Psalms 55:1-23

Psalms 55

DESCRIPTIVE TITLE

A Bitter Complaint of the Treachery of an Intimate Friend.

ANALYSIS

(Of the Psalm as Reconstructed.)

Stanza I., Psalms 55:1-7, Invocation of God under great Nervous Excitement, leading to a Desire to Escape like a Dove. Stanza II., Psalms 55:8; Psalms 55:16-19, Refuge sought in Prayer for Personal Deliverance and for the Punishment of Traitors. Stanza III., Psalms 55:12-14; Psalms 55:20-21, Vivid Delineation of Treacherous Friend. Stanza IV., Psalms 55:9-11; Psalms 55:15; Psalms 55:23 a, b, Graphic Picture of Civic Disorders and Terrible Imprecations on the Authors of them, Stanza V., Psalms 55:22-23 c, The Psalmist Admonishes Himself and Regains his Confidence in Jehovah.

(Lm.) An Instructive-psalmBy David.

1

Do give ear O God to my prayer

and do not hide thyself from my supplication:

2

Do attend to me and answer me

I may wander[601] in my murmuring[602] and may moan

[601] Or: shew restlessness.
[602] Or: soliloquy.

3

At the voice of an enemy

because of the pressure[603] of a lawless one;

[603] Gt.: outcry. O.G. 734 prefer pressure.

For they keep dislodging[604] on me trouble[605]

[604] Or: letting fall.
[605] Or: iniquity.

and in anger bear me a grudge.

4

My heart continues writhing within me

and terrors of death have fallen upon me:

5

Fear and trembling ever and anon enter me

and there overwhelmeth me a shudder and I say:

6

Would that I had pinions like a dove

I would fly away and settle down:

7

Lo! afar would I flee

I would lodge in a wilderness.

8

I would await a deliverer for me[606]

[606] So Sep. On marginal notation of verses, see Exposition.

from rushing wind from storm:

16

I unto God would cry

and Jehovah should save me;

17

Evening and morning and noon

would I murmur and moan:[607]

[607] M.T, adds: that he might hear my voice.

18

Ransom thou in peace my soul

that none may approach me ;[608]

[608] Cp. O.G. 897b.

for in multitudes have they come
who are against me.

19

May GOD hear who aforetime sat enthroned,

and may he humble them[609] who have no reliefs[610]

[609] So nearlyGn. and Dr. (note).
[610] Or: changes.

since they revere not God.

12

For it is not an enemy who keeps reproaching me

or I might bear it;
Nor one who had been hating me who against me hath magnified himself
or I could hide myself from him;

13

But thou a man mine equal

mine associate and mine intimate,

14

So that together we were wont to find sweet counsel

in the house of God used we to walk in the throng.

20

He hath thrust forth his hand against them who were wont to salute him

hath violated his covenant:

21

Smoother than curds was his face[611]

[611] So Br. after Sep.

yet war was in his heart;
Softer were his words than oil
yet they were drawn swords!

9

Confuse Sovereign Lord divide their tongue,

for I have seen Violence and Strife in the city;

10

Day and night they go round on her walls,

and Trouble[612] and Mischief are in her midst,

[612] NaughtinessDr.

11

Engulfing ruin is in her midst,

and there depart not from the broad place (within her gate[613]) Oppression and Deceit.

[613] Where the court of justice usually sat, and where Justice and Truth should have been conspicuous.

15

Desolations[614] on them! let them go down to hades alive[615]!

[614] Or (dividing one word into two): May death pounce on them. Then, as if recalling that wish to make it stronger: Let them go down, etc.

[615] Cp. Numbers 16:30; Numbers 16:33.

for wicked doings have their dwelling place within them.

23

But thou O God! bring them down to the well of the pit:

men of bloodshed and deceit let them not live out half their days!

22

Cast on Jehovah thy lot, and he will sustain thee:

he will not suffer to the ages that a righteous man be shaken.

I therefore will trust in thee O Jehovah![616]

[616] In Sep.: kyrie.

(Lm.) To the Chief Musician.

(CMm.) For the dove of the distant terebinths.[617]

[617] See Intro., Chap. I., Obs. 3, Fourthly.

PARAPHRASE

Psalms 55

Listen to my prayer, O God; don-'t hide Yourself when I cry to You!
2 Hear me, Lord! Listen to me! For I groan and weep beneath my woe.
3 My enemies shout against me and threaten me with death. They surround me with terror and plot to kill me. Their fury and hatred rise to engulf me.
4 My heart is in anguish within me. Stark fear overpowers me.
5 Trembling and horror overwhelm me.
6 Oh, for wings like a dove, to fly away and rest!
7 I would fly to the far off deserts and stay there.
8 I would flee to some refuge from all this storm.
9 O Lord, make these enemies begin to quarrel among themselvesdestroy them with their own violence and strife.[618]

[618] Literally, for I have seen violence and strife in the city.

10 Though they patrol their walls night and day against invaders, their real problem is internalwickedness and dishonesty are entrenched in the heart of the city.
11 There is murder and robbery there, and cheating in the markets and everywhere one looks.

