Under Attack!
The Psalm of the Besieged Soul

Psalm 31

Do you feel yourself under great spiritual attack?  Does it seem Satan has targeted you for destruction?  What do you do?  How do you commit yourself to God when it seems that problems, fears, and enemies are on every side?

If you feel constantly besieged by wicked thoughts, immoral desires, anger, bitterness, depression, and pride, then Psalm 31 is for you.  I entitle this Psalm, “Under Attack: the Psalm of the Besieged soul.”

Psalm 31:21; “Blessed by the LORD, for he hath showed me His marvelous kindness in a strong city!” 

The word, STRONG, is used twenty five times in the Hebrew and it is often translated siege or besieged.

The “strong city” speaks of a walled city often the focus of enemy attack.  The enemy attacks strong cities to defeat the nations (Deuteronomy 20:19,20; 28:53, 55, 57).

In 2 Kings 24:10; 25:2 it is used to describe Nebuchadnezzar’s siege of Jerusalem.

Applied to military action, it speaks of relentless attack against an opponent’s stronghold, or walled city.  The very walls that were built for protection could become a trap for people during a time of war when they are surrounded.  If terms for peace were refused by the leaders within a walled city, the entire city and all the inhabitants could be slaughtered. 

The inhabitants of a besieged city could be threatened by famine and death.  Efforts were made to shut off the food and water supply, and to prevent people from escaping.

In this Psalm, David is saying that he had often been besieged and relentlessly attacked.  Perhaps this related to the time when he was in Keilah and Saul besieged him.  Or when he was in Jerusalem and Absalom led a rebellion against him.  But the walls that enclosed him did not lead to his entrapment. 

David is saying God had showed him His marvelous kindness in a walled, or strong city.  He confesses that the walls did not work against him, to trap him in and lead to starvation, dehydration, or death. 

In this Psalm, what grips my attention is how it is quoted during the times of great attack in other places of Scripture.

Let us see how Jesus, Jonah, and Jeremiah also quote this Psalm at a time when they seem humanly trapped.  But God delivered them, and He can deliver you as well! 

1.    Jesus!  Quoted this Psalm on the Cross, Surrounded by Hateful Men 

·      He Committed His Spirit to the Lord!

When Jesus was on the cross, surrounded by man’s venomous hatred, he committed His soul into God’s Hand, as he quoted:

Psalm 31:5: Into thine hand I commit my spirit. 

Of all the things for Jesus to say as he breathed his last breath, He prayed a prayer rooted in Scripture, Psalm 31:5!  Jesus suffered physically, yes, but even more intensely, spiritually, He suffered complete abandonment from His Father for the first time in all of His eternal existence. That was indescribable shame and sorrow.

And Jesus prays!  And prays Scripture!  That is saying your prayers well.  If anyone was ever under unspeakable attack, it was Jesus on the cross.  All the principalities and powers of the Devil and his demons were hurled at Him. 

Yet, as he breathed his last, he cried: IT IS FINISHED, and with the same breath of air, spoke his final words before dying: “Father, into my hands I commit my spirit.”

There is courage in this cry, for Jesus was no weakling in death.  No man took his life from Him, but He laid it down himself.  He cried out with calm confidence staring death in the face, knowing the grave would hold no power over Him, for His Spirit was going to His Father who sent Him, His suffering finished.

And this prayer can be our claim as well.  Just as Jesus placed His Spirit in the loving and eternal hands of His Father, we may also say, “Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit.”  I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded, that He is able to keep that which I have committed, utno him against that day!  You may have complete and total confidence that at death yours spirit will be with the Father in heaven.

This Psalm could well relate to the very prayers that were going on in the Spirit of Jesus’ mind while he was on the cross.  I can imagine him finding great comfort in all these words:

Psalm 31:1-4; In thee, O LORD, do I put my trust; let me never be ashamed: deliver me in thy righteousness. ²Bow down thine ear to me; deliver me speedily: be thou my strong rock, for an house of defence to save me.  ³For thou art my rock and my fortress; therefore for thy name’s sake lead me, and guide me. ⁴Pull me out of the net that they have laid privily for me: for thou art my strength. ⁵Into thine hand I commit my spirit!

And who quotes the essence of verse five as he is being besieged by stones by the angry Jewish leaders?  Stephen:  Acts 7:59; Lord Jesus, receive my spirit! 

Yes, this is a Psalm to stand upon as your soul is under attack by the Devil and his workers.  Commit yourself on a daily basis, commit your soul and spirit to God!

2.    Jonah quotes this Psalm in the whale’s belly, v.6, Surrounded by Death

·      He Committed his TROUBLES to the Lord.

Psalm 31:6; I have hated them that regard lying vanities; but I trust in the LORD.  I will be glad and rejoice in thy mercy: for thou hast considered my trouble; thou has known my soul in adversities. 

Jonah 2:8; They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy.

Jonah was under great attack to disobey God and to not speak forth the life giving message of God’s Word for Nineveh to repent. 

As he ran from God and went down, down, down, nearly into the pit of hell, yea, the pit of a great fish, he repented and surrendered himself to the Lord who had created him and called him to be His.

Here is a fascinating verse: “They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy.” 

What is a lying vanity?  A lying vanity is a worthless nothing or a deceitful nothing.  Anything we hold on to that does not please God, anything we grasp because we think it will give us some satisfaction when in fact it is wrong, is a lying vanity.

They that OBSERVE, or serve, hold on to, forsake what is good for them.

