Psalms 31:1-10

Psalm 31 ¹ 

For the music director; a psalm of David.

31:1 In you, O Lord, I have taken shelter!

Never let me be humiliated!

Vindicate me by rescuing me! ² 

31:2 Listen to me! ³ 

Quickly deliver me!

Be my protector and refuge, ⁴ 

a stronghold where I can be safe! ⁵ 

31:3 For you are my high ridge ⁶  and my stronghold;

for the sake of your own reputation ⁷  you lead me and guide me. ⁸ 

31:4 You will free me ⁹  from the net they hid for me,

for you are my place of refuge.

31:5 Into your hand I entrust my life; ¹⁰ 

you will rescue ¹¹  me, O Lord, the faithful God.

31:6 I hate those who serve worthless idols, ¹² 

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. ¹³ 

31:8 You do not deliver me over to the power of the enemy;

you enable me to stand ¹⁴  in a wide open place.

31:9 Have mercy on me, for I am in distress!

My eyes grow dim ¹⁵  from suffering. ¹⁶ 

I have lost my strength. ¹⁷ 

31:10 For my life nears its end in pain;

my years draw to a close as I groan. ¹⁸ 

My strength fails me because of ¹⁹  my sin,

and my bones become brittle. ²⁰ 

[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.

[31:1]  ² tn Heb “in your vindication rescue me.”

[31:2]  ³ tn Heb “turn toward me your ear.”

[31:2]  ⁴ tn Heb “become for me a rocky summit of refuge.”

[31:2]  ⁵ tn Heb “a house of strongholds to deliver me.”

[31:3]  ⁶ 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.

[31:3]  ⁷ 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.)

[31:3]  ⁸ 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).

[31:4]  ⁹ 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.”

[31:5]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “my spirit.” The noun רוּחַ (ruakh, “spirit”) here refers to the animating spirit that gives the psalmist life.

[31:5]  ¹¹ 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.

[31:6]  ¹² tn Heb “the ones who observe vain things of falsehood.” See Jonah 2:9.

[31:7]  ¹³ tn Heb “you know the distresses of my life.”

[31:8]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “you cause my feet to stand.”

[31:9]  ¹⁵ tn Or perhaps, “are swollen.”

[31:9]  ¹⁶ tn Cf. Ps 6:7, which has a similar line.

[31:9]  ¹⁷ 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.

[31:10]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “and my years in groaning.”

[31:10]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “stumbles in.”

[31:10]  ²⁰ tn Heb “grow weak.”