Psalm 31
24 verses · BSBPsalms book hub →
Speaks with:Psalms 88×3Psalms 25×3Psalms 71×2Psalms 18×2Psalms 4×2Psalms 6×2
Summary
Chapter summary
'In thee, O Jehovah, do I take refuge.' Into thy hand I commend my spirit: the words Jesus prays last from the cross (Luke 23:46). David is a reproach to neighbors, forgotten as a dead man out of mind, a broken vessel; but 'my times are in thy hand.' Oh how great is the goodness laid up for them that fear him: hidden in the covert of his presence from the plottings of man. 'Be strong, and let your heart take courage, all ye that hope in Jehovah.'
Context
Poetry · David, Asaph, Sons of Korah, others — Psalms overview
The world behind this chapter
Psalms 31The history
"Be thou my strong rock, for an house of defence to save me" and "thou hast set my feet in a large room" are fortification words. A walled town was the place a countryside fled to when raiders came; the "strong city" of verse 21 is that shelter. The large room is open ground where a man is not cornered.
"Thou hast known my soul in adversities" sits against verses 11–13, which describe social death. He is a reproach to his neighbors, a fear to his acquaintance, avoided in the street, forgotten like a dead man out of mind. In a village culture, being cut off from the network of neighbors was as dangerous as an enemy — no one would trade with you, vouch for you, or take you in.
"I am like a broken vessel" is the most ordinary image in the psalm. Clay pots were everywhere and worth almost nothing; when one broke, the pieces were swept out. Archaeologists dig up those sherds by the ton, and people reused them as scoops or as scrap to scratch a note on. A broken jar was past mending and past caring about.
"They devised to take away my life" and "the net that they have laid privily for me" bring back the hunter's net — a mesh staked over a trail or a bird-trap sprung by a stick.
What it meant to them
The prayer in verse 5 — into thine hand I commit my spirit — was an Israelite's bedtime prayer and a dying man's. Jesus used it as his last sentence on the cross.
For first hearers, the psalm's gift was that it named the loneliness out loud and still ended commanding them to love the Lord and be of good courage, all they that hope in him.
Sources cited
- Charles H. Spurgeon, The Treasury of David on Psalm 31
- John H. Walton, Victor H. Matthews & Mark W. Chavalas, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament
The text of this chapter
This page carries no textual note on Psalms 31. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
Connections from this chapter
v. 5 · Quoted here
'Into thy hands I commend my spirit': Jesus, the last word from the cross.
Luke 23:46→Then Jesus called out in a loud voice, “Father, into Your hands I commit My Spirit.” And when He had said this, He breathed His last.
public-domain commentaries in agreement
This page draws on Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.