Text -- Psalms 31:1-21 (NET)

Psalm 31

31:1 For the music director; a psalm of David. In you, O Lord, I have taken shelter! Never let me be humiliated! Vindicate me by rescuing me! 31:2 Listen to me! Quickly deliver me! Be my protector and refuge, a stronghold where I can be safe! 31:3 For you are my high ridge and my stronghold; for the sake of your own reputation you lead me and guide me. 31:4 You will free me from the net they hid for me, for you are my place of refuge. 31:5 Into your hand I entrust my life; you will rescue me, O Lord, the faithful God. 31:6 I hate those who serve worthless idols, but I trust in the Lord. 31:7 I will be happy and rejoice in your faithfulness, because you notice my pain and you are aware of how distressed I am. 31:8 You do not deliver me over to the power of the enemy; you enable me to stand in a wide open place. 31:9 Have mercy on me, for I am in distress! My eyes grow dim from suffering. I have lost my strength. 31:10 For my life nears its end in pain; my years draw to a close as I groan. My strength fails me because of my sin, and my bones become brittle. 31:11 Because of all my enemies, people disdain me; my neighbors are appalled by my suffering– those who know me are horrified by my condition; those who see me in the street run away from me. 31:12 I am forgotten, like a dead man no one thinks about; I am regarded as worthless, like a broken jar. 31:13 For I hear what so many are saying, the terrifying news that comes from every direction. When they plot together against me, they figure out how they can take my life. 31:14 But I trust in you, O Lord! I declare, “You are my God!” 31:15 You determine my destiny! Rescue me from the power of my enemies and those who chase me. 31:16 Smile on your servant! Deliver me because of your faithfulness! 31:17 O Lord, do not let me be humiliated, for I call out to you! May evil men be humiliated! May they go wailing to the grave! 31:18 May lying lips be silenced– lips that speak defiantly against the innocent with arrogance and contempt! 31:19 How great is your favor, which you store up for your loyal followers! In plain sight of everyone you bestow it on those who take shelter in you. 31:20 You hide them with you, where they are safe from the attacks of men; you conceal them in a shelter, where they are safe from slanderous attacks. attacks. 31:21 The Lord deserves praise for he demonstrated his amazing faithfulness to me when I was besieged by enemies.

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Psa 31:1

¹ sn Psalm 31. The psalmist confidently asks the Lord to protect him. Enemies threaten him and even his friends have abandoned him, but he looks to the Lord for vindication. In vv. 19-24, which were apparently written after the Lord answered the prayer of vv. 1-18, the psalmist thanks the Lord for delivering him.

² tn Heb “in your vindication rescue me.”

NET Notes: Psa 31:2

¹ tn Heb “turn toward me your ear.”

² tn Heb “become for me a rocky summit of refuge.”

³ tn Heb “a house of strongholds to deliver me.”

NET Notes: Psa 31:3

¹ sn The metaphor of the high ridge pictures God as a rocky, relatively inaccessible summit, where one would be able to find protection from enemies. See 1 Sam 23:25, 28.

² tn Heb “name.” The Hebrew term שֵׁם (shem, “name”) refers here to the Lord’s reputation. (The English term “name” is often used the same way.)

³ tn The present translation assumes that the imperfect verbal forms are generalizing, “you lead me and guide me.” Other options are to take them as an expression of confidence about the future, “you will lead me and guide me” (cf. NASB), or as expressing a prayer, “lead me and guide me” (cf. NEB, NIV, NRSV).

NET Notes: Psa 31:4

¹ tn Heb “bring me out.” The translation assumes that the imperfect verbal form expresses the psalmist’s confidence about the future. Another option is to take the form as expressing a prayer, “free me.”

NET Notes: Psa 31:5

¹ tn Heb “my spirit.” The noun רוּחַ (ruakh, “spirit”) here refers to the animating spirit that gives the psalmist life.

² tn Or “redeem.” The perfect verbal form is understood here as anticipatory, indicating rhetorically the psalmist’s certitude and confidence that God will intervene. The psalmist is so confident of God’s positive response to his prayer that he can describe his deliverance as if it had already happened. Another option is to take the perfect as precative, expressing a wish or request (“rescue me”; cf. NIV). See IBHS 494-95 §30.5.4c, d. However, not all grammarians are convinced that the perfect is used as a precative in biblical Hebrew.

