Psalms 31:21
Blessed be the LORD, for He has shown me His loving devotion in a city under siege.
BSB
ASV
Blessed be Jehovah; For he hath showed me his marvellous lovingkindness in a strong city.
KJV
Blessed be the Lord: for he hath shewed me his marvellous kindness in a strong city.
Fragments from Commentaries on Various Books of Scripture - On Psalm XXXI. 22 (235)
The mercy of God is not so "marvellous" when it is shown in humbler cities as when it is shown in "a strong city," and for this reason "God is to be blessed."
This was marvellous loving-kindness indeed, upon which he writes, with wonder and thankfulness, Blessed be the Lord. Special preservations call for particular thanksgivings. Within were fears; but God was better to him than his fears,
Blessed be the Lord. When the Lord blesses us we cannot do less than bless him in return. For he hath shewed me his marvellous kindness in a strong city. Was this in Mahanaim, where the Lord gave him victory over the hosts of Absalom? Or did he refer to Rabbath of Ammon, where he gained signal triumphs? Or, best of all, was Jerusalem the strong city where he most experienced the astonishing kindness of his God? Gratitude is never short of subjects; her Ebenezers stand so close together as to wall up her path to heaven on both sides.
Rare words are the text's own signal of a deliberate thread: the fewer the occurrences, the more the places it appears belong together.
The walk8
Follow this verse’s cross-references two steps out. Each card is a verse this one points to, and beneath it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several different paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it. Every stop shows its own words, and every stop is a page.
Through
1 Peter 2:9But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, to proclaim the virtues of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.
leads to
Now if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, you will be My treasured possession out of all the nations—for the whole earth is Mine.
For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for His prized possession out of all peoples on the face of…
who has made us to be a kingdom, priests to His God and Father—to Him be the glory and power forever and ever! Amen.
You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign upon the earth.”
But you will be called the priests of the LORD; they will speak of you as ministers of our God; you will feed on the wealth of nations, and you will boast in their…
Through
Jeremiah 1:18Now behold, this day I have made you like a fortified city, an iron pillar, and bronze walls against the whole land—against the kings of Judah, its officials, its priests, and the people of…
leads to
Because the Lord GOD helps Me, I have not been disgraced; therefore I have set My face like flint, and I know that I will not be put to shame.
Behold, I will make your face as hard as their faces, and your forehead as hard as their foreheads.
Then I will make you a wall to this people, a fortified wall of bronze; they will fight against you but will not overcome you, for I am with you to save and deliver…