Psalm 31:9-18

9 Be gracious to me, Lord, because I am in distress; my eyes are worn out from angry sorrow- my whole being^[a] as well.

10 Indeed, my life is consumed with grief, and my years with groaning; my strength has failed because of my sinfulness,^[b] and my bones waste away.

11 I am ridiculed by all my adversaries and even by my neighbors. I am an object of dread to my acquaintances; those who see me in the street run from me.

12 I am forgotten: gone from memory like a dead person-like broken pottery.

13 I have heard the gossip of many; terror is on every side. When they conspired against me, they plotted to take my life.

14 But I trust in You, Lord; I say, "You are my God."

15 The course of my life is in Your power; deliver me from the power of my enemies and from my persecutors.

16 Show Your favor to Your servant; save me by Your faithful love.

17 Lord, do not let me be disgraced when I call on You. Let the wicked be disgraced; let them be silent^{[c] [d]} in Sheol.^[e]

18 Let lying lips be quieted; they speak arrogantly against the righteous with pride and contempt.

Psalm 31:9-18 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.

Footnotes

• [a] Lit my soul and my belly
• [b] LXX, Syr, Sym read affliction
• [c] LXX reads brought down
• [d] Or them perish or wail
• [e] Ps 94:17; 115:17