Psalms 34:14 (WEB)

Passage

Depart from evil, and do good. seek peace, and pursue it.

Nearby Context

Psalms 34:12 Who is someone who desires life, and loves many days, that he may see good?

Psalms 34:13 Keep your tongue from evil, and your lips from speaking lies.

Psalms 34:14 Depart from evil, and do good. seek peace, and pursue it.

Psalms 34:15 Yahweh’s eyes are toward the righteous. His ears listen to their cry.

Psalms 34:16 Yahweh’s face is against those who do evil, to cut off their memory from the earth.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "depart", "evil", "good", "seek", "peace", and "pursue". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "depart" and "evil", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 13's "Keep your tongue from evil and your..." into verse 15's "Yahweh s eyes are toward the righteous...", so "depart" and "evil" belong inside that flow. In Psalms context, the local focus is worship, trust, the LORD's kingship, and covenant mercy.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "depart" and "evil" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.