I really love King David’s Psalms. Here’s why: they are beautiful songs about the tension that David sometimes found himself in, between wanting to love the Lord with his whole heart and soul, mind and strength, but also being a broken person who had sinned and was tempted to sin and was living in a world that can often be cruel and uncaring. David crafted these intricately passionate and delicate songs to sing about this tension between wanting to be fully God’s while living in a world that actively rejects God. Have you ever felt that tension before? Wanting to fully be God’s in every way but also struggling to do that while living in this broken world? The answer is probably yes, because this wasn’t just something that David struggled with, it’s something every person struggles with at some point in their walk with Christ, to different degrees and varying times. In fact, this psalm is aptly given a name, that it is a Psalm of Complaint and of Praise, which sums up really nicely how difficult it can be sometimes to live the way we are called to live in this world while loving God.
This song also reflects something that is important to know about the nature of our praise and worship toward God, that it is okay, Biblical even, to sing about our struggles, to incorporate our struggles into our time of worship, letting our struggles fuel our worship of an almighty God who is so much bigger than our struggles and able to handle our human emotions and complaints. It’s a chance to acknowledge the hardships and struggles we face, yet also confirm and renew our trust in the Lord’s plan for our good.
Let’s look at Psalm 31 to see how David does this, “In You, Lord, I have taken refuge; Let me never be put to shame; In Your righteousness rescue me. 2 Incline Your ear to me, rescue me quickly; Be a rock of strength for me, A stronghold to save me. 3 For You are my rock and my fortress; For the sake of Your name You will lead me and guide me. 4 You will pull me out of the net which they have secretly laid for me, For You are my strength. 5 Into Your hand I entrust my spirit; You have redeemed me, Lord, God of truth. 6 I hate those who devote themselves to worthless idols, But I trust in the Lord. 7 I will rejoice and be glad in Your faithfulness, Because You have seen my misery; You have known the troubles of my soul, 8 And You have not handed me over to the enemy; You have set my feet in a large place.” (vv. 1-8, NASB)
Let’s just take these first 8 verses to start with because here we find first complaints, and then praise before the next section of this Psalm. Maybe just by reading it that one time you could see how David hangs in this balance between complaint about life and praise for God who holds his life.
But, to start with, David doesn’t get very specific about his complaints. He says things like this, “Let me never be put to shame” in verse 1, which is pretty general. It talks about David’s sense of anxiety about how life might affect his reputation, and he’s worried that he might be shamed in some way, but he’s not specific yet about the cause. He says in verse 1 as well that he desires for God to rescue him, but again it’s a fairly general complaint. In verse 7 David says, “You have seen my misery; You have known the troubles of my soul,” again, general complaints that just give us the impression that even though David is facing troubles, whatever they may be, he has a desire to wholly trust in the Lord in the midst of those troubles.
David hints at specific complaints as well, like in verse 4, “You will pull me out of the net which they have secretly laid for me”, and verse 8, “You have not handed me over to the enemy”. From these we start to understand that there was some sort of enemy that was after David, and Biblical scholars think that David may have written this Psalm after or even as he was being pursued by his son Absalom to be killed after Absalom had taken his throne. This would have been after David had sinned with Bathsheba, so he would have been in a place of great despair. In fact, these slightly more specific complaints hint at the DESPAIR that David felt.
But as I said, David walks a fine line between despair and recognizing that he has struggles that are really difficult, and remembering God and the desire David has to love and serve God even as he is troubled. David’s complaints are mingled in words of praise and thanks to God. I want to read verses 1-4 again and as I do I want you to listen to the language David uses to talk about security, safety, defense, the rock, the fortress, “In You, Lord, I have taken refuge; Let me never be put to shame; In Your righteousness rescue me. 2 Incline Your ear to me, rescue me quickly; Be a rock of strength for me, A stronghold to save me. 3 For You are my rock and my fortress; For the sake of Your name You will lead me and guide me. 4 You will pull me out of the net which they have secretly laid for me, For You are my strength.”
This is such a cool passage because what these metaphors, where God is compared to a rock, a refuge, a place of strength, show us is that David is choosing to praise God, not because there is an absence of TROUBLES, but because he is recognizing the character of God in the midst of his troubles. This is such an amazing posture of worship that David has! Troubles will always come! One of Job’s friends shared this bit of wisdom with him, “For man is born for trouble,” (Job 5:7a, NASB). We certainly seem to be, don’t we? We just can’t escape trouble, and even when we aren’t being pursued by trouble, we like to create our own trouble! Troubles will always come! But those who are seeking the Lord understand that even in the midst of troubles we can bring praise if we remember the character of God in the midst of our troubles.
