Psalms 31:12-22

12 I have passed out of mind like one who is dead; I have become like a broken vessel.

13 Yea, I hear the whispering of many--terror on every side! --as they scheme together against me, as they plot to take my life.

14 But I trust in thee, O LORD, I say, "Thou art my God."

15 My times are in thy hand; deliver me from the hand of my enemies and persecutors!

16 Let thy face shine on thy servant; save me in thy steadfast love!

17 Let me not be put to shame, O LORD, for I call on thee; let the wicked be put to shame, let them go dumbfounded to Sheol.

18 Let the lying lips be dumb, which speak insolently against the righteous in pride and contempt.

19 O how abundant is thy goodness, which thou hast laid up for those who fear thee, and wrought for those who take refuge in thee, in the sight of the sons of men!

20 In the covert of thy presence thou hidest them from the plots of men; thou holdest them safe under thy shelter from the strife of tongues.

21 Blessed be the LORD, for he has wondrously shown his steadfast love to me when I was beset as in a besieged city.

22 I had said in my alarm, "I am driven far from thy sight." But thou didst hear my supplications, when I cried to thee for help.

Psalms 31:12-22 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.