Psalms 31:16-24

16 Look on your servant with kindness; save me in your constant love.

17 I call to you, Lord; don't let me be disgraced. May the wicked be disgraced; may they go silently down to the world of the dead.

18 Silence those liars - all the proud and arrogant who speak with contempt about the righteous.

19 How wonderful are the good things you keep for those who honor you! Everyone knows how good you are, how securely you protect those who trust you.

20 You hide them in the safety of your presence from the plots of others; in a safe shelter you hide them from the insults of their enemies.

21 Praise the Lord! How wonderfully he showed his love for me when I was surrounded and attacked!

22 I was afraid and thought that he had driven me out of his presence. But he heard my cry, when I called to him for help.

23 Love the Lord, all his faithful people. The Lord protects the faithful, but punishes the proud as they deserve.

24 Be strong, be courageous, all you that hope in the Lord.

Psalms 31:16-24 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.