By reflecting on how God has always been a place of strength and refuge for David, especially in times of trouble, David is able to let his praises flow because he knows that if God has always acted that way toward David, then He always will because the character of God is faithful and unchanging! When we remember who God is in relation to our troubles, praise flows! That becomes our natural response to troubles that we face. This is exactly what David says in verse 7, “ I will rejoice and be glad in Your faithfulness, Because You have seen my misery; You have known the troubles of my soul,” Yes, David, and you and me, have troubles, we have misery…but God sees our misery, He knows our troubles, and so we can rejoice and glad in His faithfulness and praise Him even as we go through these troubles.
Verse 5 might sound familiar to you, and it’s because it is the same verse that Christ Jesus uttered when He was dying on the cross, “Into Your hand I entrust (commit) my spirit; You have redeemed me, Lord, God of truth.” David, and even Christ recognized that it is right to trust the Lord, the Father, even unto death. For David, he trusted that he could commit his life to God’s care for protection, that God would keep him from dying at the hands of his enemies, who may have been his son. For Christ, the confidence goes even deeper to understand that He can trust the care of the Father of His life even through death. There is nothing in our lives, or deaths, that cannot be trusted whole-heartedly to God.
Let’s look at the rest of Psalm 31, verses 9-24, “Be gracious to me, Lord, for I am in distress; My eye is wasted away from grief, my soul and my body too. 10 For my life is spent with sorrow And my years with sighing; My strength has failed because of my guilt, And my body (bones) has wasted away. 11 Because of all my adversaries, I have become a disgrace, Especially to my neighbors, And an object of dread to my acquaintances; Those who see me in the street flee from me. 12 I am forgotten like a dead person, out of mind; I am like a broken vessel. 13 For 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. 14 But as for me, I trust in You, Lord, I say, “You are my God.” 15 My times are in Your hand; Rescue me from the hand of my enemies and from those who persecute me. 16 Make Your face shine upon Your servant; Save me in Your faithfulness. 17 Let me not be put to shame, Lord, for I call upon You; Let the wicked be put to shame, let them be silent in Sheol. 18 Let the lying lips be speechless, Which speak arrogantly against the righteous With pride and contempt. 19 How great is Your goodness, Which You have stored up for those who fear You, Which You have performed for those who take refuge in You, Before the sons of mankind! 20 You hide them in the secret place of Your presence from the conspiracies of mankind; You keep them secretly in a shelter from the strife of tongues. 21 Blessed be the Lord, For He has shown His marvelous faithfulness to me in a besieged city. 22 As for me, I said in my alarm, “I am cut off from Your eyes”; Nevertheless You heard the sound of my pleadings When I called to You for help. 23 Love the Lord, all His godly ones! The Lord watches over the faithful But fully repays the one who acts arrogantly. 24 Be strong and let your heart take courage, All you who wait for the Lord.” (NASB)
Here’s where the tension David feels becomes even more evident. The first 8 verses he’s complaining a little, but it’s minor and general, and David is quick to turn to praise and remember how much he trusts God. But beginning with verse 9, his complaints become more specific and he spends several verses naming specific things that he is troubled by. It’s almost as if David is praying, “God things are bad, but I know You and I trust You, and I know You’re going to take care of this. But do You really know, God? Do You really, truly know how bad things are for me right now? Because I don’t think You really understand so let me tell You exactly what’s bothering me!” Can’t you kind of hear this coming from this Psalm?
Here’s what David complains about specifically: verse 10, which I’m putting in the NIV this time, “My life is consumed by anguish and my years by groaning; my strength fails because of my affliction, and my bones grow weak.” He’s in anguish, he says all of this is because of his affliction, and the footnote in the NIV helps us understand that this affliction is his guilt…guilt over his past sins. This is why scholars think this Psalm was written after David’s adultery with Bathsheba and murder of her husband, Uriah. David is in anguish over the guilt that still lingers from this SIN.
2 Samuel 12:13 says this, “Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” Nathan replied, “The Lord has taken away your sin. You are not going to die.” (NIV) So David’s sins were forgiven when he repented and was remorseful, and David was spared some of the consequences of his sin. But, 2 Samuel 12:10 says this, “Now, therefore, the sword will never depart from your house, because you despised me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own.” (NIV). Even though he had been forgiven, even though he was spared some of the consequences, there were still consequences he would have to deal with. One commentary writer said this about David’s sins, “Evil deeds, though forgiven, often continue to bear fruit.” And this is the true reality, seen again and again in the Bible and modern life, that though your sins may be forgiven, sometimes the consequences remain. David knew this well, and it tormented him. His guilt caused him anguish, especially because his son, Absalom, hunting him down to kill him, was part of the consequences of David’s sin, and the consequence that the sword would never depart from his house.
