TRV
Translation
King James Version
¶ Have mercy upon me, O LORD, for I am in trouble: mine eye is consumed with grief, yea, my soul and my belly.
Complete Jewish Bible
Show me favor, ADONAI, for I am in trouble. My eyes grow dim with anger, my soul and body as well.
Berean Standard Bible
Be merciful to me, O LORD, for I am in distress; my eyes fail from sorrow, my soul and body as well.
American Standard Version
Have mercy upon me, O Jehovah, for I am in distress: Mine eye wasteth away with grief, yea, my soul and my body.
World English Bible Messianic
Have mercy on me, LORD, for I am in distress. My eye, my soul, and my body waste away with grief.
Geneva Bible (1599)
Haue mercie vpon mee, O Lord: for I am in trouble: mine eye, my soule and my bellie are consumed with griefe.
Young's Literal Translation
Favour me, O Jehovah, for distress is to me, Mine eye, my soul, and my body Have become old by provocation.
In the KJVVerse 14,341 of 31,102
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Commentary on Psalms 31 verses 9–18
9 ¶ Have mercy upon me, O LORD, for I am in trouble: mine eye is consumed with grief, yea, my soul and my belly.
10 For my life is spent with grief, and my years with sighing: my strength faileth because of mine iniquity, and my bones are consumed.
11 I was a reproach among all mine enemies, but especially among my neighbours, and a fear to mine acquaintance: they that did see me without fled from me.
12 I am forgotten as a dead man out of mind: I am like a broken vessel.
13 For I have heard the slander of many: fear was on every side: while they took counsel together against me, they devised to take away my life.
14 But I trusted in thee, O LORD: I said, Thou art my God.
15 My times are in thy hand: deliver me from the hand of mine enemies, and from them that persecute me.
16 Make thy face to shine upon thy servant: save me for thy mercies' sake.
17 Let me not be ashamed, O LORD; for I have called upon thee: let the wicked be ashamed, and let them be silent in the grave.
18 Let the lying lips be put to silence; which speak grievous things proudly and contemptuously against the righteous.
In the foregoing verses David had appealed to God's righteousness, and pleaded his relation to him and dependence on him; here he appeals to his mercy, and pleads the greatness of his own misery, which made his case the proper object of that mercy. Observe,
I. The complaint he makes of his trouble and distress (Psa 31:9): "Have mercy upon me, O Lord! for I am in trouble, and need thy mercy." The remembrance he makes of his condition is not much unlike some even of Job's complaints. 1. His troubles had fixed a very deep impression upon his mind and made him a man of sorrows. So great was his grief that his very soul was consumed with it, and his life spent with it, and he was continually sighing, Psa 31:9, Psa 31:10. Herein he was a type of Christ, - who was intimately acquainted with grief and often in tears. We may guess by David's complexion, which was ruddy and sanguine, by his genius for music, and by his daring enterprises in his early days, that his natural disposition was both cheerful and firm, that he was apt to be cheerful, and not to lay trouble to his heart; yet here we see what he is brought to: he has almost wept out his eyes, and sighed away his breath. Let those that are airy and gay take heed of running into extremes, and never set sorrow at defiance; God can find out ways to make them melancholy if they will not otherwise learn to be serious. 2. His body was afflicted with the sorrows of his mind (Psa 31:10): My strength fails, my bones are consumed, and all because of my iniquity. As to Saul, and the quarrel he had with him, he could confidently insist upon his righteousness; but, as it was an affliction God laid upon him, he owns he had deserved it, and freely confesses his iniquity to have been the procuring cause of all his trouble; and the sense of sin touched him to the quick and wasted him more than all his calamities. 3. His friends were unkind and became shy of him. He was a fear to his acquaintance, when they saw him they fled from him, Psa 31:11. They durst not harbour him nor give him any assistance, durst not show him any countenance, nor so much as be seen in his company, for fear of being brought into trouble by it, now that Saul had proclaimed him a traitor and outlawed him. They saw how dearly Ahimelech the priest had paid for aiding and abetting him, though ignorantly; and therefore, though they could not but own he had a great deal of wrong done him, yet they had not the courage to appear for him. He was forgotten by them, as a dead man out of mind (Psa 31:12), and looked upon with contempt as a broken vessel. Those that showed him all possible respect when he was in honour at court, now that he had fallen into disgrace, though unjustly, were strange to him. Such swallow-friends the world is full of, that are gone in winter. Let those that fall on the losing side not think it strange if they be thus deserted, but make sure a friend in heaven, that will not fail them, and make use of him. 4. His enemies were unjust in their censures of him. They would not have persecuted him as they did if they had not first represented him as a bad man; he was a reproach among all his enemies, but especially among his neighbours, Psa 31:11. Those that had been the witnesses of his integrity, and could not but be convinced in their consciences that he was an honest man, were the most forward to represent him quite otherwise, that they might curry favour with Saul. Thus he heard the slander of many; every one had a stone to throw at him, because fear was in every side; that is, they durst not do otherwise, for he that would not join with his neighbours to accuse David was looked upon as disaffected to Saul. Thus the best of men have been represented under the worst characters by those that resolved to give them the worst treatment. 5. His life was aimed at and he went in continual peril of it. Fear was on every side, and he knew that, whatever counsel his enemies took against him, the design was not to take away his liberty, but to take away his life (Psa 31:13), a life so valuable, so useful, to the good services of which all Israel owed so much, and which was never forfeited. Thus, in all the plots of the Pharisees and Herodians against Christ, still the design was to take away his life, such are the enmity and cruelty of the serpent's seed.
