A psalm of David that moves from desperate plea to triumphant trust. The psalmist commits his spirit into the LORD's hands, cries out from a state of siege — scorned by enemies, forgotten by friends, his body wasting — and then pivots sharply into praise for the God who heard him. The psalm oscillates between terror and confidence, between the language of entrapment and the language of wide-open spaces, ultimately landing on a call for all who wait on the LORD to be strong.
What Makes This Chapter Remarkable
Verse 6 in Hebrew (v. 5 in English) — 'Into your hand I commit my spirit' (be-yadekha afqid ruchi) — became the most famous deathbed prayer in Western civilization when Jesus quoted it from the cross (Luke 23:46). But in its original context, this is not a dying man's last words; it is a living man's act of trust in the middle of crisis. David is not surrendering to death — he is surrendering to God instead of surrendering to fear. The verb paqad in the Hiphil (afqid) means 'to deposit, to entrust for safekeeping,' like leaving valuables with a trusted guardian. David treats his own life-breath (ruach) as something too precious for him to protect, so he hands it to God. The psalm's emotional range is extraordinary: it contains some of the most desolate language in the Psalter ('I am forgotten like a dead man out of mind, I have become like a broken vessel') alongside some of the most exuberant ('How great is your goodness that you have stored up for those who fear you').
Translation Friction
The superscription assigns the psalm to David (le-David), and the biographical details — enemies, conspiracies, a besieged city — fit many episodes in David's life. However, the phrase 'fortified city' (ir matsor) in verse 22 has generated debate: some read it as David's confidence during a siege (perhaps at Keilah, 1 Samuel 23), while others emend to 'city of distress.' The LXX reads 'city of siege' without emendation. The verb afqid ('I commit/deposit') in verse 6 is a commercial term — entrusting goods for safekeeping — applied to the most intimate possible object: one's own spirit. This metaphor treats God as a banker of souls, which is a strikingly transactional image embedded in what is otherwise pure trust language.
Connections
The phrase 'Into your hand I commit my spirit' (v. 6) is quoted by Jesus on the cross in Luke 23:46 and by Stephen at his stoning in Acts 7:59. Verse 14 — 'My times are in your hand' — became a foundational text for Jewish and Christian theology of divine sovereignty over individual destiny. Psalm 31 shares vocabulary and themes with Psalm 22 (the cry of dereliction) and Psalm 71 (the aging sufferer who trusts in God). The language of being 'hidden in the shelter of your presence' (v. 21) echoes Psalm 27:5 and Psalm 91:1. Jeremiah appears to echo this psalm in several passages (Jeremiah 20:10 mirrors v. 14 closely), leading some scholars to call this a 'Jeremianic psalm.'
Psalms 31:1
לַמְנַצֵּ֗חַ מִזְמ֥וֹר לְדָוִֽד׃
For the director of music. A psalm of David.
KJV To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
The superscription la-menatseach ('for the director of music') appears in fifty-five psalms and indicates liturgical use — this psalm was performed in corporate worship, not merely recorded as private prayer. The preposition le- in le-David can mean 'of David,' 'for David,' or 'belonging to the Davidic collection.'
In you, O LORD, I have taken refuge.
Let me never be put to shame.
In your righteousness, deliver me.
KJV In thee, O LORD, do I put my trust; let me never be ashamed: deliver me in thy righteousness.
Notes & Key Terms
1 term
Key Terms
צְדָקָהtsedaqah
"righteousness"—righteousness, justice, rightness, vindication, covenant faithfulness, right standing
tsedaqah in the Psalms is primarily relational — it describes God's commitment to act faithfully toward those who depend on Him. When the psalmist appeals to God's tsedaqah, he is not invoking an abstract legal principle but a personal covenant bond. God's righteousness is the reason He must deliver, not merely the standard by which He judges.
Translator Notes
The verb chasah ('to take refuge') is one of the Psalter's signature words, appearing over twenty-five times. It is concrete in origin — to flee to a sheltering rock, a fortress, a city of refuge — and metaphorical in application. David does not merely believe in God; he has physically and spiritually placed himself under God's protection.
The phrase be-tsidqatekha palleteni ('in your righteousness deliver me') makes God's moral character the basis for the appeal. tsedaqah here is not abstract justice but relational faithfulness — God's commitment to set things right for those in covenant with Him.
