CHAPTER 31

A PSALM OF DAVID: PRAYER FOR VICTORY OVER ENEMIES

¹In You, O LORD, do I put My trust; let Me never be ashamed: deliver Me in Your righteousness. (The theme of this Psalm is trust in God. Its doctrine is that the Messiah was tested in all points, yet was without sin; that as Captain of His Peoples Salvation, He was perfected through suffering; He was a Man of Sorrows and acquainted with grief, and was hated, despised, and rejected of men [Isa., Chpt. 53].)

²Bow down Your ear to Me; deliver Me speedily: be You My strong Rock, for an house of defence to save Me (in fact, in these first two Verses, our Lord prays to be rescued from the Scribes, Pharisees, and Herodians, who were seeking His life).

³For You are My Rock and My fortress; therefore for Your Names sake lead Me, and guide Me (considering the number of enemies who surrounded Him, if He were to fully obey the Father and carry out His mission, He would say, Lead Me, and guide Me).

⁴Pull Me out of the net that they have laid privily for Me: for You are My Strength (the Pharisees, along with Scribes and Herodians, constantly attempted to entangle Him in His talk; He cried for deliverance).

⁵Into Your hand I commit My Spirit: You have redeemed Me, O LORD God of Truth (on the Cross, He uttered aloud the first sentence of this Verse).

⁶I have hated them who regard lying vanities: but I trust in the LORD (the lying vanities spoken of here refer to idols that Israel had worshipped in centuries past, which caused her so many troubles and, as well, the idols of ritualistic religion of the present time).

⁷I will be glad and rejoice in Your Mercy: for You have considered My trouble; You have known My soul in adversities (if it were possible, Immanuel was more precious to God when in adversity, trouble, and danger than at any other time; man refuses generally to recognize a companion when in adversity, but God did not so act toward His Servant; He actually recognized both Him and His adversities);

⁸And have not shut Me up into the hand of the enemy: You have set my feet in a large room (the large room pertains to Calvary, where the greatest victory of all time was won, and afforded Christ a Name which is above every name [Phil. 2:911]).

⁹Have mercy upon Me, O LORD, for I am in trouble: My Eye is consumed with grief, yes, My Soul and My Belly (the grief that He experienced as He came unto His Own, and His Own received Him not, can only be measured imperfectly by mere mortals).

¹⁰For My life is spent with grief, and My years with sighing: My strength fails because of My iniquity, and My bones are consumed (this in no way means that He had sinned or failed; it means that He took our iniquity as His Own. What a statement!).

¹¹I was a reproach among all My enemies, but especially among My neighbours, and a fear to My acquaintance: they who did see Me without fled from Me (He was a joke to His enemies and a derision to His neighbors; His relatives abandoned Him through fear of being put out of the Synagogue).

¹²I am forgotten as a dead man out of mind: I am like a broken vessel (Israel flatly refused to believe that He was the Messiah; He did not carry their credentials, neither did He fit their description).

¹³For I have heard the slander of many: fear was on every side: while they took counsel together against Me, they devised to take away My life (slander is one of Satans favorite tactics; actually the name Satan means slanderer).

¹⁴But I trusted in You, O LORD: I said, You are My God (as David did not attempt to defend himself, the Son of David did not attempt to defend Himself either; the matter, as severe as it was, was placed in the Hands of the Lord. What an example for us to follow!).

¹⁵My times are in Your hand: deliver Me from the hand of My enemies, and from them who persecute Me (the Masters Faith was not broken; He kept believing that His times and His Mission were not in mans hands, but in Gods [Lk. 13:33]).

¹⁶Make Your Face to shine upon Your Servant: save Me for Your Mercies sake (the Face of the LORD shining upon anyone, as it most definitely did upon our Saviour and Gods Son, is a sure sign of great favor and great blessings).

¹⁷Let Me not be ashamed, O LORD; for I have called upon You: let the wicked be ashamed, and let them be silent in the grave (for sure, death would silence the lying lips of those who opposed the Son of God, even as it ultimately did but after this, the judgment [Heb. 9:27]).

¹⁸Let the lying lips be put to silence; which speak grievous things proudly and contemptuously against the righteous (it was religious pride that opposed Christ; it was religious pride that nailed Him to the Cross; religious pride showed Him nothing but contempt).

¹⁹Oh how great is Your goodness, which You have laid up for them who fear You; which You have wrought for them who trust in You before the sons of men! (To serve the Lord will bring untold blessings; to oppose Him will bring ultimate judgment.)

²⁰You shall hide them in the secret of Your Presence from the pride of man: You shall keep them secretly in a pavilion from the strife of tongues (the secret place of the Most High [91:1]).

²¹Blessed be the LORD: for He has showed Me His marvelous kindness in a strong city (when in Jerusalem, the Pharisees showed Christ no respect at all, but the Father showed Christ His marvelous kindness).

²²For I said in My haste, I am cut off from before Your eyes: nevertheless You heard the voice of My Supplications when I cried unto You (the Son of Man knew that except for God it was impossible for Him to be delivered).

²³O love the LORD, all you His saints: for the LORD preserves the faithful, and plentifully rewards the proud doer (as the Lord preserves the faithful, He will, at the same time, judge the proud doer).

²⁴Be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart, all you who hope in the LORD (in the very face of the enemy, the Lord will strengthen us).