Psalm 31:4

David is asking that his trust in God will prove well placed. The word bûwsh means to be put to shame, disappointed or confounded, which is what happens when the thing a person hoped in fails him. In Israel shame was public disgrace. If God left David to his enemies, they could say that his trust had been in vain, and the faithfulness of God would be called into question in front of them. So the prayer concerns God’s honour as much as David’s name. David prays the same words in Psalm 25:2, God promises Israel through Isaiah an everlasting salvation in which they will never be ashamed (Isaiah 45:17), and Paul writes, “Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed” (Romans 10:11).

David asks to be delivered by God’s righteousness, tsᵉdâqâh. God’s righteousness is his perfect justice, and it is also his steady commitment to do what is right, to keep his promises and to rescue the oppressed who trust in him. It is the ground of his judgment against evil and of his saving acts. David appeals to who God is, and makes no claim on his own merit. Because God is righteous, he can be counted on to act for the servant who has fled to him. The same pairing comes in Psalm 143:1, where David asks God to answer him in his faithfulness and in his righteousness.

“Bow down thine ear to me” uses the verb nâṭâh, to stretch out, bend or incline. David asks God to lean in and listen, the way a king or a father bends close to hear someone in distress. It is a picture of personal attention, and it shows how near David expects God to come. God of course has no need to strain to hear, and Scripture speaks of him in human terms so that we can grasp his care.

“Deliver me speedily” shows how urgent the danger is. David is in a place where delay could be the end of him, and he asks God to act now. This is the cry of a man under siege, and it rests on trust that God’s timing and power are enough. Other psalms pray the same way, asking God to make haste to help (Psalm 70:5).

“Be thou my strong rock” joins two words. Tsûwr is a rock or cliff, and Scripture uses it as a title for God, the Rock. Mâʻôwz is a stronghold, a refuge or place of safety. “An house of defence” also joins two words, bayith, a house, and mâtsûwd, a word that can mean a net, and also a stronghold, castle or fortress. The rock speaks of what cannot be moved, and the house of defence of a secure dwelling where a person can live in safety. Together they say that God is both the ground David stands on and the walls around him. Psalm 91:2–3 calls the LORD “my refuge and my fortress”.

The pictures come back in the next two verses. In verse 3, “my rock” translates çelaʻ, a different Hebrew word for a lofty crag or massive cliff, and “my fortress” is mâtsûwd again, the same word as “defence” in verse 2. In verse 4, “my strength” is mâʻôwz again, the same word as “strong” in verse 2, so David is calling God his stronghold. David sings the same of God in Psalm 18:1–2: “The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer.” Another psalm calls God our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble (Psalm 46:1), and another sets those who trust in chariots and horses against those who remember the name of the LORD (Psalm 20:7).

Verse 3 opens with “For thou art my rock and my fortress” and then says “therefore”. Because God is these things to David, David asks him to lead. He states who God is first, and his request follows from it.

“For thy name’s sake” is the reason he gives God for acting. The word for name, shêm, means a name as the mark of a person, and with it his honour, authority and character. To ask God to act for his name’s sake is to appeal to his nature, his covenant promises and his glory, because his honour is bound up with how he cares for the one who trusts him. David asks pardon on the same ground in Psalm 25:11, and in Isaiah 48:11 God says that he acts for his own sake and will give his glory to no other. The prayer rests on what God is, and so it is as sure as he is.

“Lead me, and guide me” uses two verbs. Nâchâh means to lead, guide or bring, as a shepherd leads a flock through rough country or a guide leads travellers on an unknown road. Nâhal is a second word for guiding along the right way. Placed side by side, they ask for God’s direction at every step. Psalm 23:3 joins the same two ideas: “he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.”

“Pull me out of the net that they have laid privily for me.” The resheth is a net for catching birds or animals. Fowlers and hunters hid their nets so that the prey walked into them unaware. “Privily” means secretly, and the picture tells us that David’s enemies were working by stealth: through plots, false charges, slander or ambush. He is caught, or about to be, in something he did not see coming and cannot get out of alone.