II. His confidence in God in the midst of these troubles. Every thing looked black and dismal round about him, and threatened to drive him to despair: "But I trusted in thee, O Lord! (Psa 31:14) and was thereby kept from sinking." His enemies robbed him of his reputation among men, but they could not rob him of his comfort in God, because they could not drive him from his confidence in God. Two things he comforted himself with in his straits, and he went to God and pleaded them with him: - 1. "Thou art my God; I have chosen thee for mine, and thou hast promised to be mine;" and, if he be ours and we can by faith call him so, it is enough, when we can call nothing else ours. "Thou art my God; and therefore to whom shall I go for relief but to thee?" Those need not be straitened in their prayers who can plead this; for, if God undertake to be our God, he will do that for us which will answer the compass and vast extent of the engagement. 2. My times are in thy hand. Join this with the former and it makes the comfort complete. If God have our times in his hand, he can help us; and, if he be our God, he will help us; and then what can discourage us? It is a great support to those who have God for their God that their times are in his hand and he will be sure to order and dispose of them for the best, to all those who commit their spirits also into his hand, to suit them to their times, as David here, Psa 31:5. The time of life is in God's hands, to lengthen or shorten, embitter or sweeten, as he pleases, according to the counsel of his will. Our times (all events that concern us, and the timing of them) are at God's disposal; they are not in our own hands, for the way of man is not in himself, not in our friends' hands, nor in our enemies' hands, but in God's; every man's judgment proceedeth from him. David does not, in his prayers, prescribe to God, but subscribe to him. "Lord, my times are in thy hand, and I am well pleased that they are so; they could not be in a better hand. Thy will be done."
III. His petitions to God, in this faith and confidence, 1. He prays that God would deliver him out of the hand of his enemies (Psa 31:15), and save him (Psa 31:16), and this for his mercies' sake, and not for any merit of his own. Our opportunities are in God's hand (so some read it), and therefore he knows how to choose the best and fittest time for our deliverance, and we must be willing to wait that time. When David had Saul at his mercy in the cave those about him said, "This is the time in which God will deliver thee," Sa1 24:4. "No," says David, "the time has not come for my deliverance till it can be wrought without sin; and I will wait for that time; for it is God's time, and that is the best time." 2. That God would give him the comfort of his favour in the mean time (Psa 31:16): "Make they face to shine upon thy servant; let me have the comfortable tokens and evidences of thy favour to me, and that shall put gladness in my heart in the midst of all my griefs." 3. That his prayers to God might be answered and his hopes in God accomplished (Psa 31:17): "Let me not be ashamed of my hopes and prayers, for I have called upon thee, who never saidst to thy people, Seek in vain, and hope in vain." 4. That shame and silence might be the portion of wicked people, and particularly of his enemies. They were confident of their success against David, and that they should run him down and ruin him. "Lord," says he, "let them be made ashamed of that confidence by the disappointment of their expectations," as those that opposed the building of the wall about Jerusalem, when it was finished, were much cast down in their own eye, Neh 6:16. Let them be silent in the grave. Note, Death will silence the rage and clamour of cruel persecutors, whom reason would not silence. In the grave the wicked cease from troubling. Particularly, he prays for (that is, he prophesies) the silencing of those that reproach and calumniate the people of God ( Psa 31:18): Let lying lips be put to silence, that speak grievous things proudly and contemptuously against the righteous. This is a very good prayer which, (1.) We have often occasion to put up to God; for those that set their mouth against the heavens commonly revile the heirs of heaven. Religion, in the strict and serious professors of it, are every where spoken against, [1.] With a great deal of malice: They speak grievous things, on purpose to vex them, and hoping, with what they say, to do them a real mischief. They speak hard things (so the word is), which bear hard upon them, and by which they hope to fasten indelible characters of infamy upon them. [2.] With a great deal of falsehood: They are lying lips, taught by the father of lies and serving his interest. [3.] With a great deal of scorn and disdain: They speak proudly and contemptuously, as if the righteous, whom God has honoured, were the most despicable people in the world, and not worthy to be set with the dogs of their flock. One would think they thought it no sin to tell a deliberate lie if it might but serve to expose a good man either to hatred or contempt. Hear, O our God! for we are despised. (2.) We may pray in faith; for these lying lips shall be put to silence. God has many ways of doing it. Sometimes he convinces the consciences of those that reproach his people, and turns their hearts. Sometimes by his providence he visibly confutes their calumnies, and brings forth the righteousness of his people as the light. However, there is a day coming when God will convince ungodly sinners of the falsehood of all the hard speeches that have spoken against his people and will execute judgment upon them, Jde 1:14, Jde 1:15. Then shall this prayer be fully answered, and to that day we should have an eye in the singing of it, engaging ourselves likewise by well-doing, if possible, to silence the ignorance of foolish men, Pe1 2:15.
