Psalm 31 A Dying Man’s Psalm
To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David.
1 In You, O Lord, I put my trust; let me never be ashamed; deliver me in Your righteousness. 2 Bow down Your ear to me, deliver me speedily; be my Rock of refuge, a Fortress of defense to save me 3 for You are my Rock and my Fortress; therefore, for Your name’s sake, lead me and guide me. 4 Pull me out of the net which they have secretly laid for me, for You are my Strength. 5 Into Your hand I commit my spirit; You have redeemed me, O Lord God of truth. 6 I have hated those who regard useless idols; but I trust in Yahweh. 7 I will be glad and rejoice in Your mercy, for You have considered my trouble; You have known my soul in adversities, 8 and have not shut me up into the hand of the enemy; You have set my feet in a wide place. 9 Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am in trouble; my eye wastes away with grief, yes, my soul and my body [belly]! 10 For my life is spent with grief, and my years with sighing; my strength fails because of my iniquity, and my bones waste away.
“‘In You, O Lord, do I put my trust,’— Not in any creature, but in Jehovah God of Israel; ’let me never be ashamed’ for trusting in You….— ‘Deliver (exactly same Hebrew word as “save”) me in Your righteousness,’ according to Your Torah. “For You will not abandon my soul to Sheol, nor will You let Your Holy One see decay. (Psalm 16:10; Acts 2:27)
“‘Bow down Your ear’— Put your ear to my lips, that you may hear all that I have to say. “We generally put our ear near to the lips of the sick and dying, that we may hear what they say. To this the text appears to allude.” (Adam Clarke) Hear my Words, as those of a dying man, having no hope outside of You—> “‘Deliver me speedily;’ Father; do not leave my body in the grave. ‘Be my Rock of refuge;’ from the Judgment Storm; a Fortress of defense to save’— my Advocate, as I will be for My Inheritance — “’for You are my Rock and my Fortress. Therefore, for Your name’s sake, lead me and guide me,’ now in death. ‘Pull me out of the net which they have secretly laid for me, for You are my Strength.’” “‘Into Your hand I commit my spirit’— the words which our Saviour used on the cross, and the words which St. Stephen used the moment before his death, when addressing the Lord Jesus; and most assuredly all the saints would wish to die with the same sentiments, and uttering the same Words.” (Joseph Sutcliffe) “‘You have redeemed me,’ which the psalmist speaks of as if it was past, though it was to come, because of the certainty of it.” (John Gill) We can have the full assurance of faith. “’O Lord God of truth’ whose precepts our fathers rehearsed, ’I have hated those who regard useless idols;’ literally “lying vanities.” “The prophets often use the words of Moses, Deuteronomy 32, in designating idols by the epithet ‘vanities,’ because the gentiles knew not what they worshipped, walking in the imagination of their hearts…” (Sutcliffe) These will disappoint “the hopes of their votaries. (Jonah 2:8)” (Jamieson, Fausset, Brown)
“‘But I trust in Yahweh. I will be glad and rejoice in Your mercy, for You have considered my trouble; You have known my soul in adversities, and have not shut me up into the hand of the enemy;’ even that last enemy to be destroyed, death— ‘You have set my feet in a wide place.’”
Have mercy on me, I am dying. My eyes (senses), then my soul (or person) and my belly (my affections). “The soul and belly are general terms enlarging and adding emphasis to the more specific term, eye [the portal]. The belly stands for the body, yet with a more particular reference to the bowels as the seat of the affections, or as Delitzsch, ‘the interior of the body reflecting the spiritual and physical activities and experiences.’ The soul and the belly thus represent the entire man... ‘For my life is spent with grief, and my years with sighing; my strength fails because of my iniquity, and my bones waste away. ‘ (10) The clauses are parallel, the general terms becoming in each case more specific, thus life has its parallel years; grief, sighing; strength, bones. The bones are the frame-work of the body, vid. Psalm 6:3. His iniquity is regarded by the Psalmist as the real cause of all his trouble.” (J. P. Lange )But concerning the Lord Jesus. “Hebrew piety frequently describes afflictions by the word iniquity.” (Joseph Sutcliffe) “As it stands this clause traces the Psalmist's sufferings to his sin. But the LXX and some other versions read 'affliction,' which agrees better with the context.” (John Dummelow)— “because of my poor, low, or abject condition.“ (LXX)
11 I am a reproach among all my enemies, but especially among my neighbors, and am repulsive to my acquaintances; those who see me outside flee from me. 12 I am forgotten like a dead man, out of mind; I am like a broken vessel. 13 For I hear the slander of many; fear is on every side; while they take counsel together against me, they scheme to take away my life.
Mark the different expressions and turn to the Scriptures concerning Christ and you will find a match. “David was never so bitterly reproached as Christ: neither so great a fear to his acquaintance, neither did men flee from him so apprehensive of danger, as in the case of Jesus. But we find Jesus indeed reproached as a blasphemer, a deceiver, a wine-bibber, a friend of publicans and sinners, and even a devil. For fear of being involved in the same ruin, all His disciples forsook Him, and fled: and at His death, though they had trusted that it was He which should have redeemed Israel, no sooner was he laid in the grave, than they were about to return to their usual occupations. John 21:3. ” (Hawker's Poor Man's Comm) But now even among the congregation, He is no more to some than a dead man, who is forgotten out of mind. Sons of men have no regard for the blood of the everlasting covenant. Truly to many people today, He is “forgotten as a dead man out of mind," like an earthen vessel which cannot hold water. But ah, He offers that Living Water to all.
But as for Me, I will trust in the Father, “‘You are my God!’ that is, ‘I have determined to seek all my salvation, my present security and comfort, and my eternal happiness, entirely from thy omnipotence and all-sufficiency, and in thy mercy, truth, and unchangeable love, as revealed in thy Word.’” (Thomas Scott) And so should we trust in the Son. He is our all in all. "'Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us,” said a seeking soul. And He plainly said, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip?”(See John 14:8-10)—>
Lord Jesus: “My times are in Your hand;’ — now is the time of my salvation— ‘deliver me from the hand of my enemies, and from those who persecute me. Make Your face shine upon Your servant; save me for Your mercies’ sake. Do not let me be ashamed, O Lord, for I have called upon You; let the wicked be ashamed; let them be silent in the grave.’— “Whilst we therefore give ourselves to meditation and prayer, we may profitably observe how the lying lips of Saul, Doeg, Ahithophel, and Judas, were put to silence in the grave : and thus will all be confounded, who menace, slander, or speak grievous things, with arrogance and contempt, against the righteous.” (Thomas Scott)— ‘Let the lying lips be put to silence, which speak insolent things proudly and contemptuously against the righteous. Oh, how great is Your goodness, which You have laid up for those who fear You, which You have prepared for those who trust in You in the presence of the sons of men! You shall hide them in the secret place of Your presence from the plots of man; You shall keep them secretly in a pavilion from the strife of tongues.” (15-20) “‘Blessed be Yahweh, for He has shown me His marvelous kindness in a strong [fortified] city! ‘ (21) New Jerusalem — the Fortified City describe in Revelation 21:9-21. “Or this may spiritually design the church of God, which is called a strong city, being built on Christ the Rock, and having salvation for walls and bulwarks, Isaiah 26:1” (John Gill)
The faithful ones will be preserved on the inside of the City— but the proud will be punished for their evil deeds with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, as they try to take it by force.