John Gill Commentary Psalms 31:12

"I am forgotten as a dead man out of mind: I am like a broken vessel." — Psalms 31:12 (ASV)

I am forgotten as a dead man out of mind
Either by his friends, being out of sight, out of mind; as even the nearest relations and acquaintance are, in process of time, when dead, (Ecclesiastes 9:5) ;

or by the Lord; which shows the weakness of his faith, the uncomfortable frame he was in, through darkness and desertion; see (Psalms 88:5) (Isaiah 49:14–16) ;

I am like a broken vessel ;
or a "perishing vessel" ^F3 ; or "a vessel of perdition" ^F4 : the Septuagint version renders it "a lost vessel" ^F5 ; one entirely useless, wholly lost, and irrecoverably so;

like a broken vessel, which can never be put together again, (Isaiah 30:14) (Jeremiah 19:11) ; a most sad apprehension he had of himself, as if his case was desperate, and he a vessel of wrath; compare with this, (Romans 9:22) .

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FOOTNOTES:

• F3: (dba ylkk) "sicut vas periens", Montanus, Cocceius, Gejerus.
• F4: So Ainsworth.
• F5: V. L. Pagninus, Musculus, Piscator.