Psalm 31
What does a surrendered life look like? Armies surrender during war. Criminals surrender when they can no longer evade arrest. The acknowledgment of defeat is embedded in the idea of surrender. It’s an awareness that you have run out of options. There is nowhere else to go. It’s a concession to your circumstances. All of which sounds hopeless. But that is not the case for the psalmist, nor is it the case for followers of Jesus. Faith-filled surrender is not a concession or yielding to your circumstances. We may acknowledge our powerlessness over circumstances, but we do not surrender to them. Instead, we surrender to our all-powerful God. This is where we, once again, find David—overcome by his circumstances yet wholly surrendered to the Lord.
The Lord held David in high regard, even calling him a man after his own heart. Yet the Lord’s love for and commitment to David did not eliminate suffering, trials, and extended periods of hardship from David’s life. David’s life was marked by strife, distress, and suffering—both because of his own choices and those of his adversaries. And so, as we continue to follow in the psalmist’s steps, we learn that surrender is not defeat. Instead, surrender is the beginning of peace, when you stop warring against your circumstances and lean on the everlasting arms of the one who has already overcome and has promised to sustain you.
Verses 1-2a
“In you, O LORD, do I take refuge; let me never be put to shame; In your righteousness deliver me! Incline your ear to me; rescue me speedily!”
While the exact circumstances surrounding David when he penned this Psalm remain unknown, it is clear he is in need and requesting Yahweh’s intervention. David seeks refuge and rescue, not based on his own merit but solely on the Lord’s righteousness.
Because the Scriptures were written in a shame-based culture, one's life situation often reflected the perceived favor or disfavor of the Lord. This is evident in the book of Job, where Job’s friends, confronted with his immense suffering, cast doubt on his integrity and righteousness, adding shame to his already excruciating circumstances. That same ideology emerges in the Gospels when the Pharisees assume a person’s infirmities result from sin—whether their own or their parents’. In this context, David asks the Lord not only for rescue from his circumstances but also from the accompanying shame.
The most potent imagery he employs is his petition, “Incline your ear to me!” This phrase suggests God bending or stretching his out ear toward David. We all know the difference between someone merely hearing us—distracted and half-listening—and someone leaning, listening attentively. The active engagement of one attuned not only to what we say and how we say it but also to what we don’t say brings comfort, strength, and a unique sense of solidarity. It helps us feel that we are not alone and that someone else sees, hears, and is with us in our struggles.
Verses 2b-5
“Be a rock of refuge for me, a strong fortress to save me! For you are my rock and my fortress; and for your name’s sake you lead me and guide me; you take me out of the net they have hidden for me, for you are my refuge. Into your hand I commit my spirit; you have redeemed me, O LORD, faithful God.”
Amid his dire circumstances, David implores God to save him, to be his refuge, rock, and fortress. But then, in almost the same breath, David declares that God is his rock and fortress. These few verses encourage us that faith and fear can co-exist. He’s asking God to be what he already considers him to be, which is why he can say in verse 5, “Into your hand I commit my spirit.”
David trusts Yahweh personally because he has first-hand experience of God’s faithfulness and rescue. And he also trusts him theologically; he knows that the Lord is righteous and will not act contrary to his character. So David is willing to surrender, to hand himself over to the trustworthy nature of the Lord.
In this last verse, David’s words instantaneously transport us to the moment Christ echoed these exact words from the cross, releasing his spirit to the Father in a final demonstration of trust and surrender (Luke 23:46). Through Jesus’ unwavering faith and complete surrender, the Lord secured our deliverance.
Verse 6
“I hate those who pay regard to worthless idols, but I trust in the LORD.”
This verse feels like a shift in focus, almost like a sudden aside. While the initial five verses focus on David’s reliance on and confidence in God, he now directs his attention (and contempt) toward those who trust worthless idols. But this verse isn’t quite as disconnected as it may seem. In the preceding verses, David called out to Yahweh, the covenant Lord, whose enduring faithfulness has been proven across generations to those who earnestly seek Him. For David, to trust in Yahweh is to trust in something, someone, substantive and dependable.
In contrast, those who “pay regard” to idols trust in and surrender to things that are as insubstantial and empty as a vapor or breath. So, while this verse might appear out of context, David reinforces the crucial spiritual truth he must grasp—his trust in Yahweh will not be in vain.
Verses 7-8
“I will rejoice and be glad in your steadfast love, because you have seen my affliction; you have known the distress of my soul, and you have not delivered me into the hand of the enemy; you have set my feet in a broad place.”
