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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Psa_31:1. In thee, O LORD, do I put my trust;
Can we say as much as that? However else this Psalm of David may end, it strikes a grand key-note, that which should be the first indication of our spiritual life, — confidence in God. Here is an ancient weather-beaten saint who, in the very midst of the storm, can say, “In thee, O Jehovah, do I put my trust.” There will the anchor of his soul find a sure hold.
Psa_31:1. Let me never be ashamed:
“How canst thou let me be put to shame after having trusted in thee, O my God? I shall be ashamed, if thou dost forsake me, if thy promises be not kept to me, O my Lord! Therefore, ‘let me never be ashamed.’”
Psa_31:1. Deliver me in thy righteousness.
David dares to appeal even to the faithfulness, and truth, and justice of Jehovah, that he should keep the promise upon which his servant had placed his trust.
Psa_31:2. Bow down thine ear to me;
“I am very weak, I am also very unworthy; it will be a great instance of thy divine condescension if thou dost hear me; yet I cry unto thee, ‘Bow down thine ear to me;’”
Psa_31:2. Deliver me speedily:
We may not set the time for God to answer our petitions, yet may we expect that his sure mercies will be swift mercies when our necessities are very urgent. So the psalmist pleads, “Lord, come not late to me, lest thou come too late to me, for I am in sore distress; my case is urgent, therefore help me now, ‘deliver me speedily.’”
Psa_31:2. Be thou my strong rock, for an house of defense to save me.
He remembered Adullam and Engedi, and he worked these places into his supplication. A man’s prayer should be the index of his life’s history. The scenes to which he has been most accustomed should rise up vividly before his spirit when he is at the throne of grace; it was so with David: “My God, be thou an immutable, immovable, impregnable rock to me, and let me dwell in thee. Be not merely a refuge for the moment, but be ‘a house of defense to save me.’”
Psa_31:3. For thou art my rock and my fortress; therefore for thy name’s sake lead me, and guide me.
David is of a logical turn of mind, notice the “therefore” in this verse. What a singular “for” there is here! “Be thou my strong rock,” “for thou art my rock.” What God is already, we may ask him to be. What we believe him to be by faith, we ask him to be in our experience. Observe that David’s appeal is not in any degree to his own merit; but “for thy name’s sake,”-“because I trust in thy name, and if thou dost not do as thou hast said, thy great name will suffer dishonour. How can I believe in thy veracity if thou dost not do for me according to thy promise and covenant? ‘Therefore, for thy name’s sake, lead me.’ ‘Guide me,’ too, even when I do not think of thy presence. Lead me like a child, and guide me like a traveler.” There are shades of meaning here, so that there is no redundancy of expression in the words, “Lead me, and guide me.” But even if the two words meant the same it would be quite lawful for the psalmist to repeat the prayer, since he felt his need of leading and guiding to be so great. “Lord, I am so foolish, and the way is so difficult, ‘therefore, for thy name’s sake, lead me, and guide me.’”
Psa_31:4. Pull me out of the net that they have laid privily for me: for thou art my strength.
“Lord, my enemies have entangled me; or ever I was aware of it, I was taken in the meshes of their net; wilt thou not pull me out, O Lord? It will need a strong pull, but then, ‘thou art my strength.’ ‘Pull me out of the net that they have laid privily for me: for thou art my strength.’” Sometimes our strength is crippled, and we are baffled, by the net in which we are enclosed. We feel ourselves hampered, we cannot use the strength we have; but God’s strength is always available. There seems to me to be a very blessed turn in the expression here used: “Pull me out of the net: for thou art my strength.”
Psa_31:5. Into thine hand I commit my spirit:
You notice that this Psalm is dedicated to the chief musician. I have studied these Psalms, not only by the hour, and by the day, but sometimes by the month together. Some of these Psalms have been the pillow for my head at night; others of them, like wafers made of honey, have lain in my mouth till I have sucked out of them their divine sweetness. I have often noticed that, when one of these sacred songs is dedicated to the chief musician, The Chief Musician generally appears somewhere in the Psalm; he, from whom comes all the music that ever makes bleeding hearts glad, usually shows some traces of himself within the Psalm itself. In this instance, the living word of David was the dying word of David’s Lord: “Into thy hands I commend my spirit.” What David did, and what the Lord Jesus Christ did, let us do, and do it every day; let us commit our spirit into the hands of our God.
