Psalm 31: 1 – 24
Strife
To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David.
1 In You, O LORD, I put my trust; Let me never be ashamed; Deliver me in Your righteousness. 2 Bow down Your ear to me, deliver me speedily; Be my rock of refuge, Aa fortress of defense to save me. 3 For You are my rock and my fortress; Therefore, for Your name’s sake, lead me and guide me. 4 Pull me out of the net which they have secretly laid for me, for You are my strength. 5 Into Your hand I commit my spirit; You have redeemed me, O LORD God of truth. 6 I have hated those who regard useless idols; But I trust in the LORD. 7 I will be glad and rejoice in Your mercy, for You have considered my trouble; You have known my soul in adversities, 8 And have not shut me up into the hand of the enemy; You have set my feet in a wide place. 9 Have mercy on me, O LORD, for I am in trouble; My eye wastes away with grief, yes, my soul and my body! 10 For my life is spent with grief, and my years with sighing; My strength fails because of my iniquity, and my bones waste away. 11 I am a reproach among all my enemies, but especially among my neighbors, and am repulsive to my acquaintances; Those who see me outside flee from me. 12 I am forgotten like a dead man, out of mind; I am like a broken vessel. 13 For I hear the slander of many; Fear is on every side; While they take counsel together against me, they scheme to take away my life. 14 But as for me, I trust in You, O LORD; I say, “You are my God.” 15 My times are in Your hand; Deliver me from the hand of my enemies, and from those who persecute me. 16 Make Your face shine upon Your servant; Save me for Your mercies’ sake. 17 Do not let me be ashamed, O LORD, for I have called upon You; Let the wicked be ashamed; Let them be silent in the grave. 18 Let the lying lips be put to silence, which speak insolent things proudly and contemptuously against the righteous. 19 Oh, how great is Your goodness, which You have laid up for those who fear You, which You have prepared for those who trust in You in the presence of the sons of men! 20 You shall hide them in the secret place of Your presence from the plots of man; You shall keep them secretly in a pavilion from the strife of tongues. 21 Blessed be the LORD, for He has shown me His marvelous kindness in a strong city! 22 For I said in my haste, “I am cut off from before Your eyes”; nevertheless, You heard the voice of my supplications when I cried out to You. 23 Oh, love the LORD, all you His saints! For the LORD preserves the faithful, and fully repays the proud person. 24 Be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart, all you who hope in the LORD.
I do not know about you but I now detest watching television. I’m appalled at the level that many people are using the media in character assassinations and just plain lies.
Forsaking godly principles results in deceit, corruption, lawlessness and greatly increasing slander. All these points are told to us that will greatly happen in the last days.
Unprincipled people shamelessly attack others often on anti-social.”
I’m continually shocked by the shameless and vulgar comments that people are willing to make publicly on ‘social media’ such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.
But we will be encouraged by The Precious Holy Spirit’s words in Psalm 31:20:
“In the shelter of your presence you hide us from all human intrigues; you keep us safe in your dwelling from the strife of accusing tongues.”
This verse teaches us that our hiding place is the “the light of his face.” God’s glory conceals us and blinds the powers of darkness.
In this world we can’t avoid being exposed to the strife of tongues nor will we be immune from evil tongues, especially if we are not ashamed of the Gospel. But when God hides us in the secret place of His Person, we’ll have the strength to withstand and the ability to escape one assault after another.
“You shall hide them in the secret place of Your presence from the plots of man; You shall keep them secretly in a pavilion from the strife of tongues.”
The bottom line folks is that our Father God covers, hides and protects those who trust in him. Yes, our Holy God hides us, and His hiding is effectual, in the secret of the light and splendor of His face because brilliant light has a blinding effect on enemies.
As Christians we are to have nothing to do with strife because it’s always caused by ungodly traits and it leads to arguments. It is caused by things that have no business in Christianity like pride, hate, and jealousy. We are to love others as ourselves, but strife does not do that.
It destroys families, friendships, churches, and marriages. Refrain from anger and keep love because love covers all wrongs.
Never hold a grudge with someone which can hinder your relationship with the Lord. Even if it wasn’t your fault if you have something against someone give it to the Lord.
. Proverbs 17:1 Better is a dry morsel, and quietness therewith, than a house full of sacrifices with strife.
. Proverbs 17:14 Starting a quarrel is like letting out water; stop it before strife breaks out!
. Proverbs 17:19-20, “He who loves transgression loves strife, and he who exalts his gate seeks destruction. 20 He who has a deceitful heart finds no good, and he who has a perverse tongue falls into evil.”
. Proverbs 18:6-7 The lips of fools bring them strife, and their mouths invite a beating. The mouths of fools are their undoing, and their lips are a snare to their very lives.
. Galatians 5:19-21 Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envying, murders, drunkenness, reveling, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
There are many more great verses that comment on how bad ‘strife’ is but I know you get the point of this truth. Let us now feast on this awesome Psalm.
