16 Make thy face to shine upon thy servant; save me in thy loving-kindness.
Many say, Who shall cause us to see good? Lift up upon us the light of thy countenance, O Jehovah.
Return, Jehovah, free my soul; save me for thy loving-kindness' sake.
Jehovah make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee; Jehovah lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.
Jehovah, by thy favour thou hadst made my mountain to stand strong: thou didst hide thy face; I was troubled.
{To the chief Musician. A Psalm of David; when Nathan the prophet came to him, after he had gone in to Bath-sheba.} Be gracious unto me, O God, according to thy loving-kindness; according to the abundance of thy tender mercies, blot out my transgressions.
{To the chief Musician. On stringed instruments. A Psalm: a Song.} God be gracious unto us, and bless us, [and] cause his face to shine upon us; Selah,
Restore us, O God of hosts; and cause thy face to shine, and we shall be saved.
And he remembered for them his covenant, and repented according to the multitude of his loving-kindnesses;
With the Lord our God are mercies and pardons, for we have rebelled against him;
And now, our God, hearken to the prayer of thy servant, and to his supplications, and cause thy face to shine upon thy sanctuary that is desolate, for the Lord's sake. Incline thine ear, O my God, and hear; open thine eyes and behold our desolations, and the city that is called by thy name: for we do not present our supplications before thee because of our righteousnesses, but because of thy manifold mercies.
For he says to Moses, I will shew mercy to whom I will shew mercy, and I will feel compassion for whom I will feel compassion.
and that he might make known the riches of his glory upon vessels of mercy, which he had before prepared for glory,
but God, being rich in mercy, because of his great love wherewith he loved us, (we too being dead in offences,) has quickened us with the Christ, (ye are saved by grace,) and has raised [us] up together, and has made [us] sit down together in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus, that he might display in the coming ages the surpassing riches of his grace in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus.
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.