Caught In A Trap

CAUGHT IN A TRAP.

Psalm 31:9-16.

The Psalmist was in a trap. Boxed in. Depressed.

We have all been there. I have been stuck down a pot-hole. Somebody else knows what it is like to feel all alone, abandoned. Others are slandered.

Terror is all around (Psalm 31:13). “But I trusted in you, O LORD: I said, ‘You are my God’” (Psalm 31:14)!

The Psalmist does not at first tell us what his trap is, but after the deliverance David speaks of ‘the marvelous kindness of the LORD in a besieged city’ (Psalm 31:21). Like I say, he has been boxed in.

There is much about this short passage which speaks to us of the Passion of Jesus, also.

His anguish in the Garden (Psalm 31:9-10). (Where we may have ‘iniquity’ in verse 10, He has, in another translation, ‘misery’). He is, after all, ‘a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief’ (cf. Isaiah 53:3).

The scorning of adversaries, the denial of friends, the dread of acquaintances; a fear to those without (Psalm 31:11; cf. Matthew 26:67-74).

The whispering, scheming, plotting of many - “terror all around!” (Psalm 31:13; cf. Matthew 26:14-16; Matthew 26:59-60).

There is also the brokenness which we commemorate at Communion (cf. 1 Corinthians 11:24); the grave as well: “passed out of mind as one who is dead” (Psalm 31:12).

“But I trust in You, O LORD,” says Jesus. “You are my God” (Psalm 31:14). But even then, the scorners mock: ‘He trusts in God; let Him deliver Him now’ (Matthew 27:43).

Yet trust we must, for there is no other.

“My times are in your hand” (Psalm 31:15). What a blessed reassurance this is!

“I am trusting in you, O LORD,” I say. “You are my God” (Psalm 31:14).

In this trust, in this faith, we can call down upon ourselves the Aaronic blessing, no matter what befalls us (Psalm 31:16; cf. Numbers 6:24-26). The Lord Jesus has been there before us. In His grace, in His mercy, in His covenant love, the LORD will not fail to respond.