Turn your ear toward me — rescue me quickly.
Be a rock of strength for me,
a fortified house to save me.
KJV Bow down thine ear to me; deliver me speedily: be thou my strong rock, for an house of defence to save me.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
The verb hatteh ('incline, turn') asks God to bend down — an anthropomorphic image of the transcendent God lowering Himself to hear. The urgency is marked by meherah ('quickly, speedily'). Three fortress images pile up: tsur maoz ('rock of strength'), beit metsudot ('house of fortifications'), and the implied shelter behind them. David is not asking for comfort but for military protection — walls, rock, stronghold.
For you are my rock and my fortress.
For the sake of your name,
lead me and guide me.
KJV For thou art my rock and my fortress; therefore for thy name's sake lead me, and guide me.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
The shift from petition to declaration — 'you are my rock' (sal'i) — is characteristic of psalms of trust. David does not merely request that God become his fortress; he asserts that God already is. The phrase le-ma'an shimkha ('for the sake of your name') introduces a critical motive: God's own reputation is at stake. If God's declared protege is destroyed, God's name is diminished before the nations.
Pull me out of the net they have hidden for me,
for you are my refuge.
KJV Pull me out of the net that they have laid privily for me: for thou art my strength.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
The image shifts from fortress to hunting trap. The reshet ('net') is a snare laid in secret (tamenu, 'they have hidden') by unnamed enemies. The juxtaposition of 'net' and 'refuge' creates a spatial contrast: the enemies close in from below with traps, while God provides escape from above. The pronoun 'they' (tamenu) is deliberately vague — the threat is everywhere and from everyone.
Into your hand I commit my spirit.
You have redeemed me, O LORD, God of truth.
KJV Into thine hand I commit my spirit: thou hast redeemed me, O LORD God of truth.
Notes & Key Terms
2 terms
Key Terms
רוּחַruach
"spirit"—wind, breath, spirit, life-force, disposition, the animating presence in a person
ruach is what God breathes into humanity to give life (Genesis 2:7 uses neshamah, a near-synonym). When David entrusts his ruach to God, he is returning his life-breath to its source — not as death but as trust. The word carries both physical (breath/wind) and metaphysical (spirit/soul) meanings simultaneously.
emet derives from the root a-m-n ('to be firm, to support'), the same root that gives us amen and emunah ('faithfulness'). When David calls God El emet, he means God is the one whose character is rock-solid, whose word is utterly reliable, whose commitments never waver. Truth here is not a philosophical abstraction but a relational reality: God can be trusted with your life.
Translator Notes
The Hiphil of paqad (afqid) is a technical term for depositing goods with a trustee — see Exodus 22:6-12 for the legal framework. The depositor retains ownership; the trustee assumes responsibility for safekeeping. Applied to ruach ('spirit'), this creates a remarkable image: God holds my life in trust for me.
El emet ('God of truth') uses emet in its full semantic range — truth, reliability, faithfulness, constancy. God is not merely truthful in speech but dependable in character. The word emet shares a root with amen and emunah ('faithfulness').
I despise those who cling to worthless idols,
but I — I trust in the LORD.
KJV I have hated them that regard lying vanities: but I trust in the LORD.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
The phrase havlei shav ('vanities of emptiness') combines two words for nothingness — hevel ('vapor, breath, vanity') and shav ('emptiness, falsehood, worthlessness'). The phrase likely refers to idol worship but encompasses any misplaced trust. The emphatic pronoun va-ani ('but I') creates a stark contrast: while others cling to vapor, David clings to the LORD.
chesed is the covenant bond between God and His people — not mere affection but committed, obligated love that persists through failure and crisis. It is the reason God sees affliction and responds: not because the sufferer deserves it, but because God has bound Himself to care.
Translator Notes
The verb ra'itah ('you have seen') is not passive observation but attentive care — God sees affliction the way a parent sees a child's pain, with intent to respond. The verb yadata ('you have known') deepens this: God does not merely observe David's trouble from a distance; He knows it intimately, from inside. The pair 'seen' and 'known' together mean comprehensive awareness combined with compassionate engagement.
You have not handed me over to the enemy.
You have set my feet in a wide-open place.
