Commentary - Psalm 31:9-13

Bird's-eye view

In this section of Psalm 31, David plunges into the depths of his affliction. This is not a theoretical lament; it is a raw, visceral cry from a man being consumed from the inside out and crushed from the outside in. He describes a comprehensive breakdown: physical, emotional, and social. The cause is twofold. He plainly identifies his own iniquity as a source of his failing strength, and at the same time, he is besieged by external enemies who slander, shun, and scheme against him. This passage is a powerful depiction of what it feels like to be abandoned by man and chastened by God, a living death. It is a portrait of a man being reduced to nothing, like a shattered piece of pottery, so that he might learn to trust in God alone.

Crucially, this is not just David's prayer. As with so many of David's psalms of dereliction, we see here a profound type of Christ. The reproach, the abandonment by neighbors and acquaintances, the plotting of enemies, the feeling of being forgotten like a dead man, all of this finds its ultimate fulfillment in the passion of our Lord Jesus. David's suffering, brought on by his own sin and the sins of others, points us to the perfect sufferer, who endured it all without sin, for our sake.

Outline

Context In Psalms

Psalm 31 begins with a robust declaration of trust in Yahweh (vv. 1-8). David has taken refuge in the Lord, his rock and fortress. He rejoices in God's steadfast love. But the psalm takes a sharp turn at verse 9. The declaration of faith gives way to a deep and detailed lament. This pivot is important; it shows us that robust faith is not antithetical to profound grief. True faith does not pretend that everything is fine. Rather, it cries out to God from the midst of the wreckage. The verses that follow our passage, starting in verse 14, show the pivot back to trust, but it is a trust that has been tested and refined in the furnace described here.

Key Issues

Commentary

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

David begins where any man in such a state must begin: with a plea for grace. He does not appeal to his own merits, for he will soon confess his own iniquity. He appeals to God's character. "Be gracious" is a cry for unmerited favor. The reason is simple and stark: "I am in distress." This is not a minor inconvenience. The Hebrew word speaks of being in a tight, narrow place, of being hemmed in with no way out. The distress is so profound that it has manifested physically. His eye, the lamp of the body, is "wasted away." It is consumed, eaten up by grief. This is a comprehensive collapse. It is not just his eye, but his nephesh, his soul, his very life-breath, his identity, and his body as well. The sorrow is not just a free-floating emotion; it is a cancer eating away at his entire person.

10 For my life is worn down with sorrow And my years with sighing; My strength fails because of my iniquity, And my bones waste away.

Here David diagnoses a central part of the problem. Why is his strength failing? He gives a direct answer: "because of my iniquity." In our therapeutic age, we want to psychologize this away, but David is a realist. He understands that sin has consequences. There is a spiritual law of gravity, and what goes up must come down. Sin is a heavy burden, and it drains a man of his vitality. It is a spiritual sickness that leads to physical decay. His life is not just punctuated by sorrow; it is "worn down" by it. His years are measured out in sighs. His very framework, his bones, are wasting away. This is what unconfessed or unresolved sin does. It is a slow rot from the inside out.

11 Among 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.

The internal decay is matched by an external collapse of his social world. He is a "reproach", a thing of contempt and scorn. And notice the progression. It begins with his adversaries, which is to be expected. But it gets closer to home. He is a reproach "especially to my neighbors." The people who share a property line with him now despise him. It gets worse. To his "acquaintances," he is an "object of dread." They are terrified of him, perhaps because they fear his bad fortune is contagious, or because they believe the slander being spread about him. The final step is total public ostracism. Strangers in the street see him coming and flee. He is treated like a leper. This is a picture of complete social death, a man being systematically cut off from the community.

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

This is the nadir. The social shunning has achieved its end. He is forgotten. The phrase "out of mind" is literally "out of heart." He no longer exists in the memory or affections of others. He is, for all practical purposes, a dead man. The second image is just as powerful. He is "like a broken vessel." A piece of shattered pottery is utterly useless. It cannot hold water. It cannot be used for anything. It is fit only to be swept up and thrown on the trash heap. This is how David sees himself: worthless, discarded, and beyond repair. This is the logic of sin and despair. It tells you that you are finished.

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

David makes it clear that this is not all in his head. His paranoia is justified. There are real external threats. He hears the "bad report," the slander and whispering campaigns of many. He is surrounded by it: "Terror is on every side." This is not just a feeling; it is an objective reality. His enemies are not content merely to slander and shun him. They are actively conspiring against him. They "took counsel together," and their goal was not merely to ruin his reputation, but to end his existence. They "schemed to take my life." This is the world of the antithesis. The seed of the serpent hates the seed of the woman, and that hatred is ultimately murderous. Here again, David's experience is a stark prefigurement of the Lord Jesus, against whom the rulers of the earth took counsel together.

Application

This passage teaches us to be brutally honest in our prayers. God is not interested in a pious veneer that pretends our bones are not wasting away when they are. David models a faith that cries out from the depths, not a faith that denies the depths exist. When you are in distress, tell God you are in distress.

We must also take sin seriously. David connects his failing strength to his iniquity. While not all suffering is the direct result of a specific sin, we must never dismiss the possibility. Honest self-examination and confession are essential for spiritual health. Unconfessed sin is a spiritual poison that affects the whole man, soul and body. Honesty before God is the only way to deal with it.

Finally, we must see Christ here. When we feel like a broken vessel, we must remember the one who was truly broken for us. When we face reproach, we look to the one who endured the ultimate reproach of the cross. David's experience of being forgotten like a dead man points us to Christ's burial in the tomb. But just as the psalm does not end in the depths, neither did the story of our Lord. Because He was raised from the dead, we have a living hope. God's specialty is taking broken, discarded vessels, and through the grace of the gospel, making them into something glorious for His use.