Psalms 34:4-6 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

I sought the Lord, and he heard me David now proceeds to give reasons why God should be praised and glorified; he himself and others had found by experience, that he was a God hearing and answering prayer. He first mentions his own case. God had heard and answered him, and delivered him from all his fears Not only from the death he feared, but from the disquietude he was put into by the fear of it. “This,” says Chandler, “exactly answers to the history, which informs us, that when David heard what the servants of Achish said concerning him, he laid up these words in his heart, and was greatly afraid, 1 Samuel 21:13. Undoubtedly he thought himself in extreme danger, but instead of removing their suspicions, and his own fears, by offering to join with the Philistines against his country, he rather chose to counterfeit madness, and trust Providence with the success of it, than secure his safety by base and dishonourable compliances.” But it may be said, David was a great and eminent man; and we cannot expect to be favoured as he was: Have any others ever experienced the like benefit by prayer? Yes, many besides him. For, They looked unto him Namely, the humble, or they that feared him; they sought and expected help from the Lord, and were lightened Comforted and encouraged. The meaning of the passage, Chandler thinks, is, that the humble looked to God for the psalmist's protection and received that light, that is, that comfort and joy, from him upon David's return to safety, which diffused itself through their whole hearts; so that their faces were not ashamed, or, as יחפרו, jechparu, signifies, “were not put to the blush for shame,” by being disappointed as to their hope on his account. But we may, with the ancient interpreters, read these and the foregoing words imperatively, as an exhortation to others; thus, Look unto him That is, with an eye of faith and prayer, and be ye enlightened Take comfort in the expectation of mercy from him. If it be said, “Perhaps these also were persons of great eminence, like David himself, and upon that account were highly favoured, or their numbers made them considerable;” the psalmist replies, This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him A single person, mean and inconsiderable, whom no man looked upon with any respect, or looked after with any concern; yet he was as welcome to the throne of grace as David, or any of his worthies: the Lord heard him, took cognizance of his case, and of his prayers, and saved him out of all his troubles, for God will regard the prayer of the destitute, Psalms 102:17; Isaiah 57:15.