In Ps 31 the poet also, in ואני אמרתּי (Psa 31:23), looks back upon a previous state of mind, viz., that of conflict, just as in Psa 30:7 upon that of security. And here, also, he makes all the חסידים partakers with him of the healthful fruit of his deliverance (cf. Psa 31:24 with Psa 30:5). But in other respects the situation of the two Psalms is very different. They are both Davidic. Hitzig, however, regards them both as composed by Jeremiah. With reference to Ps 31, which Ewald also ascribes to “Jéremjá,” this view is well worthy of notice. Not only do we find Psa 31:14 recurring in Jeremiah, Jer 20:10, but the whole Psalm, in its language (cf. e.g., Jer 20:10 with Lam 1:20; Psa 31:11 with Jer 20:18; Psa 31:18 with Jer 17:18; Psa 31:23 with Lam 3:54) and its plaintive tenderness, reminds one of Jeremiah. But this relationship does not decide the question. The passage Jer 20:10, like many other passages of this prophet, whose language is so strongly imbued with that of the Psalter, may be just as much a reminiscence as Jon 2:5, Jon 2:9; and as regards its plaintive tenderness there are no two characters more closely allied naturally and in spirit than David and Jeremiah; both are servants of Jahve, whose noble, tender spirits were capable of strong feeling, who cherished earnest longings, and abounded in tribulations. We abide, though not without some degree of hesitation, by the testimony of the inscription; and regard the Psalm as a song springing from the outward and inward conflict (lxx ἐκστάσεως, probably by a combination of Psa 31:23, ἐν ἐκστάσει, בחפזי, with 1Sa 23:26) of the time of Saul. While Psa 31:12 is not suited to the mouth of the captive Jeremiah (Hitzig), the Psalm has much that is common not only to Ps 69 (more especially Psa 69:9, Psa 69:33), a Psalm that sounds much like Jeremiah’s, but also to others, which we regard as Davidic; viz., the figures corresponding to the life of warfare which David then lived among the rocks and caves of the wilderness; the cheering call, Jer 31:25, cf. Psa 22:27; Psa 27:14; the rare use of the Hiph. הפליא Psa 31:22; Psa 17:7; the desire to be hidden by God, Psa 31:21, cf. Psa 17:8; Psa 64:3; etc. In common with Ps 22 this may be noted, that the crucified Christ takes His last word from this Psalm, just as He takes His last utterance but three from that Psalm. But in Psa 31:10-14, the prefigurement of the Passion is confined within the limits of the type and does not undergo the same prophetical enhancement as it does in that unique Ps 22, to which only Ps 69 is in any degree comparable. The opening, Psa 31:2, is repeated in the centonic Ps 71, the work of a later anonymous poet, just as Psa 31:23 is in part repeated in Psa 116:11. The arrangement of the strophes is not very clear.