Psa_31:5-6. Thou hast redeemed me, O LORD God of truth, I have hated them that regard lying vanities: but I trust in the LORD.
Men are sure to have some kind of trust or other on which they rely. In David’s day, some trusted to false gods, others relied upon their own strength; the psalmist does not speak in soft tones concerning these people, but he says, “I could not bear them. ‘I have hated them that regard lying vanities.’ I would not come into their secret, or have any connection with them. I was astonished at them, that they should turn away from God; but as for myself, ‘I trust in Jehovah.’” See how he comes back to the note with which he started: “In thee, O Jehovah, do I put my trust;” and now he repeats it, “I trust in Jehovah.” It is an unfashionable thing, many will not do it yet David says, “I trust in Jehovah,” as if he dared to stand alone, and did not mind how singular he seemed to be.
Psa_31:7. I will be glad and rejoice in thy mercy:
What a grand faith! Should there not sometimes be the sounding of the cymbals even in the midst of our supplications? Though we must often put on sackcloth, yet we must lift up our song of praise whenever we can: “’I will be glad and rejoice,’ — there shall be a reduplication of my delight, —
‘I will be glad and rejoice in thy mercy.’”
Psa_31:7. For thou hast considered my trouble;
“Thou didst not send it without due consideration; thou didst weigh it, and now thou lookest upon me and thou dost study my trouble, then knowest all about it.” You know what is meant by human consideration; but how wonderful must divine consideration be! When a single glance suffices for Jehovah to know all that is transpiring in the whole universe what must his consideration be! “Thou hast considered my trouble.”
Psa_31:7. Thou hast known my soul in adversities;
“When others did not know me, thou didst; thou wast familiar with me, and sympathetic towards me, especially in the day of adversity. ‘Thou hast known my soul.’” God knows his own children, even when they are in rags, and when their faces are stained with tears, and their spirits are depressed almost to despair: “Thou hast known my soul in adversities.”
Psa_31:8. And hast not shut me up into the hand of the enemy:
“No; I may get into the enemy’s prison, but there is no bar to it. ‘Thou hast not shut me up.’ I may seem to get into my enemy’s hand; but he cannot shut that hand.” Truly, it must be so, because David had already put his soul into the hand of God: “Into thine hand I commit my spirit.” How, then, could he be shut up in the hand of the enemy?
Psa_31:8. Thou hast set my feet in a large room.
“
Nor iron bars a cage.”
Psa_31:9. Have mercy upon me, O LORD, for I am in trouble:
In this short sentence of four words, — “I am in trouble,” — David gives the text of which the next few verses are a kind of sermon, with divisions and subdivisions.
Psa_31:9. Mine eye is consumed with grief,
“My eyes seem burnt up with scalding tears.” The salt of our tears wears out the very strength of our life: “Mine eye is consumed with grief,” —
Psa_31:9. Yea, my soul and my belly.
Or, “’body,’ The inward part of my being seems washed away with the deluge of my tears.”
Psa_31:10. For my life is spent with grief, and my years with sighing:
Better spend them in sighing than in sinning; yet it is a sad case when we seem to measure our days by the bars of our grief.
Psa_31:10. My strength faileth because of mine iniquity, and my bones are consumed.
Now he sees to the bottom of his sorrow: “My strength faileth because of mine iniquity.” We can bear those sorrows which have no connection with our sins, but, alas! where are they to be found? It may be that David’s great sin seemed to him to lie at the very root of all his grief.
Psa_31:11. I was a reproach among all mine enemies,
They had found something to fling at him, and they were delighted to throw it with all their malicious force: “I was a reproach among all mine enemies,” —
Psa_31:11. But especially among my neighbours,
Those that are nearest can stab the sharpest. Those who knew David the best, endeavored to find some silly tale to use against him.
Psa_31:11. And a fear to mine acquaintance: they that did see me without fled from me.
This Psalm may have been written after Absalom’s rebellion, when Shimei cursed the king, and when everybody seemed to be forsaking him. Then was David brought into a low estate indeed.
Psa_31:12. I am forgotten as a dead man out of mind: I am like a broken vessel.
This was the same David who slew the Philistine giant; this was the great deliverer of his country; yet the people had forgotten all that. Earthly popularity is the most fleeting thing under heaven. The world is a hard and cruel master; it forgets its servants when they grow old, it has nothing good to say of them when there is nothing further to be got out of them. So David laments, “I am like a broken vessel,”-a potsherd that can hold nothing, and is flung away upon a dunghill.
