Psalms 31:6-16

6 Thou hatest them that keep vanities superfluously. Forsooth I hoped in the Lord; (Thou hatest them who worship false gods, or useless idols. But I put my trust in the Lord;)
7 I shall have fully joy, and shall be glad in thy mercy. For thou beheldest my meekness; thou savedest my life from needs. (I shall have full out joy, or rejoice, and shall be glad for thy love. For thou hast beheld my troubles; thou hast saved my life from dis-eases, or distress.)
8 And thou closedest not me (al)together within the hands of the enemy; thou hast set my feet in a large place. (And thou enclosedest me not in the hands of the enemy; thou hast set me free in a large place.)
9 Lord, have thou mercy on me, for I am troubled; mine eye is troubled in ire, my soul and my womb also. (Lord, have thou mercy on me, for I am in trouble; my eyes be tired from so much grief, and my soul, and my womb, also be tired.)
10 For why my life failed in sorrow; and my years in wailings. My virtue is made feeble in poverty; and my bones be troubled. (For my life is failing, because of sorrows; and my years, because of wailings. My strength is made feeble, or weak, by poverty; and my bones be diseased.)
11 Over all mine enemies I am made (a) shame, [and] greatly to my neighbours; and dread to my known. They that saw me withoutforth, fled from me; (I am shamed before all my enemies, and especially my neighbours; and I am thought of as someone to be feared by my acquaintances. Those who saw me withoutforth, fled from me;)
12 I am given to forgetting, as a dead man from the heart. I am made as a (for)lorn vessel; (I am forgotten, like a dead man out of mind. I am made like a forlorn vessel;)
13 for I heard despising of many men dwelling in compass. In that thing while they came together against me; they counselled to take my life. (for I have heard the despising of many men who live all around me. And when they came together against me; they plotted to take away my life.)
14 But, Lord, I hoped in thee (But, Lord, I put my trust in thee); I said, Thou art my God;
15 my times be in thine hands. Deliver thou me from the hands of mine enemies; and from them that pursue me. (my life is in thy hands. Rescue thou me from the power of my enemies; and from those who persecute me.)
16 Make thou clear thy face on thy servant; Lord, make thou me safe in thy mercy; (Make thy face to shine upon thy servant; Lord, save thou me in thy love;)

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.
Copyright © 2001 by Terence P. Noble. For personal use only.