When it is said
Pray it when your heart is broken, after a breakup or when someone you love does not love you back.
The whole psalm is read at the end of the Great Blessing of Waters on the feast of Theophany.
At the All-Night Vigil only its first 10 verses are read, as Vespers closes.
Where it comes from
Author by tradition
David before the king of Gath
The psalm’s heading ties it to the day David “changed his behaviour before Abimelech; who drove him away”. The story is in 1 Samuel 21:10-15, where the king of Gath is called Achish. David fled there from Saul and then grew afraid of the king. He pretended to be mad, scratching marks on the gate and letting spit run down his beard, until Achish asked why anyone had brought a madman into his house.
The King James Version, the first book of Samuel; The King James Version, the heading of the psalm
An alphabet poem
In Hebrew, Psalm 34 is an alphabet poem. Each verse begins with the next letter of the Hebrew alphabet, from the first letter to the last. The poem skips one letter and closes with one extra verse.
The Hebrew text with the JPS English of 1917, on Mechon Mamre
What the words mean
Broken or contrite?
In Hebrew, verse 18 speaks of “the broken of heart”, as the King James margin shows. The translator Lancelot Brenton put “contrite heart” in his English of the Greek Septuagint, as Isabel Hapgood’s service book does. Yet Brenton’s own margin gives the Greek as “the broken in heart”, just as in the Hebrew.
The King James Version, with its margin; Brenton’s English of the Septuagint, with his margin
The Scripture in it
I sought the LORD, and He answered me; He delivered me from all my fears. Those who look to Him are radiant with joy; their faces shall never be ashamed. This poor man called out, and the LORD heard him; He saved him from all his troubles.
Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him!
The eyes of the LORD are on the righteous, and His ears are inclined to their cry.
The righteous cry out, and the LORD hears; He delivers them from all their troubles. The LORD is near to the brokenhearted; He saves the contrite in spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD delivers him from them all.
The LORD redeems His servants, and none who take refuge in Him will be condemned.
Bible text: Berean Standard Bible, public domain.