To the Chief Musician, of David
1. In You, O Yahweh, I take refuge.
Do not let me be shamed forever.
In Your righteousness deliver me.
2. Incline to me Your ear.
Speedily rescue me.
Be to me for a stone of strength,
For a house of a fortress to save me.
3. Because my rock and my fortress You are,
Therefore for Your name lead me and guide me.
4. Draw me forth from the net,
This that they hide for me,
Because You are my strength.
5. Into Your hand I commit my spirit.
You redeem me, Yahweh God of truth.
6. I hate those who observe worthless vanities,
And I, in Yahweh I trust.
7. I will exult and rejoice in Your lovingkindness,
For You see my affliction.
You know my soul in adversity,
8. And You do not shut me up in the hand of the enemy.
You cause my feet to stand in a roomy place.
9. Be gracious to me, O Yahweh,
because there is trouble for me.
My eye wastes away with vexation,
My soul and my belly,
10. Because my life ends with grief,
And my years with sighing.
My might staggers in my iniquity.
And my bones waste away.
11. Among all my adversaries I am a reproach,
And especially to my neighbors,
And a dread to those who know me.
Those who see me outside flee from me.
12. I am forgotten from the heart as one who died.
I am like a breaking vessel,
13. Because I hear the slander of many—
Terror on all sides!
While they take secret counsel together against me,
They plan to take my soul.
14. And I, in You I trust, O Yahweh.
I say, "My God You are."
15. In Your hand are my times.
Rescue me from the hand of my enemies,
And from those who persecute me.
16. Cause Your face to shine upon Your servant.
Save me in Your lovingkindness.
17. O Yahweh, do not let be shamed,
Because I call on You.
Let the wicked ones be shamed.
Let them be silent to sheol.
18. Let the lips of falsehood be dumb,
Those that speak against the righteous one
An arrogant thing in pride and contempt.
19. How great is Your goodness,
Which You store up for those who fear You,
Which You work for those who take refuge in You
In the presence of the sons of man.
20. You will hide them in the secret of Your face
From the league of men.
You will store them up in a covert
From the contention of tongues.
21. Blessed be Yahweh,
Because He works wondrously His lovingkindness for me In a fortified city.
22. And I, I say in my haste,
"I am cut off from the presence of Your eyes."
Surely You hear the sound of my supplications
When I cry out to You.
23. Love Yahweh, all His saints.
Yahweh guards the faithful ones,
And requites abundantly the doer of pride.
24. Be strong,
And He will make your heart courageous,
All you who wait for Yahweh.
It may seem, at first glance, that Psalm 31 has nothing Messianic about it. It is a lament in a time of great trouble; David’s life and health were wasting away because of the persecution of enemies. He cried to the Lord and received help. He ends his song with advice derived from his own experience: “Be strong, and He will make your heart courageous.”
Yet this is a psalm from which our Lord Jesus Christ drew words of prayer for Himself. The words of verse 5a are the words He used at the very end of His life, in the full confidence that His Father would hear Him: “Into Your hands I commit my spirit.” The Greek of Luke 23:46 is precisely the same as the Septuagint’s translation of Psalm 31:5a, except for the word “Father.”
But there are more complaints in the psalm that we can readily understand as coming from the mouth of our Lord. When we read of nets hid secretly (v. 4), we think of the many times that His enemies tried to ensnare Jesus in His words. He ended His life in grief (v. 10) and was a reproach among His adversaries (v. 11). He heard the slander of many. Wicked men took counsel against Him and schemed to take His soul (v. 13).
Therefore the petitions of the psalm are also His. Do not let me be shamed, deliver me in Your righteousness, bow down Your ear to me, and many more. Throughout His life on earth Jesus frequently sought solitary places for prayer to His Father, and His prayer in the garden—”let this cup pass from me—was only one of many cries for rescue from the great suffering that oppressed His soul.
Verses 5–8 emphasize praise for answered prayer. Listen to Jesus at the tomb of Lazarus: “Father, I thank You that You have heard me…” (John 11:41f).
Later verses in the psalm celebrate the Lord’s goodness to Him. “Blessed be Yahweh because He works wondrously His lovingkindness for me in a fortified city.”
And of course, having Himself experienced the lovingkindness of the Lord, Jesus, through the preaching of the gospel, has been teaching the lessons of His suffering and glory to generations of men since. “Love Yahweh, all His saints. Yahweh guards the faithful and requites abundantly the doer of pride. Be strong, and He will make Your heart courageous, all you who wait on Yahweh” (v. 23–24).
Psalm 31 is His song too, and we sing it because we are partakers of His suffering. The great joy of suffering for righteousness’ sake is that we are counted worthy to suffer for His name (Acts 5:41). The great consolation is that those who wait on the Lord do not wait in vain. Our Lord did not; therefore we cannot.