"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
The first answer, then, given to prayer is the gift of peace (18), and this is reflected in the change from 2 to 17. Maclaren says, 'Communion with God and prayerful trust in His help do not at once end sadness and sobbing, but do change their character and lighten the blackness of grief'. It is this that makes possible the utterance of the wonderful words, 'Cast thy burden upon the Lord...', words in which the Psalmist is telling himself what to do. This 'word' has come to him through the exercise of faith which in turn has become possible through his study of the Scriptures in his need. We should note that the promise is not so much that God will take away the pressure as that He will hold us up under it.
We are now able to look back over the Psalm as a whole and see the progression unfolded in it. First of all, there is the anguished cry in 6, 'Oh that I had wings like a dove! For then would I fly away and be at rest'. Then, the Psalmist takes himself to the Word (9, 15), for refuge, light and grace. Then, the 'word' that comes to him in his distress (22): 'Cast thy burden on the Lord'. Finally, the affirmative of faith in 23: 'I will trust in Thee'. Happy the man who walks this road in time of trouble and distress!