Psalm 55:23

Psalm 55 is a lament, and everything before verse 16 is anguish. In Psalm 55:1–8 David begs God to hear him, says that the terrors of death have fallen on him, and longs for the wings of a dove to fly away and be at rest. In verses 9 to 11 the city is full of violence and strife. In Psalm 55:12–14 he names the deepest wound: the man who has turned on him is “mine equal, my guide, and mine acquaintance,” a friend with whom he took sweet counsel and walked to the house of God. In Psalm 55:15 he prays, “let them go down quick into hell,” into the realm of the dead.

The heading of the psalm gives it to David, and the psalm itself names no event. The betrayal it describes fits the rebellion of his son Absalom closely, told in 2 Samuel 15–17. In that rebellion David’s counsellor Ahithophel went over to Absalom (2 Samuel 15:31), a man whose advice was held to be “as if a man had enquired at the oracle of God” (2 Samuel 16:23). In Israel, turning on a trusted friend was counted among the gravest wrongs. It broke the bonds of loyalty, hospitality and covenant, and it could wreck a man’s standing among his people as well as his heart.

Verse 16 is the turn. “As for me” sets David apart from the traitor and from the despair of the verses before, and it marks a deliberate choice: whatever others do, he will call upon God. The verb, qârâʼ, means to call out, to cry to someone, to invoke him. It is the prayer of a man in trouble who expects an answer, the cry of Psalm 18:6, where David called upon the LORD in his distress and was heard, and of Psalm 107:6, where people in trouble cried to the LORD and he delivered them. God asks for that cry himself: “Call unto me, and I will answer thee” (Jeremiah 33:3). Joel promises deliverance to whoever calls on the name of the LORD (Joel 2:32), and Paul carries that promise into salvation in Christ (Romans 10:13).

David names God twice. “God” is ʼĕlôhîym, plural in form, used for the one true God as a plural of majesty, the Creator who rules over all. “The LORD” is Yᵉhôvâh, his covenant name, the God who bound himself to Israel by promise and who saved them at the Red Sea (Exodus 14). David appeals to the God who has all power and to the God who has pledged himself to his people, and they are one God.

“And the LORD shall save me” is said as a settled fact. The verb yâshaʻ covers deliverance, rescue and victory, and David speaks of it in the future with full confidence, as one who knows that “Salvation belongeth unto the LORD” (Psalm 3:8). Another psalm of David speaks to his own soul in the same spirit: “My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from him” (Psalm 62:5–8).

“Evening, and morning, and at noon, will I pray, and cry aloud” describes prayer that runs through the whole day. Set times of prayer were part of devout life in Israel well before they were fixed in later Jewish worship, and morning and evening matched the times of the daily sacrifices. Daniel kept the same habit in Babylon, praying three times a day (Daniel 6:10). For David regular prayer is the habit of his life, and in his crisis he holds to it. Paul calls every believer to “pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17).

Two verbs describe the prayer. “Pray” is sîyach, a word for pondering, meditating and musing, and by extension for talking over or uttering what one has pondered. David brings his whole case before God with his thoughts gathered. “Cry aloud” is hâmâh, to make a loud sound, to be in commotion or tumult, a word used of moaning, roaring and uproar. So his prayer is both considered and loud, the voice of a man pouring out his distress with all its noise. God receives prayer like that. When our words run out, the Spirit himself makes intercession for us with groanings that cannot be uttered (Romans 8:26–27), and a few words such as “God, help me”, or the words of this psalm, are prayer enough.

“And he shall hear my voice” holds the verse together. The verb shâmaʻ means to hear with understanding, to give attention and to respond. God takes in what David says, weighs it, and will act on it. Human friends have failed David, and the God who hears remains.

Jesus kept his own hours of prayer, rising a great while before day to pray (Mark 1:35) and continuing all night in prayer to God before a great decision (Luke 6:12). Through him we come boldly to the throne of grace to obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need (Hebrews 4:16), and he ever lives to make intercession for us (Hebrews 7:25). David’s confidence that God will hear is ours in Christ.

Verse 18 speaks of God’s rescue as already done, “He hath delivered my soul in peace,” giving thanks for his faithfulness in the past and in the present while the conflict still goes on. The verb pâdâh means to ransom, redeem or rescue, setting someone free from danger or bondage by a price or by power. God took hold of David’s life and pulled it out of the reach of death. “My soul” is nephesh, a breathing creature, life, soul, self or person. Here it means David himself, his life and all of him.

