“Come, O children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord. What man is there who desires life and loves many days, that he may see good? Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit. Turn away from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it.” -Psalm 34:11–14
Here David takes on the tone of a father, an instructor of wisdom, as his own son, Solomon, did in Proverbs 1:1-9. His purpose is to teach them what it means to fear the Lord. After all, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge [and] wisdom” (Proverbs 1:7 cf. Proverbs 9:10 & Psalm 111:10).
As a good instructor, David begins with a question. “Who desires a long, flourishing life filled with goodness?” All learning begins with such questions. The master teacher will not lecture as much as he will ask questions. He takes on the role of a midwife who assists the student in giving birth to the truth they have conceived in reason and experience, all the while applying the healing medicine of revelation.
David says the first lesson is knowing where the good life starts: in the fear of the Lord, not outside his will and favor. Interestingly, this is the answer to the first question of its kind all the way back to the garden of Eden. In the words of Milton,
Queen of this Universe, doe not believe
Those rigid threats of Death; ye shall not Die:
How should ye? by the Fruit? it gives you Life
To Knowledge: By the Threatner? look on mee,
Mee who have touch’d and tasted, yet both live,
And life more perfet have attaind then Fate
Meant mee, by ventring higher then my Lot.
Shall that be shut to Man, which to the Beast
Is open? or will God incense his ire
For such a petty Trespass, and not praise
Rather your dauntless vertue, whom the pain
Of Death denounc’t, whatever thing Death be,
Deterrd not from atchieving what might leade
To happier life, knowledge of Good and Evil;
Of good, how just? of evil, if what is evil
Be real, why not known, since easier shunnd?
God therefore cannot hurt ye, and be just;
Not just, not God; not feard then, nor obeid:(Paradise Lost, IX.690ff)
In essence, “Is your best life under the dominion of the Lord, or is he trying to pull and fast one by not letting you in on the real truth of things, and your best life is when you become your own god and get to do what you want when you want, like I have done?”
David’s answer is, “Turn away from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it.” This is the path to the good life.