Find Love Blog

A Time to Love and Psalm 31

Psalm 31 reads as follows from the  New King James version of the Bible:

1 In You, O LORD, I put my trust;
Let me never be ashamed; 
Deliver me in Your righteousness.
2 Bow down Your ear to me,
Deliver me speedily; 
Be my rock of refuge, 
A fortress of defense to save me. 

3 For You are my rock and my fortress;
Therefore, for Your name’s sake, 
Lead me and guide me.
4 Pull me out of the net which they have secretly laid for me,
For You are my strength.
5 Into Your hand I commit my spirit;
You have redeemed me, O LORD God of truth. 

6 I have hated those who regard useless idols;
But I trust in the LORD.
7 I will be glad and rejoice in Your mercy,
For You have considered my trouble; 
You have known my soul in adversities,
8 And have not shut me up into the hand of the enemy;
You have set my feet in a wide place. 

9 Have mercy on me, O LORD, for I am in trouble;
My eye wastes away with grief, 
Yes, my soul and my body!
10 For my life is spent with grief,
And my years with sighing; 
My strength fails because of my iniquity, 
And my bones waste away.
11 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.
12 I am forgotten like a dead man, out of mind;
I am like a broken vessel.
13 For I hear the slander of many;
Fear is on every side; 
While they take counsel together against me, 
They scheme to take away my life. 

14 But as for me, I trust in You, O LORD;
I say, “You are my God.”
15 My times are in Your hand;
Deliver me from the hand of my enemies, 
And from those who persecute me.
16 Make Your face shine upon Your servant;
Save me for Your mercies’ sake.
17 Do not let me be ashamed, O LORD, for I have called upon You;
Let the wicked be ashamed; 
Let them be silent in the grave.
18 Let the lying lips be put to silence,
Which speak insolent things proudly and contemptuously against the righteous. 

19 Oh, how great is Your goodness,
Which You have laid up for those who fear You, 
Which You have prepared for those who trust in You 
In the presence of the sons of men!
20 You shall hide them in the secret place of Your presence
From the plots of man; 
You shall keep them secretly in a pavilion 
From the strife of tongues. 

21 Blessed be the LORD,
For He has shown me His marvelous kindness in a strong city!
22 For I said in my haste,
“I am cut off from before Your eyes”; 
Nevertheless You heard the voice of my supplications 
When I cried out to You. 

23 Oh, love the LORD, all you His saints!
For the LORD preserves the faithful, 
And fully repays the proud person.
24 Be of good courage,
And He shall strengthen your heart, 
All you who hope in the LORD.

This psalm is evocative of those great poetic verses in Ecclesiastics, of which on of the verses that is recanted is ” a time to love.”

 

Verse 19 says:

19 How great is your goodness, 
which you have stored up for those who fear you, 
which you bestow in the sight of men 
on those who take refuge in you.

This is an awesome verse which signifies that the great and majestic goodness of the Lord is directed towards and is also stored up for those that fear him, that there is a storehouse of goodness that is bestowed in the sight of men.

One can rightly say, God has been good to me. But this storehouse of goodness is still unfolding in the light of day as the Lord continues to bestow this goodness and his special goodness will have his special timing.

This verse contrasts somewhat with the parable in the Gospels with the rich man wanting to increase his storehouse of grain, yet it was considered folly because he didn’t have long to live. In the context of this psalm it would be the Lord’s storehouse and only the Lord’s storehouse of goodness that is a source of refuge or the place to go to. Too much attention of your own storehouse can take you away from this great goodness of the Lord, kept for you.

Here though, there is a great goodness, stored up, by the Lord that is unknown, uncounted, and unseen until it is bestowed. Yet this is where thanksgiving and praise come in, because you can praise the Lord for the goodness that has already been bestowed and for his storehouse of goodness for you based on this verse, so you can hope and believe that the Lord, who has already been good to you, will continue to bestow from his great goodness to you.

This also goes to prayer and participating in this bestowing of goodness, where you can pray for others and ask that the Lord continue to bestow goodness upon them from the great storehouse of goodness.

This verse speaks of maybe the many, in that is says in the sight of men and on those who take refuge in you which hopefully can be more or many people.

Earlier in the psalm, the psalmist is distressed and his troubles which may include physical sickness are seen by friends who are now avoiding him and keeping their distance. In any event he is in a weakened state and this is visible to others.

