Verses 7-22 show us David's advising and teaching others to fear God and take refuge in Him. In verse 8 David said, "Blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him." However, when David disguised himself in front of that king, he did not take refuge in Jehovah but in his "mask," in his disguising himself. In verse 11 David said, "Come, children; hear me./I will teach you the fear of Jehovah." Do we want David to teach us to disguise ourselves, to put on a mask? This shows that on the one hand, we may trust in the Lord; on the other hand, we may put on a mask to deliver ourselves. Eventually, who saved us—the Lord or our mask?
In Psalm 34 David spoke of the goodness of fearing God and taking refuge in Him (vv. 7-10, 17-22). Verse 10 says, "The young lions hunger and starve,/But those who seek Jehovah will not lack any good thing." People may quote these verses for their personal benefit but eventually end up lacking the material things they desire. Second Corinthians tells us that Paul passed through much suffering and deprivation, even to the extent that he was lacking food and clothing (11:27).
In Psalm 34 David spoke of the way to fear God (vv. 11-16; 1 Pet. 3:10-12). Verses 12-16 say, "Who is the man who desires life,/Who loves having days in order to see good?/Guard your tongue from evil,/And your lips from speaking deceit./Turn away from evil and do good;/Seek peace and pursue it./The eyes of Jehovah are set toward the righteous,/And His ears, toward their cry./The face of Jehovah is against those who do evil,/To cut off the memory of them from the earth." These verses were quoted by Peter in 1 Peter 3:10-12, but Paul did not quote such a word. Paul's vision of the New Testament economy was clearer than that of all the other apostles.
When David asked, "Who is the man who desires life,/Who loves having days in order to see good?" he was not talking about the eternal life but about the physical life. David was a great saint in the Old Testament, and Peter was one of the great apostles in the New Testament, but I do not believe that what David said here is spiritual. Even among us, who dares ask the Lord to give him long days that he may enjoy many good things?
David said that if we love having days in order to see good, we should guard our tongue from evil and our lips from speaking deceit. But who has ever succeeded in guarding his tongue from evil? What David spoke here was according to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Verse 15 says, "The eyes of Jehovah are set toward the righteous,/And His ears, toward their cry." But who is righteous on this earth? Paul said that not one is righteous (Rom. 3:10), and Isaiah said that our righteousnesses are like filthy rags (Isa. 64:6). If we depend upon our righteousness to enjoy God's eyes and ears being set toward us, we will enjoy nothing, because we have no righteousness of our own.
Concerning the righteous man, David said, "He keeps all his bones;/Not one of them is broken" (v. 20). This is a verse concerning Christ because David was a type of the suffering Christ. When Christ was on the cross, the soldiers did not break His legs when they saw that He had already died (John 19:33). John said, "These things happened that the Scripture might be fulfilled: 'No bone of His shall be broken'" (v. 36). There were times in describing his sufferings that David typified Christ.
When we look at Psalm 34, we can see the mixed expressions of David's sentiment. Verse 20 refers to Christ, but most of this psalm is not according to the tree of life. Our concept needs to be changed to the divine concept according to the tree of life. As we grow in Christ, our concept will be changed.