In verses one and two, David prays for the Lord to see, to hear, and to know. Now in these verses, he rejoices that the Lord has seen, has heard, has known, and has acted on his behalf. It’s uncertain if David is reflecting on God’s past deeds or expressing a confident anticipation of God’s future actions. Nonetheless, David rejoices because he knows that Yahweh embodies steadfast love, and from that love, he acts on behalf of his children.
Distress of the soul is often clothed, hidden away from observing eyes. While we may openly share our grief and pain with others, the intricacies of our soul are seldom fully comprehended. No one can ever truly know what we hear and feel in the unbearable silence of night. And yet, here, David declares that the Lord knows the distress of his soul intimately. He can see David’s pain from the inside out rather than the outside in. As believers, we have this same encouraging hope. Because the Holy Spirit resides in us, the Lord knows our distress and suffering in a way no other being ever could or will. And as such, he can comfort us, groan alongside us, and intercede on our behalf before the Father.
But David’s declaration of God’s faithfulness doesn’t stop with just knowing the distress of his soul. Instead, Yahweh acts on David’s behalf, not delivering him into the hands of his enemies but setting him in a broad place. In a play on words, David provides us with a stark contrast. In the context of this verse, the word delivered means to shut up or close in. David says, “You haven’t let me enemies close in around me, but you have set my feet in a spacious place.” This, too, brings such freedom and hope. When the circumstances seem to be stacked against you, when the walls are closing in, and it seems there is no air to breathe and no way of escape, the Lord sets you in a spacious place where you can breathe deeply, spread out, and rest.
This may not always feel true amid hard circumstances, but its truth remains. God is at the helm, and no weapon formed against us will prosper—at least, not ultimately.
Verse 9-10
“Be gracious to me, O LORD, for I am in distress; my eye is wasted from grief; my soul and my body also. For my life is spent with sorrow, and my years with sighing; my strength fails because of my iniquity, and my bones waste away.”
David’s suffering is taking its toll on his body:
My eye is wasted from grief; my soul and my body also.
My strength fails.
My bones waste away.
While David may be using metaphorical language or hyperbole to underscore the intensity of his suffering, we are holistic beings—body, mind, and soul. So when one part suffers, all parts are involved. Prolonged physical ailments or chronic pain, for example, eventually affect us spiritually, emotionally, and mentally. Similarly, when we suffer from depression, we experience physical symptoms like lethargy, body aches, bad dreams, and an inability to sleep. Perhaps this is where David finds himself—in an agony of body, mind, and soul—and, in this place, he continues to cry out to the Lord for help.
This psalm goes back and forth, up and down, like a spiritual seesaw—from David declaring his trust and confidence in the Lord to pleading with the Lord to rescue him from his distress. So often, we believe that perfect faith eliminates struggle. But that is not true of the human experience. Both can be (and often are) true at the same time. We can have absolute, utter confidence in who the Lord is and how he works and still struggle to the point of wasting away in sorrow and distress.
This is wholehearted faith—not either/or but both/and. It doesn’t involve denying, hyperspiritualizing, or minimizing your human emotions, fear, pain, anger, suffering, doubts, or any aspect of human emotion. Instead, it means living honestly and openly before the Lord while entrusting yourself to his capable hands. Rather than shaming ourselves over suffering and insisting we have more faith, we can know that suffering does not indicate the absence or quality of our faith. Faith is what empowers us with the ability, strength, and fortitude to navigate and endure suffering.
Verses 11-13
“Because of all my adversaries I have become a reproach, especially to my neighbors, and an object of dread to my acquaintances; those who see me in the street flee from me. I have been forgotten like one who is dead; I have become like a broken vessel. For I hear the whispering of many—terror on every side!—as they scheme together against me, as they plot to take my life.”
To add insult to injury, David is not only experiencing great suffering. He is also experiencing isolation, rejection, and shame as a result of his suffering.
I’ve become a reproach (an object of contempt, disgrace, scorn) to my neighbors.
I’m an object of dread (repulsive) to my acquaintances.
Those who see me flee from me (rather than come near me in my distress).
I’m forgotten (insignificant, unworthy).
I’m like a broken vessel (useless, discarded, irrelevant).
I’m the whispering of many (slandered and discussed behind closed doors).
I’m the object of their schemes (they take counsel together against him, plotting and planning the outcome of his life).
And it’s not just David’s adversaries treating him with such disregard; it’s his neighbors and acquaintances, which makes this all the more excruciating!
