Psa 31:11 | KingComments | STEP | In this section we hear again a prayer in distress. David’s trust is tested, resulting in exercises of faith. Before God, he has expressed his trust in Him. Now comes the practice: he sees his enemies. Then David notices that he has, so to speak, the treasure in an earthen vessel, and that the spirit may be willing, but the flesh is weak. Therefore, he appeals to God’s grace here, so that later he may find, as Paul experienced, that when he is weak, he is strong (in the Lord). The prayer in distress in this section goes deeper than the supplication in . There David appeals to God’s righteousness , here to His grace . He portrays his affliction, he spreads out his distress before God. He is in distress ( ). His earlier experience in , that his feet were set in a large place by God, he seems to have forgotten. Reality seizes him again. But he goes with that reality to God, of Whom he said in that He is his rock and fortress. Just when the harsh reality of circumstances overwhelms him, he speaks to God about his distress. He is weakened from grief. His eye is wasted away, he no longer sees all things clearly; his soul is also wasted away. He can’t bear it anymore. He can hardly gather the strength to go on living; he is tired of life. His bones are wasted away as well; he is exhausted within, in his emotional life. Prolonged sorrow destroys a person’s strength; his life wastes away because of it ( ). The only thing he can do is sigh, because he no longer has words to express his sorrow. So the years go by. He realizes that his strength has failed because of his “iniquity”. Here again we find a great difference between David and the Lord Jesus. David speaks of his iniquity, while the Lord has taken our iniquities upon Himself. Here David is no longer speaking of his enemies, but of his own sinfulness. As a result, he can no longer walk in faith. His body or substance has wasted away. Besides his inner distress there is also the distress that is inflicted on him by others, from outside ( ). He has many adversaries and “all” those adversaries have caused him to become “a reproach”. His “neighbors”, the people with whom he interacted regularly, whom he could expect to be ‘a good neighbor’ (cf. ), have turned against him the most. Neighbors are people who live nearby, while “acquaintances” are friends, people close to your heart. Even for his “acquaintances” he has become an object of dread. They see him as a leper, someone with whom it is better to have no contact. That’s why they keep well away from him when they see him coming in the distance. They avoid him like the plague. This is also what the Lord Jesus experienced. He feels like a dead man, someone who has been forgotten, out of mind, someone who is ignored, to whom no one cares ( ). Here it really is ‘out of sight, out of mind’. Nobody thinks of him anymore. He has become “like a broken vessel”, like a useless utensil, of no use to anyone. His life lies in sherds, it is broken beyond repair. Then there is the slander about him all around ( ). On the one hand he is forgotten, he is ignored and shunned like a leper, but on the other hand people talk about him, they speak ill of him. He hears what they say. It is all slander. He feels that he is surrounded by enemies, causing fear to overcome him from all sides. For they conspire against him and devise plans to put him to death. He is already being treated as a dead man and now they want to actually end his life. This way of talking behind someone’s back is nowadays called ‘mobbing’. Mobbing can be defined as humiliating, intimidating or hostile behavior that is systematically directed at the same person, who is unable to defend himself. This is a tried and tested means of bringing someone down. They intend to literally neutralize him, to get rid of him. With the Lord Jesus this literally happened, when the decision was made to kill Him ( ). Mobbing is used in the world, for example in a work situation toward a colleague. It can also happen in professing Christianity, as it happened here with David. Not only in the world, but especially in Christianity, the most horrible slander against the Lord Jesus is proclaimed. Believers also suffer from these practices. The following verses of this psalm show what we should do in such cases.

‏ Psalms 31:11

Prayer in Distress

In this section we hear again a prayer in distress. David’s trust is tested, resulting in exercises of faith. Before God, he has expressed his trust in Him. Now comes the practice: he sees his enemies. Then David notices that he has, so to speak, the treasure in an earthen vessel, and that the spirit may be willing, but the flesh is weak. Therefore, he appeals to God’s grace here, so that later he may find, as Paul experienced, that when he is weak, he is strong (in the Lord).

The prayer in distress in this section goes deeper than the supplication in Psa 31:1b. There David appeals to God’s righteousness, here to His grace. He portrays his affliction, he spreads out his distress before God. He is in distress (Psa 31:9). His earlier experience in Psa 31:8, that his feet were set in a large place by God, he seems to have forgotten. Reality seizes him again. But he goes with that reality to God, of Whom he said in Psa 31:3 that He is his rock and fortress.

Just when the harsh reality of circumstances overwhelms him, he speaks to God about his distress. He is weakened from grief. His eye is wasted away, he no longer sees all things clearly; his soul is also wasted away. He can’t bear it anymore. He can hardly gather the strength to go on living; he is tired of life. His bones are wasted away as well; he is exhausted within, in his emotional life.

Prolonged sorrow destroys a person’s strength; his life wastes away because of it (Psa 31:10). The only thing he can do is sigh, because he no longer has words to express his sorrow. So the years go by. He realizes that his strength has failed because of his “iniquity”. Here again we find a great difference between David and the Lord Jesus. David speaks of his iniquity, while the Lord has taken our iniquities upon Himself.

Here David is no longer speaking of his enemies, but of his own sinfulness. As a result, he can no longer walk in faith. His body or substance has wasted away.

Besides his inner distress there is also the distress that is inflicted on him by others, from outside (Psa 31:11). He has many adversaries and “all” those adversaries have caused him to become “a reproach”. His “neighbors”, the people with whom he interacted regularly, whom he could expect to be ‘a good neighbor’ (cf. Pro 27:10), have turned against him the most.

Neighbors are people who live nearby, while “acquaintances” are friends, people close to your heart. Even for his “acquaintances” he has become an object of dread. They see him as a leper, someone with whom it is better to have no contact. That’s why they keep well away from him when they see him coming in the distance. They avoid him like the plague. This is also what the Lord Jesus experienced.

He feels like a dead man, someone who has been forgotten, out of mind, someone who is ignored, to whom no one cares (Psa 31:12). Here it really is ‘out of sight, out of mind’. Nobody thinks of him anymore. He has become “like a broken vessel”, like a useless utensil, of no use to anyone. His life lies in sherds, it is broken beyond repair.

Then there is the slander about him all around (Psa 31:13). On the one hand he is forgotten, he is ignored and shunned like a leper, but on the other hand people talk about him, they speak ill of him. He hears what they say. It is all slander. He feels that he is surrounded by enemies, causing fear to overcome him from all sides. For they conspire against him and devise plans to put him to death. He is already being treated as a dead man and now they want to actually end his life.

This way of talking behind someone’s back is nowadays called ‘mobbing’. Mobbing can be defined as humiliating, intimidating or hostile behavior that is systematically directed at the same person, who is unable to defend himself. This is a tried and tested means of bringing someone down. They intend to literally neutralize him, to get rid of him. With the Lord Jesus this literally happened, when the decision was made to kill Him (Jn 11:53).

Mobbing is used in the world, for example in a work situation toward a colleague. It can also happen in professing Christianity, as it happened here with David. Not only in the world, but especially in Christianity, the most horrible slander against the Lord Jesus is proclaimed. Believers also suffer from these practices. The following verses of this psalm show what we should do in such cases.