Psalms 31:9

THE PSALMIST'S PITIFUL SITUATION

"Have mercy upon me, O Jehovah, for I am in distress:

Mine eye wasteth away with grief, yea, my soul and my body.

For my life is spent with sorrow,

And my years with sighing:

My strength faileth because of mine iniquity,

And my bones are wasted away.

Because of all mine adversaries, I am become a reproach,

Yea, unto my neighbors exceedingly,

And a fear to mine acquaintance:

They that did see me from without fled from me.

I am forgotten as a dead man out of mind:

I am like a broken vessel.

For I have heard the defaming of many,

Terror on every side:

While they took counsel together against me,

They devised to take away my life."

The terrible strait in which David here found himself fits the occasion of his flight before Saul much better than it does his leaving Jerusalem during Absalom's rebellion. The defaming engaged in by many people sprang out of the fact that Saul, in that day, was indeed the legal and recognized authority. The situation was a much better background for people's "fleeing from" David and for his neighbors' being fearful of being associated with him, than any events connected with Absalom's rebellion.

What are we to think of David's eye and his bones wasting away? Is this some kind of a disease that came upon him? No! It is David's tearful grief that is meant by the eye wasting away, and the debilitating effect of his own iniquity, of which he is acutely conscious, that "wastes away his bones." There is no disease that causes a man's bones to erode, for even death generally leaves an unimpaired skeleton. These expressions appear here in a figurative sense referring to David's dangerous and unnerving experience as a fugitive from the king, whose purpose of killing him was backed up by the wealth and military power of the nation. Only God is on David's side; but that advantage was far more than enough.

"My soul and body also" (Psalms 31:9). This indicates that David's commending his spirit to God in Psalms 31:5 was done in the hope of preserving both soul and body.

"My strength faileth because of mine iniquity" (Psalms 31:10). "Some interpreters change the word `iniquity' here to `miseries'; but "There is no good reason for this alteration."[11] This verse removes any possibility of the psalm's being understood as a prophecy of Jesus.

""I am become a reproach ... to my neighbors exceedingly" (Psalms 31:11). Why were people afraid even to be seen with David? "We can see from the fate of Abimelech and the priests of Nob what cause, humanly speaking, the people had ... for avoiding all intercourse with David."[12] King Saul murdered Abimelech and all the priests of Nob because David had been done a favor by them (1 Samuel 22). No wonder people were afraid even to be seen near him.

"I am forgotten as a dead man out of mind" (Psalms 31:12). David, whose name had so recently been upon every lip because of his victory over Goliath, and who had been hailed enthusiastically by tremendous crowds of people, "Whose exploits had but lately been the theme of song,"[13] was now a fugitive, being hunted like a wild animal, with everyone who even knew him afraid to be seen with him. As far as the public were concerned, he was forgotten, treated like a man who was already dead and buried.

"For I have heard the defaming of many, terror on every side" (Psalms 31:13). These exact words are also in Jeremiah 20:10. That great prophet was doubtless a close student of the Psalms and often found their very words in his own writings. There are also several other places in Jeremiah where we have similar quotations from the Psalms; but there are no legitimate grounds whatever for the allegation that such a quotation by Jeremiah, "Suggests a later age than David's."[14]