“For I have heard the slander of many: fear was on every side: while they took counsel together against me, they devised to take away my life.”
The psalmist describes hearing the whispers of the crowd and experiencing terror on all sides as enemies plot against him. The verb "whisper" suggests secret conversation and malicious gossip. The phrase "terror on every side" creates the sense of being surrounded and endangered from every direction. The reference to plotting suggests that the danger involves actual conspiracy and malicious intent. This verse shifts from passive social abandonment to active hostility and conspiracy.
Church Fathers on Psalms 31:13
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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