Psalms 31

thee.* Who hast so often rescued me, when I was like to lose it; and wilt still, I doubt not, shew thyself my rtiost gracious God, as well as powerful Lord; who never deccivest those that rely Upon thy faithful word. [* Our Saviour used these words in a more proper and literal sense than they can be applied to David.] Ver. G. I have hated them that regard lying vanities: but I trust in the Lord.] There is nothing else that I rely upon, for I never inquired of diviners, wizards, soothsayers, or fortune-tellers; nor consulted the necromancers (or any other of those vanities wherewith the gentile world is cheated), which way I should flee, or how I should provide for my safety: no, I have hated all such practices, and those that observe them; confiding entirely in the Lord, and his directions.

Psalms 31:7

I ivill be glad and rejoice in thy mercy: for thou hast considered my trouble; thou hast known my soul in adversities. In whose merciful providence over me I will be glad and rejoice, even when I am in straits: for it is most delightful to remember how thou hast taken care of me in my afflictions; and never neglected, but still owned me, and provided for my security, in the greatest distresses.

Psalms 31:8

And hast not shut me up into the hand of the enemy: thou hast set my feet in a large room. And very lately didst not suffer me to be shut up in Keilah,.( 1 Sam. xxiii. 7.) whose inhabitants would have delivered me into the hand of Saul: but admonishedst me by thy oracles, at which only I inquired, (ver. 9, &c.) to depart from thence, where I was in danger to be enclosed; and gavest me a larger compass, to seek the means of my preservation.

Psalms 31:9

Have mercy upon me, O Lord, for I am in trouble; mine eye is consumed with grief, yea, my soul and my &£%•. Go on, good Lord, to perfect thy mercy to me; and now that I am fallen into a new difficulty, and closely begirt on every side by my enemy, take some pity upon me, and speedily deliver me: for the continual anguish and vexation which these returning dangers give me, together with the hunger and thirst which at present sorely pinch me, have in a manner quite dispirited me.

Psalms 31:10

For my life is spent with grief, and my years with sighing: my strength faileth because of mine iniquity, and my bones are consumed. I cannot subsist long, unless thou relievest me; for I am wasted away with sorrow and sighing; the punishments of my sins are so heavy, and I am so weak, that I cannot support myself under their burdens.

Psalms 31:11

I was a reproach among all mine enemies, but especially among my neighbours, and a fear to mine acquaintance: they that did see me without fled from me.* My enemies also mock at my confidence in thee, now that they have thus distressed me; and my neighbours, who have been witnesses of ray integrity in all my actions, are too prone to join with them in those reproaches; and, which is still sadder, my familiar friends are afraid to be seen in my company, or to send me the least relief: they t dare not entertain me into their houses; for when they have met me in the highway, they fled, and would not come nigh me.

Psalms 31:12

lam forgotten as a dead man out of mind: I am like a broken vessel. They look upon me as a man utterly lost; and so never think of me no more than if I were in my grave: they despair of my restitution, and despise me as much as an earthen vessel when it is broken in pieces, which nobody minds, because it cannot be repaired.

Psalms 31:13

For I have heard the slander of many; fear was on every side: zvhile they took counsel together against me, they devised to take away my life. The calumnies and slanders also whereby the greatest persons defame me are come to my ears. They say I am a seditious fellow; that the life of the king cannot be in safety till I be destroyed: and so they have held consultation together against me; wherein they have debated nothing else, but how to find a way to take away my life.

Psalms 31:14

But I trusted in thee, OLord: I said, Thou art my God. But how great soever their cunning and their power be, and how dejecting soever my fears, I do not quite despond: but still repose a sure confidence in thee, O Lord, saying, Thou art a judge of my innocence; thou art my defender and protector, who hath hitherto -always done me right.

Psalms 31:15

My times are in thy hand: deliver me from tlie hand of mine enemies, and from them that persecute me. It is not in their power to dispose of my life at their pleasure; no more than it is in mine to appoint the time of my deliverance, which I leave to thy wisdom, O Lord, to whom it belongs: only beseeching thee,‘at present, to rescue me from falling into the hands of my enemies; and at last, when thou judgest it most fit, to free me from their persecution.

Psalms 31:16

Make thy face to shine upon thy servant: save me for thy mercies’ sake. Disperse these black clouds of affliction, which have so long kept me in such a mournful condition, that my enemies fancy thou hast abandoned me; and shew the favour thou bearest ta me, who am faithfully devoted to thy service; and therefore, though I am unworthy of it, yet hope thou wilt magnify thy own mercy in delivering me from these dangers, and making me as happy as now I am miserable.

Psalms 31:17

Let me not be ashamed, O Lord; for I liave called upon thee: let the wicked be ashamed, and let them be silent in the grave. Let not thy humble supplicant, O Lord, who testifies by his daily prayers that he wholly depends upon thy favour, be shamefully disappointed in his expectation of relief from thee: but let the wicked be confounded, to see all their contrivances against me come to nothing; let them be laid in their graves, and give me no farther disturbance.

Psalms 31:18

Let the lying lips be put to silence; which speak grievous things proudly and contemptuously against tlve righteous. Stop the mouths of those bold calumniators who insolently threaten utter ruin to the innocent: whom they charge with the most grievous crimes, and deride all that he can say or do in his own defence.

Psalms 31:19

Oh how great is thy goodness, which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee; which thou hast wrought for them that trust in thee before the sons of men!. Oh what a comfort is it, when they thus insult, to think of thy kind intentions towards those that fear to offend thee, though for the present they are most miserably abused! How great are the blessings thou hast treasured up in store (as shall in time appear openly before all the world), and prepared for those that religiously avoid all unjust ways of preserving themselves, and trust to thee alone!