Psalms 31 · The Lantern

To the choirmaster. A psalm of David. In you, LORD, I have taken refuge; let me never be ashamed; in your righteousness deliver me.

Not only does God free us into righteousness but also into temperance, fortitude and love. He uses "righteousness" to embrace all virtues. Perhaps he understands "Christ" for "righteousness." "He is made wisdom to us by God and our righteousness and sanctification and redemption."

He rightly made an appeal for the Lord's justice, since he knew that he would suffer at the hands of the unjust. What a truly amazing and divine exchange! He received death and gave salvation in return; he endured injuries and distributed honors; he took upon himself pain and conferred safety.

Then when he says, "In your justice," he adds the prayer, in which he does three things. First, he assigns the reason why he asks to be freed. Second, he asks for the speed of liberation, at "Incline." Third, he presents the manner: "Be to me." He says therefore: O Lord, I hope, and therefore I ask to be freed. But for what reason?

Into Your Hands I Commit My Spirit

Stretch out your ear to me; quickly rescue me. Be for me a rock of refuge, a house of strongholds, to save me.

For you are my crag and my stronghold; and for the sake of your name you will guide me and lead me.

You will bring me out of the net that they have hidden for me, for you are my refuge.

"Thou shalt bring Me out of this trap, which they have hidden for Me." Thou shalt bring Me out of these snares, which they have hidden for Me. "For Thou art My Protector."

By this he indicated the plot of Ahithophel, which he put into operation against him, as we have spoken about previously. … After frequently encountering many disasters I was freed from them by your aid—thus I entrust my soul to your providence. He calls providence here once again "hands."

The snare was certainly hidden by the enemies, but there was not one which could be hidden from Christ, nor did he fall into death by being deceived, but consciously he accepted it in order to liberate us. So the Jews hid a trap for Christ because they believed that he was only a man, and they were devising a plan to destroy him by an ambush.

Into your hand I entrust my spirit; you have ransomed me, LORD, God of truth.

And it was about the sixth hour, and there was a darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour. And the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was rent in the midst. And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said thus, he gave up the ghost.

"Into Thy hands I commend My Spirit." To Thy power I commend My Spirit, soon to receive It back. "Thou hast redeemed Me, O Lord God of truth?" Let the people too, redeemed by the Passion of their Lord, and joyful in the glorifying of their Head, say, "Thou hast redeemed me, O Lord God of truth."

"Into your hands." Third, he breaks forth in sudden prayer; and concerning this he does two things. First, he commends himself to the Lord; second, he commemorates the divine benefit, either already received or soon to follow, at "You have redeemed," and so on. He says therefore as to the first, "Into your hands," and so on. What a man holds most dear he commends to his guide.

I have hated those who keep worthless vanities, but I have trusted in the LORD.

You hated them and rebuffed those paying constant attention to doing wrong; far from doing evil in the heat of passion, they involve themselves in the practice of evil as though an obligation (the sense of "paid constant attention"). By "futile things" he refers to the wrongdoing.

"I will hope in the Lord," in whom there is nothing empty, … but everything remains fixed and whole.

"But I." Above, he assigned the reason for his hope from the divine condition; here he assigns it from the experience of divine benefits. Concerning which he does two things. First, he proposes hope; second, its effect, at "I will be glad." He says therefore: God hates the wicked; "But I," who do not observe vanities, "have hoped in God alone," not in the god of riches, 1 Tim.

I will exult and rejoice in your loyal love, because you have seen my affliction; you have known the distresses of my soul.

"I will be glad, and rejoice in Your mercy:" which does not deceive me. "For You have regarded My humiliation:" wherein You have subjected me to vanity in hope. [Romans 8:20] "You have saved my soul from necessities" [Psalm 31:7]. You have saved my soul from the necessities of fear, that with a free love it may serve You.

Let us give attention to the one who says that his humility was respected. It is he who both created heaven and earth and holds them intact, he whom the heavenly powers serve. But there was humility in the Most High for this reason, because also a true human nature was connected to him, made perfect from his very conception.

"Because." Here he commemorates the benefit of liberation. First, the liberation; second, the manner of liberation, at "You have not shut me up." He says he was freed from two things: from rejection and from tribulation. The first is opposed to honor; the second to prosperity.

