Psalm 34:20

EXPOSITION

Verse 20. He keepeth all his bones: not one of them is broken. David had come off with kicks and cuffs, but no broken bones. No substantial injury occurs to the saints. Eternity will heal all their wounds. Their real self is safe; they may have flesh wounds, but no part of the essential fabric of their being shall be broken. This verse may refer to frequent providential protections vouchsafed to the saints; but as good men have had broken limbs as well as others, it cannot absolutely be applied to bodily preservations; but must, it seems to me, be spiritually applied to great injuries of soul, which are for ever prevented by divine love. Not a bone of the mystical body of Christ shall be broken, even as his corporeal frame was preserved intact. Divine love watches over every believer as it did over Jesus; no fatal injury shall happen to us, we shall neither be halt or maimed in the kingdom, but shall be presented after life's trials are over without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, being preserved in Christ Jesus, and kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation.

EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS

Verse 20. He keepeth all his bones, which were very many. Perhaps (saith Abenezra here), David had been scourged by the Philistines, but his bones were not broken, nor were our Saviour's. John 19:36 . John Trapp.

Verse 20. All his bones. Muis observes, "It says not his body, for this he permits to be afflicted; but it signifies that the evils of the godly are light, and scarcely penetrate to the bone;" but Geier observes, "This is too subtle, rather the bone reminds us of the essential parts of the body, by whose injury the whole frame is endangered. It is a proverbial form of speech like that in Matthew 10:30 , `The very hairs of your head are all numbered,' expressing the remarkable defence afforded to the righteous." Genebrard says, "The bones are put by synecdoche for all the members." From Poli Synopsis.

Verse 20. The passover lamb, of which not a bone was broken, prefigured Jesus as one, "not a bone of whose body should be broken;" and yet, at the same time, it prefigured the complete keeping and safety of Christ's body, the church; as it is written, He keepeth all his bones; not one of them is broken. Andrew A. Bonar's Commentary on Leviticus.

Verse 20. Christ's bones were in themselves breakable, but could not actually be broken by all the violence in the world, because God had fore decreed, a bone of him shall not be broken. So we confess God's children mortal; but all the power of devil or man may not, must not, cannot, kill them before their conversion, according to God's election of them to life, which must be fully accomplished. Thomas Fuller.

Verse 20. Observe as a point of resemblance between this and the following Psalm, the mention of the bones here and in Psalms 35:10 . C. Wordsworth.

HINTS THE VILLAGE PREACHER

Verse 20. The real safety of a believer when in great perils. His soul, his spiritual life, his faith, hope, love, etc.; his interest in Jesus, his adoption, justification, these all kept.