Psalm 31 (1928 BCP)
Psalm 31 (1928 BCP), In te, Domine, speravi, is Psalm 31 in the Psalter of the American Book of Common Prayer (1928). In the 1928 monthly course it follows Psalm 30 at Morning Prayer on the Sixth Day. Its prayer moves between refuge, anguish, confidence, and thanksgiving: danger is neither denied nor allowed the final word.
Text in the 1928 Psalter
The complete Prayer Book text below was compared word for word with the local transcription of the 1928 Psalter, including its distinctive readings “house of defence,” “my times are,” and “marvellous great kindness.”
1 IN thee, O LORD, have I put my trust; let me never be put to confusion; * deliver me in thy righteousness.
2 Bow down thine ear to me; * make haste to deliver me.
3 And be thou my strong rock, and house of defence, * that thou mayest save me.
4 For thou art my strong rock, and my castle: * be thou also my guide, and lead me for thy Name's sake.
5 Draw me out of the net that they have laid privily for me; * for thou art my strength.
6 Into thy hands I commend my spirit; * for thou hast redeemed me, O LORD, thou God of truth.
7 I have hated them that hold of lying vanities, * and my trust hath been in the LORD.
8 I will be glad and rejoice in thy mercy; * for thou hast considered my trouble, and hast known my soul in adversities.
9 Thou hast not shut me up into the hand of the enemy; * but hast set my feet in a large room.
10 Have mercy upon me, O LORD, for I am in trouble, * and mine eye is consumed for very heaviness; yea, my soul and my body.
11 For my life is waxen old with heaviness, * and my years with mourning.
12 My strength faileth me, because of mine iniquity, * and my bones are consumed.
13 I became a reproach among all mine enemies, but especially among my neighbours; * and they of mine acquaintance were afraid of me; and they that did see me without, conveyed themselves from me.
14 I am clean forgotten as a dead man out of mind; * I am become like a broken vessel.
15 For I have heard the blasphemy of the multitude, and fear is on every side; * while they conspire together against me, and take their counsel to take away my life.
16 But my hope hath been in thee, O LORD; * I have said, Thou art my God.
17 My times are in thy hand; deliver me from the hand of mine enemies, * and from them that persecute me.
18 Show thy servant the light of thy countenance, * and save me for thy mercy's sake.
19 Let me not be confounded, O LORD, for I have called upon thee; * let the ungodly be put to confusion, and be put to silence in the grave.
20 Let the lying lips be put to silence, * which cruelly, disdainfully, and despitefully speak against the righteous.
21 O how plentiful is thy goodness, which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee, * and that thou hast prepared for them that put their trust in thee, even before the sons of men!
22 Thou shalt hide them in the covert of thine own presence from the plottings of men: * thou shalt keep them secretly in thy tabernacle from the strife of tongues.
23 Thanks be to the LORD; * for he hath showed me marvellous great kindness in a strong city.
24 But in my haste I said, * I am cast out of the sight of thine eyes.
25 Nevertheless, thou heardest the voice of my prayer, * when I cried unto thee.
26 O love the LORD, all ye his saints; * for the LORD preserveth them that are faithful, and plenteously rewardeth the proud doer.
27 Be strong, and he shall establish your heart, * all ye that put your trust in the LORD.
Refuge, surrender, and real affliction
The opening requests—deliverance, a rock, a house of defence, guidance, and rescue from a net—name a person who is afraid and who asks God to act in accordance with God's righteousness and Name. Verse 6 occurs within that living petition; it is a surrender to God, not a denial of the need for deliverance.
The sacred words which Jesus made His own on the cross, and which have been the last utterance of so many saints, were meant by the psalmist to apply to life, not to death. He laid his spirit as a precious deposit in God's hand, assured that He was able to keep that which was committed to Him.
Verses 9–15 give the bodily and social cost of trouble—consumed eyes, mourning, failing strength, reproach, estrangement, and fear—before the psalm says, “Thou art my God.” Its candour does not become self-pity, because the speaker takes anguish to God in prayer.
The same facts may feed despair and be the fuel of faith. This man's eyes took in all surrounding evils, and these drove him to avert his gaze from them and fix it on Jehovah. That is the best thing that troubles can do for us.
Christ and the Church's prayer
Jesus uses Psalm 31:6 at the moment of death. The Evangelist's citation makes this psalm's language decisively part of Christian prayer, while the psalm itself remains the prayer of one seeking God in danger.
And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said thus, he gave up the ghost.
Augustine's exposition gives a historical Christian reading of the psalm—using the Septuagint numbering, in which it is Psalm 30—and hears both Christ and the people redeemed by Christ. This reception does not cancel the psalmist's original plea; it places it within the Church's confession of redemption.