And you have not handed me over into the hand of the enemy; you have set my feet in a broad place.

Be gracious to me, LORD, for I am in distress; my eye has wasted away from grief, my soul and my belly.

For my life is finished in sorrow, and my years in sighing; my strength has stumbled in my iniquity, and my bones have wasted away.

Let your children take part in the instruction that is in Christ, let them learn how powerful with God is humility, how strong is a pure love, how the fear of him is beautiful and great and saves those who live in it in holiness with a pure mind. For he is a searcher of thoughts and desires; his breath is in us, and when he wills, he will take it away.

"For my life has failed in pain" [Psalm 31:10]. For my life is to confess You, but it failed in pain, when the enemy had said, Let them be tortured until they deny Him. "And my years in groanings." The time that I pass in this world is not taken away from me by death, but abides, and is spent in groanings.

Then when he says, "Because," and so on, he explains the tribulation as to external matters. For tribulation drives out the goods of the present life, which are three: namely, pleasures of the flesh, riches, and honors: 1 Jn. 2: "All that is in the world," and so on. Against the first he sets forth sorrow; against the second, poverty; and against the third, reproaches.

Because of all my foes I have become a reproach — and to my neighbors exceedingly — and a dread to those who know me. Those who see me in the street have fled from me.

"I have been made a reproach above all mine enemies" [Psalm 31:11]. All the wicked are my enemies; and nevertheless they for their wickednesses are tortured only till they confess: I then have overpassed their reproach, I, whose confession death does not follow, but racking pains follow upon it.

Christ the Lord, though innocent and undefiled, was being considered a disgrace among those who were desecrating themselves with wicked sin.… A disgrace indicates a terribly heinous act, what the evil Jews were convinced had been committed by our Lord Savior when they said: "This man is not from God, who does not keep the Sabbath," and elsewhere: "You are a Samaritan and have a…

"Above." The prophet, assigning his exterior tribulation, has proposed sorrows against pleasures, poverty against riches; here he sets forth reproaches against the honors of the world. Concerning this he does three things.

I am forgotten like a dead man, out of mind; I have become like a perishing vessel.

"I have been forgotten, as one dead from the heart" [Psalm 31:12]. And they have forgotten me, as if I were dead from their hearts. "I have become as a lost vessel." I have seemed to myself to be lost to all the Lord's service, living in this world, and gaining none, when all were afraid to join themselves unto me.

Those who do not believe the Scriptures at all saw the Lord fixed on the cross and walked away from his divinity, anticipating that their expectation was ended by this death.

Then he introduces the example: "I have become," and so on. "I have become as a vessel that is destroyed," that is, useless, which no one cares about. Jer. 51: "He has made me as an empty vessel; he has swallowed me up as a dragon," and so on. Third, the proof; and concerning this he does two things.

For I have heard the whispering of many — terror on every side — when they conspired together against me; they schemed to take my life.

But I — in you I have trusted, LORD; I said, “You are my God.”

"But I have hoped in You, O Lord; I have said, You are my God" [Psalm 31:14]. For You have not changed, that You should not save, Who dost correct.

The order of the words is wonderful and most holy. When his enemies … held on to a hope in their own strength, he says that he put his hope in the Lord, since he knew that their power was nothing and by the plots they were attempting they would kill themselves rather than him.… The Lord Christ says: "You are my God," but he says this from the perspective of the human nature tha…

"But I." Above, the Psalmist narrated the evils he was suffering; here he takes refuge in prayer. And because prayer is empty unless it rests upon sure hope, therefore he first sets forth hope and then adds the prayer, at "Deliver me from the hand," and so on. Concerning the first he does two things. First, he sets forth hope.

My times are in your hand; rescue me from the hand of my enemies and from those who pursue me.

He says "my lot" in the sense of all my relief and all my tribulation. Since everyone has times when they are distressed and times when they are also made happy, he means, "my lot," the times allotted to me for being made glad and for being distressed, all these are "in your hands" and capable of being changed as you wish.

"In Thy hands" are "my lots." In Thy power are my lots. For I see no desert for which out of the universal ungodliness of the human race Thou hast elected me particularly to salvation. And though there be with Thee some just and secret order in my election, yet I, from whom this is hid, have attained by lot unto my Lord's vesture.