Matthew Henry (1662–1714) — Commentary on the Whole Bible. This section covers verses 9–18. Public domain.
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Evagrius PonticusAD 399
NOTES ON THE PSALMS 30[31].10
Nothing darkens the mind like unbridled wrath.
Augustine of HippoAD 430
Exposition on Psalm 31
"Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am troubled" [Psalm 31:9]. But what is this unlooked-for cruelty of the persecutors, striking such dread into me? "Have mercy on me, O Lord." For I am now no more alarmed for death, but for torments and tortures. "My eye has been disordered by anger." I had my eye upon You, that You should not abandon me: You are angry, and hast disordered it. "My soul, and my belly." By the same anger my soul has been disturbed, and my memory, whereby I retained what my God has suffered for me, and what He has promised me.
John CassianAD 435
INSTITUTES 8:1
The deadly poison of anger has to be utterly rooted out from the inmost corners of our soul. For as long as this remains in our hearts and blinds with its hurtful darkness the eye of the soul, we can neither acquire right judgment and discretion nor gain the insight that springs from an honest gaze or ripeness of counsel, nor can we be partakers of life, or retentive of righteousness or even have the capacity for spiritual and true light: “for,” says one, “my eye is disturbed by reason of anger.”
CassiodorusAD 585
EXPLANATION OF THE PSALMS 31:10
When the flesh perceived that dangers were looming, it was troubled by fear. Note that he frequently says that he was troubled, but nowhere indicates that he despaired. This was spoken by him in order that the heavenly Master might display this pattern for us to imitate. Distress seeks out the human race to foster a familiar relationship with God, but despair does not stem from divine holiness.
Source: Quotations drawn from early Church Fathers and historical Christian theologians (AD 100–1500). Some quotes address the surrounding passage context rather than this verse alone.
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SUMMARY
Psalms 31:9 is a profound and deeply personal lament, capturing the psalmist's overwhelming distress and its holistic impact on his entire being. It serves as an earnest plea for divine mercy, vividly illustrating how intense grief and trouble can consume a person's physical vitality, emotional core, and spiritual resilience, thereby underscoring the biblical precedent for bringing unvarnished suffering before the Lord.
CONTEXT
EXPOSITION AND ANALYSIS
Key Word Analysis
Verse Breakdown
Literary Devices
Psalms 31:9 employs several powerful Literary Devices to convey the depth and pervasive nature of the psalmist's suffering. The most prominent is Holistic Imagery, where the psalmist uses specific body parts—the "eye," "soul," and "belly"—not merely as isolated organs but as synecdoches representing the entire person. This creates a vivid and comprehensive picture of suffering that permeates every aspect of existence, from the physical manifestation of distress to the emotional and spiritual core. Hyperbole is also evident in the phrase "consumed with grief," which exaggerates the effect of sorrow to emphasize its overwhelming and debilitating power, suggesting a complete wasting away rather than just discomfort. This vivid overstatement underscores the psalmist's feeling of utter depletion. Furthermore, a subtle form of Personification might be perceived in "grief" itself, almost as an active, malevolent agent that "consumes" or devours the psalmist, giving it a menacing, tangible quality that actively works against his well-being. These devices combine to create a deeply empathetic and relatable portrayal of profound human distress.
