Psalm 31:21-24

“Praise be to the LORD, for he showed his wonderful love to me when I was in a besieged city. In my alarm I said, “I am cut off from your sight!” Yet you heard my cry for mercy when I called to you for help. O love the LORD, all his saints! The LORD preserves the faithful, but the proud he pays back in full. Be strong and take heart, all you who hope in the LORD.”

The use of biography is universally acknowledged. It leads us into the recesses of domestic life; and teaches us, either from the frailties or the excellencies of others, how to conduct ourselves in a great variety of emergencies, which we ourselves must expect to meet with in life.

But sacred biography is infinitely more interesting than that which proceeds only from uninspired pens, because the circumstances which are brought to light are more particular, more diversified, more authentic—than any records which people would choose to give of themselves, or than others would be capable of giving respecting them.

On this account the Psalms of David claim the highest possible regard. Perhaps there never was a man whose circumstances were more varied than his; and certainly there never was a man who committed to writing all the secret motions of his heart with more fidelity than he; or that labored more to improve them for the benefit of mankind.

This appears, as in many other Psalms, so especially in that before us; as will be clearly seen, while we notice:

I. David’s acknowledgment of mercies conferred upon him.

To enter fully into this, we must refer to the occasion on which the Psalm was penned. It was written, I apprehend, after his deliverance from Saul, when, from his being surrounded by Saul’s army, he had conceived it impossible for him to escape. Indeed, his deliverance was truly astonishing; and it was wrought by the special intervention of Almighty God, in answer to his prayer. At the very moment that his blood-thirsty persecutor had, to all appearance, effected his purpose, news came that the Philistines had invaded the land of Judah; and Saul was compelled to return instantly from his pursuit of David, in order to repel the invaders, 1 Samuel 23:27-28.

In reference to these circumstances, David first acknowledges the mercy in general terms, “Praise be to the LORD, for he showed his wonderful love to me when I was in a besieged city.” And then he specifies more particularly the relief he had found in answer to prayer, when his own mind was overwhelmed with desponding fears.

In the peaceful state of the Church at this day, we are not likely to be reduced to David’s state for our religion’s sake; and, therefore, as far as the literal sense of the Psalm goes, it is not applicable to us. But, of deliverances equally “marvelous,” we may speak. Let me then ask:

1. Whether you have not, at times, been ready to despond?

We can know but little either of our guilt or corruption, if we have not “had the sentence of death in ourselves, 2 Corinthians 1:9,” and felt that we had “no sufficiency in ourselves” to save ourselves, 2 Corinthians 3:5. Have we never, then, under a sense of our extreme unworthiness and helplessness, been ready to doubt whether we could finally attain salvation, and “said, as it were, in our haste, I am cut off from before your eyes?” Go back to some particular seasons, when your great adversary has prevailed against you, and seemed as if, like a roaring lion, he would utterly destroy you; has it not, at such seasons, been difficult to lay hold on the divine promises, and to flee for refuge to the hope set before you?

2. Whether God has not at such seasons interposed for you, in answer to your prayer?

There are few that have not had reason to “bless and adore their God, for showing them his marvelous kindness in such seasons as these. The experience of the Prophet Jeremiah has been realized by God’s people in every age, “The waters closed over my head, and I thought I was about to be cut off. I called on your name, O LORD, from the depths of the pit. You heard my plea: “Do not close your ears to my cry for relief.” You came near when I called you, and you said, “Do not fear! Lamentations 3:54-57.” From you, then, the Psalmist’s acknowledgment is due; and by you it should be made to the last hour of your lives.

Full of gratitude, David pours forth,

II. His exhortations, founded on his own experience.

1. David exhorts the saints to love God.

God is worthy to be loved for his own divine excellencies; but he should be loved also for the wisdom and goodness and equity of his dispensations.

“The faithful he does and will preserve;” yes, both from men and devils will he preserve them; he will “hide them under the shadow of his wings,” and “keep them even as the apple of his eye.”

But the ungodly, whoever he may be, he will plentifully repay with judgments proportioned to his impiety.

The ungodly may indeed triumph for a time, and the godly be left to groan under the rod of the oppressor; but a day of righteous retribution is at hand, when “God will recompense tribulation to those who trouble his people; and to those who are troubled, rest. 2 Thessalonians 1:6-7.”

Shall not the assurance of this be a comfort to the saints, even under their deepest troubles? Surely it should; so that I may well urge upon them the exhortation before us, “O love the Lord, all his saints.”

2. David exhorts the saints to trust in God.

There are seasons when the saints can scarcely be said to believe and trust, while yet they do hope in God; saying, as it were, “If I perish, I will perish at his footstool, crying for mercy!” Now then, to all such people I say, “God will strengthen your heart,” yes, and strengthen your arm too, so that “the arms of your hands shall be made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob, Genesis 49:24.” He will even “perfect his own strength in your weakness,” so that no enemy shall be able to prevail against you. “Be of good courage,” then, my brethren. Though you cannot fully trust in God—yet, if you can hope in him, be not afraid; for God will vindicate your cause, and “bruise all your enemies, not excepting even Satan himself, under your feet shortly! Romans 16:20.”

Exhortation.

1. Learn to see and to acknowledge the mercies of God towards you.

What loss is sustained, both of comfort to the saints, and of honor to God—by the inattention of men to the dispensations of their God! How many deliverances, both temporal and spiritual, have we all experienced; but of which, through our remissness, God has never received any tribute of praise! Know that if you will be observant of God’s gracious dealings towards you, you will never lack a theme for gratitude and praise!

2. Never be satisfied with your own happiness, but seek to advance also the happiness of others.

David never celebrates any mercy given to him, without improving it as an occasion for commending God to others, and exhorting them to unite with him in every possible expression of love and gratitude.

Thus should it be with us also. We are not, indeed, called to make known to all the secret workings of our own hearts; but we are called to edify one another, and to take every suitable occasion of honoring our God. Let us, then, do this; and do it, too, with holy zeal. Let us “abundantly utter the memory of his great goodness, that all his works may praise him, and all his saints may bless him! Psalm 145:5-10.”

Charles Simeon