As for me, unto God will I call; and Jehovah will save me.
Psalm 55 shows a city full of violence and a heart broken by a close friend's betrayal. Verse 16 is the hinge: the psalmist stops describing the trouble and turns to God. His words set one man's course against the course of everyone around him. They raise a question — what does a believer do when the evil is too big to escape?
The verse opens with a contrast. The psalmist has just described people given over to wickedness. Now he puts himself on the other side. Older translations begin the verse "As for me" (Darby: "As for me, unto God will I call"). The ESV's "But I call to God" carries the same contrast, and the writers quoted below use the older wording.
"As for me" (v. 16). What a complete contrast to the character and end of those committed to ungodliness! "I will call upon God, and the Lord shall save me." The evil has risen so high that escape seems impossible. Even so, God remains the solid Rock, and the godly can depend on Him completely. They do what God elsewhere instructs them to do: "Call upon Me in the day of trouble: I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me" (Ps. 50:15).
The betrayal here came from inside — from people the psalmist had worshipped with. Even then, he still had somewhere to turn.
Psalm 55 is a distressing picture of wickedness in Jerusalem. The speaker is outside, but has experienced this wickedness in the treachery of his dearest friends. His resource is in God: Jehovah will save… The enemy was outside and the wicked inside. They accused the godly of wickedness and hated them fiercely. Worst of all was the heartless treachery of those inside — the very people the godly had gone with to the house of God. Still his trust was in God, for where else should he seek help?
The confidence in this verse is not optimism. It is certainty, and it rests on God rather than on the people around him.
He is sure of deliverance because he counts on God (16-19). Then he tells of the treachery of the man who has broken the covenant (20, 21), and he tells other godly ones what to do in such times (22, 23): "Cast your burden on the LORD, and He will sustain you; He will never permit the righteous to be moved."… Friends, advisers and companions of years may fail. But Jehovah will sustain His servant, and He is ready to relieve him of his burden.
Commentators read the psalm on several levels at once. They hear David's own experience, the Lord Jesus, and a faithful group in Israel in a later day.
This Psalm, like the ones before it, has in view the lawless or self-willed king and his faction. Some of it is the voice of the Lord Jesus as He considers the treachery of Judas and the faction that followed him. In the end it is the lawless one, or someone else allied with him. The godly remnant of the last days feel him and plead against him, and he deceives them, as Judas deceived Jesus… But this Psalm is also the voice of David himself, in his own measure, under the craft and treason of Ahithophel together with Absalom. (See 2 Sam. 15, 16)… But His relief was in prayer (verses 16, 17).
Applied to the Lord Jesus, the verse shows someone who saw the full danger and still looked in one direction only.
He was neither ignorant of, nor indifferent to, His enemies… He knew their number. He knew their strength. He knew their treachery. But He knew that God was above all His enemies, and that no one was above God. In perfect confidence He looks to God alone. As He can say in the words of another Psalm, "As for Me, I will call upon God; and the LORD shall save Me" (Ps. 55:16).
Verse 16 begins a practice, not a single cry. The next verse fills out the pattern. It answers the round-the-clock activity of the wicked described earlier in the psalm.
(vv. 16-21) The wicked live in violence and strife, day and night (v. 10). In contrast, the godly man will call upon the Lord, "evening and morning and at noon." He knows that God will hear him and deliver his soul, and will afflict those who refuse to repent and own God.
A delay in the answer is not a reason to stop praying.
Though an answer may be delayed for a time, this is only a test of faith to move the heart to continue in prayer.
- Contrast. The verse turns on a contrast. Others give themselves to violence and deceit. This man calls on God, and that choice decides his end.
- Resource. Enemies press from outside and trusted friends betray from within. God is the one refuge left. Where else should he look?
- Relief. The Lord Jesus faced the treachery of Judas, and His relief was prayer. David did the same under Ahithophel's treason. Prayer is what a wounded heart does.
- Rhythm. Evil works day and night; faith answers evening, morning, and noon. Calling on God becomes a habit, not an emergency measure.
- Result. "The LORD will save me" comes before any sign of rescue. Faith counts the deliverance settled because it counts on God.
Evening, and morning, and at noon, will I pray and moan aloud; and he will hear my voice.
Psalm 55 is the cry of a man trapped by violence in his own city and betrayed by a close friend. Verse 17 is his answer: prayer at three fixed hours, and the certainty that God hears him.
Two threats close in on the psalmist: the enemy outside the city, the traitor inside it.
Psalm 55 is a distressing picture of wickedness in Jerusalem. The speaker is outside, but has experienced this wickedness in the treachery of his dearest friends. His resource is in God: the LORD will save... He would gladly have fled from it all. The enemy was outside, the wicked inside; but they charged the godly with wickedness, and utterly hated them. Worst of all was the heartless treachery of those inside, those with whom the godly had gone in company to the house of God. Still his trust was in God, for where else should he seek help?
Commentators read the psalm on two levels: David's own experience, and words the Lord Jesus could take on His lips. Ahithophel turned against David alongside Absalom. Judas betrayed Jesus.
Some of it is what the Lord Jesus says as He looks at the treachery of Judas and the faction that followed him... This psalm is also what David himself says, in his measure, under the craft and treason of Ahithophel in company with Absalom (see 2 Samuel 15, 16). John 13:21 shows us how deeply the Lord felt the conduct of Judas, as this psalm does, and as Psalm 41 does. But His relief was in prayer (verses 16, 17).
Verse 17 is not the reaction of a man unaware of his danger. He has measured it.
