e171 Walk a Praise Trail with David (Psalm 31, or any of his songs for a soul boost to God’s spacious place)

This is Faith to Witness 99, motivating us to hear God and share the Shepherd.  

Season 3 Episode 171 Walk a Praise Trail with David (Psalm 31, or any of his songs for a soul boost to God’s spacious place) 

Here’s the gist, human. When we encounter trouble, it may start with well-lit enemies but inevitably draws who David names as “neighbors” and “closest friends.” This tells me that our human nature is the common denominator of adversity, that the trust we have must be anchored in God’s character. By this, that all humans fall to adversity without him. The thing we fall prey to bares little difference from enemies to neighbors to friends. Everyone gets pulled under without God. The evil of our enemies embraces the ambiguity within our neighbors and friends to coax them over the line. Human nature has a betrayal gene. It clings to everyone, everything that is not-God, all of life that keeps us from God.

So what does David do? How does he beckon God’s presence? The power of Psalm 31 today, to show how the psalms of the shepherd turned king can be a praise trail we walk to find clarity in the middle of life’s confusion. 

E171. I want this for you. Listen in.

On some days I need one thing more than any other: A single line of thought. I tend to chase complexity down some very deep rabbit holes, but as I make my way through the Psalms in preparation for my next read-thru, Bible trek 2026, I have discovered a new perspective; each Psalm is a trail to walk to navigate my attitude. Each Psalm brings me back to clarity.

Today, I am sharing how I do it in real time. Why? Because that is the power of God’s word. That we go to him for a spiritual altitude change. The word is filled with the Holy Spirit. 

2 Timothy 3:16 , states: “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work”.

Tell me you didn’t need this reminder. Yeah, you do. We do. If we want to change, to align with God’s Will for each of us, we should be efficiently returning to it throughout the day. Like a spiritual nest that provides food, comfort, protection, and rest. Like David who returned to God in the middle of every Goliath moment. And all the moments in-between.

Head for Your Praise Trail

So Psalm 31. There is something so powerful about gathering up my feelings into one psalm, taking direction from a point in time in David’s life and applying it to my own. 

Psalm 31 has been placed by scholars in roughly 1024-1003 BC, before the unified monarchy over the twelve tribes of Israel:  King Saul, King David and then, his son, King Solomon. Psalm 31 is set in the challenging times of Saul pursing David (1 Samuel 19-27) or possibly fleeing his son Absalom (2 Samuel 15-18). 

In Matthew Henry’s commentary on Psalm 31 he opens with this clarification. He says:

Matthew Henry

Commentary on Psalms 31

Psalm 31

“It is probable that David penned this psalm when he was persecuted by Saul; some passages in it agree particularly to the narrow escapes he had, at Keilah (1 Sa. 23:13), then in the wilderness of Maon, when Saul marched on one side of the hill and he on the other, and, soon after, in the cave in the wilderness of En-gedi; but that it was penned upon any of those occasions we are not told. It is a mixture of prayers, and praises, and professions of confidence in God, all which do well together and are helpful to one another.”

Search that out on your own, but in general, what I love here, is when Henry gathers the power of this psalm to bring “prayers, praises, and professions of confidence in God…”together through how they strengthen each other. 

Isn’t that what our daily trek is? A mix of prayers, praises and professions? 

A Psalm serves as our praise trail. It works on any given day. What is important is to believe in this so strongly that we can directly run toward this trail. We can say in our hearts, “I need a praise trail today” and run straight for a psalm to ground us in God’s glorious, redemptive nature through the sacrifice of his Son. 

It is this easy. Find the psalm, read part of it, rest on a mental bench, pray, and continue with the next section. 

For instance, Psalm 31, in three sections. Let’s consider this.

Name Your God of a Spacious Place

Psalm 31:1-8

For the director of music. A psalm of David.

Cheerful confidence in God, prays for deliverance

1 In you, Lord, I have taken refuge;

    let me never be put to shame;

    deliver me in your righteousness.

2 Turn your ear to me,

    come quickly to my rescue;

be my rock of refuge,

    a strong fortress to save me.

3 Since you are my rock and my fortress,

    for the sake of your name lead and guide me.

4 Keep me free from the trap that is set for me,

    for you are my refuge.

5 Into your hands I commit my spirit;

    deliver me, Lord, my faithful God.

6 I hate those who cling to worthless idols;

    as for me, I trust in the Lord.

7 I will be glad and rejoice in your love,

    for you saw my affliction

    and knew the anguish of my soul.

8 You have not given me into the hands of the enemy

    but have set my feet in a spacious place.

Yes. Turn your ear to me, keep me free from the trap, commit my spirit, set my feet in a spacious place.

