Psalm 34: Magnify the Lord
Psalm 34:3 - We shall decrease and He shall increase.
“O magnify the Lord with me, And let us exalt His name together.”
Psalms 34:3 NASB1995
Verse 3 of Psalm 34 tells us to magnify the Lord. This is an interesting choice of words - God is of infinite power, but we are to magnify the Lord and exalt His name. Let’s do a word study of this verb:
Magnify comes from the Hebrew verb גָּדַל or gâdal (Strong’s H1431), with the following Biblical usages:
to grow, become great or important, promote, make powerful, praise, magnify, do great things
(Qal)
to grow up
to become great
to be magnified
(Piel)
to cause to grow
to make great, powerful
to magnify
(Pual) to be brought up
(Hiphil)
to make great
to magnify
to do great things
(Hithpael) to magnify oneself
There are those pesky Binyamin again (see my last devotional). To promote, make powerful (He is powerful but we can focus on and talk about that power) and to praise are ways that we can magnify God. In looking at various Bible translations, the NIV uses “glorify” and the NASB20 uses “exalt”. But in every case, David is asking others to do this with him, as a unified voice exalting our Creator.
In a typical day in our secular culture, God may seem very far away or even invisible when you are working deadlines on your job or are busy enjoying some man-made diversion or entertainment. But He is omnipotent and omnipresent! When we are humble and aligned with His will we can begin to sense that power surrounding us. Remember that verse two talked about boasting in the Lord, with the humble hearing that and rejoicing.
Once again, Spurgeon comes to the rescue, from the exposition quoted in Precept Austin:
Ver. 3. O magnify the Lord with me. Is this request addressed to the humble? If so it is most fitting. Who can make God great but those who feel themselves to be little? He bids them help him to make the Lord's fame greater among the sons of men. Jehovah is infinite, and therefore cannot really be made greater, but his name grows in manifested glory as he is made known to his creatures, and thus he is said to be magnified. It is well when the soul feels its own inability adequately to glorify the Lord, and therefore stirs up others to the gracious work; this is good both for the man himself and for his companions. No praise can excel that which lays us prostrate under a sense of our own nothingness, while divine grace like some topless Alp rises before our eyes and sinks us lower and lower in holy awe. Let us exalt his name together. Social, congregated worship is the outgrowth of one of the natural instincts of the new life. In heaven it is enjoyed to the full, and earth is like heaven where it abounds.
Our souls should feel the inability to adequately glorify the Lord. We must decrease, as John the Baptist said in John 3, so that He can increase. Just like in the image below, He increases and we decrease and we cannot see the peak of this great mountain (Spurgeon described it as a topless Alp).
Enduring Word has good commentary, too, for verse 3:
Oh, magnify the LORD with me: David knew there was something magnetic about the true praise of God. When one genuinely praises God, he or she wants to draw others into the practice of praise. If it is good for one to exalt His name, then it is even better to do it together with His people.
David thought praising God was to magnify Him – that is, to make Him larger in one’s perception. Magnification does not actually make an object bigger, and we can’t make God bigger. But to magnify something or someone is to perceive it as bigger, and we must do that regarding the LORD God.
“As not sufficient to do a great work himself, he calleth in the help of others.” (John Trapp)
“The Christian, not only himself magnifies God, but exhorts others to do likewise; and longs for that day to come, when all nations and languages, laying aside their contentions and animosities, their prejudices and their errors, their unbelief, their heresies, and their schisms, shall make their sound to be heard as one, in magnifying and exalting their great Redeemer’s name.” (George Horne)
Our highest praise is reserved for Him! Our loyalties are reserved for Him! And in the end, that spaghetti chart of denominations that I used during the study of Philippians will end up in one of two ways: Believers will lift their voices as one to magnify His name; apostates and non-believers will shrink away from the sound and be in fear and trembling (and all will be on their knees). Oh, and I found this great quote from Martyn Lloyd-Jones that you might like:
“Thank God my salvation does not depend upon my frail hold on Him but of HIS mighty grasp on me.”
By magnifying Him we can see even better that we are in His grasp!
My next devotional examines Psalm 34:4 - The Lord answered me.
Heaven on Wheels Daily Prayer:
Dear Lord - I magnify Your name and exalt You above all things. Amen.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
The Blue Letter Bible was accessed on 08/18/2025 to review the lexicon for magnify.
Precept Austin was accessed on 08/18/2025 to review commentary for Psalm 34:3.
Enduring Word commentary by David Guzik is used with written permission. Minor formatting changes have been made to improve readability.
This was a wonderful read to begin the day with…