A Psalm of Complaint and of Praise.

For the choir director. A Psalm of David.

1In You, O LORD, I have taken refuge;
         Let me never be ashamed;
         In Your righteousness deliver me.

2Incline Your ear to me, rescue me quickly;
         Be to me a rock of strength,
         A stronghold to save me.

3For You are my rock and my fortress;
         For Your name’s sake You will lead me and guide me.

4You will pull me out of the net which they have secretly laid for me,
         For You are my strength.

5Into Your hand I commit my spirit;
         You have ransomed me, O LORD, God of truth.

6I hate those who regard vain idols,
         But I trust in the LORD.

7I will rejoice and be glad in Your lovingkindness,
         Because You have seen my affliction;
         You have known the troubles of my soul,

8And You have not given me over into the hand of the enemy;
         You have set my feet in a large place.

9Be gracious to me, O LORD, for I am in distress;
         My eye is wasted away from grief, my soul and my body also.

10For my life is spent with sorrow
         And my years with sighing;
         My strength has failed because of my iniquity,
         And my body has wasted away.

11Because 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.

12I am forgotten as a dead man, out of mind;
         I am like a broken vessel.

13For I have heard the slander of many,
         Terror is on every side;
         While they took counsel together against me,
         They schemed to take away my life.

14But as for me, I trust in You, O LORD,
         I say, “You are my God.”

15My times are in Your hand;
         Deliver me from the hand of my enemies and from those who persecute me.

16Make Your face to shine upon Your servant;
         Save me in Your lovingkindness.

17Let me not be put to shame, O LORD, for I call upon You;
         Let the wicked be put to shame, let them be silent in Sheol.

18Let the lying lips be mute,
         Which speak arrogantly against the righteous
         With pride and contempt.

19How great is Your goodness,
         Which You have stored up for those who fear You,
         Which You have wrought for those who take refuge in You,
         Before the sons of men!

20You hide them in the secret place of Your presence from the conspiracies of man;
         You keep them secretly in a shelter from the strife of tongues.

21Blessed be the LORD,
         For He has made marvelous His lovingkindness to me in a besieged city.

22As for me, I said in my alarm,
         “I am cut off from before Your eyes”;
         Nevertheless You heard the voice of my supplications
         When I cried to You.

23O love the LORD, all you His godly ones!
         The LORD preserves the faithful
         And fully recompenses the proud doer.

24Be strong and let your heart take courage,
         All you who hope in the LORD.

NASB ©1995

American Standard Version
In thee, O Jehovah, do I take refuge; Let me never be put to shame: Deliver me in thy righteousness.

Douay-Rheims Bible
Unto the end, a psalm for David, in an ecstasy. In thee, O Lord, have I hoped, Iet me never be confounded: deliver me in thy justice.

Darby Bible Translation
{To the chief Musician. A Psalm of David.} In thee, Jehovah, do I trust; let me never be ashamed: deliver me in thy righteousness.

English Revised Version
For the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David. In thee, O LORD, do I put my trust; let me never be ashamed: deliver me in thy righteousness.

Webster's Bible Translation
To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. In thee, O LORD, do I put my trust; let me never be ashamed: deliver me in thy righteousness.

World English Bible
In you, Yahweh, I take refuge. Let me never be disappointed. Deliver me in your righteousness.

Young's Literal Translation
To the Overseer. -- A Psalm of David. In Thee, O Jehovah, I have trusted, Let me not be ashamed to the age, In Thy righteousness deliver me.Goodness Wrought and Goodness Laid Up
'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!'--PSALM xxxi. 19. The Psalmist has been describing, with the eloquence of misery, his own desperate condition, in all manner of metaphors which he heaps together--'sickness,' 'captivity,' 'like a broken vessel,' 'as a dead man out of mind.' But in the depth of desolation he grasps at God's hand, and that lifts him up out of the pit. 'I trusted …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Hid in Light
'Thou shall 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.'--PSALM xxxi. 20. The word rendered 'presence' is literally 'face,' and the force of this very remarkable expression of confidence is considerably marred unless that rendering be retained. There are other analogous expressions in Scripture, setting forth, under various metaphors, God's protection of them that love Him. But I know not that there is any …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

'Into Thy Hands'
'Into Thine hand I commit my spirit: Thou hast redeemed me, O Lord God of truth.'--PSALM xxxi. 5. The first part of this verse is consecrated for ever by our Lord's use of it on the Cross. Is it not wonderful that, at that supreme hour, He deigned to take an unknown singer's words as His words? What an honour to that old saint that Jesus Christ, dying, should find nothing that more fully corresponded to His inmost heart at that moment than the utterance of the Psalmist long ago! How His mind must …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