Verse 10 also highlights that David is beginning to feel that his strength is failing. At this time, David would have likely been in his late 60s, and since Scripture indicates that David died at age 70, we can assume that David was pretty close to the end of his life when Absalom was hunting him down. He was an older man, his physical strength was indeed failing him. His bones were aching and in pain, and when he should have been living at home in comfort and peace, he had to be on the run, living in the wilderness again. He complained about the aches and pains of old age, and the circumstances that had put him in a position to feel those aches and pains more deeply.
In verse 11 he states, “I am a reproach among all my enemies, But especially among my neighbors, And am repulsive to my acquaintances; Those who see me outside flee from me.” (NKJV). David was facing reproach from his enemies, but even his neighbors and acquaintances. People saw him in the streets and walked the other way! Have you ever walked into a room and realized they were just talking about you? Can you imagine that feeling everywhere you went?!
He even goes on to say in verse 12, “I am forgotten like a dead person, out of mind; I am like a broken vessel.” (NASB) Scholars think this verse refers to David’s friendships, that he was so despised that even his friends had forgotten him like one forgets a dead person, that David’s friends had put David out of their minds and discarded him like a broken dish. Even David’s friends seem to believe the slanders that David speaks about in verse 13, “For 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.” His enemies have slandered him, even to his closest friends, and they have conspired against David to murder him. Everyone seemed to be against David.
In verse 18, David says that they’ve lied about him in addition to the slander. And all of this has compounded upon David to the point where he says this about God in verse 22, “I am cut off from Your eyes” He felt so despaired, so shamed, so persecuted and all had cast him aside and forgotten his need, to the point that he felt abandoned, DESERTED by God Himself.
Verses 9 and 10 reveal to us that every part of David had been affected by his struggles, “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.” (NIV). There is no part of David left untouched by his troubles. And he complains to God.
But amidst all that, David doesn’t forget who he’s talking to. Even though he’s taken time to really complain to God about his troubles and all the things that he feels, and has even gone so far as to voice that he felt God had deserted him, but still he returns to praise. In verse 19, “How great is Your goodness, Which You have stored up for those who fear You, Which You have performed for those who take refuge in You”, and verse 21, “Blessed be the Lord, For He has shown His marvelous faithfulness to me in a besieged city.” (NASB) As troubles roll over him and make him sorrowful and anxious, he returns to praise and marvel at God’s faithfulness and GOODNESS. Why? Because if God was good and faithful last time, then He’ll be good and faithful this time, and next time, and the time after that, too!
David clings to the reminder that God saves him from death, preserves and protects him. He remembers in verse 20, “You hide them in the secret place of Your presence from the conspiracies of mankind; You keep them secretly in a shelter from the strife of tongues.” This is what he remembers about God, that God hides His people in the secret place of His presences so they are protected from those who mean them harm.
David’s praise at this point reflects on the assurance that he has that the Lord’s justice is perfect. In verse 23 he sang, “The Lord watches over the faithful But fully repays the one who acts arrogantly.” He fully trusts, because he had seen God do it before, that God would set things right in His justice at some point, that God would rescue David from the unrighteous and would let the wicked face the consequences of their evil actions as well. His justice is perfect because the Lord sees what we do not see, He sees what is in each person’s heart.
And so, David ends with an exhortation for all of God’s people to wholly trust in the Lord. He ends this Psalm with this, “Love the Lord, all His godly ones! Be strong and let your heart take courage, All you who wait for the Lord.” (vv. 23a, 24, NASB) Is life going to have troubles? Yes. Is it going to be hard? Yes. Is it going to feel desolate, and miserable, and so overwhelming sometimes that it affects every part of you? Yes. Is God still good and faithful? Yes. Are we still saved from death and hidden in safety in His presence? Yes. Is His justice still perfect? Yes. He can be trusted, and just as importantly, He can be praised and worshiped even in trouble as we’re complaining, because He has always been good and faithful, and will always be good and faithful.
1. Have you ever felt the way David feels in this Psalm, desiring to love the Lord with everything you are but also feeling weighed down by life’s struggles? Did reflecting on God’s character and past mercies help you during that time?
2. Read through and meditate on 2 Corinthians 1:3-11 for a while. How does it fit with Psalm 31? What new assurance does it provide you and other believers as you go through struggles?
3. What part does worship play in our lives, particularly when we are struggling? How does it help us give praise while still feeling sorrow and pain?