“For my life is spent with grief, and my years with sighing: my strength faileth because of mine iniquity, and my bones are consumed.”
The psalmist extends the catalogue of suffering, describing how guilt and transgression have weakened him and his bones waste away. The mention of guilt and transgression suggests that the psalmist recognizes some degree of responsibility for his condition. The verb "consumed" suggests that the afflictions have eaten away at his vitality. The physical description of bones wasting away employs the concrete imagery of progressive debilitation. This verse differs from earlier ones in acknowledging the possibility that suffering involves consequence for transgression.
Church Fathers on Psalms 31:10
To the end, a psalm of David himself, an ecstasy. 1. To the end a Psalm of David Himself, the Mediator strong of hand in persecutions. For the word ecstasy, which is added to the title, signifies a transport of the mind, which is produced either by a panic, or by some revelation. But in this Psalm the panic of the people of God troubled by the persecution of all the heathen, and by the failing of faith throughout the world, is principally seen. But first the Mediator Himself…
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
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