembrance of which the world will not "willingly let die." - Milton. (2) The other idea is, that there is a state of things on earth which has a tendency to cause the remembrance of the wicked to die out, or to make people forget them. There is nothing to make men desire to retain their recollection, or to rear monuments to them. People are indeed remembered who are of bad eminence in crime; but the world will forget a wicked man just as soon as it can. This is stated here as a reason particularly addressed to the young Psalm 34:11 why they should seek God, and pursue the ways of righteousness. The motive is, that men will "gladly" retain the remembrance of those who are good; of those who have done anything worthy to be remembered, but that a life of sin will make men desire to forget as soon as possible all those who practice it. This is not a low and base motive to be addressed to the young.