A lady would not let go of her pocketbook in a NYC subway and was dragged to her death!  She held on to the very thing that led her to death.  She did not need it but thought she did.

You have heard the expression, “Let Go, Let God.”  It is documented that this came from a college student who wrote a large letter on six postcards: L-E-T – G-O-D.  He put them on the mantelpiece of his room where he was living at school.  One evening a draft blew through the window and the “D” blew away.  Now it said, “LET GO.”  He saw this to be a message from the Lord, a secret to the Christian life.  Only by “letting go” can you “let God” carry out His will in your life.

A.    A Wrong Attitude:

One of the lying vanities Jonah held on to was a racist or wrong attitude toward the people of Nineveh.  He clung to wrong attitudes against God's creation.  Listen: we are all children of Adam.  Think about this.  Why did Jonah not go to Nineveh?  Was it because he was a country boy and not a city boy?  Did he say, “Nineveh is too violent?  Was it the fear of failure?  No!  It was because he knew God was good and that the people would be saved!

Jonah 4:1; Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish: for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, and slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil.

Jonah revealed the depths of his hateful feelings for those God created.  Later in Jonah 4 he held on to his passions of hate and sympathized for a plant before the people of Nineveh.

If we observe or allow these deceitful values and attitudes in our lives, we forsake our own mercy.  That is, we give up the opportunity to receive God's mercy.  We must forsake our worthless ways or we forsake our own mercy.

Let me quickly list a few other “lying vanities” which we are prone to hold:

B.   Sinful Anxieties: We worry over finances, food, fashions, and our future.

C.   Selfish Ambitions: power, seeking popularity or prestige?

D.  Worldly Activities: Are you doing anything that you know is a sin?  The World Wide Web can be a lying vanities with its easy access to an endless stream of perversion and pornography.

Lying vanities are things that come between the soul and God.  What are the lying idols of the world that presently afflict you, bombard your soul, besiege you, and promise you some sort of peace but deliver only guilt and depression?  Jonah had allowed his own fanatical patriotism to come between him and God, leading him to hate a whole nation of people, the Assyrians, and those living in Nineveh.

The lying vanities that bombard your soul will lead to grief and shame; reproach and slander.  Look at the verses that follow in Psalm 31:

Psalm 31:7,8:

I will be glad and rejoice in thy mercy: for thou hast considered my trouble; thou hast known my soul in adversities; ⁸And hast not shut me up into the hand of the enemy: thou hast set my feet in a large room.

3.    Jeremiah Quotes This Psalm, Surrounded by FEAR

·      He committed His TIME to the Lord v.13:

Psalm 31:13; For I have heard the slander of many: fear was on every side: while they took counsel together against me, they devised to take away my life. 

“Fear on every side” became a favorite expression of Jeremiah because God told him judgment would surely come upon the city of Jerusalem.  Jerusalem would be a besieged city by Nebuchadnezzar.  (See Jeremiah 6:25; 20:3,4, 10; 46:5; 49:29; Lamentations 2:22).

In Jeremiah 6:25 Jeremiah warned the people that fear would be on every side because of their sin, their idolatry, and their forgetfulness of God. 

Fear and depression is on every side of so many in our city because they have gone away from God!

Jeremiah 20:2-4; When Jeremiah was put into prison, he nicknamed the chief governor in the house of the LORD, who beat him and chained him down, Magor-missabib, which means, “Fear round about.”  Then they called this to Jeremiah, mocking him for his negative message of judgment.

People don’t want to hear about judgment, but it is a real thing that happens when people sin and forget God.  The wicked shall be cast into hell, dear friends.  Don’t forget it.

Jeremiah 46:5; 49:29: Jeremiah also predicted that other Gentile nations would experience fear all around them because of their wicked ways.

When fear is all around, we must commit our TIMES into God’s hand. 

David’s grief was real and it led him to feel forsaken, forgotten, and fearful.  Have you ever been depressed and you felt that no one cared for you, that you were a forgotten man and that fear was all around you?

Psalm 31:15; Yet David committed his time to the Lord.  My times, my ways, whens, wheres, and whys are in God’s hand!

“My times” refers to all the events and circumstances that surrounded David, and Jeremiah.  What circumstances and events are about you, besieging your soul tonight?  This Psalm, Warren Wiersbe writes, is the Hebrew version of Romans 8:28.  David trusts God to work out every dark moment in his life for truth and right.

Have mercy upon me, O LORD, for I am in trouble: mine eye is consumed with grief, yea, my soul and my belly. ¹⁰For my life is spent with grief, and my years with sighing: my strength faileth because of mine iniquity, and my bones are consumed. ¹¹I was a reproach among all mine enemies, but especially among my neighbours, and a fear to mine acquaintance: they that did see me without fled from me. ¹²I am forgotten as a dead man out of mind: I am like a broken vessel.  ¹³For I have heard the slander of many: fear was on every side: while they took counsel together against me, they devised to take away my life. ¹⁴But I trusted in thee, O LORD: I said, Thou art my God. ¹⁵My times are in thy hand: deliver me from the hand of mine enemies, and from them that persecute me. ¹⁶Make thy face to shine upon thy servant: save me for thy mercies’ sake. ¹⁷Let me not be ashamed, O LORD; for I have called upon thee: let the wicked be ashamed, and let them be silent in the grave.  ¹⁸Let the lying lips be put to silence; which speak grievous things proudly and contemptuously against the righteous.