He was neither ignorant of, nor indifferent to, His enemies... He knew their number; He knew their strength; He knew their treachery. But He knew that God was above all His enemies, and that no one was above God. In perfect confidence He looks alone to God.
The psalm sets two rhythms against each other.
The wicked are marked by violence and strife, day and night (v. 10). In contrast, the godly man will call upon the Lord, "evening and morning and at noon." He is sure that God will hear and deliver his soul.
The psalmist does not pray in polished words.
The fifth section of the psalm shows, in contrast with all this, the assured hope of the righteous. He calls upon God, from whom the wicked had departed; he knows that God will save him. Complain and groan though he may, it is to One who hears his voice. And redemption is realised at last from among many enemies, who are incapable of doing him the harm they seek to do.
If God answered at the first prayer, there would be no need for evening, morning and noon.
The evil has risen so high that escape from it seems impossible. Even so, God remains the solid Rock on which the godly may fully depend... An answer may be delayed for a time. But this is only a test of faith, to move the heart to keep praying, "evening and morning and at noon." "And will not God give justice to His elect, who cry to Him day and night?" So the psalmist speaks with confidence: "He hears my voice" (v. 17).
Some writers take the verse as a pattern to copy, and set Daniel beside it.
Daniel "got down on his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God" (Daniel 6:10). So we should also do if we want to be healthy Christians. Do not begin the day without reading your Bible and praying to God. If you neglect to do so, you will soon be a defeated, starving Christian. Besides regular times of prayer each day, the believer is urged to be "constant in prayer" and to "pray without ceasing" (Romans 12:12; 1 Thessalonians 5:17).
- Betrayal — The worst wound came from inside: a friend who had walked to God's house with him.
- Resource — With the enemy outside and the traitor inside, God was the only place left to go, and that was enough.
- Rhythm — The wicked keep up violence day and night. Evening, morning and noon answers them with steady prayer.
- Persistence — Delay is not refusal. It is a test that keeps the heart praying, and the psalmist's confidence stands: God hears his voice.
- Habit — Prayer left to spare moments gets dropped. This verse teaches fixed times each day, held together with prayer that never stops.
He hath redeemed my soul in peace from the battle against me for there were many about me.
Psalm 55 is the prayer of a man trapped by violence in his own city and betrayed by a close friend. At verse 18 his tone changes from complaint to certainty. He speaks of rescue as something already secured, though his enemies have not gone away. How can one sentence hold both peace and battle?
His confidence makes sense only when you see his situation. The threat is not a distant army. It comes from inside his own city, and from a man he trusted.
Psalm 55. In the city the worst evil appears. Their friendly companion has turned against them. He has broken his covenant.
Verse 18 follows a decision to keep calling on God at set hours. One writer sees a delayed answer as a test, not a refusal.
The evil has risen so high that escape seems impossible. Even so, God remains the solid Rock on whom the godly can fully depend. They do what God tells them elsewhere to do: "Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me" (Ps. 50:15). An answer may be delayed for a time. That delay is only a test of faith, to move the heart to keep praying, "evening and morning and at noon."
Another writer points out that both sides keep a timetable.
Violence and strife mark the wicked, day and night (v. 10). The godly man does the opposite: he calls on the Lord, "evening and morning and at noon." He knows that God will hear him and deliver his soul.
The tense of verse 18 carries its weight, and so does the word "redeemed."
Verse 18 therefore speaks as though the deliverance were already done. It says, "He has redeemed my soul in peace from the battle that was against me, for there were many against me." Redemption means the soul set free from the bondage of cruel oppression. Here that bondage was inflicted by "many."
The writer quotes an older translation, which puts the rescue in the past tense: "He has redeemed." The ESV keeps the present tense: "He redeems." Either way, the psalmist treats the outcome as settled.
This confidence is not ignorance about the odds. One writer applies the words of this psalm to Christ Himself, who knew what He was facing.
He was neither ignorant of His enemies nor indifferent to them. He could say, "Those who hate Me without a cause are more than the hairs of My head; those who would destroy Me, who are My enemies without reason, are mighty" (Psalm 69:4). He knew their number. He knew their strength. He knew their treachery. But He also knew that God was above all His enemies, and that no one was above God. So in perfect confidence He looks to God alone.
If rescue is already declared, why does the psalm keep going? One writer answers by pointing to what God still has to judge.
Verse 18 has declared a finished redemption. Even so, these verses come back to make even clearer what God has to judge. He will hear and afflict the enemy, for He is the ancient of days, the One who remains from eternity. He alone has the right not to change — but they must change if they expect God's blessing.
The psalm ends with an instruction, not just a report.
Let the godly in their distress cast their burdens on the unchanging One. He will never break His covenant with His people. He will never let the righteous be moved, whatever sorrows they have to pass through. The violent and deceitful man, who has exalted himself, will be brought down to destruction. Well may the godly conclude by saying, "I will trust in You."
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- Betrayal. The pressure comes from inside the city, and from a close companion who broke his covenant.
- Hours. The godly answer with prayer at set hours: evening, morning and noon. The wicked keep up violence day and night.
- Delay. Delay tests faith and keeps the heart praying. It is not God's refusal.
- Past tense. Verse 18 speaks of rescue as already done while the battle is still on. Redemption here means the soul set free from a bondage imposed by "many."
- Burden. Christ knew the number, strength and treachery of His enemies, and looked to God alone. The distressed are told to do the same: cast the burden on the God who never breaks His covenant.