Psalm LVI
To the chief Musician. Upon Jonath-elem-rechokim. Michtam of David, when the Philistines toolc him in Gath.
1 Be merciful unto me, O God: for man would swallow me up! He fighting daily oppresseth me.
2 Mine enemies would daily swallow me up:
For they be many that fight against me, U thou Most High.
3 What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee.
4 In God 1 will praise his word.
In God I have put my trust; I will not fear what flesh can do unto me. 6 Every day they wrest my words: all their thoughts are against me for evil.
6 They gather themselves together, they hide themselves, They mark my steps, when they wait for my soul.
7 Shall they escape by iniquity? In thine anger cast down the people, O
God.
8 Thou tellest my wanderings:
Put thou my tears into thy bottle: are they not in thy book?
9 When I cry unto thee, then shall mine enemies turn back: this I know,
for God is for me.
10 In God will I praise his word: in the Lord will I praise his word.
11 In God have I put my trust: I will not be afraid what man can do unto
me.
12 Thy vows are upon me, O God: I will render praise unto thee.
13 For thou hast delivered my soul from death: wilt not thou deliver my
feet from falling. That I may walk before God in the light of the living?
The reason why fear gains ascendancy in a believing soul on occasions of danger and trouble is sententiously expressed by Augustine,” Magnltudinem mali vides, jiotesiatem tnedici
J 72 PSALM LVI. — god’s WOKD LEADING TO THE
non vides.” “Thou seest the magnitude of the evil; the power of the physician thou dost not see.” The faith which penetrates the unseen reaches the case. This Psahn, in verses 1, 2, sets forth perils and evils in their magnitude, every day felt, every day repeating their vigorous assaults; but verses 3, 4, declare the remedy.
“In the day ofm.yfear, I will trust in thee.” (Ver. 3.)
This is nothing less than the voice of the Master, of him who said in John xiv. 1, 27, “Let not your heart be troubled, believe in God;” “Peace I give unto you; not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”
“God I will extol — his Word.” (Ver. 4.)
I will rest my heart in God; I will praise God (2 /JlJJ^j as in Psalm xliv. 9, and as in verse 10 again); I will praise God with a special reverence to “his Word” — his promises, which are not like those of the world.* David might refer to the Lord’s special promise to him of the seed that was to come, — a promise that of course implied his preservation in order to its accomplishment. The Son of David had his eye on that same promise in another of its aspects, its implied engagement to supply strength and give victory. Every believing one, in hours of darkness, reverts to that promise, saying to his soul, “He that spared not his own Son, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things V It is thus that the Lord “magnijieslhis Word,” making it felt to be the prominent and most attractive to sinful men of all his ways of revealing himself. (Psalm cxxxviii. 2.)
The world goes on, adding sin to sin. The world goes on, seeking daily to overthrow God by overthrowing his people; even as it sought to overthrow God by overthrowing his Son. (Verses 5, 6.) But
“Shall they escape by {y)J) iniquity?” (Ver. 7.)
They have made a covenant with death and hell; shall it
* Some j;ive this force to the ^, “I, in union with, or as one with God, will praise;” in which latter case it is like Paul’s, “/>i the Lord.”
stand? No; if they were to escape by their iniquity, by their boldness in defying God, this would be a result wholly unlike the past dealings of God.
“God, in anger, has brought down the nations” (ver. 7);
and will do so again on that day when their anger is hot against hira. (Rev. xi. 18.)
On the other hand, He has never failed to take account of the wanderings and tears of his own. Their I^X “wandering,” and his liki, ‘* bottle” (something far more expressive than the Roman Lacrymatory urn), correspond so far, that every tear shed by them in their wanderings is in that bottle of his; as if he had travelled along with them through their wilderness, and never suffered one drop to reach the ground. His bottle and his book of remembrance have preserved these precious tears; and if so, what good reason have we for exultation (verses 9-11), and for reiterating
“God I will extol — the Word!” *
I will praise Jehovah, and why? that “Word,” already referred to, verse 4, explains all. He has spoken, he has promised; all shall go on well, and then shall come the glorious
issue —
“I shall loalk before God in the light of the living.’’’’ (Ver. 13.)
Which, while not necessarily confined to the future, yet surely christ in it. carries us forward to New Jerusalem days, when he who is “Life,” and who by being so, is “the Light” oi man, shall walk with his redeemed in the kingdom. He himself is the grand example of this. His every tear was precious, his every step was marked; the book of remembrance has a record of these so vast, and ample and full, that, were it published here, “I suppose the world itself could not contain the volumes that could be written.” He arose on the third day, “walking in the light of the living;” no more a prisoner in the darkness of the grave; no more subjected to the gloom of his Father’s wrath; no more walking through the dark valley where love
* Fry suggests, “God shall hv the theme of my praise; Bf huth spoken;”
1 74 PSALM LVI. — ANTICIPATION OF FINAL REST.
was withheld; entering on the endless brightness of divine favour at the right hand. A believer’s course resembles His, ending, too, in this unclouded noon of resurrection glory. “O come that glorious morning (says Home), when the redeemed shall sing eternal praise to the God of salvation, for having delivered their souls from death, and feet from falling, that they might walk before him in the land of the living.”
One point we ha,ve not noticed. The title of this Psalm is peculiar. It is “Michtam,” in common with Psalm xvl (which see) and many others; but also it is “Upon Jonath-elem-recJwkim.” Hengstenberg renders this “The silent dove among strangers;” which certainly well expresses the substance of the Psalm, as being the breathing of One who returned not reviling for reviling, but moaned his sorrows in the ear of his God. Still, since we have reason to believe that these titles all refer to something in the music to which the Psalms were set, especially when by, “Upon,” is prefixed, we incline to think that these words indicate somewhat of the instrument and the tune; no doubt, however, a tune and an instrument suited to the subject, and used on occasions of melancholy interest, such as “Dove among strangers” may suggest. In either view the title corresponds to what we gather up as the substance of the Psalm, written by inspiration, when David had put himself into the hands of the Philistines, and was “sore afraid” (1 Sam. xxi. 12), namely,
God’s word enabling the Righteous One, amid his wanderings, to anticipate final rest.