Oh man, this is so clear. David names his God. So can we. Refuge, righteousness, rescue, rock, fortress, all to one purpose: for the sake of God’s name, lead me, guide me.  And then, what we all must do, as often as needed, give our spirit to Him, because in this what I am doing is asking God to protect me with his Spirit nature. Why else would David say he “hates those who cling to worthless idols.”?  We are to cling to God. And he describes where God sets us like this: “but have set my feet in a spacious place.” 

Let’s name our God of a spacious place.

He is talking about the freedom that comes from following a sovereign God, that we flee from nothing, we have no fears that God can’t address. No living in caves, no living in the worry, anxiety, and fear that cuts us off from our purpose as defined by God. 

We run from nothing. We run toward God.

Name Your Pain and Call on God

Let’s continue on this praise trail. Because the farther we go, the stronger we get.

Psalm 31:9-18

9 Be merciful to me, Lord, for I am in distress;

my eyes grow weak with sorrow,

my soul and body with grief.

10 My life is consumed by anguish

and my years by groaning;

my strength fails because of my affliction,

and my bones grow weak.

11 Because of all my enemies,

I am the utter contempt of my neighbors

and an object of dread to my closest friends—

those who see me on the street flee from me.

12 I am forgotten as though I were dead;

I have become like broken pottery.

13 For I hear many whispering,

“Terror on every side!”

They conspire against me

and plot to take my life.

14 But I trust in you, Lord;

I say, “You are my God.”

15 My times are in your hands;

deliver me from the hands of my enemies,

from those who pursue me.

16 Let your face shine on your servant;

save me in your unfailing love.

17 Let me not be put to shame, Lord,

for I have cried out to you;

but let the wicked be put to shame

and be silent in the realm of the dead.

David names his pain, for clarity about what he wants God to rescue him from. We can’t just wallow in the generic gallows of grief, guilt and anxiety. We should name it, the people, places and things that are pursing us to compromise our human nature. And by default, this glorifies the attributes of God, doesn’t it? 

It is interesting and profound how when we encounter trouble, it may start with well-lit enemies but inevitably draws in “neighbors” and “closest friends.” This tells me that our human nature is the common denominator of adversity, that the trust we have must be anchored in God’s character. By this, that all humans fall to adversity without him. When we suffer from the disappointment of how neighbors and friends respond to our situation, perhaps show human nature’s true colors, that the thing we recognize and fall prey to bares little difference from enemies to neighbors to friends. Everyone gets pulled under without God. The evil of our enemies embraces the ambiguity within our neighbors and friends to coax them over the line into betrayal. As humans, we betray.

So David specifically calls on God to deliver him from this great and overwhelming chase. He asks for his presence right then, in the middle of his night runs from cave to cave. 

We can do the same. In fact, that is our part in it. To ask. To trust. To beckon God’s presence when life’s circumstances are pursing us with the relentless vigilance of the people we knew we couldn’t trust, and the people we thought we trusted. Human nature has a betrayal gene. It clings to everyone, everything that is not-God. 

Give God Two Things: Glory and Trust

And finally, the closing section. 

Psalm 31:18-24

18 Let their lying lips be silenced,

    for with pride and contempt

    they speak arrogantly against the righteous.

19 How abundant are the good things

    that you have stored up for those who fear you,

that you bestow in the sight of all,

    on those who take refuge in you.

20 In the shelter of your presence you hide them

    from all human intrigues;

you keep them safe in your dwelling

    from accusing tongues.

21 Praise be to the Lord,

    for he showed me the wonders of his love

    when I was in a city under siege.

22 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.

23 Love the Lord, all his faithful people!

    The Lord preserves those who are true to him,

    but the proud he pays back in full.

24 Be strong and take heart,

    all you who hope in the Lord.

David! Can we see what he is doing? He is praising God for the “abundant good things” in the middle of an exhausting trail, filled with deceit and pending violence. We could stop here and talk about those good things, one being how David ends up treating Saul with dignity in the end. Now that’s God’s spirit in David. But not today.

What I am left with here is to name my God, name my pain, call on my God, and give him glory and my trust. What I am left with is this from David’s heart:

He says, “The Lord preserves those who are true to him,”

This process, reading through David’s praise trails, taking them on as our own is a sure way, a way I am confident will always bring me back to being true to God, to Jesus, to the Holy Spirit. When? When I am lost in the complexity of fleeing from relationships, circumstances, my own human nature. All of it.

It is a spiritual energy drink. A soul boost.

There are 150 psalms. 150 praise trails. This section of God’s word can be such an anchor in your life, and your witness. I have often used a psalm to witness to someone who needs to understand that the relationship God wants with us is deeply personal. David gives us that gift as a spokesman for God. We can enter directly into the struggles someone is having with so many of the dialogues David has with God. 

Don’t you see? The Psalms cut right to the middle of human nature where people are actually living. 

Follow the praise trail of the shepherd boy who was after God’s heart.

Share the Shepherd who can deliver all of us, believers and nonbelievers, from the middle of what David calls “human intrigues.” Well, that’s part 2. E172.