“In peace” is shâlôwm, a word for completeness, soundness, welfare, peace and safety. God brought David out of the fight safe and whole. Isaiah speaks of the same gift: the LORD keeps in perfect peace the one whose mind is stayed on him, because he trusts in him (Isaiah 26:3). David knew that calm in another danger, when he lay down and slept and woke again because the LORD sustained him, unafraid of ten thousands set against him (Psalm 3:5–6). God says through Isaiah, “Fear thou not; for I am with thee” (Isaiah 41:10). Paul writes of the peace of God that keeps the hearts and minds of those who bring everything to him in prayer (Philippians 4:6–7), and Jesus leaves his own peace with his disciples (John 14:27).

“The battle that was against me” uses qᵉrâb, a word for fighting and war. David’s battle was real. It took in the threat to his life and throne, the grief of betrayal, the fear of death and the weight of leading a divided people.

“God shall hear” uses the name ʼêl, God, a name the lexicons also give the sense of strength and might. The God who hears David’s prayer in verse 17 hears his enemies too, with the same verb, shâmaʻ. He hears what they say and do, and he will answer them. The verb the KJV renders “afflict” is ʻânâh, the ordinary word for answering or responding to words or a situation. God’s answer to these men is the judgment that the KJV calls affliction.

“Even he that abideth of old” names the Judge. The phrase joins yâshab, to sit, dwell or remain, with qedem, ancient, of old: he who sits from antiquity, he who dwells eternally. The same word qedem is used of “the eternal God” who is his people’s refuge in Deuteronomy 33:27. God reigned before David’s troubles began and will reign when his enemies are gone, and his justice belongs to who he is, so it is sure. He says through Malachi, “For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed” (Malachi 3:6). The New Testament shows the Son sharing this eternity. He is the Alpha and Omega (Revelation 1:8), the Word who was in the beginning with God and was God (John 1:1), the one by whom all things were created (Colossians 1:16), and he will judge the quick and the dead (2 Timothy 4:1).

“Selah” (çelâh) appears often in the Psalms and in Habakkuk. Its exact meaning is uncertain, and it is usually taken as a musical or liturgical direction, a pause, an interlude or a change in the music. Here it falls right after the name of the eternal Judge, giving room to weigh that truth before the psalm explains why the wicked live as they do.

In verse 20 the psalm moves from the enemies in general to the one man. “He hath put forth his hands” is the Hebrew phrase shalach yad, to stretch out the hand, with yâd, hand. Stretching out the hand against someone is an act of hostility, laying hold of him to do him harm. The men he attacked were “at peace with him”, and the word is shâlôwm again, the word David used in verse 18 for the safety God gave him. The traitor turned on people who lived with him in friendship and trust.

“He hath broken his covenant” makes the wrong plain. Bᵉrîyth is a covenant, alliance, treaty or league. Between nations it was a formal treaty, and between people it could be a solemn bond of loyalty and friendship. “Broken” is chalal, to profane or violate, to treat as common what was sacred. Covenants were often made before God or in his name, so breaking one wronged God as well as man. Israel broke the LORD’s own covenant in the same way (Jeremiah 11:10), while the LORD is the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy with those who love him (Deuteronomy 7:9). “It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in man” (Psalm 118:8–9).

Verse 21 shows how the traitor did it. “The words of his mouth” are dâbâr, word or speech, from peh, mouth. They were “smoother”, châlaq, a verb for being smooth or slippery and, figuratively, for flattering and deceiving. They were smoother than “butter”, machămâʼâh, a rich food prized in Israel. “But war was in his heart”: the word for war is qᵉrâb, the same word as the “battle” of verse 18, and lêb, the heart, is the seat of mind, will and feeling. The battle David fought began in his friend’s heart.

The second half of the verse says it again. The words were “softer”, râkak, than “oil”, shemen, which was precious in Israel and used for anointing, healing and feasting. “Yet were they drawn swords.” The word pᵉthichâh comes from a root meaning to open, and it pictures a sword out of its sheath and ready to strike. The things that stand for comfort, butter and oil, cover the things that kill.

Scripture warns of this kind of speech again and again. Proverbs pictures burning lips over a wicked heart and hatred covered by deceit (Proverbs 26:23–26), and says, “There is that speaketh like the piercings of a sword: but the tongue of the wise is health” (Proverbs 12:18). Jesus warns of false prophets in sheep’s clothing who are ravening wolves within (Matthew 7:15), and Paul warns of those who “by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple” (Romans 16:18). The LORD searches the heart (Jeremiah 17:10), and he sees the war behind the smooth face and will judge it.

