Psalm 55 To the Chief Musician. With Contemplation of David.

 ¹Give ear to my prayer, O God,

And do not hide Yourself from my supplication.

²Attend to me, and hear me;

I am restless in my complaint, and moan noisily,

³Because of the voice of the enemy,

Because of the oppression of the wicked;

For they bring down trouble upon me,

And in wrath they hate me.

⁴My heart is severely pained within me,

And the terrors of death have fallen upon me.

⁵Fearfulness and trembling have come upon me,

And horror has overwhelmed me.

⁶So I said, “Oh, that I had wings like a dove!

I would fly away and be at rest.

⁷Indeed, I would wander far off,

And remain in the wilderness. Selah

⁸I would hasten my escape

From the windy storm and tempest.”

⁹Destroy, O Lord, and divide their tongues,

For I have seen violence and strife in the city.

¹⁰Day and night they go around it on its walls;

Iniquity and trouble are also in the midst of it.

¹¹Destruction is in its midst;

Oppression and deceit do not depart from its streets.

¹²For it is not an enemy who reproaches me;

Then I could bear it.

Nor is it one who hates me who has exalted himself against me;

Then I could hide from him.

¹³But it was you, a man my equal,

My companion and my acquaintance.

¹⁴We took sweet counsel together,

And walked to the house of God in the throng.

¹⁵Let death seize them; Let them go down alive into hell,

For wickedness is in their dwellings and among them.

¹⁶As for me, I will call upon God,

And the Lord shall save me.

¹⁷Evening and morning and at noon I will pray, and cry aloud,

And He shall hear my voice.

¹⁸He has redeemed my soul in peace from the battle that was against me,

For there were many against me.

¹⁹God will hear, and afflict them,

Even He who abides from of old. Selah

Because they do not change,

Therefore they do not fear God.

²⁰He has put forth his hands against those who were at peace with him;

He has broken his covenant.

²¹The words of his mouth were smoother than butter,

But war was in his heart; His words were softer than oil,

Yet they were drawn swords.

²²Cast your burden on the Lord,

And He shall sustain you;

He shall never permit the righteous to be moved.

²³But You, O God, shall bring them down to the pit of destruction;

Bloodthirsty and deceitful men shall not live out half their days;

But I will trust in You.

Preamble 

In times of despair, in our desperate need, we must turn to God. David then magnifies this wisdom as he seeks God, for he needs Him just as we all need Him. And so here we see a man whose unbearable circumstances have brought him to his knees again to the One who alone can bring justice for him and us all.

Commentary

Vs. 1 “Give ear to my prayer, O God,

And do not hide Yourself from my supplication.”

David’s pleas in this Psalm are filled with emotion, yet he begins by asking that God would hear him, that He would not hide Himself from His supplication, that what he is about to say He would take to heart. For David’s troubles and troublers are seemingly about to overwhelm him. Therefore, he needs God to act for him, for he himself cannot prevail against them, or stop the troubles that others have brought down on him. David then by asking as much once again demonstrates his trust and dependence on God.

Vs. 2-3 ²Attend to me, and hear me;

I am restless in my complaint, and moan noisily,

³Because of the voice of the enemy,

Because of the oppression of the wicked;

For they bring down trouble upon me,

And in wrath they hate me.

Again, David requests the hearing ear of our God, for he his restless in his complaint, he cannot bear it alone in silence. Indeed, he moans noisily because sometimes there are no words that can express one’s inner grief and despair (vs. 2). And why is this happening to David? because of the voice of the enemy, because of the oppression of the wicked, for try as David will to live peaceably with all, still they bring down trouble upon him, and in wrath they hate him. Their anger then is never satisfied and their hatred of him never lifts or let’s go of him.

Vs. 4-5 ⁴My heart is severely pained within me,

And the terrors of death have fallen upon me.

⁵Fearfulness and trembling have come upon me,

And horror has overwhelmed me.

Because of their never-ending rage and persecution of him, David’s heart (our heart) is severely pained within us. For a man can only bear the wrath of another for so long before it starts to consume him with anxiousness and grief. Indeed, for David the terrors of death have fallen upon him as he lives from one escape of death to the other. Therefore he says, “Fearfulness and trembling have come upon me, And horror has overwhelmed me.” As he is forced to bear witness to their wicked deeds and violence that they do to others in seeking to kill him.

Vs. 6-8 ⁶So I said, “Oh, that I had wings like a dove!

I would fly away and be at rest.

⁷Indeed, I would wander far off,

And remain in the wilderness. Selah

⁸I would hasten my escape

From the windy storm and tempest.”

