Psalms 55:12-14

He Bewails The Fact That He Has Been Betrayed By A Comrade-In-Arms (Psalms 55:12).

The description of the city has prepared the way for the story of his own betrayal. What hurt him most was that he had been betrayed by a close comrade-in-arms who had responded to his love by seeking his death. We do not know who it was but it would have been surprising if a man like David had not had a few close friends as well as Jonathan. And clearly one of these close friends had turned against him and betrayed him.

Psalms 55:12

‘For it was not an enemy who reproached me,

Then I could have borne it,

Nor was it he who hated me who magnified himself against me,

Then I would have hid myself from him,

But it was you, a man my equal,

My companion, and my familiar friend.

We took sweet counsel together,

We walked in the house of God with the throng.'

He addresses the close friend who has betrayed him. This was either because his friend wanted to keep on the right side of Saul, or because he was jealous, either of David's growing reputation, or his friendship with Jonathan. The fact that the man had reproached him may suggest that he had been persuaded by Saul that David was encroaching and a chancer. The fact that he magnified himself against him might suggest that he had ‘pulled rank' or that he had heavily contributed towards David's disgrace. Either way, to see his bosom friend treating him like this had hit David hard. He points out that he could have borne it from a man who was his enemy, and if it had been a man who hated him he would just have avoided him. But to be treated in this way by a man whom he saw as his equal, a constant companion and a close friend, had hurt him really deeply. He describes him as a friend with whom he had had many close personal conversations, and with whom he had walked side by side in festal processions. Indeed they had entered together into a covenant of friendship (Psalms 55:20). But now his friend had, as it were, stabbed him in the back. And it had hit him hard.