I. (31:1–2) Hear My Prayer. The song opens by saying to God, “In you . . . do I take refuge.” These words express a stance of dependence and trust toward God (cf. 5:11; 7:1; 11:1; 16:1; 17:7; 18:2, 30; 25:20; 34:8, 22; 36:7; 37:40; 57:1; 61:4; 64:10; 71:1; 91:4; 118:8–9; 141:8; 144:2; Prov. 30:5). These words help the singers to aspire to be this kind of person, one who seeks God’s help in times of trouble. Psalm 31:19 begins the final stanza of the psalm by restating this trust.

The expression “Let me never be put to shame” (v. 1) is similar to that in 25:2–3 (cf. comment on 25:1–3). The words here refocus the fear a person in trouble may have; it is easy, and natural, to see the danger simply in terms of public shame, but the psalm’s words have the singers attend to what is genuinely unwelcome, namely, shame that comes from being shown publicly to have relied on a false basis for hope (as if God were unreliable). The appeal is to God’s “righteousness,” which here denotes his faithfulness to his promises; it is grounds for assurance, not fear.271

Psalm 31:2 urges God to be a “rock of refuge for me, a strong fortress to save me.” These images use two Hebrew words of similar meaning for “rock” (v. 2, tsur; v. 3, selaʿ), a common word for a fortress (vv. 2–3, metsudah), and one for “refuge” (vv. 2, 4, maʿoz). A large rock in the environment of ancient Israel would be a place of safety from, say, a flash flood (18:16)—which can be an image for troubles in general (perhaps 61:2) or, more specifically, for pursuing enemies (cf. comment on 27:4–6).272

II. (31:3–8) You Have Always Kept Me Safe in the Past. In this section the psalm recounts previous experiences of calling for help in time of trouble. God has shown himself to be a reliable deliverer; thus the singer expects always to “rejoice and be glad” (v. 7).

The mention of the “rock” and “fortress” (v. 3) links this with the previous section (cf. comment on 31:1–2). The singer can pray that God will continue to be such (v. 2), grounded in the confidence that derives from previous experiences in which God has shown himself to be one who protects, who “leads” and “guides” for his own name’s sake (23:2–3; cf. comment on 23:1–4).

In the biblical worldview, God’s protection and guidance become especially visible in the wise moral choices his faithful make (cf. Prov. 2:6–15). The “net” is a common image for the schemes by which the enemies would harm the faithful; often the image can cover such situations as causing actual physical danger, exposing someone to open shame and ridicule, or seducing him into wrong activities (Prov. 1:17). God’s protection and guidance offer the commonest means by which the faithful escape these nets!

In Luke 23:46 Jesus uses the words of Psalm 31:5 on the cross (“Into your hands I commit my spirit”).273 As mentioned in the comments on Psalm 22, the Synoptic Gospels present Jesus as the fully innocent sufferer; by using this text Jesus shows how he trusts in God for his vindication, which thus prepares the ground for the resurrection accounts.

The term “redeemed” (31:5) generally conveys the idea of rescue and protection (cf. comment on 25:22), especially when its object is Israel (44:26; 111:9; 130:7–8) or a faithful worshiper (26:11; 34:22; 55:18; 71:23). Here it applies to the faithful person who sings this in confidence-building recollection.

Psalm 31:6–7a lists the four affirmations the faithful are to make in order to shape more fully their loyalty to the Lord and his purposes; that is, by stating these affirmations the singer is effectively agreeing to admire and aim for such virtues. “I hate” is indeed a strong term; it stresses the way in which the faithful reject all sympathy with “those who pay regard to worthless idols” (primarily, as in Jonah 2:8, Israelites who are disloyal to the true God and thus “forsake their hope of [receiving God’s] steadfast love”).274 In the Psalms, God is able to “hate” those who oppose him (5:5; 11:5) and at the same time to be “good” (or kind) to all (145:9), which would include the unfaithful. Therefore, we may infer that the faithful should aspire to do the same.275 Along with this emphatic rejection of the values of such people, the singer pledges himself to trust in the Lord (as in 31:14; a common feature in the Psalms, e.g., 4:5; 9:10; 13:5; 22:4–5, 9; 25:2; 26:1; 28:7; 32:10.). He will further “rejoice” and “be glad” in the Lord’s “steadfast love”—the Lord’s bent toward benevolence that the events recalled in the rest of 31:7–8 made visible.

Verses 7b–8 list the four ways in which God has shown his “steadfast love”; the faithful singer is to rehearse the relevant events and draw renewed assurance of God’s continued care, and thus a renewed foundation for loyalty. Verse 7b reads, “You have seen my affliction.” In Exodus 3:7; 4:31; Deuteronomy 26:7 God saw the affliction of his whole people Israel and promised to deliver them from Egyptian bondage. This corporate reference can then be applied on an individual basis, as here (cf. Pss. 9:13; 25:18; 119:153). The connection with the Exodus as background here becomes even clearer when we recall that in Exodus 2:25 God “saw” and “knew.” Of course, as a matter of theology God sees and knows everything everywhere, but the force of the figure here is that God takes action for their benefit, which has the appearance as if he had just begun to notice. God’s actions here are those of rescue: he did not “deliver . . . into the hand of the enemy,” that is, place them in the enemy’s power to harm them; instead, he “set . . . feet in a broad place,” using the analogy of a place high and dry (cf. Ps. 31:2; cf. also 18:19; comment on 18:7–19) with enough room to move without toppling. These images can of course apply to a variety of concrete circumstances.

