Psalm LV

To the chief Musician. On Neglnotli, llapcliil. A Psalm of David.

1 Give ear to my prayer, O God; and hide not thyself from my supplication.

2 Attend unto me, and hear me: I mourn in my complaint, and make a

noise;

3 Because of the voice of the enemy, because of the oppression of the wicked: For they cast iniquity upon me, and in wrath they hate me.

4 My heart is sore pained within me: and the terrors of death are fallen

upon me.

5 Fearfulness and trembling are come upon me, and horror hath overwhelmed me.

6 And I said. Oh that I had wings like a dove! for then would I fly away,

and be at rest.

7 Lo, then would I wander far off, and remain in the wilderness. Selah.

8 I would hasten my escape from the windy storm and tempest.

9 Destroy, O Lord, and divide their tongues: for I have seen violence and

strife in the city.

10 Day and night they go about it upon the walls thereof: Mischief also and sorrow are in the midst of it.

11 Wickedness is in the midst thereof: deceit and guile depart not from her

streets.

12 For it was not an enemy that reproached me; then I could have borne it: Neither was it he that hated me that did magnify himself against me; Then I would have hid myself from him:

13 But it was thou, a man mine equal, my guide, and mine acquaintance!

14 We took sweet counsel together, and walked into the house of God in

company.

15 Let death seize upon them, and let them go down quick into hell: For wickedness is in their dwellings, and among them.

16 As for me, I will call upon God; and the Lord shall save me.

17 Evening, and morning, and at noon, will I pray, and cry aloud: And he shall hear my voice.

18 He hath delivered my soul in peace from the battle that was against me: For there were many with me.

19 God shall hear, and afflict them, even he that abideth of old. Selah. Because they have no changes, therefore they fear not God.

20 He hath put forth his hands against such as be at peace with him: He hath broken his covenant.

21 The words of his mouth were smoother than butter, but war was in his

heart.

His words were softer than oil, yet were they drawn swords. 12 Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee:

He shall never suffer the righteous to be moved. 2,3 But thou, O God, shall bring them down into the pit of destruction:

Bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days.

But I will trust in thee.

The title is the same as that of some former Psalms, “on Ne- 1’”= tme ginoth,” “Maschil,” and then “of David.” We may read these strains as expressing David’s feelings in some peculiar seasons of distress, and as the experience of Christ’s Church in ‘J”’ie membeis

’ and their Hea

every age; for we find much, very much, that accords altogether with humanity in a state of intensely stirred emotion,. and affection wounded to the quick. Yet still it is in Jesus, the Man of Sorrows, that the Psalm finds its fullest illustration. His was the soul that was stirred to its lowest depth by scenes such as are described here. The quotation of Psa. xli. 9 by our Lord, is almost equivalent to a quotation of verse 13, they are so similar as to words.

It is the wickedness of the wicked that raises this mournful The feeiing

expressed.

cry, and makes him say,

“I mourn in mxj complaint;” or, “give free course to my sorrow.” (Ver. 2.)

It is not unlikely that our Lord, possessed as he was of true humanity, might often give utterance to this expressive wish (verse 6), “0 that I had wings as a dove,” when seeing the turtle-dove fly out from the olives of the Mount of Olives over guilty Jerusalem, the city wherein He saw “violence and strife” — “wickedness, deceit, and guile, never absent from her streets.” Either there, or standing on some of the hills around Nazareth, He might witness the home-loving dove’s swift flight,* and hear its peace-suggesting note, and be led to this utterance of strong feeling, not at all unfit for Him who so rejoiced in the thought, “And now I am no more in the world! Now I come to thee, Holy Father,” (John xyii, 11). He to whom he was thought to bear so close a resemblance (Matt, xvi. 14), the weeping prophet Jeremiah, gave utterance to his wounded feeling in strains that naturally took a similar form, “Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging-place,” though only that of the wayfaring man! (ix. 2). But the melancholy Psalmist here rises a degree beyond this —

“/ would remain in the desert,” (Ver. 7.) And then there is the Selah-pavise, as there is in the middle of Seiah.

* Paxton says, the dove, when flying to its resort, never rests on trees or the like, as other birds, but uses one wing till the other rests.

The Invitation
to share in it.
verse 19, iudicatiug the calm, solemn state of soul lu which
these things were uttered.

The prayer in verse 9 reminds us of Babel, where the language of earth was divided that pride might be humbled for ever, and its aims irretrievably baffled; while verse 1 5, “go quick to hell,” at once recalls the doom of Korah and his company, who rejected the true High Priest, and the Lord’s King in Jeshurun. Our Lord describes Israel in verse 13, “his own” nation (John ill), though, especially, Judas, one of his trusted ones who owned him as Master; and “mine equal” signifies, “Thou who wert by my side on terms of equality, as if on a level with me.” He permits them to perish in unbelief, they having rejected the true Priest and King. He no longer acts the Intercessor’s part towards such, but stands over them as a Judge, pronouncing their doom. And then in verses 16, 17, we hear him express his confidence of full deliverance. “The twelve legions of angels,” whom He might at any time have called to his help, have arrived, or rather He sees them on their way.

“For there are many with me.

God heareth and anstcereih,

Yea, He sits enthroned for ever!” Selah. (Ver. 19.)

It is a glance at future redress for every wrong, in the Day of Vengance and the Year of the Redeemed. In prospect of this, verse 22 invites us to cast our burden upon the Lord, whatever that burden be, even if it be the crushing weight of persecution, and reproach, and treachery. The Lord will “provide” as Joseph did. Gen. xlv. 11, and as 1 Kings iv. 7. “The godly shall not be tossed about for ever;” the Lord shall arise to hurl the foe into “the pit of destruction” (” the lake of fire” of Rev. XX. 1 5), in which Antichrist sinks for ever.

In the last verse there is something of an enthymeme; for while the clause, “TJce blood g and deceitful men shall not live half their days” predicts and pour trays their doom, as cut off by untimely judgment, the responsive clause, “And I luill trust in thee,” tells of no proper converse, no judgment in favour of the godly. But it nevertheless contains in it the equivalent to a declaration that his lot shall be the reverse of the bloody and deceitful. It is equivalent to saying, We go different ways — they on the broad road, where ruin overtakes them speedily, and I on the safe road of faith in thee, where I shall soon meet with Him whom unseen I loved, and in whom I believed, though as yet I saw him not. Does not, then, this Psalm depict — The Righteous One’s weary soul resting in the certainty of what the Lord will do.