Psalms 31:17-24

17 (30-18) Let me not be confounded, O Lord, for I have called upon thee. Let the wicked be ashamed, and be brought down to hell.

18 (30-19) Let deceitful lips be made dumb. Which speak iniquity against the just, with pride and abuse.

19 (30-20) O how great is the multitude of thy sweetness, O Lord, which thou hast hidden for them that fear thee! Which thou hast wrought for them that hope in thee, in the sight of the sons of men.

20 (30-21) Thou shalt hide them in the secret of thy face, from the disturbance of men. Thou shalt protect them in thy tabernacle form the contradiction of tongues.

21 (30-22) Blessed be the Lord, for he hath shewn his wonderful mercy to me in a fortified city.

22 (30-23) But I said in the excess of my mind: I am cast away from before thy eyes. Therefore thou hast heard the voice of my prayer, when I cried to thee.

23 (30-24) O love the Lord, all ye his saints: for the Lord will require truth, and will repay them abundantly that act proudly.

24 (30-25) Do ye manfully, and let your heart be strengthened, all ye that hope in the Lord.

Psalms 31:17-24 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.