Psalm 31:10 Kommentar

It is probable that David penned this psalm when he was persecuted by Saul; some passages in it agree particularly to the narrow escapes he had, at Keilah (Sa1 23:13), then in the wilderness of Maon, when Saul marched on one side of the hill and he on the other, and, soon after, in the cave in the wilderness of En-gedi; but that it was penned upon any of those occasions we are not told. It is a mixture of prayers, and praises, and professions of confidence in God, all which do well together and are helpful to one another. I. David professes his cheerful confidence in God, and, in that confidence, prays for deliverance out of his present troubles (Psa 31:1-8). II. He complains of the very deplorable condition he was in, and, in the sense of his calamities, still prays that God would graciously appear for him against his persecutors (Psa 31:9-18). III. He concludes the psalm with praise and triumph, giving glory to God, and encouraging himself and others to trust in him (Psa 31:19-24). To the chief musician. A psalm of David.

INTRODUCTION TO PSALM 31 To the chief Musician, a Psalm of David. This psalm, according to Arama, was composed by David when in Keilah; but, according to Kimchi and others, when the Ziphites proposed to deliver him up into the hands of Saul; and who, upon their solicitations, came down and surrounded him with his army, from whom in haste he made his escape, and to which he is thought to refer in Psa 31:22. Theodoret supposes it was written by David when he fled from Absalom, and that it has some respect in it to his sin against Uriah, in that verse.

For my life is spent with grief, and my years with sighing,.... Which shows the continuance of his troubles, and that his whole life had been, as it were, an uninterrupted series of sorrows; my strength faileth because of mine iniquity; this opens the source and spring of all his grief and trouble; his sin, and the sin of his nature, in which he was conceived and born; indwelling sin, which remained and worked in him; and it may be also the sin of unbelief, which beset him, and prevailed in him, notwithstanding the instances of divine goodness, the declarations of grace, the discoveries of love, and the exceeding great and precious promises he had made to him; as also his daily sins and infirmities, and very likely some great backslidings, which had brought grief of soul upon aim, and which grief affected the several parts of his body. Sin was the cause of the failure of natural strength in Adam and his posterity; of diseases and death, by which their strength is weakened in the way; and was the cause of impairing moral strength in men to do that which is good, and has a very great influence on the spiritual strength of the Lord's people, in the exercise of grace; and my bones are consumed; which are the firmest and strongest parts of the human body, and the support of it.

Let your children take part in the instruction that is in Christ, let them learn how powerful with God is humility, how strong is a pure love, how the fear of him is beautiful and great and saves those who live in it in holiness with a pure mind. For he is a searcher of thoughts and desires; his breath is in us, and when he wills, he will take it away.

"For my life has failed in pain" [Psalm 31:10]. For my life is to confess You, but it failed in pain, when the enemy had said, Let them be tortured until they deny Him. "And my years in groanings." The time that I pass in this world is not taken away from me by death, but abides, and is spent in groanings. "My strength has been weakened by want." I want the health of this body, and racking pains come on me: I want the dissolution of the body, and death forbears to come: and in this want my confidence has been weakened. "And my bones have been disturbed." And my steadfastness has been disturbed.

Then when he says, "Because," and so on, he explains the tribulation as to external matters. For tribulation drives out the goods of the present life, which are three: namely, pleasures of the flesh, riches, and honors: 1 Jn. 2: "All that is in the world," and so on. Against the first he sets forth sorrow; against the second, poverty; and against the third, reproaches. The second is at "My strength is weakened"; the third at "Above all my enemies." Concerning the first he does two things. First, he sets forth sorrow; second, its sign, at "My years." He says therefore, I am troubled interiorly; and this tribulation comes from within, "because my life has failed in sorrow." Life continually proceeds to failure. Wis. 5: "We immediately ceased to exist." Therefore, one who is saddened can say, "My life has failed in sorrow." Sir. 38: "For from sadness comes death." Or, the spiritual life: Rom. 1: "My just one lives by faith." Or, it can be understood of the life by which one rejoices in the good of others. 2 Cor. 7: "Now I rejoice, not because you were made sorrowful, but because you were made sorrowful unto penance." And sorrow causes failure in them; hence, "And my years," that is, the duration of my life, "in groans," which are a sign of sorrow. Concerning the second he says, "My strength is weakened," and so on. Riches strengthen men. Eccl. 7: "As wisdom protects, so money protects." And therefore poverty corresponds to exterior weakness. But just as temporal poverty causes exterior weakness, so spiritual poverty causes spiritual weakness. "My strength," that is, bodily fortitude, which resides in the sinews and bones; and therefore he adds, "My bones"; as if to say, all the things in which his strength was grounded were weakened. Ps. 21: "They have numbered all my bones."

The prayer of a believer in time of deep distress. In the first part, cries for help are mingled with expressions of confidence. Then the detail of griefs engrosses his attention, till, in the assurance of strong but submissive faith, he rises to the language of unmingled joyful trust and exhorts others to like love and confidence towards God. (Psa. 31:1-24) Expresses the general tone of feeling of the Psalm.

Though the effects ascribed to grief are not mere figures of speech-- spent . . . consumed--must be taken in the modified sense of wasted and decayed. iniquity--or, suffering by it (see on Psa 40:12).