‘For,
“He who would love life,
And see good days,
Let him refrain his tongue from evil,
And his lips that they speak no guile,
And let him turn away from evil, and do good;
Let him seek peace, and pursue it.
For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous,
And his ears to their supplication,
But the face of the Lord is on those who do evil.”
The ideas behind Peter's words here are taken from Psalms 34:12-16 a. It will be noted that Peter does not cite it as a quotation, but simply takes the ideas expressed in the Psalm and introduces them as Christian teaching. He may well be citing a well known Christian hymn or prayer based on the Psalm (we can compare it with similar hymns and prayers based on Psalms today).
The two are here set side by side in order to bring out the similarities and the differences:
Peter Psalms 34:12-16 a (MT) He who would love life, What man is he who desires life? And see good days, And loves many days that he may see good? Let him refrain his tongue from evil, Keep your tongue from evil And his lips that they speak no guile, And your lips from speaking guile And let him turn away from evil, and do good; Depart from evil and do good, Let him seek peace, and pursue it. Seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, The eyes of the Lord are towards the righteous And his ears to their supplication, And His ears are open to their cry But the face of the Lord is on those who do evil. The face of the Lord is against those who do evil.
It will be noted that he is here reminding us of his words in 1 Peter 3:7, ‘that your prayers be not hindered'. He is indicating further things that might hinder our prayers, and reminding us that God's ears are only open to ‘the prayers of the righteous'. ‘If I regard iniquity in my heart the Lord will not hear me' (Psalms 66:18).
There is a change of emphasis in the opening words. The Psalmist had in mind a long life in which he would see good. But he certainly also had in mind the quality of that life. Peter puts the emphasis on that quality. The one who wants to really love life and wants to enjoy ‘good days' (we all know the difference between ‘a good day' and ‘a bad day', but the emphasis here is more in terms of the spiritual) will behave in a way that is pleasing to God. He will be obedient.
His continuing message is clear. We are to speak no evil, and do no evil, but are rather to seek peace and harmony. As with Jesus, there is to be no guile in our mouths (1 Peter 2:22). The words of a Christian are to be open, honest and genuinely loving, not censorious and judgmental, or deceitful. The aim should always be to win over each other in love and grace, not to defeat each other, and this should be true whether dealing with Christians or non-Christians. For we should always remember that all things are open to the eyes of Him with Whom we have to do. He sees everything that goes on, both in our lives and in our hearts. This is both a comfort and a warning. In respect of those who are truly living righteously it will mean that He hears their prayers. In the case of those who are not behaving righteously, it will mean that God's face is set against them.