God will hear, and afflict them he that is seated of old, (Selah) ... because there is no change in them, and they fear not God.
This psalm is the cry of a man surrounded by violence and betrayed by a close friend. At verse 19 he turns from his enemies to the God enthroned long before they began to plot, and gives a strange reason for their fearlessness: nothing in their lives ever changes.
One commentator reads the whole psalm as the prayer of a godly man among the faithful few in Israel, hunted by the antichrist:
The prayer of a godly man. It expresses what the believing remnant of the Jewish nation goes through when the antichrist turns away from God, breaks the covenant, and persecutes the godly.
The title given to God here — enthroned from of old — carries a claim no creature can make:
Verse 18 has already declared a completed redemption. These verses come back to show even more clearly what God has to judge. He will hear and afflict the enemy, for He is the ancient of days, the One who abides from eternity. He alone has the right not to change. They must change if they expect God's blessing. They never change from their deceitful ways, so they have no fear of God and no desire to honor Him (v. 19).
The verse sets God's permanence against a hardness in men that will not move:
But again he returns to speak of the wicked one and his company. He sees the Unchangeable and Eternal One setting Himself against the unchanging stubbornness of sinners who will not repent.
If constant ease produces no fear of God, then the shaking of a life has a purpose. The older translation quoted here renders the phrase as "they have no changes":
Now there is purpose in it — a double purpose: man is brought low, God is glorified. Man needs to be brought low, and God in His goodness has ordained it. Otherwise what the psalmist says would come true: "Because they have no changes, therefore they fear not God." (Ps. 55:19.) But for man there is also a resurrection. It is not inside the cycle of change but beyond it. Whoever "humbles himself" to accept God's lesson, turning to Him in this way, "will be exalted."
The verse is not only about ancient enemies. Easy living dulls the ear in any life:
Prosperity often deafens the ear against God. "I spoke to you in your prosperity, but you said, 'I will not listen'" (Jer. 22:21). Soft pleasures harden the heart. Prosperity has its honey, and also its sting… Sunshine is pleasant, but sometimes it scorches. The spreading of a full table may be the spreading of a snare. Many have been sunk to hell with golden weights… The world's golden sands are quicksands. If we have less food, we have less snare; if less dignity, less danger.
Verse 19 also marks a turn in the man praying. His worst pain is not the danger outside him:
In Psalm 55 it was only at verse 19 and at the end that he could bring God in… In truth outward trials are little compared with inward wounds to the spirit. "A man's spirit will endure sickness, but a crushed spirit who can bear?" The saint's trust then is in God.
- Change — Only God has the right never to change. Everyone else must change to have His blessing.
- No change — A life that is never disturbed produces no fear of God. That is the reason the verse gives.
- Hard change — Being brought low is no accident. God has ordained it in goodness, to humble man and glorify Himself.
- Refused change — The Unchangeable and Eternal One sets Himself against stubborn sinners. He hears them and afflicts them.
- Saving change — Whoever humbles himself and accepts God's lesson will be exalted. At this verse the suffering man brings God back into view.
He hath put forth his hands against such as are at peace with him; he hath profaned his covenant.
The speaker of this psalm has been describing the evil at work in Jerusalem; here he points to one man. The blow came from a companion, not a declared enemy — a man who gave his word, then attacked people who had done him no harm.
The men he attacked were his friends. They had shown him nothing but goodwill. One writer names the attacker and sets the broken pledge beside the attack:
The antichrist has put out his hands against those who showed him no hostility (v. 20). He had broken his covenant — his pledge of fellowship with the godly remnant — for his words were smoother than butter, and only covered the war in his heart.
The psalmist first steadies himself on God. Then he names the betrayal, and then he tells other godly people what to do:
In Psalm 55 the righteous one is outside the city, but aware of what is going on within (9-15)... He is sure of deliverance, because he counts on God (16-19). He tells of the treachery of the man who has broken the covenant (20, 21). Then he advises other godly ones what to do in such a situation (22, 23)... Friends, counsellors and companions of many years may fail. But Jehovah will sustain His servant, and He is ready to take his burden from him.
One writer hears David's own voice here. Ahithophel was David's adviser, and he sided with Absalom, David's son, in his revolt:
This psalm is also the utterance, in his measure, of David himself, under the craft and treason of Ahithophel in company with Absalom. (See 2 Samuel 15, 16.)
