The Nugget:
Psa 34:14 Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it. (KJV)
Psa 34:14 Naught of evil cherish thou, but rather do good; let peace be all thy quest and aim. (Knox translation)
Psa 34:14 Turn away from evil and do what is right! Strive for peace and promote it! (NET Bible)
Psa 34:14 Turn away from evil and do good; strive for peace with all your heart. (GNB, Good News Bible)
Psa 34:14 Depart from wickedness and do good, Aim at well-being, and pursue it. (EB, Emphasized Bible)
Psa 34:14 Be turned from evil, and do good; make a search for peace, desiring it with all your heart. (BBE, Bible in Basic English)
Psa 34:14 Stop doing anything evil, and do good. Look for peace, and do all you can to help people live peacefully. (ERV, Easy to Read Version)
Psa 34:14 Do good instead of evil and try to live at peace. (CEV, Contemporary English Version)
My Comment:
Everyone would be wiser to follow this command! Some people seem bent on doing all they can to violate the advice given here. That, unfortunately, will bring them to an eternal destination they may not believe in or, perhaps, they thought did not apply to them. Far better to be a peacemaker, not a troublemaker! That obedience to this command determines your eternal destiny is perfectly plain in the light of what is stated in Hebrews 12:14,
Heb 12:14 Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord: (KJV)
There are those who promote a false theology that denies that a person can do good. They base this theology on Psalm 14:3,
Psa 14:3 They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one.
They seem to have forgotten that God does not command us to do something He knows we cannot do. They fail to take into account the immediate context. In the case of Psalm 14:3, the “They” in “They are all gone aside” are the individuals depicted in Psalm 14:1, “The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.” Therefore, “there is none that doeth good, no, not one” does not apply to everyone.
It is true that we cannot earn our salvation by keeping the commandments or doing good works. We can obey the command to “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ” so that the promised benefit applies to us: “and you shall be saved” (Acts 16:31). It is possible for anyone to read the Gospel of John and believe what it says and so come to have eternal life:
John 5:24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.
John 20:31 But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.
I encourage you to dig deeper into what is taught in the Bible by reading the following newly expanded cross references for Psalm 34:14 taken from The Ultimate Cross Reference Treasury:
Psalms 34:14
Depart from evil. *Psa 37:27; Psa 97:10, Job 1:1; Job 1:8; Job 28:28, **Pro 1:10; *Pro 3:7; Pro 4:27; Pro 8:13; Pro 13:14; Pro 13:19; Pro 16:6; Pro 16:17; *Pro 28:13, *Isa 1:16; *Isa 1:17; Isa 55:7; Isa 56:2, Eze 18:31, Amos 5:15, *Rom 12:9, 2Co 13:7, *+2Ti 2:19, Heb 12:1, >1Pe 3:11.
do good. %+Psa 14:3; Psa 37:3, +**Mic 6:8, +*Luk 6:9; +*Luk 6:35, *Act 10:38, +*Gal 6:10, *Tit 2:14, +*Heb 13:16, +*Jas 4:17, *3Jn 1:11.
seek peace. +*Psa 119:165; Psa 120:7, +*Mat 5:9, Mar 9:50, John 17:11, Rom 12:18; Rom 14:17; Rom 14:19, 2Co 13:11, Gal 5:22, 1Th 4:11; 1Th 5:13, 2Ti 2:22, **Heb 12:14, *Jas 3:17; *Jas 3:18.
and pursue it. Isa 51:1. “Ye that follow after righteousness:” (though it seem always to be in advance of you.) “Pursue after it,” as vigorously as they pursue the victim they are hunting down (William Kay). Deut 16:20, 1Ti 6:11, 2Ti 2:22.