Psalm 31 Jan. 14 For the Chief Musician. A Psalm by David.  1In You, Yahweh, I take refuge. Let me never be disappointed. Deliver me in Your righteousness. 2Bow down Your ear to me, deliver me quickly. Be to me a strong rock, a house of defence to save me. 3For You are my rock and my fortress, therefore for Your name’s sake lead me and guide me. 4Pluck me out of the net that they have laid secretly for me, for You are my stronghold. 5Into Your hand I commend my spirit. You have redeemed me, Yahweh, God of truth. 6I hate those who regard lying vanities, but I trust in Yahweh. 7I will be glad and rejoice in Your grace, for You have seen my affliction. You have known my soul in adversities. 8You have not shut me up into the hand of the enemy, You have set my feet in a large place. 9Have mercy on me, Yahweh, for I am in distress. My eye, my soul, and my body waste away with grief. 10For my life is spent with sorrow, my years with sighing. My strength fails because of my sin, my bones are wasted away. 11Because of all my adversaries I have become utterly contemptible to my neighbours, a fear to my acquaintances. Those who saw me on the street fled from me. 12I am forgotten from their hearts like a dead man; I am like broken pottery. 13For I have heard the slander of many, terror on every side, while they conspire together against me, they plot to take away my life. 14But I trust in You, Yahweh. I said, You are my God. 15My times are in Your hand. Redeem me from the hand of my enemies, and from those who persecute me. 16Make Your face to shine on Your servant; save me in Your grace. 17Let me not be disappointed, Yahweh, for I have called on You. Let the wicked be disappointed, may they be silent in Sheol. 18Let the lying lips be mute, which speak against the righteous insolently, with pride and contempt. 19Oh how great is Your goodness, which You have laid up for those who fear You, which You have worked for those who take refuge in You, before the sons of men! 20In the shelter of Your presence You will hide them from the plotting of man. You will keep them secretly in a dwelling away from the strife of tongues. 21Praise be to Yahweh, for He has shown me His marvellous grace in a fortified city. 22As for me, I said in my haste, I am cut off from before Your eyes. Nevertheless You heard the voice of my petitions when I cried to You. 23Oh love Yahweh, all you His saints! Yahweh preserves the faithful, and fully recompenses him who behaves arrogantly. 24Be strong, and let your heart take courage, all you who hope in Yahweh.   

Commentary

31:2,3 Be to me a strong rock... for You are my rock- David is asking God to be to him in practice what he accepted God to be theoretically. Time and again we seek to make this same conversion from theory to practical reality as we face life’s situations.
31:5 Into Your hand I commend my spirit- Chosen by Jesus as His last words from the cross as He died (Lk. 23:46). Perhaps the next half of the sentence were His first thoughts on awaking in resurrection: “You have redeemed me, Yahweh, God of truth”.
31:7 You have known my soul in adversities- God as it were gets to know us when He sees us in crises. Although He knows all things, we reveal ourselves to Him by how we feel and respond in those times.
31:15 Redeem me- But David has stated that God had already redeemed him (:5). So often in the Psalms we encounter this struggle to believe and feel as if our prayer has been heard before it actually is; and it is the same struggle we daily have in our prayer life.
31:21 He has shown me His marvellous loving kindness in a fortified city- David saw the similarities between himself and the spies who entered the fortified city of Jericho and found themselves trapped within it, with no human way of escape.