KJV And hast not shut me up into the hand of the enemy: thou hast set my feet in a large room.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
The noun merchav ('broad place, wide space') comes from rachav ('to be wide, spacious'). It is the opposite of tsar ('narrow, constricted'), from which tsarah ('distress, trouble') derives. Hebrew literally equates trouble with tightness and salvation with spaciousness. Psalm 18:19 uses the same image: 'He brought me out into a broad place.'
Be gracious to me, O LORD, for I am in distress.
My eye wastes away from grief —
my soul and my body as well.
KJV Have mercy upon me, O LORD, for I am in trouble: mine eye is consumed with grief, yea, my soul and my belly.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
The sudden shift from praise (vv. 8-9) back to lament (vv. 10-14) is characteristic of psalms that refuse to smooth over the rawness of experience. The verb ashshab ('to waste away, to grow dim') describes physical deterioration — the eye literally failing from weeping. The three-part list (eye, soul, body/belly) traces the damage from surface to interior: tears ruin the eyes, grief erodes the soul, and the body itself collapses.
My life is spent in sorrow,
and my years in groaning.
My strength fails because of my affliction,
and my bones waste away.
KJV For my life is spent with grief, and my years with sighing: my strength faileth because of mine iniquity, and my bones are consumed.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
The phrase kalu be-yagon chayyai ('my life is consumed in grief') uses kalah ('to be completed, to be exhausted') — grief has used up his entire life. The word avoni is ambiguous: it can mean 'my iniquity' or 'my affliction/punishment.' Context favors 'affliction' here, since the psalm otherwise insists on the psalmist's innocence. The bones wasting away (atsamai asheshu) describes the total physical collapse that prolonged distress produces.
Because of all my adversaries I have become a disgrace —
especially to my neighbors — and a terror to my friends.
Those who see me in the street flee from me.
KJV 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.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
The social dimension of suffering is devastating here. The psalmist is not merely in pain but in shame (cherpah, 'reproach, disgrace'). His neighbors recoil, his friends are afraid of him, and strangers in the street actively avoid him. The verb nadedu ('they fled, they wandered away') suggests people crossing the street to avoid contact. Suffering has made him a social contagion.
I am forgotten like a dead man, gone from the heart.
I have become like a shattered vessel.
KJV I am forgotten as a dead man out of mind: I am like a broken vessel.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
The phrase mi-lev ('from the heart') specifies the kind of forgetting: not merely failing to recall a name but erasing someone from the place where affection lives. The keli oved ('perishing vessel') is a clay pot — cheap, common, and unrepairable once cracked. In a culture where pottery was disposable, this image carried the force of 'thrown in the garbage.'
For I have heard the whispering of many —
terror on every side! —
as they conspire together against me,
plotting to take my life.
KJV For 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.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
The phrase magor mi-saviv ('terror on every side') appears in Jeremiah 6:25, 20:3, 20:10, and 46:5, leading many scholars to connect this psalm with Jeremiah's experience. In Jeremiah 20:10, the prophet quotes almost this exact line: 'I have heard the whispering of many — terror on every side! — Denounce him! Let us denounce him!' Whether David influenced Jeremiah or vice versa, the phrase captures the paranoia of being surrounded by conspirators who plot openly while the target listens helplessly.
But I — I trust in you, O LORD.
I say, 'You are my God.'
KJV But I trusted in thee, O LORD: I said, Thou art my God.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
The emphatic va-ani ('but I') makes the same contrast as verse 7: whatever others do, however desperate the situation, David's position is fixed. The declaration Elohai attah ('You are my God') is the simplest and most radical statement of faith in the Hebrew Bible — a personal claim on the God of the universe. The possessive 'my' is the word that matters most.
My times are in your hand.
Deliver me from the hand of my enemies
and from those who pursue me.
KJV My times are in thy hand: deliver me from the hand of mine enemies, and from them that persecute me.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
The noun ittot (plural of et, 'time') covers the full range of temporal experience — moments, seasons, appointed times, life-stages. In Ecclesiastes 3:1-8, the same word structures the famous 'a time for every purpose' passage. Here, David places all of those times under God's sovereign control.
Let your face shine upon your servant.
Save me in your faithful love.