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12 It was not an enemy who taunted methen I could have borne it; I could have hidden and escaped.
13 But it was you, a man like myself, my companion and my friend.
14 What fellowship we had, what wonderful discussions as we walked together to the Temple of the Lord on holy days.

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15 Let death seize them and cut them down in their prime, for there is sin in their homes, and they are polluted to the depths of their souls.
16 But I will call upon the Lord to save meand He will.
17 I will pray morning, noon and night pleading aloud with God; and He will hear and answer.
18 Though the tide of battle runs strongly against me, for so many are fighting me, yet He will rescue me.
19 God HimselfGod from everlasting ages pastwill answer them! For they refuse to fear Him or even honor His commands.

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20 This friend of mine betrayed meI who was at peace with him. He broke his promises.
21 His words were oily smooth, but in his heart was war. His words were sweet, but underneath were daggers.

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22 Give your burdens to the Lord. He will carry them. He will not permit the godly to slip or fall.
23 He will send my enemies to the pit of destruction. Murderers and liars will not live out half their days. But I am trusting You to have me.

EXPOSITION

The abrupt transitions observable in this psalm seem to have been noticed by all expositors, by some of whom dislocation has been suspected and transpositions accordingly proposed. It is comparatively easy to translate fragments, though always with risks due to losing the thread; but, in the present case, as soon as a resolute attempt was made at continuous interpretation, the irresistible conclusion was brought home that some ACCIDENT must have happened in the early history of this psalm, as violent as that which may be expected to result from the tearing out of a leaf and its re-insertion in the wrong place. Such readers as cannot be induced to believe that such an accident might happen, can restore the psalm to its traditional form by following the marginal notation of verses; and by the same means open-minded critics can trace and test the endeavour here made to present the psalm in an intelligible and profitable shape. Perfect success is not claimed for the result; but it is hoped that the candid will at least benefit by the endeavour now madean endeavour reluctantly begun and cautiously executed.

The problems confronted by the exposition of this psalm on its merits, become absorbingly interesting in proportion as they are understood. It is possible that David wrote this psalm? and if he did, what light is thrown on the events of his reign, additional to that which is obtainable elsewhere? For some, indeed, the bare fact of the ascription of this psalm To David will be conclusive evidence that he wrote it. Others there are, who, while regarding that fact as presumptive evidence of the Davidic authorship, are not at all disinclined to the testing of such presumption by internal evidence; and at least are prepared to give a candid consideration to any difficulties which can be legitimately shewn to stand in the way of such conclusion. There seems to be a general consent that if David wrote the Psalm, then AHITHOPHEL, his counsellor, must have been the treacherous friend who is so vividly portrayed in it. But then it is said by some, that a king could never have so emphatically called his servant his equal. Surely those who raise this objection underestimate the generosity of David's nature; and assuming, as we must, that David's counsellor was an exceedingly able man, and believing, as we well may, that he had until lately readily promoted the public interests which he knew lay near his master's heart, it is easy to think that the more David'S-' kingly position put a distance between himself and many of his subjects, the more would his heart be drawn out to the gifted man whose counsels he had learned to prize. The difficulty then may be dismissed as imaginary. A far more plausible objection may be based on the unlikelihood that David could ever have written of Jerusalem in such terms as are here employed of the city in which the psalmist finds himselfespecially considering David's undoubted responsibility for the condition of the city. It is difficult to believe, says Kirkpatrick with great force, that Jerusalem can have been such a hotbed of discord and disorder and iniquity as the psalm describes; and still more difficult to imagine that David should use the language of this psalm in regard to a state of things for which he was largely responsible. The great responsibility of David in such a case no one can question. Whether, if such a deplorable state of things existed, David would have been likely so frankly to confess it, is a psychological problem depending for its solution on the play of some of the most subtle capabilities of the human heart. If we can imagine, as we readily may, that the unhappy king was now in a state of mind predisposed to make a clean breast of everything, and at least to look the ugliest facts full in the face; then, even though he is not now consciously weighing his own responsibility, but rather inclining to dwell on the responsibility of others, we may credit him with the rising courage to abate nothing of the truth, and therefore to give frank expression to his convictions, however appalling. Besides, all that was noblest in David's ideals of what Jerusalem ought to be, and all that he had to be most proud of in his past endeavours to bring her up to those ideals, would now tend to make himif otherwise in a likely state of minda severe critic of Jerusalem's present condition. So that the only serious question we have to confront is whether Jerusalem's moral condition was in as bad a way (or nearly as bad, allowing something for unconscious exaggeration, due to morbid apprehensions) as is so forcibly set forth in this psalm. Alas! it may. The evidence is growing upon usthat it may. The connected study of foregoing psalms has been gradually preparing us to perceive the alarming possibilitythat it may. What are the principal factors of the situation? They are these. David has for years been the chief judge in Jerusalem; and he has now for a good long while been neglecting his judicial duties. His people have grown used vainly to look for him in the gate of the city. Grievances and wrongs have been unredressed. Justice delayed has been justice denied. Unvisited offences have fast begotten others, and worse. The chief judge absent, his subordinates have grown remiss. Even Kirkpatrick admits that David's administration of justice seems to have been lax or inadequate (2 Samuel 15; 2 Samuel 2 Samuel 2 ff.). A well-grounded admission! How long has this royal remissness been working out its consequences? We cannot exactly say; but we have several baleful influences to reckon with, for the play of which allowance must be made: the adulterythe murderthe impenitence: indisposing for attention to duty; the leper-strokethe painthe disfigurementthe shame, naturally and inevitably increasing and prolonging such indisposition. And then the habit of neglect would breed excuse for further neglect. All these influences would be additional to those absences from home on warlike expeditions, which would all tend indefinitely to prolong David's absence from his post as judge in Israel. So that it is a natural surmise, that David's neglect of his judicial functions in Jerusalem had extended to many months-' complete absence from his post in the gate of the city; and that, during those weary months, civic disorders had been growing apace. He awakes at length to the stern realities of Jerusalem's internal condition; institutes inquiries, receives information, compares the notes of his informants; and this is what he sees; and, being a poet, this is the graphic picture drawn by his muse: Violence, Strife, Trouble, Mischief, Engulfing Ruin, Oppression, Deceit, walking abroad, stalking through the city, circumambulating her walls, by day, by nightcausing a rapid and awful moral deterioration and even devastation. Alas! in the circumstances, it is not too bad to be true; but it is a terrible revelation. Instead, therefore, of being content, with Kirk-patrick, with a negative conclusion, by saying we cannot tell Who wrote this psalm, much rather are we entitled to revert to David's terrible fall, and to discover here, drawn by his own hand, this further effect of his sin.