Then he adds the prayer when he says, "Deliver." He prays first for himself. Second, against his enemies, at "Let them be put to shame." Concerning the first he does two things. First, he prays to be freed from evils. Second, to be advanced to good, at "Make your face to shine." In adversaries he considers two things.

Make your face shine upon your servant; save me in your loyal love.

LORD, let me not be ashamed, for I have called on you. Let the wicked be ashamed; let them be silenced to Sheol.

Let lying lips be struck dumb — those that speak arrogantly against the righteous, in pride and contempt.

How great is your goodness, which you have stored up for those who fear you, which you have worked for those who take refuge in you, before the sons of man!

The sum of your sins does not surpass the magnitude of God's mercies. Your wounds are not beyond the healing skill of the great Physician. Only surrender to him with faith, tell the Physician of your malady.

There is an abundance of sweetness, for the Lord's sweetness is expressed by the many benefits that he gives. He is sweet when he corrects, sweet when he pardons, and sweet when he promises eternal rewards to believers. But you must understand that he is only sweet to those who have acquired a taste for him.

"How great." Above, the Psalmist set forth tribulation and prayer; here he proceeds to thanksgiving, as one who has been heard. In this he does two things. First, he commemorates universally the benefits that God confers on the human race and on the saints. Second, he breaks forth into thanksgiving, at "Blessed be the Lord, because," and so on.

You hide them in the covering of your face from the conspiracies of man; you conceal them in a shelter from the strife of tongues.

God's abounding goodness aids us in a hidden way, and in the present life it is not clearly evident. For every objection of unbelievers would be removed, could we actually see what we only hope for. But our hopes await the ages to come, so that there may then be revealed what at present our faith alone apprehends.

Although the just suffer trials in this age, a greater sweetness awaits them, if they persevere to the future, which the Lord hides meanwhile for those who fear him. He does not wish to show it in this age, so he may complete it for the ones hoping in him in the presence of those who mock them.

Then when he says, "You will hide them," he shows the benefits of God toward the saints through liberation from evil. But because man can suffer a twofold evil -- namely, in deed and in word -- first he shows when he protects from the first evil. Second, how from the second, at "You will protect them." He says therefore, "You will hide them," and so on.

Blessed be the LORD, for he has made his loyal love wonderful to me in a besieged city.

"Blessed be the Lord; for He has made His mercy marvellous, in the city of compassing" [Psalm 31:21]. Blessed be the Lord, for after the correction of the sharpest persecutions He has made His mercy marvellous to all throughout the world, in the circuit of human society.

We should regard the "surrounded city" as the physical location of Jerusalem, which is set in the midst of the nations and is known to exist as the temple of God. The nations that are located around it were worthy to receive the precepts of the Christian teaching, as if the purest of springs opened itself up to them, and they were irrigated with the gifts of heavenly life.

Then when he says, "Blessed," he offers thanksgiving. In this he does two things. First, he gives thanks. Second, he exhorts others to this, to whom the aforesaid benefits have been conferred, at "Love the Lord." Concerning the first he does three things. First, he breaks forth into thanks.

And I, I said in my alarm, “I am cut off from before your eyes.” Nevertheless you heard the voice of my pleas for grace when I cried to you for help.

Love the LORD, all you his loyal ones! The LORD guards the faithful, and repays in full the one who acts in pride.

Be strong, and let your heart be courageous, all you who wait for the LORD.

"Quit you like men, and let your heart be strengthened" [Psalm 31:24]: working good without fainting, that you may reap in due season. "All you who trust in the Lord:" that is, you who duly fear and worship Him, trust ye in the Lord.

This is the power of the entire psalm and in it the usefulness of the sacred passion is concentrated … namely, that they not be frightened by the sufferings predicted, but that the hearts of the faithful find strength for the glorious imitation that they knew had been introduced to provide the healing of salvation for the world.… So this is an appeal to good people not to withd…

Then when he adds, "Act manfully," he orders them as to their action. First, that they be strong in work, when he says, "Act manfully": Prov. 18: "He who is soft and lax in his work is the brother of him who wastes his own works." Likewise, that they be strong in heart: "And let your heart be strengthened": Ps.

Psalms31

Into Your Hands I Commit My Spirit