One writer traces the steps. The man joins the godly, uses them to rise, and then turns on the very people who helped him:
He will use the godly remnant of Israel to help him gain a place of authority... He keeps company with them as one of them. He takes counsel with them and goes to the house of God with them. Like Judas, he will deceive the godly into thinking he is one of them. Then, once he has risen to a high place among them, he will turn on them without mercy. He will persecute the people who had befriended him (Psalm 55:20).
The broken covenant is more than a personal grudge. One writer takes it as a prophetic sign, and explains what the agreement covers and what breaking it will look like:
Again he picks out one particular man among them. He marks him by another sign that is very clear in prophecy: the breaking of the covenant. So the angel says to Daniel of the "prince that shall come," that "he shall confirm a covenant"— make a binding agreement — "with many for one week"— of years; "and in the middle of the week he shall cause sacrifice and offering to cease."... Israel is back in the land, and this covenant shelters them while they set up their old ritual worship again. The "prince," or his representative in the land, takes his place with the rest and seems to join in heartfelt homage to the King of kings. Then comes a change: the ordered legal offerings stop, and idolatry is set up in their place. For the first half of the week he is the smooth-tongued hypocrite described in the psalm.
The writer there quotes Daniel 9:27 in an older English translation. Another writer links the same broken covenant to an earlier traitor:
But, like an earlier traitor and son of destruction, he will put out his hands against those who are at peace with him. He will break his covenant (Psalm 55:20).
Commentators differ on who the traitor is. One writer sees both Judas and a figure still to come in this psalm, and puts verse 20 with the second:
Psalm 55 is the horror of the Spirit of Christ at seeing the whole evil at Jerusalem — Judas and Antichrist... Verse 20, Antichrist.
- Nearest hurts most. The hand raised here belonged to a companion, not a declared enemy.
- Peace repaid with attack. The people he struck had shown him no hostility. He answered their goodwill with violence.
- Covenant profaned. He broke his own pledge of fellowship. Prophecy uses that broken covenant to mark the man out.
- A repeating pattern. Ahithophel turned on David. Judas turned on the Lord. The coming covenant-breaker will turn on Israel. Closeness first, then betrayal.
- The counsel that follows. The psalm does not stop at the wound. It moves straight on to the answer: cast your burden on the Lord. Friends and counsellors may fail, but He sustains.
Smooth were the milky [words] of his mouth, but his heart was war; his words were softer than oil, yet are they drawn swords.
Psalm 55 describes a city full of violence. But the sharpest pain comes from a friend: his voice stays warm while his heart plans war. Commentators trace that same pattern through David's court, through the betrayal of Jesus, and on to a deceiver still to come.
In verse 20 this man attacks people who never harmed him. So the soft words are not politeness; they are cover. Commentators see these enemies pointing to a figure still to come.
They are represented by the antichrist, who has put out his hands against those who showed no hostility to him (v. 20). He had broken his covenant — his commitment to fellowship with the godly remnant — for his words were smoother than butter, but they only covered the war that was in his heart, and those words were actually drawn swords ready to destroy his friends (v. 21).
One writer reads the psalm on three levels at once: David betrayed by Ahithophel, Jesus betrayed by Judas, and a faithful group in Israel betrayed by a lawless king.
This Psalm, like the ones before it, has in view the lawless or wilful king and his faction. Some of it is spoken by the Lord Jesus as He looks at the treachery of Judas and the group that followed him. In the end it is the lawless one, or someone allied with him, whom the godly remnant in the last days feel and plead against, deceived by him as Jesus was deceived by Judas. But this Psalm is also the utterance, in his own measure, of David himself, under the craft and treason of Ahithophel in company with Absalom.
Why does this hurt more than open hostility? Because closeness is what makes the blow land.
A friend or religious associate was the worst because he was the nearest enemy. Everyone knows how truly this happened to the blessed Saviour Himself. But it reaches on to that whole solemn scene of the last day, when the faithful must follow that faithful One and Guide, who leads them outside the camp.
Commentators differ on how directly the verse touches Judas. Elsewhere Darby writes that he does not think the passage applies to Judas but to the apostate nation in league with the coming deceiver, though it "has its vent in Judas in its first lines of character."