This is the Psalm of a man who has suffered deeply for his faith, is facing persecution, and is yet quietly confident in God. He opens the Psalm by committing himself to God for deliverance, and then calls on Him to be his refuge and stronghold, and to deliver him from his adversaries. Handing himself firmly over to God, he confirms that he has no God but YHWH, and affirms his confidence in His covenant love, and in the fact that God knows his ways and will lead him in a large place.
But that this attitude is one of triumphing over difficult circumstances comes out in that he then goes on to bewail the sad state in which he has found himself over the years, including the fact of his own iniquity (9-10), and to bemoan the fact that because of the calumnies of his enemies no one wants anything to do with him, and some even want to take his life (11-14). He has been treading a hard path.
Some have seen in this a picture of David in the wildernesses of Maon and Engedi as he hid from Saul, comparing ‘in my haste’ (verse 22) with ‘David made haste to flee’ (1 Samuel 23.26). David must have experienced some of what is written here. But we obtain the impression here of a period of some years of trial and hardship, which may put that interpretation in doubt. Others have therefore connected it with Jeremiah. Certainly, he too had to constantly endure. We can, for example, compare verse 10 (‘my life is spent with grief and my years with sighing’) with Jeremiah 20.18, (‘why did I come forth from the womb to see labor and sorrow, that my days should be consumed with shame?’); verse 12 (‘I am like a broken vessel’) with Jeremiah 19.11 where the similar idea of a broken vessel is used; verse 13 (‘I have heard the slander of many, fear on every side) with Jeremiah 20.10, (‘I have heard the defaming of many, terror on every side); verse 17 with Jeremiah 18.18; verse 22 with Lamentations 3.54.
But whoever he was, the Psalmist is a man who has a firm trust in God, and he now assures God that he is totally relying on Him and knows that his times are in His hands, and on this basis, he pleads for deliverance from the persecution that he is facing (15-16).
He then calls on God to look on him and vindicate him so that he might not be ashamed, seeking rather that that shame will come on those who deserve it because of the way in which they behave (17-18), and he follows this up with a firm expression of his confidence in the goodness of God towards those who fear Him, a goodness which results in His protecting them in His own pavilion, and this in spite of the Psalmist’s own momentary lack of faith when he had thought himself as cut off from God’s eyes (19-22).
The Psalm then ends with him giving encouragement to all God’s people based on what he himself has experienced of God’s goodness and saving mercy (23-24).
To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David.
This psalm is one of a number dedicated to the Choirmaster, or ‘chief musician’. Possibly the choirmaster originally had his own collection of psalms and hymns. A good number of non-Davidic Psalms are also dedicated to him.
1 In You, O LORD, I put my trust; Let me never be ashamed; Deliver me in Your righteousness.
The Psalmist opens by affirming his confidence in YHWH and asking Him to be his refuge. He then asks that He never had to face the shame that would result if God did not act as his refuge and follows it up by asking YHWH in His righteousness to deliver him. He thus puts himself squarely on the side of righteousness, for that is the grounds on which he expects YHWH to deliver him. God delivers men in His righteousness, and in the process makes them righteous.
2 Bow down Your ear to me, deliver me speedily; Be my rock of refuge, Aa fortress of defense to save me. 3 For You are my rock and my fortress; Therefore, for Your name’s sake, lead me and guide me. 4 Pull me out of the net which they have secretly laid for me, for You are my strength.
He now calls on God to ‘bow down His ear to him’ and deliver him speedily, and because He is his rock and fortress, He asks Him to excel Himself by being to him a strong Rock, and a mighty Stronghold (a house of defense). He is fully confident in God’s protection. And then, because He is such a stronghold, he wants Him to lead him and guide him for His Name’s sake. He asks that YHWH will pluck him out of the net laid secretly for him by his enemies. His full confidence is put in the protective power of God.
5 Into Your hand I commit my spirit; You have redeemed me, O LORD God of truth. 6 I have hated those who regard useless idols; But I trust in the LORD.
With that in mind he commends his spirit to God because he knows that it is YHWH the God of truth Who has redeemed him. God has, as it were, paid a price that he might live by exerting His power on his behalf. It should be noted that he is not here commending his spirit to God because he expects to die, but because he wants to live. This is in contrast with Jesus’ use of the words in Luke 23.46, although it is equally significant in that context. And he then confirms that he wants nothing to do with false worship, and indeed hates those who participate in it. Rather he trusts wholly in YHWH. We gain the impression that the people who were trying to trap him in their secret nets were indeed such false worshippers. But with God’s help he has escaped them and emerged triumphant.
7 I will be glad and rejoice in Your mercy, for You have considered my trouble; You have known my soul in adversities, 8 And have not shut me up into the hand of the enemy; You have set my feet in a wide place.
And as a result of trusting in YHWH he is filled with gladness and rejoicing at His covenant love, that love which was the cause of Him establishing the covenant (‘I am YHWH your God Who delivered you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage’), and which now continually reaches out to His people through the covenant. For he is aware that in His love YHWH has seen his affliction, knows precisely what he is going through, and rather than delivering him up to his enemies, has set his feet firmly in ‘a large place’.
