Psalms 34 (Part I)

¹ I will bless the Lord at all times;
His praise shall continually be in my mouth.
² My soul shall make its boast in the Lord;
The humble shall hear of it and be glad.
³ Oh, magnify the Lord with me,
And let us exalt His name together.

I first read this Psalms in the NIV and it seems to alter the meaning of the verses in a way I do not like.  This is the NKJV and I think this more closely reflects the verse intentions.  For instance, in verse 2 the NIV says "let the afflicted hear" whereas the NKJV says "the humble shall hear".  These two interpretations have different meanings to me.  There is a difference in the way I perceive the words afflicted and humble.  In addition, saying let the afflicted hear is like saying we, of a higher class, shall allow those poor down trodden to also hear of our great God.  This is offensive to me.  Whereas, saying the humble shall hear, tells me that humble men shall hear.  It's not that they won't hear.  And humble men can be of any class of person.  This reflects my perception of my God. 

Back to the actual verses.  (v1,2) Do I bless the Lord at all times?  Is praising Him continually on my lips?  Of what do I boast?  Is my heart so full of praise that my only boasting is of how great my God is?  If not, why not?  It is imperative to me to release my worry, release my burden, and let the joy of the Lord flow from my heart into my being, into all others around me, and into my day (that the Lord has provided).  When I let this happen, the humble, those who also love the Lord, will hear my praises and be glad - they too will also rejoice!  For we are all humble before our God.  

(v3) David prays, that everyone will magnify the Lord with him so we can all exalt, lift up, worship, and praise His name together.  I hope we all pray this same prayer as well.

As a side note of trivia, the Jewish Bible has the word Sh'mo there in verse 3.  It is in the place that translates "His name".  As I wondered what that might mean as a possible alternate name of God that might be significant to the verse, I Googled it for a meaning.  The word shmo means dull, boring, dumb in a traditional dictionary.  I then had to wonder, has Satan purposely found a way to alter the meaning of a Hebrew or Yiddish word meaning His name to meaning dull, dumb?  Wouldn't surprise me.  So every time someone makes fun of another using that word, they are essentially saying that a reference to His name is a dull dumb person.  Sounds about right in what Satan would want and in how our culture pushes to consider Christians.