THEOLOGICAL AND THEMATIC CONNECTIONS
This verse profoundly connects to the biblical understanding of God's character as one who is deeply compassionate, intimately aware of, and attentively responsive to the cries of the afflicted. It affirms that God is not distant from human suffering but actively invites and welcomes our raw, unfiltered laments. The psalmist's desperate plea for mercy underscores humanity's utter dependence on divine grace, especially when overwhelmed by circumstances beyond personal control. It highlights the theological truth that suffering, while undeniably painful, can serve as a crucible that drives us into deeper reliance on God, revealing His sufficiency and unwavering presence even in our most profound weakness. This honest expression of pain also serves as a powerful testament to the integrity of faith, demonstrating that genuine trust in God does not preclude the experience of profound distress, but rather provides the essential context for its expression and eventual solace.
REFLECTION AND APPLICATION
Psalms 31:9 offers profound solace and permission for anyone experiencing overwhelming grief, anxiety, or physical affliction. It reminds us that our faith journey is not one of perpetual triumph over all difficulty, but often a wrestling with pain and weakness, which God not only permits but actively invites us to bring directly to Him. The psalmist's raw honesty validates our own struggles, affirming that it is not a sign of weak faith to feel utterly consumed by trouble. Instead, it is an act of profound trust to vocalize that pain to the One who understands it most deeply. This verse encourages us to shed any pretense of strength and to lay bare our physical ailments, emotional anguish, and spiritual distress before the Lord without reservation, knowing that His boundless mercy is sufficient even when our strength is depleted. In our darkest moments, when our eyes are dim with weeping, our souls are weary, and our innermost beings ache, our first and best recourse is to cry out to the Lord for His enduring compassion, confident that He hears and cares, and will ultimately provide strength and deliverance.
Questions for Reflection
FAQ
Why does the psalmist mention "eye," "soul," and "belly" specifically as being "consumed with grief"?
Answer: The psalmist mentions the "eye," "soul," and "belly" to convey the comprehensive, holistic nature of his suffering. In ancient Hebrew thought, the human person was understood as an integrated whole, not a collection of separate parts. The "eye" (עַיִן, ayin') represents physical vitality and the outward manifestation of one's state; constant weeping, lack of sleep, or the physical toll of sorrow could make the eyes appear sunken or dim, hence "consumed." The "soul" (נֶפֶשׁ, nephesh') refers to the inner being, the core of one's emotions, mind, and life force. When the soul is consumed, it signifies deep emotional and spiritual exhaustion, a profound weariness of the very will to live. The "belly" (בֶּטֶן, beṭen') is often used metaphorically for the innermost parts, the seat of visceral emotions and deep-seated physical sensations. This is akin to our modern understanding of feeling "gut-wrenching" pain or anxiety. By listing these three, the psalmist powerfully communicates that his trouble is not superficial but has permeated every dimension of his existence—physical, emotional, and spiritual—leaving him utterly depleted. This holistic language emphasizes that grief affects the entire person, a truth echoed in other biblical laments like Lamentations 2:11, where Jeremiah describes his "bowels" being troubled by grief.
CHRIST-CENTERED FULFILLMENT
Psalms 31:9, with its raw cry of a soul consumed by grief and trouble, finds its ultimate and profound fulfillment in the person and work of Jesus Christ. While the psalmist laments his own suffering, Christ perfectly embodies the "man of sorrows, acquainted with grief" (as prophesied in Isaiah 53:3). Jesus, in His earthly ministry, experienced the full spectrum of human suffering—physical exhaustion from relentless service, emotional anguish in Gethsemane where His "soul is very sorrowful, even to death" (Matthew 26:38), and the unparalleled spiritual desolation on the cross when He cried out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Matthew 27:46). He truly was "consumed" by the weight of human sin and the righteous wrath of God, not for His own transgression, but for ours, as He bore our iniquities (1 Peter 2:24). His cry for mercy, though unspoken in the same terms as the psalmist, is implicit in His submission to the Father's will and His intercession for humanity. Through His suffering, death, and glorious resurrection, Christ became the ultimate answer to every lament, demonstrating God's perfect mercy and providing a path for humanity to find true solace, healing, and rest from all consuming troubles. He invites all who are weary and burdened to come to Him for rest for their souls (Matthew 11:28-30), for He is our compassionate High Priest who sympathizes with our weaknesses, having been tempted in every way, yet without sin (Hebrews 4:15). In Christ, the psalmist's desperate plea for mercy is not just heard, but eternally answered and transformed into an enduring hope that transcends all suffering.