Psalms 31:2-12

2 1Incline Your ear to me, rescue me quickly; Be to me a 2rock of strength, A stronghold to save me.
3 For You are my rock and 3my fortress; For 4Your name's sake You will lead me and guide me.
4 You will 5pull me out of the net which they have secretly laid for me, For You are my 6strength.
5 7Into Your hand I commit my spirit; You have 8ransomed me, O LORD, 9God of truth.
6 I hate those who 10regard vain idols, But I 11trust in the LORD.
7 I will 12rejoice and be glad in Your lovingkindness, Because You have 13seen my affliction; You have known the troubles of my soul,
8 And You have not 14given me over into the hand of the enemy; You have set my feet in a large place.
9 Be gracious to me, O LORD, for 15I am in distress; My 16eye is wasted away from grief, 17my soul and my body also.
10 For my life is spent with 18sorrow And my years with sighing; My 19strength has failed because of my iniquity, And 20my body has wasted away.
11 Because of all my adversaries, I have become a 21reproach, Especially to my 22neighbors, And an object of dread to my acquaintances; Those who see me in the street flee from me.
12 I am 23forgotten as a dead man, out of mind; I am like a broken vessel.

Psalms 31:2-12 Meaning and Commentary

To the chief Musician, a Psalm of David. This psalm, according to Arama, was composed by David when in Keilah; but, according to Kimchi and others, when the Ziphites proposed to deliver him up into the hands of Saul; and who, upon their solicitations, came down and surrounded him with his army, from whom in haste he made his escape, and to which he is thought to refer in Psalm 31:22. Theodoret supposes it was written by David when he fled from Absalom, and that it has some respect in it to his sin against Uriah, in that verse.

Cross References 23

  • 1. Psalms 17:6; Psalms 71:2; Psalms 86:1; Psalms 102:2
  • 2. Psalms 18:2; Psalms 71:3
  • 3. Psalms 18:2
  • 4. Psalms 23:3; Psalms 25:11
  • 5. Psalms 25:15
  • 6. Psalms 46:1
  • 7. Luke 23:46; Acts 7:59
  • 8. Psalms 55:18; Psalms 71:23
  • 9. Deuteronomy 32:4; Psalms 71:22
  • 10. Jonah 2:8
  • 11. Psalms 52:8
  • 12. Psalms 90:14
  • 13. Psalms 10:14
  • 14. Deuteronomy 32:30; Psalms 37:33
  • 15. Psalms 66:14; Psalms 69:17
  • 16. Psalms 6:7
  • 17. Psalms 63:1
  • 18. Psalms 13:2
  • 19. Psalms 39:11
  • 20. Psalms 32:3; Psalms 38:3; Psalms 102:3
  • 21. Psalms 69:19
  • 22. Job 19:13; Psalms 38:11; Psalms 88:8, 18
  • 23. Psalms 88:5

Footnotes 5

New American Standard Bible Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, California.  All rights reserved.