III. (31:9–13) I Am in Distress Again. After looking back over the past, the song returns to the distressing present because of the “adversaries” (v. 11) who “plot to take my life” (v. 13).

On “be gracious to me” (v. 9) cf. comment on 4:1.

This section lays out in stark terms the pitiful condition of the person in trouble. Because of the “distress,” the person’s eye, soul, and body are “wasted from grief” (31:9). The psalmist mentions as well his all-pervading sorrow, sighing, failing strength, and bones that are wasting (v. 10); he faces an awkward and lonely condition among those who should be showing him kindness (vv. 11–13). No doubt these are pointers to the kinds of severe crisis situations for which this psalm is most suited; further, the passage allows for an honest delineation of distress. At the same time, these expressions enable the fellow worshipers to imagine the torment their suffering neighbor is enduring and thus to sympathize, possibly to help, and certainly to repent if they have fit the description here of unkindness.

Verse 10 is a further pointer to the kinds of cases for which this psalm is suited, with its acknowledgment that “my strength fails because of my iniquity.” That is, the psalm best fits cases in which the sufferer’s own misdeeds have contributed to his distress, whether because he is receiving the consequences of his own ill-doing or because the enemies are pouncing upon some foolish deed to amplify the public shame the sufferer feels. Making it explicit in the psalm serves to interpret the distress as God’s chastisement for his faithful—but this has the following implication: if that is the true account, then what should follow is the confidence that the purposes of God (and not of the evildoers) will prevail.

The expression in verse 13 (“terror on every side”; Hb. magor missabib) becomes a kind of motto for Jeremiah to depict various kinds of encirclement by a cruel foe (Jer. 6:25; 20:3, 10; 46:5; 49:29; cf. Lam. 2:22).

IV. (31:14–18) My Times Are in Your Hand. This section returns to expressing trust in the Lord in the face of the present distress.

This trust is built not only on the experiences recounted in verses 3–8 but also on the promises of the covenant. For example, to say “you are my God” is to evoke God’s promises in Genesis 17:7, made to the heirs of Abraham. Further, “make your face shine” (Ps. 31:16) echoes the Aaronic blessing of Numbers 6:25.

Psalm 31:17 (“Let me not be put to shame”) repeats the words of verse 1. But here we have the expectation that “the wicked” would be “put to shame”—that is, publicly exposed as having a false hope and security, and thus consigned to “Sheol” (perdition; cf. comment on 6:1–5). The psalms generally designate people by their stance toward God; the “righteous” (31:18) are those who trust in God, believe his word, and seek to please him, while the “wicked”—who are often everyone else besides the “righteous”—are here specifically those who seek to destroy the faithful, using “lying lips,” speaking with insolent disregard of truth and interpersonal ethics, and acting in pride for themselves and contempt for others.

V. (31:19–24) Confidence That the Lord Will Again Keep Me Safe. The psalm closes with assurance: the God who has made promises and who has kept them in the past will continue to do so.

Verses 7–8 had recounted specific instances in which the Lord displayed his “abundant goodness” or overflowing generosity (cf. 145:7). Here that goodness is “stored up” for those who fear the Lord, who “take refuge in” him (cf. 31:1)—that is, for the faithful. God has, as it were, stored it up, to be shown publicly “in the sight of the children of mankind” at just the right time to vindicate their faith.

Verse 20 continues the theme of refuge and protection (cf. vv. 2, 4). And just as God has stored up his abundant goodness (v. 19) so also he has “stored up” the faithful in his shelter, to be kept safe from “the strife of tongues—namely, the lies by which the “plots” are carried out (cf. comment on 31:14–18).

In verses 21–22 the singers again revisit episodes in which the Lord “has wondrously shown his steadfast love” to them by answering prayers in a way that clearly shows his commitment to each of his faithful (cf. 17:7). The singer recalls a specific event, likened to being “in a besieged city,” which made him feel “cut off from [God’s] sight.” Theologically, of course, that is impossible, but the psalms allow the singers to say what such events feel like. The second part of 31:22 is enough to show that, despite the feeling of abandonment, the singer received the help he prayed so desperately for—which of course helps to build confidence for the present distress.

Thus verses 23–24 turn to the fellow worshipers, the “saints” (Hb. khasid; cf. comment on 4:2–3)—here equated with the “faithful” (those who believe)276—urging them to “love the Lord” and “be strong.” The structure of verse 23b in the Hebrew is chiastic (which is difficult to bring into English):

(A) “the faithful”

(B) “the Lord preserves”

(B') “but [he] abundantly repays”

(A') “the one who acts in pride”

A chiasmus generally signals some kind of unity of its parts. This one (cf. 32:10; 145:21) expresses a comprehensive picture: the two different kinds of people will ultimately receive two different kinds of treatment, displaying God’s care for the one and his just judgment of the other.

With this being the case, “all [those] who wait for the Lord” (another term for the faithful and the saints of 31:23) can indeed be strong and let their hearts take courage (very similar wording to 27:14).