More so it is that these friends are afraid of coming into the wrath of David’s many enemies. David himself is overwhelmed by them and if he is, there is no protection afforded through David and these friends do not also want to incur the ire of these enemies who have become a stronghold in bringing forth their venom.

People are attracted to strength and success and tend to fall away at times when friends are in distress, partly out of the idea that what is going on can brush against them as well.  The fumes of fear tend to rise around troubles and others fear they will be touched upon with similar troubles.

Verse 12 says,” I am forgotten by them as though I were dead; 
I have become like broken pottery.”

Here David uses the broken vessel imagery as his friends have given up.

 

This verse shows that the Lord does use people who are in brokenness, and that even in a less than ideal state or even while in a less than ideal state of affairs, you can be of use to the Lord as a broken vessel. It may only be that you last ability to have any effect is by prayer. David could still pray for himself and the whole world from this very position of brokenness he was now experiencing. His other realms of effective power and strength had been removed.

Now friends have disappeared and there is a mounting rise of threats, slander, and this is only maybe in the beginning stages as there are plots forming. The distress as bad as it is now is like a still gathering storm with more to come.

However, despite the real and deep and overwhelming distresses of the psalmist David, this psalm strongly images the love of the Lord for him within these distresses which surpass every mountain of difficulty and what this psalm is showing that this love is greater than the troubles David was experiencing and it is a love of surpassing power, that isn’t hindered by the dire circumstances surrounding David.

As deep and as enveloping as the distresses are that David finds himself in, there is that romancing of the soul and the great love of the Lord that breaks through even in the presence of all this.

Verses 14 and 15 say,

14 But I trust in you, O LORD; 
I say, “You are my God.”

15 My times are in your hands; 
deliver me from my enemies 
and from those who pursue me.

David doesn’t have the trust of friends and cohorts anymore, but he still turns and says his trust is to the Lord and says “You are my God”.

David’s ultimate place of belonging and love is in those words, “You are my God.”

This does contrast with his enemies, who are involved in the pursuit of idols, something that David refuses. It is the Lord who love’s him and he will trust in that love.

16 Let your face shine on your servant; 
save me in your unfailing love.

As it says here in verse 16, he is calling upon the unfailing love of the Lord and its saving presence for him.

He is asking that the face of this love be upon him, that it be fully revealed in its majesty and power as this love is a strong presence.

 

The Song of Solomon Chapter 8 verses 6 and 7 says,

6 Set me as a seal upon your heart, 
As a seal upon your arm; 
For love is as strong as death, 
Jealousy as cruel as the grave;
Its flames are flames of fire, 
A most vehement flame.
7 Many waters cannot quench love, 
Nor can the floods drown it. 
If a man would give for love 
All the wealth of his house, 
It would be utterly despised.

 

The many waters of troubles that surround David now will not quench the love of the Lord and his knowledge and seeking of this love.

 

Verse 21 evokes particularly powerful imagery.

21 Praise be to the LORD, 
for he showed his wonderful love to me 
when I was in a besieged city.

David was situated as a besieged city.

The walls had come crumbling down around him and all his better hopes. The troubles were so many and so confounding that he was in the state of besiegement.

The imagery of a besieged city as goes to the idea of intercession as well.  The city image is one of where there might be others with you in the besiegement. The ideas that this brings into intercessory prayer is whatever distresses you might be feeling, they might be commonly shared elsewhere and you can call upon the unfailing love of the Lord for all the members of this particular besiegement. For example, there can be some sort of disaster that befalls many so it is fitting and behooves you to pray not only for yourself within the realms or any brush into a besiegement that indeed might be or potentially might be shared with others.

A lot of this psalm is at the level of feeling, and if you are feeling the heat in some way, others may be as well and you can also lift them up to the love of the Lord as well as yourself asking that the Love of the Lord be upon those who also feel this way..

Yet as it says in verse 15, “ My times are in your hands.”

Despite this besiegement, this wasn’t to be the final call, the final call would be made by the Lord and the final call was that the unfailing love of the Lord would shine through for David and call was that it was a time to love and for this love David brings forth great praise. The times were in the hand of the Lord, not in the hand of the circumstances, as disadvantageous as they were to love, the hand of the Lord said it would be love.

Verse 4 says,  “Free me from the trap that is set for me, 
for you are my refuge.”

 

This is a prayer for freedom.  This is a vision of freedom which includes the freedom to love as well as freedom from the approaching enemies.