Psa_31:13. For I have heard the slander of many:
To have one slanderer attacking your character, is bad enough, but to have many such cruel enemies about you, to have a whole brood of hell’s hornets, as it were, stinging you, oh, what misery is this! You who, happily, have never experienced this torture, cannot imagine what agony it causes; I hope you never may know it.
Psa_31:13-14. Fear was on every side: while they took counsel together against me, they devised to take away my life. But I trusted in thee, O LORD.
Here he is back on the old rock, and rejoicing as his feet stand once more on this firm foundation: “I trusted in thee, O Jehovah.”
Psa_31:14; Psa_31:16. I said, Thou art my God. My times are in thy hand:
“My enemies cannot do anything against me without thy permission.” Divine providence is a downy pillow for an aching head, a blessed anodyne for the sharpest pain. He who can feel that his times are in the hand of God, need not tremble at anything that is in the hand of man.
Psa_31:15-16. Deliver me from the hand of mine enemies, and from them that persecute me. Make thy face to shine upon thy servant: save me for thy mercies’ sake.
“If thy face shines upon me, Lord, they may look as black as they please. If thou wilt but deliver me, I care not how cruelly they persecute me. If thou wilt save me, who can destroy me?” O you who are in trouble at this time, hasten to your God! Whither should the little bird fly, when pursued by the hawk, but to its shelter in the rock? Whither canst thou go, O sheep of Christ’s flock, but to thy Shepherd?
Psa_31:17. Let me not be ashamed, O LORD; for I have called upon thee: let the wicked be ashamed, and let them be silent in the grave.
There is something of the harshness of the old dispensation about that prayer; so we will turn it into a prophecy, and say, “The wicked shall be ashamed; they shall be silent in the grave.”
Psa_31:18-19. Let the lying lips be put to silence, which speak grievous things proudly and contemptuously against the righteous. Oh how great is thy goodness which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee;
Is not that a blessed expression to be used by the man who said that his life was spent with grief, and his years with sighing?
Psa_31:19. Which thou hast wrought for them that trust in thee before the sons of men!
Not only has the Lord abundant goodness stored up for his children, but his goodness is brought out for others to see, and for his people to feed upon even in the presence of their enemies.
Psa_31:20. Thou shalt hide them in the secret of thy presence from the pride of man: thou shalt keep them secretly in a pavilion from the strife of tongues.
They shall not be wounded by all the malice of their adversaries; they shall be preserved in the King’s royal pavilion.
Psa_31:21-23. Blessed be the LORD: for he hath shewed me his marvellous kindness in a strong city. For I said in my haste, I am cut off from before thine eyes: nevertheless thou heardest the voice of my supplications when I cried unto thee. O love the LORD, all ye his saints:
See what a fount of happiness there is in the psalmist’s heart; he longs for all the saints to love the Lord.
Psa_31:23-24. For the LORD preserveth the faithful, and plentifully rewardeth the proud doer. Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the LORD.
In this Psalm, we have heard the wail of the sackbut, and the clashing of the cymbals; but we finish with the blast of the silver trumpets.
To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. This Psalm was meant to be sung, therefore it was dedicated to the chief musician; yet it is a Psalm of which at least half is very sorrowful. All our hymns were not meant to be joyous ones; God permits us to take a wide range in our psalmody, and to express the feelings of our heart whatever they may be. You will see here and there the light of Christ shining on this Psalm. If it does not shine on him, at any rate he shines on it.
Psa_31:1. In thee, O LORD, do I put my trust;
Is that true of you, dear friends? Never take your trust upon trust, but be quite sure that you do trust in God; if it is so, avow it, and never be ashamed to say, “In thee, O Lord, do I put my trust; “
Psa_31:1-3. Let me never be ashamed: deliver me in thy righteousness. Bow down thine ear to me; deliver me speedily: be thou my strong rock, for an house of defense to save me. For thou art my rock and my fortress; therefore for thy name’s sake lead me, and guide me.
See how logical David is with his “for” and “therefore.” It is the very essence of prayer to be able to urge pleas with God, and to say to him, “Do it for this reason,” or, “Therefore, do it for such another reason.” I would that we all of us studied more fully this blessed art of pleading with God, bringing forth sound arguments as we approach him.