In other words, in his need God has not let him down, but has protected and established him because He is his covenant God and has made full provision for him.
9 Have mercy on me, O LORD, for I am in trouble; My eye wastes away with grief, yes, my soul and my body! 10 For my life is spent with grief, and my years with sighing; My strength fails because of my iniquity, and my bones waste away.
But suddenly his expression of confidence ceases to be replaced by a plaintive cry as he considers the years that have gone by which have been filled with sorrow and sighing, and with an awareness of sinfulness. He is filled with deep distress. He feels that he is wasting away with sorrow. And this is essentially seen as connected with his own sinfulness. This suggests that in the previous verses he has been praying ‘through gritted teeth’, and that he is triumphant despite having a difficult life, not because he is having an easy one, and now he faces up to the present reality.
11 I am a reproach among all my enemies, but especially among my neighbors, and am repulsive to my acquaintances; Those who see me outside flee from me. 12 I am forgotten like a dead man, out of mind; I am like a broken vessel. 13 For I hear the slander of many; Fear is on every side; While they take counsel together against me, they scheme to take away my life.
And this adversity is not only in the privacy of his own soul, but also involves the behavior of others towards him. Because of the activity of his adversaries he has become an especial reproach to those who are close to him, while even his acquaintances are afraid to be seen as connected with him and flee from him when he walks around in the open. He has become a marked man so that to be acquainted with him is to risk having to suffer along with him. This is the common experience of Christians in some countries today and has always been so.
He then describes himself in terms of being totally forgotten like someone who has died, and as being like a useless vessel that has been smashed and tossed away. Men no longer see him as having any significance or want to have any dealings with him. Many are defaming him, there is fear on every side, and there are even those who are taking counsel to put him to death, and are trying to think of ways of bringing it about.
We are reminded her of how true this was of our Lord Jesus. Disparaged, defamed on every side, deserted by disciples, and plotted against by the rulers of the people,
14 But as for me, I trust in You, O LORD; I say, “You are my God.” 15 My times are in Your hand; Deliver me from the hand of my enemies, and from those who persecute me.
But despite all his troubles he is triumphant. He has gritted his teeth, trusted in YHWH, and reminded Him that He is his God, and now he stresses that his times are in His hands. He has no doubt of God’s care over him and of His final control. And so again he prays for deliverance from his enemies, and from his persecutors.
16 Make Your face shine upon Your servant; Save me for Your mercies’ sake. 17 Do not let me be ashamed, O LORD, for I have called upon You; Let the wicked be ashamed; Let them be silent in the grave. 18 Let the lying lips be put to silence, which speak insolent things proudly and contemptuously against the righteous.
His confidence somewhat restored the Psalmist now calls on God to look favorably on him and do him good, ‘make your face to shine on your servant’. If God’s face shines on him, he does not care what men do to him. So, he pleads His ‘covenant love’, His mercy and compassion, and calls on Him to act so that he himself will not be shamed because of His failing to do so. For he recognises that having called on Him in this way any failure of God to act would bring shame on him. But it is rather the wicked who should be put to shame. He prays that it is they who might die and end up in the silence of the grave, and that their lying lips might be made forcibly dumb, because they speak insolently against all who are righteous with pride and contempt.
19 Oh, how great is Your goodness, which You have laid up for those who fear You, which You have prepared for those who trust in You in the presence of the sons of men! 20 You shall hide them in the secret place of Your presence from the plots of man; You shall keep them secretly in a pavilion from the strife of tongues.
Now the Psalmist, fully restored in his thoughts and filled with a sense of God’s goodness, gives praise to God. He exalts in the greatness of that goodness, a goodness which God has stored up for those who fear Him, and which He has wrought for those who take refuge in YHWH, and that before the sons of men. So God is now seen as active on behalf of all His true people, and he is confident that as a result God will hide His people from the plotting’s of men in ‘the hiding-place of His face’ (the place where God meets only with those who are His own), and will keep them hidden away in His pavilion where none can hurt them, safe from the activities of men’s tongues.
21 Blessed be the LORD, for He has shown me His marvelous kindness in a strong city! 22 For I said in my haste, “I am cut off from before Your eyes”; nevertheless, You heard the voice of my supplications when I cried out to You.
So he blesses YHWH who has revealed His marvelous covenant love towards him ‘in a strong city’ where he can be safe, and that in spite of the fact that in his desperate haste he had said, ‘I am cut off from before your eyes’. For YHWH had graciously ignored his despair and had heard the voice of his supplication.
The strong city indicates that God Himself is a strong city for those who trust in Him.
23 Oh, love the LORD, all you His saints! For the LORD preserves the faithful, and fully repays the proud person. 24 Be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart, all you who hope in the LORD.
The Psalm finally closes with a cry to all God’s people, His ‘holy ones’, to love Him truly, and that because He preserves those who are faithful, while at the same time pouring out abundant judgment on those who behave arrogantly. God’s people are thus to be strong, and to take good courage, because their hope is in Him.
