What man is he that lusteth to live: and would fain see good days? This is the central question of Psalm 34, and for the Christian praying this psalm we have an answer not only in the advice the psalmist gives, but much more fully in the life, the person, and example of Jesus Christ. For in Christ, the Lord whom the psalmist addressed has come into the world and shown us what it is to live life well and to the full, shown us, as St. Irenaeus said, that ‘the Gory of God is a Human Being fully alive.’ I hope you enjoy this response to the psalm, you may get even more from it if you have the chance to re-read the original psalm first, but either way, I hope this poem will encourage you ‘to taste and see that the Lord is good’ and ‘to increase/The reach of love, the possibility/Of fruitful life together’
As usual you can hear me read the poem by pressing the ‘play’ button if it appears, or else by clicking on the title. For the other poems in my psalm series type the word ‘psalm’ into the search box on the right.
He raises and delivers us from death,
And even now he shows us how to live
That we might savour life with every breath,
That we might taste and see, might truly thrive
Might see the good days that he wants for us
And make the best of all he has to give.
And so he comes to live as one of us
And teaches us afresh the ways of peace.
He lives the fullest life in front of us
And shows us how to break the bonds, release
The captive, seek the truth that sets us free
To choose the right and do it, to increase
The reach of love, the possibility
Of fruitful life together, and to hear
The poor cry out and help them speedily.
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Malcolm Guite 