Psa_31:4. Pull me out of the net that they have laid privily for me: for thou art my strength.
How sweetly and blessedly he pleads! “’Thou art my strength.’ I cannot get out of this net, I am entangled in it; but thou canst pull me out, for ‘thou art my strength.’”
Psa_31:5. Into thine hand I commit my spirit: thou hast redeemed me, O LORD God of truth.
This is a blessed prayer,— a holy resolution, which we may use every day in the week all through our lives.
Psa_31:6. I have hated them that regard lying vanities: but I trust in the LORD.
“In Jehovah.” David had no patience with those who trusted in gods of wood and stone; he knew very little indeed of that spurious charity which leads some men to speak respectfully even of idolatry. David was “a good hater”; and there is something gracious about that when the thing hated is really hateful, and something which ought to be hated.
Psa_31:7. I will be glad and rejoice in thy mercy:
David makes the cymbals clash together: “I will be glad and rejoice in thy mercy: “
Psa_31:7. For thou hast considered my trouble; thou hast known my soul in adversities;
It is said to be the highest wisdom to know yourself; but, to my mind, it is a much better thing for God to know you. You may know yourself, and fall into despair; but if God knows you, and you know God, there is abundant room for you to hope in his mercy.
Psa_31:8. And hast not shut me up into the hand of the enemy: thou hast set my feet in a large room.
“Thou hast given me a broad place to live in, and thou hast given me abundance to eat there.” So David praises and blesses his God; but now see how the note falls. From the highest point of the scale he suddenly descends to the very lowest. “We spend our years as a tale that is told f” and such a tale is sometimes very joyful, and anon it is full of woe.
Psa_31:9-10. Have mercy upon me, O LORD, for I am in trouble: mine eye is consumed with grief, yea, my soul and my belly. For my life is spent with grief, and my years with sighing:
Sighing is better than sinning any day. Though we may deplore that our life melts away in sighs, it is better that it should go so than that it should be wasted in sins.
Psa_31:10-11. My strength faileth because of mine iniquity, and my bones are consumed. 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.
He was in such a sorry plight that men would not own him. They were afraid that they should be disgraced by being found in his company. It is a sad condition for a man of God, like David, to be found in, for others to be afraid to be seen speaking to him.
Psa_31:12. I am forgotten us a dead man out of mind: I am like a broken vessel.
An old pot, flung on the dunghill, as of no further use.
Psa_31:13-14. For I have heard the slander of many: fear was on every side: awhile they took counsel together against me, they devised to take away my life. Bet I trusted in thee, O LORD:
Now the strain will mount again. It is faith that tunes the royal singer, so that he rises to heights of joy though just now he had sunk so low.
Psa_31:14-15. I said; Thou art my God. My times are in thy hand:
He had put his spirit there: “Into thine hand I commit my spirit;” and now he says, “My times are in thy hand.”
Psa_31:15-19. Deliver me from the hand of mine enemies, and from them that persecute me. Make thy face to shine upon thy servant: save me for thy mercies’ sake. Let me not be ashamed, O LORD; for I have called upon thee: let the wicked be ashamed, and let them be silent in the grave. Let the lying lips be put to silence; which speak grievous things proudly and contemptuously against the righteous. Oh how great is thy goodness, which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee;
If he was not tasting of it just then, he blessed God that it was laid up for him, put by in store.
Psa_31:19-20. Which thou hast wrought for them that trust in thee before the sons of men! Thou shalt hide them in the secret of thy presence from the pride of man: thou shalt keep them secretly in a pavilion from the strife of tongues.
What a blessing that is,— to be separated from the noise and strife and the malignant calumny of wicked men! God has a blessed way of keeping his servants away from all such evils.
Psa_31:21-22. Blessed be the LORD: for hath shewed me his marvellous kindness in a strong city. For I said in my haste, I am cut off from before thine eyes: nevertheless thou heardest the voice of my supplications when I cried unto thee.
“If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself.” The psalmist was full of doubts, and he said, “I am cut off;” but, nevertheless, God hoard the prayer of his poor mistrusting servant, and brought him out of his distresses.
Psa_31:23-24. O love the LORD, all ye his saints: for the LORD preserveth the faithful, and plentifully rewardeth the proud doer. Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the LORD.
