Psalms 31:9-19

9 Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am in trouble; my eyes are wasted with grief, I am wasted in soul and body.

10 My life goes on in sorrow, and my years in weeping; my strength is almost gone because of my sin, and my bones are wasted away.

11 Because of all those who are against me, I have become a word of shame to my neighbours; a cause of shaking the head and a fear to my friends: those who saw me in the street went in flight from me.

12 I have gone from men's minds and memory like a dead man; I am like a broken vessel.

13 False statements against me have come to my ears; fear was on every side: they were talking together against me, designing to take away my life.

14 But I had faith in you, O Lord; I said, You are my God.

15 The chances of my life are in your hand; take me out of the hands of my haters, and of those who go after me.

16 Let your servant see the light of your face; in your mercy be my saviour.

17 Let me not be shamed, O Lord, for I have made my prayer to you; let the sinners be shamed, and let their mouths be shut in the underworld.

18 Let the false lips be shut, which say evil against the upright, looking down on him in their pride.

19 O how great is your grace, which you have put in store for your worshippers, and which you have made clear to those who had faith in you, before the sons of men!

Psalms 31:9-19 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.