KJV Make thy face to shine upon thy servant: save me for thy mercies' sake.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
The priestly blessing of Numbers 6:25 — 'The LORD make His face to shine upon you' — is here turned into personal petition. The 'shining face' of God means favor, attention, delight — the opposite of the hidden face that means abandonment. David calls himself avdekha ('your servant'), a title of both humility and privilege: a servant belongs to his master, and the master is obligated to protect what belongs to him.
O LORD, let me not be put to shame, for I have called on you.
Let the wicked be shamed;
let them be silenced in Sheol.
KJV 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.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
The plea returns to the opening theme of shame (bosh). The logic is distributive: shame must fall somewhere — either on David for trusting God in vain, or on the wicked for opposing God's servant. David asks that it fall on the right party. The verb yiddemu ('let them be silenced') and the destination li-She'ol ('to Sheol, the underworld') combine: the wicked should be reduced to the silence of death.
Let lying lips be struck silent —
those that speak arrogantly against the righteous
with pride and contempt.
KJV Let the lying lips be put to silence; which speak grievous things proudly and contemptuously against the righteous.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
The adjective ataq ('arrogant, insolent, presumptuous') describes speech that overreaches — words that are too bold, too brazen, too dismissive of the righteous. The combination of ga'avah ('pride') and buz ('contempt') describes the particular cruelty of those who mock the suffering of the faithful.
How abundant is your goodness
that you have stored up for those who fear you,
that you have worked for those who take refuge in you
in the sight of all people!
KJV 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!
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
The verb tsafan ('to hide, to treasure up, to store') appears in Proverbs 2:7 with the same meaning: God stores up wisdom for the upright. The image suggests that God's goodness is not diminished by the delay in its appearance — it accumulates, like treasure in a vault, waiting for the right moment.
You hide them in the shelter of your presence
from the schemes of men.
You store them in a shelter
from the strife of tongues.
KJV 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.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
The phrase be-seter panekha ('in the hiding place of your face/presence') creates a paradox: God's face, which David asked to shine (v. 17), now becomes a hiding place for the faithful. The divine presence is simultaneously radiance for the beloved and concealment from enemies. The 'strife of tongues' (riv leshonot) identifies the primary weapon: not swords but words — slander, accusation, gossip.
Blessed be the LORD,
for He has shown me His wondrous faithful love
in a city under siege.
KJV Blessed be the LORD: for he hath shewed me his marvellous kindness in a strong city.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
The verb hifli ('He made wonderful, He showed wondrously') from the root pala' ('to be extraordinary, to do wonders') — the same root that gives us the noun pele ('wonder'). God's faithful love (chesed) is not merely adequate but astonishing. The phrase be-ir matsor ('in a city of siege/fortress') is debated: it may mean God showed love while David was besieged, or it may mean God's love was itself like a fortified city. Both readings are theologically rich.
I had said in my alarm,
'I am cut off from your sight!'
But you heard the voice of my pleas for mercy
when I cried out to you.
KJV 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.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
The word chofzi can mean 'haste' or 'alarm/panic.' The LXX renders it with ekstasis ('ecstasy' or 'astonishment'), suggesting an altered emotional state rather than simple hurry. The honesty of this verse is remarkable — David admits that his faith wavered, that he believed God had stopped watching. The psalm does not pretend that trust is uninterrupted.
emunim derives from the same root as emunah ('faithfulness') and amen. It describes people whose character is firm and dependable — they are the human mirror of God's own emet ('truth/faithfulness'). God guards those who reflect His own character.
Translator Notes
The address shifts from God to the congregation. The chasidav ('His faithful ones') are those bound to God by chesed — the covenant-loyal community. The verb notser ('preserves, guards') and the verb meshallem ('repays, recompenses') create a double verdict: faithfulness is guarded; pride is repaid. The word yeter ('excess, abundance') modifies the repayment — God does not merely match but exceeds the measure of the proud person's arrogance.
Be strong, and let your heart take courage,
all you who wait for the LORD.
KJV Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the LORD.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
The psalm closes with a communal exhortation. The two verbs chizqu ('be strong') and ya'amets levavkhem ('let your heart be courageous') are a standard pair for encouragement in the face of danger (cf. Deuteronomy 31:6, Joshua 1:6). The final word — ha-meyachalim la-YHWH ('those who wait/hope for the LORD') — defines the audience: people still in the middle of their crisis, still waiting for deliverance, not yet arrived at resolution. The psalm ends not with completed salvation but with sustained hope.