Discovering Ourselves In God’s Story 

Psalm 31

Jim Davis

Psalm 31 gives us insight into the heart and mind of the writer in troubling times. In Psalm 31 we hear the cries of anguish. The cries originate within a troubled heart consumed with anguish.

Listen to the cries:

“My life is consumed by anguish and my years by groaning. . . my strength fails because of my anguish . . .  my bones grow weak . . . Lord, I am in distress . . . my eyes grow weak with sorrow, my soul and body with grief . . . I am forgotten as though I were dead . . . I have become like broken pottery . . . I am cut off from your sight!”

The Bible reveals the struggles of God’s people so beautifully. As I come to these stories and hear their cries it allows me to personally enter into their stories as I face my own anxious fears. As I identify with their struggles, I find myself reading many psalms as my own.  As I mediate on the psalms I find myself kneeling with them at the throne of God. In doing so I find myself seeking refuge with them. As I find myself in these psalms—I find my place in God’s salvation story for my life.

The psalm was used in temple worship. It served as a source of strength for God’s people in times of trouble. The psalm continues to be a source of strength to us today.

All have experienced what the writer is going through. It may have been broken relationships or an addiction that brings us to our knees. Abusive relationship, sexuality, pornography, identity crises, finances, disloyal friends, false accusations, paranoia, loss of friends, thoughts of those you love being eternally lost, death of a child or spouse, loss of health, Covid, my own self-righteousness or a hundred other things that drive us to heart rending despair.

The biggest battle is to keep our thoughts aligned with God. We see the psalmist seeking to align his heart and mind with God in the battle. The most challenging part is facing ourselves in our battles. The deceit of our world seems overwhelming as we are bombarded with a world in chaos 24/7/365. The distractions seem insurmountable. We are challenged with views of an alternate world order and alternate lifestyles.
 
An Anguished Mind Saps Our Strength
 
The psalmist cries out, “My life is consumed by anguish and my years by groaning; my strength fails because of my affliction, and my bones grow weak.” Most of us fight lifelong battles as we seek to master our attitudes, our tongues, our desires, distress and our actions throughout life. 

Most have experienced soul draining anguish. Our strength is gone, we don’t know which way to turn. We question where our lives are really headed. Often, we feel forsaken by our friends, family and God. We can only see the seemingly terrifying insurmountable obstacles either way we turn. People are conspiring against you or your paranoia leads you to believe it to be so. All we can see is the fearful trap that is set for us.

Our battles rage on as we seek to keep focused on God’s purpose for our lives.

2 Corinthians 10:3-6
For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. 

It is a battle to keep our thoughts obedient to Christ. We often struggle to keep from drowning in our own negative thoughts about ourselves and our world. Many of us are like soldiers who wake up in the night reliving the failures of our personal battles—wondering—will it ever end.

The psalmist cries out, “Keep me free from the trap that is set for me. . .” We may not be facing Goliath, or be locked down in a city surrounded by the Babylonian army seeking to kill us. We may be like Gideon wondering, if God is with me—why is all this happening to me. It may not be a problem that anyone knows we are fighting. It may only be the unseen demons of our own minds that attack day and night. They are the demons we have allowed in through poor choices. They continue to battle as we seek to overcome. They seek to hold us back as the battles to overcome rages in our minds.

The biggest trap set for us is to feel that we are all alone as troubles persist. It may seem as if God has forsaken us, people are shunning us—sometimes there is public ostracism. We hear the whispering—see the finger pointing. It seems as though we are trapped with no way out—can’t depend on your closest friends—no one trustworthy to talk to knowing whatever you say will only feed the rumor mill. We are completely broken.

Psalm 31:11-13 
Because of all my enemies,
    I am the utter contempt of my neighbors
and an object of dread to my closest friends—
    those who see me on the street flee from me.
I am forgotten as though I were dead;
    I have become like broken pottery.
For I hear many whispering,
    “Terror on every side!”
They conspire against me
    and plot to take my life.

God Is the Source of Our Strength

Sometimes we have to come to the end of ourselves to discover our only source of strength. Lifelong battles leave us bewildered as we realize there are some things about ourselves we can’t change. It is just who we are and we can’t escape it. Then and only then do we find the source of our real strength.

The Words of Moses continue to be relevant to each one of us today. The Hebrews were standing at the end of the road surrounded by mountains while enemies approached from behind. They had no way out. The people were terrified as they were thinking, Why did we ever leave Egypt?

Exodus 14:13-14 
Moses answered the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.” 

Standing still is not usually an option we see in anxious times; our motto is do something even it is wrong. Sometimes we need to stand still and focus on the true source of strength. 

The psalmist finds himself at this very place as he decides to stand still in God’s place of refuge.

Psalm 31:1-5 
In you, Lord, I have taken refuge;
    let me never be put to shame;
    deliver me in your righteousness.
Turn your ear to me,
    come quickly to my rescue;
be my rock of refuge,
    a strong fortress to save me.
Since you are my rock and my fortress,
    for the sake of your name lead and guide me.
Keep me free from the trap that is set for me,
    for you are my refuge. 
Into your hands I commit my spirit;
    deliver me, Lord, my faithful God.

A child of God always has a place of safety—come life or death. A place that covers our shame, a place of rescue, a place where I can come just as I am, a place that gives us direction, a place of deliverance from the traps Satan sets for each of us.

There is not anything we can’t bring to God. He knows each of us inside and out. The biggest problem is accepting ourselves as we are so we can bring ourselves to God’s place of refuge. Nothing matters to God he wants to make each of us acceptable through the blood of Christ.

