David employs a universal question to engage his audience personally before prescribing the moral conditions for a long and good life. By asking rather than asserting, he invites self-examination and creates readiness to receive the ethical instruction that follows in verses 13-14.

David immediately provides his own answer in verses 13-14, instructing his hearers to keep their tongues from evil and their lips from deceitful speech, to turn from evil and do good, and to seek peace and pursue it.

David’s question establishes common ground with his audience, everyone wants a fulfilling life. The Hebrew construction mi-ha-ish, ‘who is the man,’ personalizes the inquiry, demanding individual response rather than theoretical agreement. By framing his instruction as a question, David shifts his hearers from passive listeners to active participants who must now examine their own desires and choices. The coupling of desiring life, chaphets chaim, with loving many days, ohev yamim, intensifies the longing he assumes in his audience. This rhetorical strategy demonstrates the wisdom teacher’s art: begin where people are, affirm their legitimate desires, then show them the path they’ve overlooked. The theological weight rests in David’s conviction that God has ordered creation so that moral living produces human flourishing, a principle that pervades Scripture from Deuteronomy to the teachings of Christ.