'Lying Vanities'
'They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy.'--JONAH 11. 8. Jonah's refusal to obey the divine command to go to Nineveh and cry against it is best taken, not as prosaic history, but as a poetical representation of Israel's failure to obey the divine call of witnessing for God. In like manner, his being cast into the sea and swallowed by the great fish, is a poetic reproduction, for homiletical purposes, of Israel's sufferings at the hands of the heathen whom it had failed to warn. The …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Be for Thou Art'
Be Thou to me a strong Rock, an house of defence to save me. 3. For Thou art my Rock and my Fortress.'--PSALM xxxi. 2, 3 (R.V.). It sounds strange logic, 'Be ... for Thou art,' and yet it is the logic of prayer, and goes very deep, pointing out both its limits and its encouragements. The parallelism between these two clauses is even stronger in the original than in our Version, for whilst the two words which designate the 'Rock' are not identical, their meaning is identical, and the difference …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

"My Times are in Thy Hand"
Having thus taken to the best resource by trusting in Jehovah, and having made the grandest claim possible by saying, "Thou art my God", the Psalmist now stays himself upon a grand old doctrine, one of the most wonderful that was ever revealed to men. He sings, "My times are in thy hand." This to him was a most cheering fact: he had no fear as to his circumstances, since all things were in the divine hand. He was not shut up unto the hand of the enemy; but his feet stood in a large room, for he was …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 37: 1891

That it is Sweet to Despise the World and to Serve God
Now will I speak again, O my Lord, and hold not my peace; I will say in the ears of my God, my Lord, and my King, who is exalted above all, Oh how plentiful is Thy goodness which Thou hast laid up for them that fear Thee!(1) But what art Thou to those who love Thee? What to those who serve Thee with their whole heart? Truly unspeakable is the sweetness of the contemplation of Thee, which Thou bestowest upon those who love Thee. In this most of all Thou hast showed me the sweetness of Thy charity, …
Thomas A Kempis—Imitation of Christ

An Exhortation to Love God
1. An exhortation. Let me earnestly persuade all who bear the name of Christians to become lovers of God. "O love the Lord, all ye his saints" (Psalm xxxi. 23). There are but few that love God: many give Him hypocritical kisses, but few love Him. It is not so easy to love God as most imagine. The affection of love is natural, but the grace is not. Men are by nature haters of God (Rom. i. 30). The wicked would flee from God; they would neither be under His rules, nor within His reach. They fear God, …
Thomas Watson—A Divine Cordial

Father, I Know that all My Life
"My times are in Thy hand." -- Psalm 31:15 Father, I know that all my life Is portioned out for me, And the changes that are sure to come, I do not fear to see; But I ask Thee for a present mind Intent on pleasing Thee. I ask Thee for a thoughtful love, Through constant watching wise, To meet the glad with joyful smiles, And to wipe the weeping eyes; And a heart at leisure from itself, To soothe and sympathize. I would not have the restless will That hurries to and fro, Seeking for some great …
Miss A. L. Waring—Hymns and Meditations

His Journey to South Russia.
1853. The call which John Yeardley had received to visit the German colonies in South Russia, and which had lain for a long time dormant, now revived. A friend who had watched with regret his unsuccessful attempts on former journeys to enter that jealous country, and who augured from the political changes which had taken place that permission might probably now be obtained, brought the subject again under his notice. The admonition was timely and effectual. After carefully pondering the matter--with, …
John Yeardley—Memoir and Diary of John Yeardley, Minister of the Gospel

Whether Faith is Required of Necessity in the Minister of a Sacrament?
Objection 1: It seems that faith is required of necessity in the minister of a sacrament. For, as stated above [4401](A[8]), the intention of the minister is necessary for the validity of a sacrament. But "faith directs in intention" as Augustine says against Julian (In Psalm xxxi, cf. Contra Julian iv). Therefore, if the minister is without the true faith, the sacrament is invalid. Objection 2: Further, if a minister of the Church has not the true faith, it seems that he is a heretic. But heretics, …
Saint Thomas Aquinas—Summa Theologica

Psalm 31:1 NIV • Psalm 31:1 NLT • Psalm 31:1 ESV • Psalm 31:1 NASB • Psalm 31:1 KJV • Psalm 31:1 Bible Apps • Psalm 31:1 Parallel • Bible Hub