Psa_31:1. In thee, O LORD, do I put my trust;
This is a good beginning; this is the fulcrum which will give us the necessary leverage for lifting any weight of sorrow or trouble that may be burdening us: “In thee, O Jehovah, do I put my trust.” Can each of us truthfully say that to begin with? If so, we may go on with David to the petitions that follow: —
Psa_31:1. Let me never be ashamed: deliver me in thy righteousness.
It would be to us the shame of shames if God, in whom we put our trust, could fail us. Then, indeed, might the scoffers say, “Where is now their God?” and what should we then be able to say of the righteousness of God? He has pledged himself that he will never fail nor forsake anyone of his people; so, if he ever did fail them, what would become of his honour?
Psa_31:2. Bow down thine ear to me;
“Listen to me, O Lord! Stoop down out of thy glory to catch the faint accents of my sorrowing, almost expiring spirit.”
Psa_31:2. Deliver me speedily:
“My case is urgent, Lord, for I am in deep distress. Delay will be dangerous, and may be even fatal: ‘Deliver me speedily:’ “
Psa_31:2. Be thou my strong rock, for an house of defense to save me.
David was so accustomed to hide in the rocks of Engedi, and similar fastnesses, that we do not wonder that he found such a comparison as this come naturally to his mind: “Be thou my strong rock, for an house of defense to save me.”
Psa_31:3. For thou art my rock and my fortress;
Why did David just now pray God to be to him what he here says that God is? It was, surely, in order that he might know experimentally what he already knew doctrinally; he wanted the truth, in which he already believed, to be proven in his own experience, so he prayed to the Lord, “Be thou my strong rock, . . . for thou art my rock and my fortress;” —
Psa_31:3. Therefore for thy name’s sake —
“For thy glory’s sake, for thy honour’s sake,” —
Psa_31:3. Lead me, and guide me.
“Lead me, as a child needs to be led. Guide me, as a traveler in a foreign land needs to be guided. I need thee both to lead and to guide me.”
Psa_31:4. Pull me out of the net that they have laid privily for me: for thou art my strength.
Sometimes the believer gets so entangled that he sees no way of escape. He is caught like a bird in the fowler’s net, and he is so surrounded by it that he cries to the Lord, “Pull me out of the net.” He feels that he can only be delivered by the putting forth of God’s power, and that is the reason why he adds, “O Lord, use thy strength on my behalf; give a desperate tug, and pull me out of the net that they have laid privily for me; for thou art my strength.”
Psa_31:5. Into thine hand I commit my spirit:
The dying words of Jesus may well be the living words of each one of his redeemed people. We ought continually to commit our spirit into our great Father’s hands, for there is no other place that can be so safe and blessed as between the strong, almighty, never-failing hands of the eternal God.
Psa_31:5. Thou hast redeemed me, O LORD God of truth.
Redemption is such a blessed ground for confidence in God. Even the ordinary redemptions, such as David had experienced when the Lord had redeemed him out of the hand of his enemies, and redeemed him out of troubles of many kinds, were great sources of consolation to David; but what shall we say of that rich, full, free redemption which Christ accomplished for his people upon Calvary’s cross? Think you that God will not keep those whom he has purchased with the blood of his own dear Son? Will he suffer those to perish who have cost him so dearly? Oh, no! none shall pluck them from his hand. This is a sound argument that David uses: “Into thine hand I commit my spirit: thou hast redeemed me, O Lord God of truth.”
Psa_31:6. I have hated them that regard lying vanities:
That is, those that trusted in their idol gods, which he calls by this contemptuous name, “lying vanities.” David was not very respectful to false religions; he called them vanities and lies, and said, “I have hated them that regard them;”
Psa_31:6-7. But I trust in the LORD. I will be glad and rejoice in thy mercy: for thou hast considered my trouble; thou hast known my soul in adversities;
“ ‘Thou hast considered my trouble;’ — thou hast looked at it, weighed it, understood it.” When a wise man gives his consideration to a thing, we respect his judgment; but what shall we say of the consideration of God? This is a wonderful expression: “Thou hast considered my trouble; thou hast known my soul in adversities.” “When I hardly knew myself, and could not make out what I was or where I was, thou hast known all about me; and thou hast known me when I was in rags and tatters, when I was so down at the heel that nobody else would own me, thou didst not discard me: ‘Thou has known my soul in adversities;’ “ —
Psa_31:8-10. And hast not shut me up into the hand of the enemy: thou hast set my feet in a large room. Have mercy upon me, O LORD, for I am in trouble: mine eye is consumed with grief, yea, my soul and my belly. For my life is spent with grief, and my years with sighing:
That is better than spending our years in sinning; yet it is a painful experience when every breath seems to be drawn with a pang, and the effort to live is itself a struggle, as it is in certain trying diseases.
