Psalms 31:6-16

6 I have hated them that observe lying vanities; and as for me, I have confided in Jehovah.

7 I will be glad and rejoice in thy loving-kindness, for thou hast seen mine affliction; thou hast known the troubles of my soul,

8 And hast not shut me up into the hand of the enemy: thou hast set my feet in a large place.

9 Be gracious unto me, Jehovah, for I am in trouble: mine eye wasteth away with vexation, my soul and my belly.

10 For my life is spent with sorrow, and my years with sighing; my strength faileth through mine iniquity, and my bones are wasted.

11 More than to all mine oppressors, I am become exceedingly a reproach, even to my neighbours, and a fear to mine acquaintance: they that see me without flee from me.

12 I am forgotten in [their] heart as a dead man; I am become like a broken vessel.

13 For I have heard the slander of many -- terror on every side -- when they take counsel together against me: they plot to take away my life.

14 But I confided in thee, Jehovah; I said, thou art my God.

15 My times are in thy hand: deliver me from the hand of mine enemies, and from my persecutors.

16 Make thy face to shine upon thy servant; save me in thy loving-kindness.

Psalms 31:6-16 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]. Or 'vain idols:' see Jonah 2.8.
• [b]. Or 'my misery (distress);' but as meaning 'punishment.'
• [c]. Or 'Because of all.'
• [d]. Lit. 'from.'