David’s words and desire here reflect everyone who has ever felt helpless in their own circumstances, that if only we could fly away from our troublers to a land where they would not be, for then we too would be at rest, for there we could wander far off and remain in the wilderness where no one could oppress or harm us ever again. And so, we often say inside ourselves, if only I had… we could then hasten our own escape from the windy storm and tempest. Such then are the thoughts and dreams of everyone who wants relief from oppression and the oppressor.

Vs. 9-11 ⁹Destroy, O Lord, and divide their tongues,

For I have seen violence and strife in the city.

¹⁰Day and night they go around it on its walls;

Iniquity and trouble are also in the midst of it.

¹¹Destruction is in its midst;

Oppression and deceit do not depart from its streets.

David now moves from being distressed by their conduct to being angered at their deeds. Therefore, he asks the Lord to divide their tongues; that is split their alliances with each other and set them on a course to their own disarray! For he has seen their violence and the strife they cause in the city, in Jerusalem, the city he sought to establish as God’s city, a city as a sanctuary for peace, justice, and truth. Yet now it has become a haven for wicked and violent men, and thus it has become a city where iniquity and trouble are continually found, where destruction dwells in its midst, where oppression and deceit (dishonest dealings) does not depart from its streets, all of these things then sicken David to his core.

Vs. 12-15 ¹²For it is not an enemy who reproaches me;

Then I could bear it.

Nor is it one who hates me who has exalted himself against me;

Then I could hide from him.

¹³But it was you, a man my equal,

My companion and my acquaintance.

¹⁴We took sweet counsel together,

And walked to the house of God in the throng.

¹⁵Let death seize them; Let them go down alive into hell,

For wickedness is in their dwellings and among them.

David now announces the source of all of his troubles, the one who began it all for him was not an avert enemy of the Lords, rather it was a trusted friend, someone he viewed as his equal, someone quiet unlike Jonathan his beloved companion, who had worked his way into his life and gained his confidence and trust. Indeed, David says that they took sweet counsel together, and that they often walked to the house of God together with the throng of worshippers also on their way there. And yet all the while this evil individual was only plotting David’s downfall, seeking to betray him at a key moment like Judas did to the Lord Jesus. Therefore, David holds nothing back and says let death seize them, let them all go alive down into hell; like Korah and his company who also thought to overthrow Moses and Aaron whom God openly judged; for wickedness is in their dwelling and is found among them.

Vs. 16-17 ¹⁶As for me, I will call upon God,

And the Lord shall save me.

¹⁷Evening and morning and at noon I will pray, and cry aloud,

And He shall hear my voice.

David now returns his focus back onto the Lord. For unlike the sinister men who were betraying him, he will call upon the Lord, for he knows the Lord, therefore the Lord shall save him (vs. 16). “Evening and morning and at noon I will pray, and cry aloud. and He shall hear my voice” (vs. 17). David then will not be overthrown or dissuaded by them, rather he draws closer to God because of them!

Vs. 18 “He has redeemed my soul in peace from the battle that was against me,

For there were many against me.”

 Such then is David’s confidence in the Lord as he seeks the Lord that he now sees himself as fully redeemed in peace from all of them, from the battle that they wage against him, for there were many against me. 

Vs. 19 “God will hear, and afflict them,

Even He who abides from of old. Selah

Because they do not change,

Therefore they do not fear God.”

Yes, our God will hear, and He will afflict them, even he who abides from old (the one who has managed to prolong his life by his own cunning and schemes) shall not escape the Lord’s justice, for they do not change, nor will they repent of their ways which they live by, because they do not fear God.

Vs. 20-21 ²⁰He has put forth his hands against those who were at peace with him;

He has broken his covenant.

²¹The words of his mouth were smoother than butter,

But war was in his heart; His words were softer than oil,

Yet they were drawn swords.

Yes, David’s betrayer pretended friendship with him, only until he could unleash his secret plan against him. Thus he broke the covenant of peace that David made with him, (again unlike Jonathan), for he spoke smooth words to David, all the while harboring war in his heart towards him (consider Prov. 26:24-26).

 Vs. 22 “Cast your burden on the Lord,

And He shall sustain you;

He shall never permit the righteous to be moved.”

From David’s terrible experience with that individual, by which he was made to learn and grow in discernment, we now get one of the great promises and counsels from God in the Bible:

“Cast your burden on the Lord,

And He shall sustain you;

He shall never permit the righteous to be moved.”

Vs. 23 ²³But You, O God, shall bring them down to the pit of destruction;

Bloodthirsty and deceitful men shall not live out half their days;

But I will trust in You.

David then now in full understanding of such people can now boldly declare that God will deal with them all, that He will bring them down to the pit of destruction, that bloodthirsty and deceitful men shall not live out half their days. Therefore I will trust in You.

Scripture Quotations

New King James (1982): Thomas Nelson.