David’s lament finds its deepest echo in Jesus. Judas, one of the twelve, who shared his table and his ministry, gave him to his enemies with a kiss (Matthew 26:47–50), the sign of peace turned into the sign of betrayal. Jesus said to him, “Judas, betrayest thou the Son of man with a kiss?” (Luke 22:47–48). He applied to Judas the words of another psalm of David, “Yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath lifted up his heel against me” (Psalm 41:9, John 13:18). His enemies came to him with smooth questions that were traps (Matthew 22:15–18), and the crowd cried, “Crucify him” (John 19:15).

Jesus answered as David did, by calling on God. In Gethsemane he prayed, “nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done” (Luke 22:42), and on the cross he cried, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46). He could have asked his Father for more than twelve legions of angels, and he chose to go to the cross for us (Matthew 26:53). David fled from his betrayer, and Jesus went willingly to his death. He was without deceit, “who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth” (1 Peter 2:22), and he knew what was in every man (John 2:24–25). The traitor of Psalm 55 profaned his covenant, and Jesus made a new covenant in his own blood (Luke 22:20). He is the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6), and the devil, the deceiver behind all betrayal, will meet his final doom (Revelation 20:10).

Verse 22 is David’s call to everyone who reads his psalm, and the command at its centre is “Cast thy burden upon the LORD.” The word for burden, yᵉhâb, comes from the verb yâhab, to give, and means what is given, a lot or a burden. It occurs only here in the Old Testament. For David it held the weight of his kingship, the threat of civil war, the grief of a son in rebellion and the load of a friend’s treachery. The verb “cast”, shâlak, means to throw or hurl. David tells us to take the weight off our own shoulders and throw it onto the LORD, who is able to carry it.

“And he shall sustain thee” is the promise that goes with the command. The verb kûwl means to contain or hold in, and so to maintain, to hold up and provide for. God carries the burden and carries the person too, giving the strength and the provision to come through. Israel knew this God from the wilderness, where he fed them day by day, and Jesus teaches the same care when he tells his disciples to take no thought for their life, since their Father knows what they need (Matthew 6:25–34).

“He shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.” The verb môwṭ means to totter, shake or slip, and in its causative form to dislodge or let fall. God will keep his people from being shaken off their footing and thrown down for good.

Peter takes up this verse for the church: “Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you” (1 Peter 5:7). Paul tells believers to make their requests known to God with thanksgiving and receive his peace (Philippians 4:6–7). And Jesus himself says, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28–30). He bore the heaviest burden of all, our sin, on the cross.

“But thou, O God” turns once more to ʼĕlôhîym, and the psalm ends where it began, with God. “Bring them down” is yârad, to go or come down, used also of going down to the grave, and here in its causative sense, to bring down. “The pit of destruction” uses shachath, a pit or trap, and figuratively destruction, corruption and the grave. It pictures the grave and utter ruin, a judgment the wicked cannot escape.

The men God brings down are “bloody and deceitful”. “Bloody” is dâm, blood, which in the plural means bloodshed and bloodguilt, so these are men of violence. “Deceitful” is mirmâh, fraud, treachery and guile. Together they name the two evils David has faced in this psalm, open violence and hidden betrayal.

“Shall not live out half their days” is a proverbial saying for a life cut short. Their power will fail, their schemes will come to nothing, and their end will come before they reach the long life they counted on. Proverbs says the same: “The fear of the LORD prolongeth days: but the years of the wicked shall be shortened” (Proverbs 10:27). What a man sows, he reaps (Galatians 6:7).

In these verses David meets the worst wound a person can suffer, betrayal by a friend, and finds God sufficient for it. God hears the loud, troubled prayer of evening, morning and noon. He brings his servant out of the battle safe and whole. He has reigned from of old, he sees the war hidden behind smooth words, and he will answer the wicked in his own time. He takes the burden his people throw on him and holds them up so that they stand.

The psalm also gives us words to pray with. “As for me, I will call upon God” is a choice we can make on the day trust breaks. “Cast thy burden upon the LORD” was written for people with a weight too heavy to carry, and Peter’s letter repeats it to the church because God still cares for us. And “I will trust in thee” is the place where David ends, with his enemies still in the field and his hope in God alone.