We know that David is giving voice to prayer as it says in verse 2,” 2 Turn your ear to me, 
come quickly to my rescue; 
be my rock of refuge, 
a strong fortress to save me.”

He is asking the Lord to turn his ear to him and quickly respond. The besiegement is upon him now and he needs the quick action of the Lord in response to this.

Verse 8 says, “ And have not shut me up into the hand of the enemy;
You have set my feet in a wide place.”

He has received a favorable answer. The answer says he not been shuttered, and doors have not closed upon him, he has been set free in a wide place where he can stand in the freedom of love.

This verse indicates that the Lord gives that “wide place” for love; a place where the restrictions are uplifted and love can come forth.

This type of imagery is used in the Song of Solomon, where the lovers meet in the fields, which images places of freedom and space and standing room for love.

Verse 21 says, “ Blessed be the LORD,
For He has shown me His marvelous kindness in a strong city!”

 

This contrasts strongly to the besieged city imaging earlier in the psalm.

The marvelous kindness of the Lord is a stronghold, it is like a strong city of kindness and love.  The response of the Lord is a love that is in a strong city; the city of God is a city of love and of strength and this again goes to the idea of also interceding for others to be within this strong city of love.

 

The love is not absent of feeling. David did feel the pain and he did feel the love as the shining face image lends to feeling as he felt the shining love of the Lord even as you might feel the shining rays of the sun after a cold spell under the clouds or dark of night.

The final two verses of this psalm say,

23 Oh, love the LORD, all you His saints!
For the LORD preserves the faithful, 
And fully repays the proud person.
24 Be of good courage,
And He shall strengthen your heart, 
All you who hope in the LORD.

This gives the reciprocal call to love the Lord.

Verse 23 alludes to that others are with David, he is not alone. He may have been alone in these particular days but he is speaking even to future generations in this verse, as ” all you saints” would include people in the far distant future from the time with which David was writing this psalm.

Yet David was also with them through the Spirit of the Lord and he is speaking to them in this psalm as well.

He could pray then for these people of future generations who may have and are reading this verse now.

They would rendezvous with him in the strong city of the love the Lord in due time in the realms of the eternal.

Verse 22 also goes to the eternal as well as temporal.

22 For I said in my haste,
“I am cut off from before Your eyes”; 
Nevertheless You heard the voice of my supplications 
When I cried out to You.

David’s fear here is not only for the temporal, but also being eternally lost. He never wants to be outside of the keen and loving eyes of the Lord, from those days into the eternal.  His fear was not only for the temporal lost but the eternal loss of his soul.

His fears were allayed but this fear was part of the encroachment of his besiegement and for him was the ultimate fear.

The final verse of this psalm speaks of a courageous hope in the love of the Lord, and this is also not only temporal but an eternal hope.

Ephesians Chapter 1 verse 18 says,

“ pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints,

1 Timothy Chapter 4 verse 10 says,

“(and for this we labor and strive), that we have put our hope in the living God, who is the Savior of all men, and especially of those who believe.

Courage is a virtue that is related to hope and love and it is not divorced from feeling as well.

If David had been a machine like figure, he would be able to go forward in his fight but he wouldn’t have felt the fear and it would not have been courage really in that you could manufacture a machine that would go into dangerous situations which have an element of courage but the machine doesn’t feel the heat of the difficulties.

 

This courage also arises from a place of feeling as well, even though it is a portion of strength and hope, it is still within the realms of feeling and emotion.

In Ecclesiastes Chapter 3 it says,

Everything Has Its Time

1 To everything there is a season,

A time for every purpose under heaven: 
2 A time to be born, 
And a time to die; 
A time to plant, 
And a time to pluck what is planted; 
3 A time to kill, 
And a time to heal; 
A time to break down, 
And a time to build up; 
4 A time to weep, 
And a time to laugh; 
A time to mourn, 
And a time to dance; 
5 A time to cast away stones, 
And a time to gather stones; 
A time to embrace, 
And a time to refrain from embracing; 
6 A time to gain, 
And a time to lose; 
A time to keep, 
And a time to throw away; 
7 A time to tear, 
And a time to sew; 
A time to keep silence, 
And a time to speak; 
8 A time to love, 
And a time to hate; 
A time of war, 
And a time of peace.

For David, even in the depths of difficulty the purpose of the Lord for him was Love and love for him even at the time when he was as a besieged city.