Further: it just like him,not as though he were essentially a revengeful man, but as undoubtedly a passionately devoted lover of Zion and an inborn hater of perversity,that, on surveying the picture his own hand has drawn, he should break out in terrible imprecations on those who had done so much to degrade the city of his love! Desolations on them!

But is it fully as much like him, to haveif not whined like a whipt curat least mournfully cooed like a timid, disconsolate dove? This too is life-likeunder the circumstances, the peculiarities of which should not for a moment be forgotten. Months of suffering and shame have wrought havoc on his personal condition. He is fitful, moody, morbidly imaginative. He is so conscious of his disturbed mental condition, that, when he begins to compose this psalm, he anticipates he shall wander. The voice of an enemy, which he overhears, alas! is the voice of an old friend. He can perceive, acting on his old friends, the pressure of a lawless one, and enigmatic phrase, most apt and illuminating when understood as an allusion to the as yet absent Absalom,whose name, we have before noted David's reluctance to mention. Ahithophel has set the ball of calumny rolling. One damaging fact after another has been whispered in conclave; so that, to David's heated imagination, his enemies are rolling down boulders upon him! No wonder, then, that for a few moments, he longs for the strong pinions of a dove in the vain hope of leaving all trouble behind himat least till the tempest of rebellion has passed. For a few moments only! For although the timid spirit of the dove still lingers on him, after he has in his own imagination finished his flight far away, yet his cooing soon turns to cursing, especially when fired with dark memories of Ahithophel.

It has been too hastily concluded, from 2 Samuel 15:31, that David could not have known of his counsellor's treachery when he wrote this psalm. That, however, is not in evidence. He may have been well aware of that some time before Absalom's Insurrection had become an accomplished fact.

The suicide of Ahithophel (2 Samuel 17:23) comes into a most suggestive relation to Psalms 55:23 of this psalm; and, on the whole, the ancient Jewish expositors seem to have had a truer insight into this relation than modern Christian interpreters. The Talmud and Midrashim occasionally refer to him (Ahithophel). In the latter he is classed with Balaam as an instance of the ruin which overtakes wisdom that is not the gift of Heaven; and in the former (Baba bathra, b 7) the great lesson of his life is said to be, -Be not in strife with the house of David, and break off from none of its rule-'Hastings-' Bible Dictionary, Vol. I., p. 57.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

1.

The abrupt transitions of this psalm are worked out in the paraphrasehow does Rotherham account for such change of thought? Do you agree? Discuss.

2.

Spurgeon interestingly remarks The Spiritual eye ever and anon sees the Son of David and Judas, and the chief priests appearing and disappearing upon the glowing canvas of this psalm. See if you can exercise your spiritual eyes.

3.

To What period in David's life is this psalm usually referred? (Read 2 Samuel 15-18) Who is David's close friend who became his bitter enemy?

4.

4 In what area of rule was David evidently sadly remiss? How does this relate to the psalm?

5.

David fled Jerusalem from Absalom with out resistencewhy? If the conditions described here prevailed in Jerusalem who was at fault?

6.

Rotherham becomes increasingly convinced that David did indeed write this psalmWhat led him to this conclusion?

7.

The psalmist longs to fly away like a doveis this a healthy attitude? Discuss.

8.

Why did Ahithophel commit suicide? How does this relate to the psalm? (Cf. Psalms 55:23 and 2 Samuel 17:23)

9.

Read Psalms 55:17 of this psalm and pause to ask yourselfWhen did we lose the holy habit of regular private worship? The early church practiced itDiscuss.

10.

There is a marvelous provision and promise in Psalms 55:22what is it?how can we make it ours?