“I am forgotten as a dead man out of mind: I am like a broken vessel.”
The psalmist extends the image of social abandonment, describing himself as forgotten like a dead person, broken and discarded. The verb "I am forgotten" suggests that the psalmist has been erased from communal memory. The comparison to a dead person emphasizes the completeness of the social death. The phrase "like a broken vessel" suggests that the psalmist is viewed as damaged goods. The verse portrays a kind of living death, where the psalmist continues to exist but is treated as though he were already gone.
Church Fathers on Psalms 31:12
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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