11 Because of all those who are against me, I have become a word of shame to my neighbours; a cause of shaking the head and a fear to my friends: those who saw me in the street went in flight from me.
My lovers and my friends keep away from my disease; my relations keep far away.
You have sent my friends far away from me; you have made me a disgusting thing in their eyes: I am shut up, and not able to come out.
The Lord who takes up Israel's cause, even his Holy One, says to him whom men make sport of, who is hated by the nations, a servant of rulers: Kings will see and get up from their places, and chiefs will give worship: because of the Lord who keeps faith; even the Holy One of Israel who has taken you for himself.
You have sent my friends and lovers far from me; I am gone from the memory of those who are dear to me.
The evil of their tongues is the cause of their fall; all those who see them are shaking their heads at them.
They say, He has an evil disease, which will not let him go: and now that he is down he will not get up again. Even my dearest friend, in whom I had faith, who took bread with me, is turned against me.
And others were tested by being laughed at or by blows, and even with chains and prisons:
If men say evil things of you because of the name of Christ, happy are you; for the Spirit of glory and of God is resting on you.
So have you now become to me; you see my sad condition and are in fear. Did I say, Give me something? or, Make a payment for me out of your wealth? Or, Get me out of the power of my hater? or, Give money so that I may be free from the power of the cruel ones?
At my first meeting with my judges, no one took my part, but all went away from me. May it not be put to their account.
And those who went by said bitter words to him, shaking their heads and saying, You who would give the Temple to destruction and put it up again in three days, get yourself free: if you are the Son of God, come down from the cross. In the same way, the chief priests, making sport of him, with the scribes and those in authority, said, A saviour of others, he has no salvation for himself. If he is the King of Israel, let him now come down from the cross, and we will have faith in him. He put his faith in God; let God be his saviour now, if he will have him; for he said, I am the Son of God. And the thieves who were on the crosses said evil words to him.
And brother will give up brother to death, and the father his child: and children will go against their fathers and mothers, and put them to death. And you will be hated by all men because of my name: but he who is strong to the end will have salvation.
For the son puts shame on his father, the daughter goes against her mother and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man's haters are those of his family.
Men made sport of him, turning away from him; he was a man of sorrows, marked by disease; and like one from whom men's faces are turned away, he was looked down on, and we put no value on him. But it was our pain he took, and our diseases were put on him: while to us he seemed as one diseased, on whom God's punishment had come. But it was for our sins he was wounded, and for our evil doings he was crushed: he took the punishment by which we have peace, and by his wounds we are made well.
Keep in mind, O Lord, the shame of your servants, and how the bitter words of all the people have come into my heart; The bitter words of your haters, O Lord, shaming the footsteps of your king.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Psalms 31
Commentary on Psalms 31 Matthew Henry Commentary
Psalm 31
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 (1 Sa. 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.
To the chief musician. A psalm of David.
Psa 31:1-8
Faith and prayer must go together. He that believes, let his pray-I believe, therefore I have spoken: and he that prays, let him believe, for the prayer of faith is the prevailing prayer. We have both here.
Psa 31:9-18
In the foregoing verses David had appealed to God's righteousness, and pleaded his relation to him and dependence on him; here he appeals to his mercy, and pleads the greatness of his own misery, which made his case the proper object of that mercy. Observe,
Psa 31:19-24
We have three things in these verses:-
In singing this we should animate ourselves and one another to proceed and persevere in our Christian course, whatever threatens us, and whoever frowns upon us.