Psalm 31

Psalm 31. Stress

This psalm impressed itself on more than one biblical character deeply enough to come to mind at moments of supreme crisis.

Jonah’s prayer draws upon it (6);

Jeremiah was haunted by a phrase from verse 13;

verse 5 gave words to Jesus for his last utterance on the cross.

And in old age the writer of Psalm 71, possibly David himself, opened his prayer with the substance of verses 1–3.

It illustrates the role of the Psalms in meeting a great variety of human needs beyond the bounds of formal worship and the original experiences of the authors.

An unusual feature of this psalm is that it makes the journey twice over from anguish to assurance: first in 1–8 and again in 9–24.

31:1–8. The hunted man

1–6. His prayer of faith. As in Psalm 18, David finds strength in remembering his early adventures and escapes, and the reality behind the physical strongholds of those days.

He also knows that defensive strength is not enough: the right initiatives are as vital as the right refuge

Note the good grounds of his appeal:

not his persuasiveness but God’s righteousness (1-2),

i.e. God’s concern to see justice done; not so much the thought of David’s own good name (put to shame, 1) as that of God’s (3b; cf. 23:3);

Not merely that he is innocent but that he is redeemed (5),

and his trust is in the only real God (6).

The primary meaning here is either that deliverance is as certain as if it had already happened (hence the perfect tense), or that past deliverances impel David now to this act of commitment.

7, 8. His praise. The terms for God’s attitude and action in these two verses are worth pondering, together with the similar and fuller sequence in Exodus 3:7, 8. Taken heed is literally ‘known’, and delivered has a certain flavour of handing over into custody, which enhances the sense of liberty in 8b.

This is brought out too in the contrast between the straits or pressures (the root idea of adversities) of verse 7 and the broad place of 8; cf. on Psalm 18:19, and see 119:32. The thought of being hemmed in recurs in 9a and especially 21b.

31:9–24. The rejected man

9–13. His isolation. The deepening with hopelessness (12) and terror (13), shows how murderous is the impact of hatred, especially when it takes the form of rejection.

In Psalm 6, which has the same rare word for waste away, and the same helpless grief, the root cause of the depression is left unspecified.

Here it is partly guilt, according to the Hebrew text of verse 10, where misery should read ‘iniquity’ (rsv mg.); but it is man, not God, who is determined to condemn, as verses 14ff. make clear.

14–18. His prayer of faith. In verse 14, I and thee are emphatic (much as in 6b), as David wrests the initiative from his enemies and deliberately turns in a new direction.

His prayer is all the more effective for making statements before launching into petitions, for the assertions of 14, 15a give God his true place as sovereign, and David his secure relationship of intimacy (my God) and dependence (in thy hand).

The very expression my time (15) which faces the necessary fact of brevity and change, both in one’s own being and in one’s surroundings, makes adversity easier to accept; while the knowledge that change is not chance (thy hand) can make the acceptance positive and personal. ‘he (the Lord) will be the stability of your times’ (Isa. 33:6; cf. Ps. 32:6). So the prayer of committal in verse 5, ‘into thy hand …’, now reveals its practical implications. See also the comment on verses 19–24.

16. David is seeking for himself the familiar blessing of Numbers 6:25, now highly relevant to the dark looks or averted faces (11) which he meets on every side. cf. 84:9, 11; 123:1–4.

17. It is the silencing of the slanderers that David chiefly wants, as the next verse shows. On Sheol, see on 6:5.

19–24. His final act of praise. Each of the three pairs of verses has its own theme:

the first, God’s care for his own (19, 20);

the second, a personal experience of it (21, 22);

finally, a general call to loving trust (23, 24).

Across these boundaries, verses 19 and 24 share an emphasis on biding God’s time, by the mention of goodness … laid up (19), i.e. treasured up (a satisfying answer to our impatience) and by the encouragement to those who wait (24; cf. 15a and Isa. 40:31).

19, 20. The various terms for taking cover, a metaphor natural to a former fugitive and outlaw, recall verses 1–4;

22. In my haste (or ‘panic’) …: another such cry (introduced by the same phrase) is found in 116:11, despairing now of human friendship, with as little cause as here. It underlines the need to wait (24), as pointed out at the beginning of this section (19–24), but also the need to judge by what we securely know, rather than by what we feel. What I say ‘in my prosperity’ (30:6) can be equally adrift.

23. His saints, here, are those who are in covenant with him and are true to it: the word is akin to his steadfast love in verse 21. See further on 18:25.

24. And ‘he shall strengthen your heart’. An assurance of help to those who dare to count on it, rather than a double exhortation. This not promise an end to trouble: rather (cf. Luke 22:42, 43) the strength to meet it.

THis is also a NT principle

We are not our own, God is in control…of us, this world, and everything

Whatever he deems necessary for us to endure is not only for our good and for His glory but is entirely possible to endure when we seek Him and follow after Him.