“Into Your hands I commend My Spirit.” To Your power I commend My Spirit, soon to receive It back. “You have redeemed Me, O Lord God of truth.” Let the people too, redeemed by the Passion of their Lord, and joyful in the glorifying of their Head, say, “You have redeemed me, O Lord God of truth.”
“My times are in thy hand”
Verse 17 is neither fatalism nor a promise that persecution will never occur. It confesses that hostile hands are not ultimate. The prayer that follows remains a prayer for rescue from enemies.
The “hand of mine enemies” seems shrivelled into impotence when contrasted with that great hand, to which he has committed his spirit, and in which are his “times”; and the psalmist's recognition that it holds his destiny is the ground of his prayer for deliverance from the foes' paralysed grasp.
The request for the light of God's countenance and salvation “for thy mercy's sake” grounds confidence in God's character rather than the speaker's self-justification. Psalm 31 permits candid lament, but forms lament into prayer: the sufferer calls on God, entrusts himself to God, and waits for God.
From one deliverance to common courage
The final verses widen from “me” to “all ye his saints.” The psalmist gives thanks for kindness, confesses his hasty fear that he was cast out of God's sight, and then summons the faithful to love, strength, and trust. Personal mercy becomes public encouragement.
The whole closes with a summons to all whom Jehovah loves to love Him for His mercy's sake. The joyful singer longs for a chorus to join his single voice, as all devout hearts do.
The Sixth-Day setting makes that corporate dimension visible. Morning Prayer joins Psalm 30's thanksgiving to Psalm 31's trust amid adversity; Evening Prayer then begins Psalm 32's blessing on forgiveness.
The Sixth Day. Morning Prayer. Psalm 30. Exaltabo te, Domine. Psalm 31. In te, Domine, speravi. Evening Prayer. Psalm 32. Beati quorum.
See Also
- The Psalter (1928 BCP)
- Morning Prayer (1928 BCP)
- Psalm 30 (1928 BCP)
- Psalm 32 (1928 BCP)
- Book of Common Prayer (1928)
External Links
References
- ↑ The Protestant Episcopal Church, The Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments and Other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church, According to the Use of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America; Together with The Psalter, or Psalms of David (New York: The Church Pension Fund, 1928), The Psalter, Psalm 31, In te, Domine, speravi, Sixth Day, Morning Prayer. "Psalm 31 in the 1928 BCP Psalter".
- ↑ The Protestant Episcopal Church, The Book of Common Prayer (New York: The Church Pension Fund, 1928), The Psalter, Psalm 31, verses 13–20, Sixth Day, Morning Prayer. "Psalm 31 in the 1928 BCP Psalter".
- ↑ The Protestant Episcopal Church, The Book of Common Prayer (New York: The Church Pension Fund, 1928), The Psalter, Psalm 31, verses 21–27, Sixth Day, Morning Prayer. "Psalm 31 in the 1928 BCP Psalter".
- ↑ Alexander Maclaren, The Expositor's Bible: The Psalms, vol. 1, Psalms I–XXXVIII (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1892), pp. 292–293, exposition of Psalm XXXI. "Maclaren, exposition of Psalm 31".
- ↑ Alexander Maclaren, The Expositor's Bible: The Psalms, vol. 1, Psalms I–XXXVIII (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1892), p. 297, exposition of Psalm XXXI, verses 14–18. "Maclaren on Psalm 31:14–18".
- ↑ The Holy Bible, Authorized (King James) Version (London: Robert Barker, 1611), Luke 23:46. "Luke 23:46, KJV".
- ↑ Augustine of Hippo, Exposition on Psalm 31, §6 (Psalm 30 in the Septuagint numbering), trans. J. E. Tweed, in Philip Schaff, ed., Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, first series, vol. 8 (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1888), revised and edited for New Advent by Kevin Knight. "Augustine, Exposition on Psalm 31".
- ↑ Alexander Maclaren, The Expositor's Bible: The Psalms, vol. 1, Psalms I–XXXVIII (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1892), pp. 297–298, exposition of Psalm XXXI, verse 15. "Maclaren on Psalm 31:15".
- ↑ Alexander Maclaren, The Expositor's Bible: The Psalms, vol. 1, Psalms I–XXXVIII (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1892), p. 301, exposition of Psalm XXXI, verses 23–24. "Maclaren on Psalm 31:23–24".
- ↑ The Protestant Episcopal Church, The Book of Common Prayer (New York: The Church Pension Fund, 1928), The Psalter, Sixth Day, Morning and Evening Prayer. "1928 BCP monthly Psalter: Sixth Day".