“Pull me out” is the verb yâtsâʼ, to go or come out, and in this form to bring out. David asks God to bring him out of the trap. Psalm 91:3 promises deliverance from “the snare of the fowler”. The reason David gives is short: “for thou art my strength”, my stronghold. Proverbs sets the fear of man against trusting the LORD (Proverbs 29:25), and Paul heard the Lord say that his strength is made perfect in weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9). Believers still face hidden snares, and Paul calls us to stand in the Lord’s strength against the wiles of the devil (Ephesians 6:10–11). With Paul each of us can say, “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me” (Philippians 4:13).

“Thou hast redeemed me” looks back. The verb pâdâh means to ransom, to deliver, to set free from danger or bondage, often at a cost or by a strong act. David speaks of it as done, because God has rescued him before, and the trust of the first half of the verse rests on that record. As a shepherd boy he told Saul that the LORD had delivered him from the lion and the bear (1 Samuel 17:37), and he escaped when Saul tried to kill him (1 Samuel 19:10–12). People sometimes ask how David can speak of redemption when he was no slave, and the answer lies in the word itself, which covers rescue from any peril. Redemption was at the heart of Israel’s life from the night God brought them out of Egypt (Exodus 12).

David closes the verse with a name for God: Yᵉhôvâh ʼêl ʼemeth, “LORD God of truth”. The word ʼemeth means stability, certainty and truth, what is firm and can be relied on. God is true to his word, his covenant and his own nature, so the hand into which David places his spirit will hold it. He is the God “that cannot lie” (Titus 1:2), whose promise and oath are unchanging (Hebrews 6:18), the God who bound himself by covenant to Abraham (Genesis 15). Among people who break their word, he keeps his.

As Jesus died, he cried with a loud voice, “Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit” (Luke 23:46). He took up David’s words and spoke them to his Father. In the hour of his death he gave his life, his work and himself into the Father’s hands in perfect trust, knowing that his sacrifice would be accepted and that he would be raised. Through his death believers have “redemption through his blood” (Ephesians 1:7), and his resurrection shows that the Father is indeed the God of truth, who kept his promise to his Son. Jesus called himself the way, the truth and the life (John 14:6).

In David’s mouth the words were a prayer to be kept alive in danger. On the lips of Jesus they became the prayer of a trusting death, and his people have prayed them that way ever since. Stephen, as he was stoned, asked the Lord Jesus to receive his spirit (Acts 7:59). Peter tells those who suffer according to God’s will to commit the keeping of their souls to him, as unto a faithful Creator (1 Peter 4:19). The same words serve on an ordinary day, when fears and an uncertain future are given into God’s hands, and on the last day of a life.

David’s hatred is aimed at those who give their regard to empty idols, and it is a settled rejection of them and of what they trust. The verb sânêʼ, to hate, here carries a principled break, a renouncing of what stands against the LORD. “Them that regard” uses shâmar, to guard, keep or pay attention to, so these are people who watch over their idols and give them their care. David will have no part with them.

The second half of the verse gives the reason. “But I trust in the LORD” uses bâṭach, a different Hebrew word from the trust of verse 1, which shares the English word. Bâṭach is confident reliance, the security of leaning on someone. David’s trust is in Yᵉhôvâh, the true God, and that leaves no room for trust in anything else. Those who know God’s name put their trust in him (Psalm 9:10). Jeremiah sets the man who trusts in man, like a shrub in the desert, beside the man who trusts in the LORD, like a tree planted by the waters (Jeremiah 17:5–8), and Proverbs tells us to trust in the LORD with all our heart (Proverbs 3:5–6).

Lying vanities are anything that promises lasting security, worth or salvation apart from God and leaves us empty. Wealth and possessions, the approval of others, ideologies that offer to save society without God, confidence in our own strength and control, and the addictions that promise escape and bring bondage all belong here. Jesus said that no man can serve two masters (Matthew 6:24).

The psalm shows that we can, because the joy is in God himself, in his mercy and in his knowledge of us. Rejoicing of this kind admits the pain and fixes the heart on God’s faithfulness while the trouble goes on. The New Testament calls believers to rejoice in the Lord always (Philippians 4:4), to count it joy when trials come because they produce patience (James 1:2–4), and to glory in tribulations, which work patience, experience and hope (Romans 5:3–5).