Not Ashamed of Believing – Psalm 31

“To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David. In You, O Lord, I put my trust. Let me never be ashamed. Deliver me in Your righteousness.” Psalm 31:1

Why should a believer ever be ashamed of His Creator and Redeemer? It should not happen. God is greater than all and He holds the key to everyone’s eternity.

In Romans 1:16, Paul wrote, “For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.”

Faith in the Gospel of Christ is what brings forth an eternal inheritance for us in the Kingdom of God. This is for everyone! Both for the Jew and non-Jew! Trust this message and when you breathe your last breath in your current body, the Lord will transfer and transform your mortal body into a heavenly one.

1 Corinthians 15:49 says, “As we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man.” The man of dust is Adam. The heavenly Man is Jesus Christ. In Psalm 17:15, David wrote, “As for me, I will see Your face in righteousness. I shall be satisfied when I awake in Your likeness.” One day, every believer in Christ will wake up in His presence and find they are like Him in terms of love, joy and peace, and in terms of being eternal.

In Romans 9:33 and Romans 10:11 Paul wrote, “And whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.” This is where we have to trust Him because in this world, those who do not know the Lord personally are prone to ridicule those who do. In some places, the authorities forbid belief in Christ, They arrest, abuse and kill believers in Christ. How does such treatment not cause shame? Undoubtedly, that kind of treatment for one’s faith in God is shameful, but the shame of that treatment is not on the believer but on the doubter. In any case, God blesses and shines through those who are not ashamed to testify that Jesus Christ is Lord.

In Acts 5:40-41, a city’s religious council members had the apostles beaten. They commanded them not to speak in the name of Jesus and let them go. By the power of the Holy Spirit, the apostles departed from that experience, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for the Name of Jesus. God’s Spirit in them totally flipped the world’s script. It was not a shame to be punished for one’s faith in Christ. It was a moment to rejoice. Why? Christ, in His love for them, took nails in His hands and feet for their salvation and now they, in love for Him, could take a beating.

The Lord does deliver believers in Him in righteousness. Romans 4:3 tells us that when Abraham believed God, it was counted to him as righteousness. Then, Romans 4:5 applies God’s righteousness to all believers in Christ. “To him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness.” The righteousness of God is imputed to whosoever believes in His Son Jesus Christ. This is how God delivers us in His righteousness. He gives us a righteousness that is not ours. Its His! God places His righteousness into the eternal account of everyone who believes in Jesus Christ.

“Bow down Your ear to me, deliver me speedily. Be my rock of refuge, a fortress of defense to save me.” Psalm 31:2

David asks the Lord to deliver him speedily. He asks God to be his impenetrable fortress made of rock to defend him. This is fair. We can ask God to deliver us from evil.

“For You are my rock and my fortress. Therefore, for Your Name’s sake, lead me and guide me. Pull me out of the net which they have secretly laid for me, for You are my strength.” Psalm 31:3-4

David asked the Lord to be his eyes and ears. His CIA agent, his Mossad agent, his SIS/M16 agent and his Guō Ān Bù (郭安部) agent! Nations have spy agencies to keep them informed as to what other nations are plotting against them. David asked the Lord to keep him in-the-know so that he would not be caught off-guard. “For Your Name’s sake, Lord, lead me and guide me.” David’s enemies and a preacher of the Gospel’s enemies are professional hunters. Their leader is Satan. The one who hates Christ and His disciples. David prayed, “Pull me out of the net which they have secretly laid for me.”

“You are my strength.” When God is our strength, He places His strength in us and around us. God’s strength is able to bend circumstances to our favor.

“Into Your hand I commit my spirit. You have redeemed me, O Lord God of truth.” Psalm 31:5

When David perceived himself as being on the brink of death, he committed his soul’s safekeeping to the God who gave his soul to him. People could kill his body, but God had redeemed his soul from the power of the grave. [1]

With these words “Into Your hand I commit My Spirit” our Lord Jesus yielded up His life upon the cross. He made His soul a free-will offering for sin. He laid down His life for our salvation. [2]

By Stephen’s example we are taught that during our dying moment we should commit our spirits to Him. Stephen prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” [3]

We must resist the temptation to be more concerned about world events than for our souls. In Matthew 13:22, Jesus warned us, saying, “Now he who received seed among the thorns is he who hears the Word, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful.” In Mark 8:36, Jesus asked His followers, “What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?

“I have hated those who regard useless idols, but I trust in the Lord. I will be glad and rejoice in Your mercy, for You have considered my trouble. You have known my soul in adversities.” Psalm 31:6-7

David was close-minded toward idols. He hated the use of enchantments and divinations. He rejected talk of good and bad omens. He trusted in God alone. When David’s soul experienced adversities and when his soul was troubled, the Lord knew it and was merciful to him.

David rejoiced in God’s mercy. In our New Testament era, we Christians profess that we are saved by God’s grace through faith in Christ. And this is true, God saves us according to His grace and not according to the works which we have done.

“You have not shut me up into the hand of the enemy. You have set my feet in a wide place.” Psalm 31:8

In 1 Samuel 23:7, “Saul was told that David had gone to Keilah. So Saul said, ‘God has delivered him into my hand, for he has shut himself in by entering a town that has gates and bars.’ David’s predator thought he had him. David and his men had rescued the people of Keilah from the Philistines. After their victory, David and his men thought to reside in Keilah, but the Lord warned David that these people would betray his trust and hand him over to Saul. Thus, the Lord rescued David from being surrounded and arrested in that city. He got David back out into the wide open spaces where he could easily escape from Saul’s advances.

“Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am in trouble. My eye wastes away with grief, yes, my soul and my body! For my life is spent with grief, and my years with sighing. My strength fails because of my iniquity, and my bones waste away. I am a reproach among all my enemies, but especially among my neighbors, and am repulsive to my acquaintances. Those who see me outside flee from me. I am forgotten like a dead man, out of mind. I am like a broken vessel. For I hear the slander of many.” Psalm 31:9-12

David’s trials were more than he could bare so he asked the Lord for mercy. He confessed to the Lord that he was in trouble. His trials were weakening his soul, body and bones. The insults of his enemies echoed in his mind. However, the pain that their words caused him were small jabs compared to the knockout punches of his neighbors and acquaintances. People that he thought were his friends said things that broke his heart. Rather than have compassion on him for all the trials that he was experiencing, they mocked him as being a cracked pot. They slandered him. They, like his enemies, treated him as a dead man while he was still alive.

King Saul had labeled David a traitor and an outlaw. His friends and acquaintances saw how dearly Ahimelech the priest had paid for aiding and abetting him. King Saul executed Ahimelech and put his entire priestly village of families to the sword. It was a state sponsored massacre.

In this way, David was a type of Christ. He was intimately acquainted with grief and often in tears. His natural disposition was to be cheerful and confident, yet here we see that from time to time, he was brought to tears and sighing.

“Fear is on every side while they take counsel together against me, they scheme to take away my life.” Psalm 31:13

David’s life was in continual peril. Fear was on every side, and he knew that whatever counsel his enemies took against him, the design was not to take away his liberty, but to take away his life. [4]

Similarly, in all the plots of the Pharisees and Herodians against Christ, their goal was to destroy Him. Such are the enmity and cruelty of the serpent’s servants. [5]

“But as for me, I trust in You, O Lord. I say, ‘You are my God.’ My times are in Your hand. Deliver me from the hand of my enemies, and from those who persecute me. Make Your face shine upon Your servant. Save me for Your mercies’ sake. Do not let me be ashamed, O Lord, for I have called upon You. Let the wicked be ashamed. Let them be silent in the grave. Let the lying lips be put to silence, which speak insolent things proudly and contemptuously against the righteous.” Psalm 31:14-18

Everything looked black and dismal round about him, but David’s trust in the Lord kept him from being overwhelmed. His enemies could rob him of his reputation among people, but not of God’s face shining favor into his soul.

David’s time was in God’s hand. No one else determined his beginning, his end and everything else in between. He was God’s servant. God’s merciful kindness was his assurance of salvation.

The Lord strengthened David to shift his mind from the false accusations of enemies to prayer to God for their defeat. Let their insolence, their pride, their contempt, their wickedness and their lies be silenced. After they go to their graves, they will resurrect to a very unhappily ever after.

“O, how great is Your goodness, which You have laid up for those who fear You, which You have prepared for those who trust in You in the presence of the sons of men!” Psalm 31:19

God is good to all, but He is especially good to those who honor Him with worship and praise.

“You shall hide them in the secret place of Your presence from the plots of man. You shall keep them secretly in a pavilion from the strife of tongues. Blessed be the Lord, for He has shown me His marvelous kindness in a strong city!” Psalm 31:20-21

I have served the Lord in a land where Christians are persecuted and Bibles are confiscated. I have numerous testimonies of how the Lord hid me in plain sight from enemies. Bags full of Bibles went through scanning machines at the border undetected. One family testified that the people in their village gate thought that I was related to them... a brother. I am Caucasian not Chinese, but the Lord made me appear as a Chinese person to them. Once, police were in the neighborhood hunting for criminals. They went from house to house but skipped over the house where we were holding a worship service. Another time, our worship meeting ended and people dispersed just before the police showed up. No one was arrested. Multiple times, I witnessed for Christ to Communist officials and they listened and did not arrest me. Once, a police officer attended our discipleship meeting and genuinely enjoyed the fellowship.

I rejoice in the Lord and give Him glory for saving me from experiencing the strife of tongues. If they had arrested me for proselytizing, they would have interrogated me for hours. The Lord rescued me from the strife of tongues.

“Blessed be the Lord, for He has shown me His marvelous kindness in a strong city! For I said in my haste, ‘I am cut off from before Your eyes.’ Nevertheless, You heard the voice of my supplications when I cried out to You.” Psalm 31:21-22

The Lord showed David marvelous loving-kindness when He helped him to escape from the city of Keilah, a strong city. Saul was close at hand, and ready to seize him, but the Lord heard David’s prayer for guidance, and the Lord guided him to escape from the enemy’s trap.

“O, love the Lord, all you His saints! For the Lord preserves the faithful, and fully repays the proud person. Be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart, all you who hope in the Lord.” Psalm 31:23-24

David, like a cheerleader, urged all God’s holy people, to love the Lord. Why? He preserves you when you are faithful in your love for Him. He deals with those who are proud against you. He strengthens your heart. Rather than a broken heart, you have a strong heart that is full of compassion, courage and steadfast hope. You shall not die, but live and bring God glory! Praise the Lord!


[1] Matthew Henry’s Commentary
[2] Ibid
[3] Ibid
[4] Ibid
[5] Ibid