ris3n's Apologetics Codex

Passage

Psalms 34.8

Book: Psalms · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Immediate context (±2 verses)

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ASV

6. This poor man cried, and Jehovah heard him, And saved him out of all his troubles. 7. The angel of Jehovah encampeth round about them that fear him, And delivereth them.

8. Oh taste and see that Jehovah is good: Blessed is the man that taketh refuge in him.

  1. Oh fear Jehovah, ye his saints; For there is no want to them that fear him. 10. The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger; But they that seek Jehovah shall not want any good thing. (Psalms 34:6-10, ASV)
WEB

6. This poor man cried, and Yahweh heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles. 7. Yahweh’s angel encamps around those who fear him, and delivers them.

8. Oh taste and see that Yahweh is good. Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.

  1. Oh fear Yahweh, you his saints, for there is no lack with those who fear him. 10. The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger, but those who seek Yahweh shall not lack any good thing. (Psalms 34:6-10, WEB)
KJV

6. This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles. 7. The angel of the LORD encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them.

8. O taste and see that the LORD is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him.

  1. O fear the LORD, ye his saints: for there is no want to them that fear him. 10. The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger: but they that seek the LORD shall not want any good thing. (Psalms 34:6-10, KJV)
YLT

6. This poor [one] called, and Jehovah heard, And from all his distresses saved him. 7. A messenger of Jehovah is encamping, Round about those who fear Him, And He armeth them.

8. Taste ye and see that Jehovah [is] good, O the happiness of the man who trusteth in Him.

  1. Fear Jehovah, ye His holy ones, For there is no lack to those fearing Him. 10. Young lions have lacked and been hungry, And those seeking Jehovah lack not any good, (Psalms 34:6-10, YLT)

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Setting

  • Speaker: David, in an acrostic psalm of thanksgiving
  • Audience: the congregation, and specifically "the humble" and those who fear the LORD
  • Location: Israel; the superscription connects the psalm to David's feigned madness before Abimelech
  • Time period: David's fugitive period, during the flight from Saul

Theological reading

The Bible's most direct invitation to test a claim by trying it. "O taste and see that the LORD is good."

Two sensory verbs, and the first is the most intimate of them. Taste requires taking the thing in. You cannot taste at a distance, cannot taste something you have not committed to, cannot taste on someone else's behalf. The psalm places the knowledge of divine goodness in the modality that most resists secondhand transmission.

This is not anti-intellectualism, and reading it that way misses the structure. The psalm has already given the grounds: verse 4, "I sought the LORD, and He answered me"; verse 6, "this poor man cried, and the LORD heard him." The invitation to taste comes after the testimony, not instead of it. The order is report first, then verification.

Apologetic use, carefully. The verse is frequently used to convert an argument into an altar call, and that misuse is worth naming. It does not say evidence is unnecessary or that experience settles what argument cannot. What it says is that some knowledge is only available from inside the relation, which is a claim about the kind of thing being known rather than a retreat from the question of whether it exists.

The analogy that holds: you can argue at length about whether a person is trustworthy, and every argument can be sound, and there remains something you learn by trusting them that no argument delivers. The analogy that does not hold, and should not be offered: that tasting settles whether the thing is there at all. See Argument from Religious Experience for the disciplined form of this claim and its limits, and Faith and Reason for how the codex orders the two.

Later use. 1 Peter 2:3 quotes the verse and applies it to Christ, one of several places where the epistle transfers a psalm's LORD language to Jesus without argument or apology, which is itself evidence about early Christology.

Key words

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

  • ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
  • WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
  • KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
  • YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.

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