Our deliverance is not usually instantaneous. It is simply a place where we can work through our problems as God gives us strength. Choices we make often have long term consequences. The nature of evil is that it pursues us around  every corner as it requires payment be made in full for every bad choice ever made. Also, as it seeks to destroy us for no reason at all.  Given our propensities toward our desires, a life long journey for deliverance is not that unusual. Moses led the Hebrews on a painful forty year journey toward their deliverance. 

Too often we feel forsaken by God in the midst of our troubles. Yet,   we manage to muster up enough strength and confidence to turn to God. We pray similar thoughts as the psalmist—or we may turn to this very psalm. We read it as our own prayer to God; just as the temple worshipers did thousands of years ago.

Psalm 31:9 
Be merciful to me, Lord, for I am in distress;
    my eyes grow weak with sorrow,
    my soul and body with grief.

Psalm 31:14-17 
But I trust in you, Lord;
    I say, “You are my God.”
My times are in your hands;
    deliver me from the hands of my enemies,
    from those who pursue me.
Let your face shine on your servant;
    save me in your unfailing love.
Let me not be put to shame, Lord,
    for I have cried out to you;
but let the wicked be put to shame
    and be silent in the realm of the dead.

Our Pain Is A Source of Strength for Others

Our pain becomes a source of great strength as we experience God’s deliverance. Pain handled correctly makes us stronger as it produces fruit in our life. Joseph spoke to his brothers who betrayed him saying, “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.” Genesis 50:20

Psalm 31:7-8
I will be glad and rejoice in your love,
    for you saw my affliction
    and knew the anguish of my soul. 
You have not given me into the hands of the enemy
    but have set my feet in a spacious place.

Psalm 31:22-24
Praise be to the Lord,
    for he showed me the wonders of his love
    when I was in a city under siege 
In my alarm I said,
    “I am cut off from your sight!”
Yet you heard my cry for mercy
    when I called to you for help.
Love the Lord, all his faithful people!
    The Lord preserves those who are true to him,
    but the proud he pays back in full.
Be strong and take heart,
    all you who hope in the Lord.  

This psalm reveals a person sharing their pain and deliverance to help others face their troubles. The psalmist seeks to recycle the pain he experiences to help others as he writes about his troubles. The psalmist had a passion to share his difficulties with others through this psalm. The pain in his life made him more compassionate, more sympathetic and more sensitive to the needs of others.

The beautiful aspect about the message of God is how we recycle our pain. Responding to our pain in a godly fashion allows others to see God in our lives. It has power to make the world a better place as we refuse to return evil for evil—as we allow God to intervene in our troubles. 

2 Corinthians 1:3-4
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.

We find Jesus quoting a psalm as he hung on the cross. He identified with the psalmist’s experiences as he quotes Psalm 22:1. 

Mark 15:33-34
At noon, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. And at three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”).

The psalms not only foretold Christ’s sufferings, they foretell our suffering as we take up our cross to follow Christ. At times we find ourselves crying the cries of the psalmists as we carry our cross in a world of darkness.

Let’s choose today to be open and honest about our pain and share the greatness of God that can be revealed through our pain. 

Conclusion:

We need to read this psalm when our faith becomes so weak that we are blinded to the power of God’s love and mercy—to the wonder of his love. Read this psalm as your own, claim it for yourself. Seek to believe in it with all your heart. 

Psalm 31
1 
In you, Lord, I have taken refuge;
    let me never be put to shame;
    deliver me in your righteousness.
2 
Turn your ear to me,
    come quickly to my rescue;
be my rock of refuge,
    a strong fortress to save me.
3 
Since you are my rock and my fortress,
    for the sake of your name lead and guide me.
4 
Keep me free from the trap that is set for me,
    for you are my refuge.
5 
Into your hands I commit my spirit;
    deliver me, Lord, my faithful God.
6 
I hate those who cling to worthless idols;
    as for me, I trust in the Lord.
7 
I will be glad and rejoice in your love,
    for you saw my affliction
    and knew the anguish of my soul.
8 
You have not given me into the hands of the enemy
    but have set my feet in a spacious place.
9 
Be merciful to me, Lord, for I am in distress;
    my eyes grow weak with sorrow,
    my soul and body with grief.
10 
My life is consumed by anguish
    and my years by groaning;
my strength fails because of my affliction,
    and my bones grow weak.
11 
Because of all my enemies,
    I am the utter contempt of my neighbors
and an object of dread to my closest friends—
    those who see me on the street flee from me.
12 
I am forgotten as though I were dead;
    I have become like broken pottery.
13 
For I hear many whispering,
    “Terror on every side!”
They conspire against me
    and plot to take my life.
14 
But I trust in you, Lord;
    I say, “You are my God.”
15 
My times are in your hands;
    deliver me from the hands of my enemies,
    from those who pursue me.
16 
Let your face shine on your servant;
    save me in your unfailing love.
17 
Let me not be put to shame, Lord,
    for I have cried out to you;
but let the wicked be put to shame
    and be silent in the realm of the dead.
18 
Let their lying lips be silenced,
    for with pride and contempt
19 
How abundant are the good things
    that you have stored up for those who fear you,
that you bestow in the sight of all,
    on those who take refuge in you.
20 
In the shelter of your presence you hide them
    from all human intrigues;
you keep them safe in your dwelling
    from accusing tongues.
21 
Praise be to the Lord,
    for he showed me the wonders of his love
    when I was in a city under siege.
22 
In my alarm I said,
    “I am cut off from your sight!”
Yet you heard my cry for mercy
    when I called to you for help.
23 
Love the Lord, all his faithful people!
    The Lord preserves those who are true to him,
    but the proud he pays back in full.
24 
Be strong and take heart,
    all you who hope in the Lord.