NET Notes: Psa 31:6

¹ tn Heb “the ones who observe vain things of falsehood.” See Jonah 2:9.

NET Notes: Psa 31:7

¹ tn Heb “you know the distresses of my life.”

NET Notes: Psa 31:8

¹ tn Heb “you cause my feet to stand.”

NET Notes: Psa 31:9

¹ tn Or perhaps, “are swollen.”

² tn Cf. Ps 6:7, which has a similar line.

³ tn Heb “my breath and my stomach [grow weak].” Apparently the verb in the previous line (“grow dim, be weakened”) is to be understood here. The Hebrew term נפשׁ can mean “life,” or, more specifically, “throat, breath.” The psalmist seems to be lamenting that his breathing is impaired because of the physical and emotional suffering he is forced to endure.

NET Notes: Psa 31:10

¹ tn Heb “and my years in groaning.”

² tn Heb “stumbles in.”

³ tn Heb “grow weak.”

NET Notes: Psa 31:11

¹ tn Heb “because of all my enemies I am a reproach.”

² tc Heb “and to my neighbors, exceedingly.” If the MT is retained, then these words probably go with what precedes. However the syntactical awkwardness of the text suggests it is textually corrupt. P. C. Craigie (Psalms 1-50 [WBC], 258) suggests that the initial mem (מ) on מְאֹד (me’od, “exceedingly”) be understood as an enclitic mem (ם) which was originally suffixed to the preceding form and then later misinterpreted. The resulting form אֵד (’ed) can then be taken as a defectively written form of אֵיד (’ed, “calamity”). If one follows this emendation, then the text reads literally, “and to my neighbors [I am one who experiences] calamity.” The noun פַחַד (fakhad, “[object of] horror”) occurs in the next line; אֵיד and פַחַד appear in parallelism elsewhere (see Prov 1:26-27).

³ tn Heb “and [an object of ] horror to those known by me.”

NET Notes: Psa 31:12

¹ tn Heb “I am forgotten, like a dead man, from [the] heart.” The “heart” is here viewed as the center of one’s thoughts.

² tn Heb “I am like a broken jar.” One throws away a broken jar without a second thought because it is considered worthless and useless.

NET Notes: Psa 31:13

¹ tn Heb “the report of many.”

² tn Heb “the terror from all around.”

NET Notes: Psa 31:15

¹ tn Heb “in your hand [are] my times.”

NET Notes: Psa 31:16

¹ tn Heb “cause your face to shine.”

NET Notes: Psa 31:17

¹ tn The verb יִדְּמוּ (yiddÿmu) is understood as a form of דָּמַם (damam, “wail, lament”). Another option is to take the verb from דָּמַם (“be quiet”; see BDB 198-99 s.v. I דָּמַם), in which case one might translate, “May they lie silent in the grave.”

NET Notes: Psa 31:18

¹ tn Heb “the [ones which].”

² tn Or “godly.”

NET Notes: Psa 31:19

¹ tn Or “How abundant are your blessings!”

² tn Heb “for those who fear you.”

³ tn “Taking shelter” in the Lord is an idiom for seeking his protection. Seeking his protection presupposes and even demonstrates the subject’s loyalty to the Lord. In the psalms those who “take shelter” in the Lord are contrasted with the wicked and equated with those who love, fear, and serve the Lord (Pss 2:12; 5:11-12; 34:21-22).

⁴ tn Heb “you work [your favor] for the ones seeking shelter in you before the sons of men.”

NET Notes: Psa 31:20

¹ tn The noun רֹכֶס (rokhes) occurs only here. Its meaning is debated; some suggest “snare,” while others propose “slander” or “conspiracy.”

² tn Heb “you hide them in the hiding place of your face from the attacks of man.” The imperfect verbal forms in this verse draw attention to God’s typical treatment of the faithful.

³ tn Heb “you conceal them in a shelter from the strife of tongues.”

NET Notes: Psa 31:21

¹ tn Heb “blessed [be] the Lord.”

² tn Heb “for he caused his faithfulness to be amazing to me in a besieged city.” The psalmist probably speaks figuratively here. He compares his crisis to being trapped in a besieged city, but the Lord answered his prayer for help. Verses 19-24 were apparently written after the Lord answered the prayer of vv. 1-18.