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Matthew Henry

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Psalms 31:1-8

Faith and prayer must go together. He that believes, let his pray?I believe, therefore I have spoken: and he that prays, let him believe, for the prayer of faith is the prevailing prayer. We have both here. I. David, in distress, is very earnest with God in prayer for succour and relief. This eases a burdened spirit, fetches in promised mercies, and wonderfully supports and comforts the soul in the expectation of them. He prays, 1. That God would deliver him (Ps. 31:1), that his life might be... read more

Matthew Henry

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Psalms 31:9-18

In the Ps. 31:1-8 David had appealed to God's righteousness, and pleaded his relation to him and dependence on him; here he appeals to his mercy, and pleads the greatness of his own misery, which made his case the proper object of that mercy. Observe, I. The complaint he makes of his trouble and distress (Ps. 31:9): ?Have mercy upon me, O Lord! for I am in trouble, and need thy mercy.? The remembrance he makes of his condition is not much unlike some even of Job's complaints. 1. His troubles... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Psalms 31:8

And hast not shut me up into the hand of the enemy ,.... When in Keilah, in the wilderness of Ziph, and Maon, and encompassed about by Saul and his army, 1 Samuel 23:7 ; nor does the Lord suffer his people to be shut up under the power of sin and Satan, so that they cannot come forth in the exercise of grace, and the discharge of duty: but he brings their souls out of prison, that they may praise his name; thou hast set my feet in a large room ; at full liberty from his enemies; Saul... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Psalms 31:9

Have mercy upon me, O Lord, for I am in trouble ,.... A sudden change of case and frame this! and so it is with the people of God; as soon as, out of one trouble, they are in another; these are what are appointed for them, and lie in their pathway to heaven, and are necessary; and under them it is quite right to betake themselves to the Lord, who is a merciful God; and it is best to cast themselves upon his mercy, having no merit of their own to plead with him; and they may freely tell him... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Psalms 31:8

Thou hast set my foot in a large room - Many hair-breadth escapes David had for his life; at that time especially when, playing before Saul, the furious king took a spear and endeavored to pierce him through the body, but he escaped and got to the deserts. Here God, who had saved his life, set his feet in a large room. The seventh and eighth verses speak of what God had done previously for him. read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Psalms 31:9

Mine eye is consumed - He now returns, and speaks of his present situation. Grief had brought many tears from his eyes, many agonies into his soul, and many distressful feelings into his whole frame. My soul and my belly - The belly is often taken for the whole body. But the term belly or bowels, in such as case as this, may be the most proper; for in distress and misery, the bowels being the most tender part, and in fact the very seat of compassion, they are often most affected. In... read more

John Calvin

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Psalms 31:9

Verse 9 9.Have mercy upon me, O Jehovah! To move God to succor him, he magnifies the greatness of his misery and grief by the number of his complaints; not that God needs arguments to persuade him, but because he allows the faithful to deal familiarly with him, that they may disburden themselves of their cares. The greater the number of afflictions with which they are oppressed, the more do they encourage themselves, while bewailing them before God, in the hope of obtaining his assistance.... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Psalms 31:1-8

A prayer for grace in trouble. Authorship uncertain. Some give it to David, in Ziklag; others to Jeremiah. Three divisions. I. THE PSALMIST 'S PRAYER . The trouble that oppressed him had been of long duration, as appears from the tenth verse. 1 . He prays for deliverance from his trouble. (Verse 1.) Does not qualify the prayer, but seeks absolute deliverance. It was to him an unqualified evil, and, as evil, he had no thought it could be working any good for him. So the... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Psalms 31:1-24

but part 1. might be further subdivided into three, and part 2. into two portions. The psalm thus fails into six divisions: Part 1. ( Psalms 31:1-4 ), prayer; Part 2. ( Psalms 31:5-8 ), self-encouragement; Part 3. ( Psalms 31:9-13 ), causes of his trouble; Part 4. ( Psalms 31:14-18 ), profession of faith and prayer; Part 5. ( Psalms 31:19-22 ), praise of God's goodness; Part 6. ( Psalms 31:23 , Psalms 31:24 ), exhortation to the people to praise God. read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Psalms 31:1-24

The saint rehearsing his experience of the great Protector's care There is no good reason to doubt that this is one of David's psalms. Its forms of expression bear the marks of his pen, £ and the "undesigned coincidences " £ between it and the history of his life are both interesting and striking. The old interpreters supposed the psalm to belong to the time when David fled from Saul into the wilderness of Maon; others attribute it to the time of his deliverance from being shut up in... read more

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