"To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments. A Maskil of David.
Give ear to my prayer, O God,
and hide not yourself from my plea for mercy!
2 Attend to me, and answer me;
I am restless in my complaint and I moan,
3 because of the noise of the enemy,
because of the oppression of the wicked.
For they drop trouble upon me,
and in anger they bear a grudge against me.
4 My heart is in anguish within me;
the terrors of death have fallen upon me.
5 Fear and trembling come upon me,
and horror overwhelms me.
6 And I say, “Oh, that I had wings like a dove!
I would fly away and be at rest;
7 yes, I would wander far away;
I would lodge in the wilderness; Selah
8 I would hurry to find a shelter
from the raging wind and tempest.”
9 Destroy, O Lord, divide their tongues;
for I see violence and strife in the city.
10 Day and night they go around it
on its walls,
and iniquity and trouble are within it;
11 ruin is in its midst;
oppression and fraud
do not depart from its marketplace.
12 For it is not an enemy who taunts me—
then I could bear it;
it is not an adversary who deals insolently with me—
then I could hide from him.
13 But it is you, a man, my equal,
my companion, my familiar friend.
14 We used to take sweet counsel together;
within God's house we walked in the throng.
15 Let death steal over them;
let them go down to Sheol alive;
for evil is in their dwelling place and in their heart.
16 But I call to God,
and the Lord will save me.
17 Evening and morning and at noon
I utter my complaint and moan,
and he hears my voice.
18 He redeems my soul in safety
from the battle that I wage,
for many are arrayed against me.
19 God will give ear and humble them,
he who is enthroned from of old, Selah
because they do not change
and do not fear God.
20 My companion stretched out his hand against his friends;
he violated his covenant.
21 His speech was smooth as butter,
yet war was in his heart;
his words were softer than oil,
yet they were drawn swords.
22 Cast your burden on the Lord,
and he will sustain you;
he will never permit
the righteous to be moved.
23 But you, O God, will cast them down
into the pit of destruction;
men of blood and treachery
shall not live out half their days.
But I will trust in you."
Psalm 55
But there is a little more to the situation than what was indicated at the end of the previous note. For one thing, if the Psalmist is 'blowing his top', he is doing it to God and in prayer. And that is the best place for it. For another thing, we should look at the expressions in 9 and 15 (we have more than once pointed out that there is more in the imprecations in the Psalms than meets the eye, and that we need not necessarily interpret them as expressions of vengeance and hatred). The commentators are surely right in recognising in 9 a reference to the Tower of Babel story, when God brought to naught the impious work of men by confusing their tongues; and in 15 a possible reference to the story of Dathan and Abiram in Numbers 16, actors in another rebellion, against Moses the servant of God, who were swallowed up in an earthquake for their folly and arrogance. There is significance in these references, for it means that in his distress the Psalmist had turned to the Scriptures and was finding a word from the Lord there for his own present need. And this is just what we need to do, in our circumstances of pressure, of whatever kind and by whatever caused. Furthermore, he was aligning himself with God and His cause, and recognising and assuming that since he himself was a servant of God, what happened with other servants of God would also happen with him: attacks on him would be regarded as attacks on God's work, and be recognised as such by Him, and dealt with accordingly. This is a principle of wide application. If we are honourably and faithfully seeking to serve God, then the truth is that we fall heir to all the promises of help and succour that God makes to His servants. We may expect Him to help us in the way He has often intervened on behalf of His servants in the past. It is this expectation and confidence that are expressed in 16-23. And it develops through the Word. This is the great lesson here: faith cometh...by the Word of God.