Psalm 34:19

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Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD delivers him out of them all.

Psalm 34:19 (NKJV)

The righteous person may have many troubles, but the LORD delivers them from them all.

Psalm 34:19 (NIV)

Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the LORD delivereth him out of them all.

Psalm 34:19 (KJV)

The righteous person faces many troubles, but the LORD comes to the rescue each time.

Psalm 34:19 (NLT)

Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD delivers him out of them all.

Psalm 34:19 (ESV)

Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD rescues him from them all.

Psalm 34:19 (NASB)

Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. www.lockman.org

Many hardships and perplexing circumstances confront the righteous, but the LORD rescues him from them all.

Psalm 34:19 (AMP)

Scripture quotations taken from the Amplified® Bible (AMP), Copyright © 2015 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. www.lockman.org

Many evils confront the [consistently] righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all.

Psalm 34:19 (AMPC)

Scripture quotations taken from the Amplified® Bible (AMPC), Copyright © 1954, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. www.lockman.org

Disciples so often get into trouble; still, GOD is there every time.

Psalm 34:19 (MSG)

Scripture quotations from The Message. Copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. Used by permission of NavPress. All rights reserved. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers.

New Covenant Meaning

The Verse Does Not Promise Fewer Afflictions

Psalm 34:19 does not promise that the righteous will have fewer troubles than the wicked. It begins with an honest acknowledgment: "Many are the afflictions of the righteous." The Hebrew raot (troubles, evils, afflictions) is unsparing. The righteous person faces many of them. This is the honest half of a verse that many people quote only in its second half. The promise is not immunity from difficulty. It is deliverance through it. The New Covenant confirms this pattern: John 16:33 says "In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world." The trials are real. The overcoming is also real. Psalm 34:19 gives both halves without flattening either.

Natsal: Delivered Out of Them All

The Hebrew natsal means to snatch away, to rescue, to pull out from danger. It is used for God rescuing his people from Egypt (Exodus 3:8), for David being rescued from his enemies (2 Samuel 22:1), and here for the deliverance of the righteous from every affliction. The scope of the promise is comprehensive: "out of them all" (mikkulam). Not most of them. Not the ones that seem manageable. All of them. The God who delivered Israel from Pharaoh, who raised Jesus from the dead, is the same God who delivers the righteous from every affliction they face. The deliverance may not come in the moment or in the form expected. But the promise is that none of the afflictions is the final word.

Psalm 34 was written by David when he feigned madness before Abimelech (Achish) and was driven away (1 Samuel 21:10-15). David was in real danger: he had fled from Saul into Philistine territory, been recognized, and escaped by acting insane. From that experience he writes "I sought the LORD, and He heard me, and delivered me from all my fears" (v. 4). The experiential foundation of Psalm 34:19 is not theological abstraction. It is David writing from the other side of multiple, specific deliverances. The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear Him (v. 7). The LORD is near to the brokenhearted (v. 18). These are declarations made by someone who has experienced the reality they describe.

Application for Your Life

The Many Afflictions Are Not a Sign That God Has Left

The presence of many afflictions in a righteous person's life is not evidence that God has abandoned them or that something is wrong with their faith. The psalm acknowledges afflictions as part of the righteous person's experience. Many of them. The question Psalm 34:19 addresses is not whether afflictions come but what happens to them: the LORD delivers him out of them all. When you are in the middle of an affliction, the natural question is "why is this happening to me?" The better question, in light of Psalm 34:19, is "when and how will God deliver me from this?" The deliverance is promised. The timing belongs to Him.

Out of Them All: None of Your Afflictions Is Too Many

The guarantee in Psalm 34:19 covers every affliction the righteous person faces. Not the moderate ones or the spiritually productive ones or the ones that come with a visible lesson. All of them. This means no affliction in your life is exempt from God's promised deliverance. The one that feels most permanent is not beyond His reach. The one that has lasted the longest is not outside His promise. The one that seems most catastrophic is not too large for the one who raised Jesus from the dead. Bring every affliction into the light of this verse and declare what the psalm declares: the LORD delivers him out of them all.

Prayer Based on This Verse

Father, I receive both halves of Psalm 34:19. Yes, the afflictions are many. I am not pretending otherwise. I name them before You honestly. And I also receive the second half with equal honesty: You deliver me out of them all. Not most. Not eventually some. All of them. The afflictions I am facing are not outside Your awareness or beyond Your reach. You see them. You are near to the brokenhearted. The angel of Your presence is encamped around me. I trust You as the God who snatches His people out of every difficulty, in Your timing, in Your way, completely. I declare over my life today: the LORD delivers me out of them all. In Jesus name. Amen.