Psa_31:10-11. My strength faileth because of mine iniquity, and my bones are consumed. I was a reproach among all mine enemies, but especially among my neighbours,
They were the nearest to him, and therefore could smite him the most keenly.
Psa_31:11. And a fear to mine acquaintance:
They did not like to own him even as an acquaintance; they were afraid of him. Yet what a light this verse throws upon David’s previous declaration, “Thou has known my soul in adversities”!
Psa_31:12. I am forgotten as a dead man out of mind;
The very man, in whose honour, in the former times, the women out of all the cities of Israel sang, “Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands,” now had sorrowfully to say, ‘I am forgotten as a dead man out of mind.”
Psa_31:12. I am like a broken vessel.
“Men think me of no more value than a piece of broken crockery that is flung away on the dunghill as utterly useless.”
Psa_31:13. For I have heard the slander of many: fear was on every side:
The very best of men have had to smart under the wounds caused by that cruel, accursed thing slander. No quality of purity, no degree of piety, can screen a man from the tongue of slander; in fact, as the birds peck most at the ripest fruit, it is often the best of men who are most slandered.
Psa_31:13-14. While they took counsel together against me, they devised to take away my life. But I trusted in thee, O LORD: I said, Thou art my God.
That is a grand utterance of the psalmist; now he is coming back to the point where he began; the Psalm is now in harmony with its keynote.
Psa_31:15. My times are in thy hand:
My times are not in the hands of my enemies; they cannot hurt me without God’s permission.
Psa_31:15-16. Deliver me from the hand of mine enemies, and from them that persecute me. Make thy face to shine upon thy servant:
Oh, for the shinings of God’s face! How blessed and glorious they are! I is heaven on earth to dwell within the circle of that light; and if we get out of the range of those rays, what joy can we have?
Psa_31:16. Save me for thy mercies’ sake.
That is a prayer for a sinner, and a prayer for a saint; a prayer for every day in the year: “Save me for thy mercies’ sake.”
Psa_31:17 —19. Let me not be ashamed, O LORD; for I have called upon thee: let the wicked be ashamed, and let them be silent in the grave. Let the lying lips be put to silence; which speak grievous things proudly and contemptuously against the righteous. Oh, how great is thy goodness, which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee;
Then, be off good courage, you tried ones; think of all the god things that are laid up in store for you, the treasures that are put away for the present.
Nor is this all: “How great is thy goodness,” —
Psa_31:19. Which thou hast wrought for them that trust in thee before the sons of men!
So there is goodness in the present as well as goodness in the future, goodness wrought out as well as goodness stored up.
Psa_31:20. Thou shalt hide them in the secret of thy presence from the pride of man: thou shalt keep them secretly in a pavilion from the strife of tongues.
There is nothing much worse than the strife of tongues. A pack of wolves would not be half so bad as a pack of tongues let loose upon a man. Wolves do but tear the flesh; but tongues devour a man’s character, and eat up his very life. Oh, how blessed it is to be kept secretly in God’s royal pavilion from the strife of tongues!
Psa_31:21. Blessed be the LORD; for he hath showed me his marvelous kindness in a strong city.
He has kept me in safety, and preserved me from every foe, blessed be his holy name!
Psa_31:22-23. For I said in my haste, I am cut off from before thine eyes: nevertheless thou heardest the voice of my supplications when I cried unto thee. O love the LORD, all ye his saints;
It seems as if David felt that he could not love the Lord sufficiently by himself, so he calls upon all the saints to bring their hearts full of love, and yield their treasure unto God.
Psa_31:23. For the LORD preserveth the faithful, and plentifully rewardeth the proud doer.
He gives him a sharp blow with the back of his hand, but he gives to the righteous a full-handed mercy.
Psa_31:24. Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the LORD.
Your heart is faint, but the Lord will put strength where now there is weakness; wherefore “be of good courage.” Cowardice weakens, fear saps a man’s strength; so “be of good courage,” for your strength shall be equal to your day, and you shall yet win the victory, “all ye that hope in the Lord.”