Have you ever felt that way? That your suffering is so great or has continued for so long that others don’t know how to engage you? That people don’t know what to say to you or how to be around you, so they look at you with pity? Or worse yet, they cross the street to avoid having to talk with you? Or that your suffering continued for so long that you became entirely irrelevant?
This is where David finds himself. He has no one to bear witness to his pain. No one to offer compassion. No one to grieve alongside him. And in his distress and isolation, he turns to the only one he knows will not abandon him.
Verses 14-16
“But I trust in you, O LORD; I say, ‘You are my God.’ My times are in your hand; rescue me from the hand of my enemies and from my persecutors! Make your face shine on your servant; save me in your steadfast love! O LORD, let me not be put to shame, for I call upon you; let the wicked be put to shame; let them go silently to Sheol. Let the lying lips be mute, which speak insolently against the righteous in pride and contempt.”
“My times are in your hand.” This is surrender! David has declared his hopeless state and cried out to God for rescue. He has professed his trust in God’s faithfulness. He has entrusted his spirit to Yahweh. And now he surrenders the outcome to the Lord. This, to me, is the climax of this psalm, the hinge point. David reminds himself that Yahweh alone can determine the course of his life, and he trusts him to do so.
But that doesn’t stop David from continuing to pray for God to move on his behalf and to redeem his situation—praying that, rather than bearing the disgrace and reproach of his enemies, the LORD would shine his face on him, trading his shame for honor, glory, life, and light.
So, what does wholehearted surrender look like in times of suffering?
“Lord, my life is a wreck, and I hate it. But my times are in your hands.”
It would be easy to skip over the first part and go straight to declaring that our times are in God’s capable hands. But that would be to our disservice. Wholehearted surrender means fully acknowledging your situation and how you feel about it before you move toward surrendering the outcome to the Lord.
David, fully comprehending the character of the one he has entrusted himself to, now bursts out in praise.
Verses 19-24
“Oh, how abundant is your goodness, which you have stored up for those who fear you and worked for those who take refuge in you, in the sight of the children of mankind! In the cover of your presence you hide them from the plots of men; you store them in your shelter from the strife of tongues. Blessed be the LORD, for he has wondrously shown his steadfast love to me when I was in a besieged city. 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 to you for help. Love the LORD, all you his saints! The LORD preserves the faithful but abundantly repays the one who acts in pride. Be strong and let your heart take courage, all you who wait for the LORD.”
David has seen and trusts he will see again the Lord’s goodness, mercy, and deliverance, which leads David to conclude this psalm by calling others to take heart as they, too, wait for the Lord!
Psalm 31 reminds us that we have a good, good father to whom we can run for refuge, rest, safety, assurance, and safekeeping when the world seems to be crumbling beneath us. When those we should be able to trust to come to our aid have abandoned us or teamed up against us. When we are weary and spent and have no life left in us. When we are forgotten and discarded as though useless. When we feel misunderstood, unheard, unknown, and unseen. And when we have no idea what our future holds!
Take heart! Wait on the Lord. Entrust yourself to him. Because the Lord preserves his children. And he has given us a place of ultimate refuge—hidden with Christ in God. This is the God into whose hands we can entrust our spirit, life, and circumstances, for our time is in his able and loving hands.
Love you guys,
CC
If you’d like to engage Psalm 31 further, take some time to work through the following exercises.
Engage the Scriptures
Where do you see evidences of David surrendering his life to God in this psalm?
Why do you think David can surrender and even praise the Lord in the midst of such suffering?
Explore Your Story
What is your relationship with surrender? Does it carry negative connotations of failure or weakness? How is wholehearted surrender different from what you have been taught or experienced?
Does surrender come easily to you, or do you wrestle for control, answers, specific outcomes, and justice? Why do you think that is?
Can you think of a time when you experienced wholehearted surrender? How did the act of surrender affect you?
Encounter Jesus
In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus underwent great suffering and prayed for another way for God’s plan to be accomplished. Read Matthew 26:36-46 and then answer the following questions:
Describe Jesus’ situation.
What evidences of his suffering are present in the passage?
What evidence of his surrender is present in the passage?
How does his surrender differ from mere resignation?
What does Jesus’ surrender mean to you and for your life? Write your thoughts and feelings regarding this in a letter to Jesus.
If you want to read more about lament, here are a few suggested resources:
Five Things To Know About Lament, article by Dr. Glenn Packiam
Dark Clouds, Deep Mercy, book by Mark Vroegop
A Sacred Sorrow, book by Michael Card
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