Psalm 31

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 To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.

1-5      In You, Adonai, do I take refuge; let me never be put to shame. In Your righteousness deliver me! ² Incline Your ear to me; rescue me speedily! Be a Rock of refuge for me, a strong Fortress to save me! ³ For You are my [towering] Rock and my Fortress and for Your name’s sake You lead me and guide me. ⁴ You take me out of the net they have hidden for me, for You are my Refuge. ⁵ Into Your hand I commit my spirit.

You have redeemed me, Adonai, faithful God.

פדה (padah)

גאל (ga’al)

6-13     I [have come to] hate those who pay regard to worthless idols, but I trust in Adonai. ⁷ I will rejoice and be glad in Your steadfast love, because You have seen my affliction. You have known the distress of my soul, ⁸ and You have not delivered me into the hand of the enemy. You have set my feet in a broad place.

מרחב (merchant) = “broad place”

צרר (ga’al) = “tight place/distress”

⁹ Be gracious to me, Adonai, for I am in distress; my eye is wasted from grief; my soul and my body also. ¹⁰ For my life is spent with sorrow, and my years with sighing; my strength fails because of my iniquity, and my bones waste away. ¹¹ Because of all my adversaries I have become a reproach, especially to my neighbors, and an object of dread to my acquaintances; those who see me in the street flee from me. ¹² I have been forgotten like one who is dead; I have become like a broken vessel. ¹³ For I have heard the whispering of many – the terror on every side! – as they schemed together about me, as they plotted to take my life.

14-18   But I trust in You, Adonai; I say, “You are my God.” ¹⁵ My times are in Your hand; rescue me from the hand of my enemies and from my persecutors! ¹⁶ Make Your face shine on Your servant; save me in Your steadfast love! ¹⁷ Adonai, let me not be put to shame, for I call upon You; let the wicked be put to shame; let them go silently to Sheol. ¹⁸ Let the lying lips be mute, which speak fiction against the righteous [one] with arrogance and contempt.

19-20    Oh, how abundant is Your goodness, which You have stored up for those who fear You and worked for those who take refuge in You, in the sight of the children of mankind! ²⁰ In the cover of Your presence You hide them from the plots of men; you store them in Your sukkah  from the strife of tongues.

 21-24  Blessed be Adonai, for He has wondrously shown His steadfast love to me when I was in a besieged city. ²² I had said in my alarm, “I am cut off from Your sight.” But You heard the voice of my pleas for grace when I cried to You for help.

תחנון (tachanun) = “plea for grace / mercy”

 ²³ Love Adonai, all you His beloved ones! Adonai pre-serves the faithful but abundantly repays the one who acts in pride. ²⁴ Be strong, and let your heart take courage, all you who wait for Adonai!

יחל (yachal) = “to wait”

REFERENCES:

 Verse 5

Luke 23:46  Then Yeshua, calling out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commit My spirit!” And having said this He breathed His last.

Verse 6

Psalm 119:128  Therefore I consider all Your precepts to be right; I hate every false way.

Verse 8

Psalm 18:19   He brought me out into a broad place; He rescued me, because He delighted in me.

Psalm 118:5   Out of my distress I called on Adonai; Adonai answered me and set me in a broad place.

Verse 10

“Three things weaken a person’s strength: fear, travel, and iniquity…” (b.Gittin 70a)

Verse 11

Psalm 22:6  But I am a worm and not a man, a reproach of  mankind and despised by the people.

Hebrews 13:12-13  So Yeshua also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through His own blood. Therefore let us go to Him outside the camp and bear the reproach He endured.

Exodus 33:7-11  Now Moses used to take the tent and pitch it outside the camp, far off from the camp, and he called it the tent of meeting. And everyone who sought Adonai would go out to the tent of meeting, which was outside the camp. Whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people would rise up, and each would stand at his tent door, and watch Moses until he had gone into the tent. When Moses entered the tent, the pillar of cloud would descend and stand at the entrance of the tent, and Adonai would speak with Moses. And when all the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance of the tent, all the people would rise up and worship, each at his tent door. Thus Adonai used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. When Moses turned again into the camp, his assistant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, would not depart from the tent.

Verse 12

Galatians 2:20  I have been crucified with Messiah. It is no longer I who live, but Messiah who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.

Verse 13

Acts 6:11-13  Then they secretly instigated men who said, “We have heard [Stephen] speak blasphemous words against Moses and God.” And they stirred up the people and the elders and the scribes, and they came upon him and seized him and brought him before the council, and they set up false witnesses who said, “This man never ceases to speak words against this holy place and the Torah, for we have heard him say that this Yeshua of Nazareth will destroy this place and will change the customs that Moses delivered to us.”

 Verse 19

Psalm 5:11  But let all who take refuge in You rejoice; let them ever sing for joy, and spread Your protection over them, that those who love Your name may exult in You.

Verse 24

Joshua 1:6-7  Be strong and courageous, for you shall cause this people to inherit the land that I swore to their fathers to give them. Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the Torah that Moses My servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go.

Genesis 8:10  He waited [יחל, yachal] another seven days, and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark.