Psalms 31:13

13 The street-talk gossip has me "criminally insane"! Behind locked doors they plot how to ruin me for good.

Psalms 31:13 Meaning and Commentary

Psalms 31:13

For I have heard the slander of many
Both enemies and neighbours;

fear [was] on every side;
his enemies were a "Magormissabib" to him, ( Jeremiah 20:3 ) ; encompassed him around, so that he was in fear from every quarter;

while they took counsel together against me;
how to apprehend him, and what to do with him;

they devised to take away my life;
nothing short of that would satisfy; but life is in the hand of God; men may devise, but God disappoints, and his counsel stands; hence the psalmist was encouraged, after all, to trust in him, in this time of imminent danger, as follows.

Psalms 31:13 In-Context

11 To my enemies I'm a monster; I'm ridiculed by the neighbors. My friends are horrified; they cross the street to avoid me.
12 They want to blot me from memory, forget me like a corpse in a grave, discard me like a broken dish in the trash.
13 The street-talk gossip has me "criminally insane"! Behind locked doors they plot how to ruin me for good.
14 Desperate, I throw myself on you: you are my God!
15 Hour by hour I place my days in your hand, safe from the hands out to get me.
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.