The verse describes a method: win trust through shared religion, then use it.
He will be a master of hypocrisy, pretending to be a devoted Jew concerned for the welfare of his people (Ps. 55:12-14), yet all the time defrauding them… He will use the godly remnant of Israel to help him gain a place of authority, keeping company with them as one of them, taking sweet counsel together with them and going to the house of God together. Like Judas, he will deceive the godly into thinking he is one of them. Then, once he has risen to prominence among them, he will cruelly turn against them and persecute those who had befriended him.
Smooth speech works on crowds. It does not work on those who know God's voice. Gideon's son had already won power the same way.
It was by fair speeches that the son of Gideon won his way… "His speech was smooth as butter, yet war was in his heart; his words were softer than oil, yet they were drawn swords" (Ps. 55:21). There will be a lamb-like air about him; but in the ears of the elect — who do not know the voice of strangers — his voice is that of the dragon (Rev. 13). By all this the mass are deceived and led away, as the Shechemites were; the remnant, "the people that do know their God," are preserved.
This picture is not only about one future figure. It measures the harm an ordinary tongue can do.
Some think there is no persecution except fire and sword; but there is persecution of the tongue… "His words were softer than oil, yet they were drawn swords" (Ps. 55:21). You may kill a man in his name as well as in his person; a good name is as precious ointment.
The same danger sits closer to home. Christ never hid an evil motive behind kind words. We can.
Sometimes malice and envy may lurk behind words that are "smooth as butter" and "softer than oil." With Him no evil motive was ever hidden under fair speech… With the flesh in us it is all too possible to try to trap one another with smooth speech and innocent-looking questions. We can even covertly attack one another in the very words we address to God in public prayer.
Having exposed the traitor, the psalm does not tell the wounded man to retaliate. It tells him to hand the weight over.
Burdens of circumstance lose their weight whenever the name of Christ can be connected with them in the heart of faith; and there is no burden a contrite spirit feels that He is not ready to receive from our hands… Yet too often those who rest the burden of their soul's salvation on Jesus find it hard to trust Him with some small care.
- Words — the smoothness is the disguise; the covenant is already broken and the swords already drawn.
- Wound — the closer the friend, the worse the betrayal; the nearest enemy does the deepest harm.
- Pattern — Ahithophel betrayed David, Judas betrayed Christ, and a coming deceiver will betray the faithful. Commentators differ on where the main weight falls.
- Warning — fair speech sways the crowd, but not those who know God's voice. They are kept safe.
- Watch — no evil motive ever hid behind Christ's kind words. Ours can. Soft words still kill a good name.
Cast thy burden upon Jehovah, and *he* will sustain thee he will never suffer the righteous to be moved.
Psalm 55 is the cry of a man surrounded by violence in his own city and betrayed by a close friend. After all that shaking, it ends with a settled word of advice. The question this verse answers is what a person does with a weight he cannot carry and cannot put down.
The verse is not an isolated saying. The sufferer turns from the friends who failed him and tells others what to do in the same place.
He is sure of deliverance, because he counts on God. He tells of the treachery of the man who broke his agreement. Then he advises other godly people on what to do in such times... Friends, advisers, and companions of many years may fail. But Jehovah will sustain His servant, and He is ready to take the burden off him.
The psalm has just described a man who broke his agreement and whose smooth words hid war. Against that background, this verse calls God by His covenant name, Jehovah — the name older translations use where the ESV has "the LORD".
The last section closes by contrasting what the righteous receive with what the wicked receive. Here God appears at last as Jehovah — Israel's God. How the covenant Name shines out here against all human dependence! The treacherous agreement they had trusted had betrayed them. Now the word is: "cast your burden on Jehovah, and He will sustain you; He will never permit the righteous to be moved."
The burden is not limited to one kind. One writer traces it from the heaviest weight a person can carry to the lightest — and notes the strange inconsistency in us.
The believer knows what kind of burden he has cast upon the Saviour of his soul. Coming in the deep grief of a sin-burdened conscience, the soul finds peace in Jesus... The burdens of daily life lose their weight when faith links the name of Christ with them. And there is no burden a broken heart feels that He is not ready to take from our hands... Yet many rest the burden of their soul's salvation on Jesus. Then they find it hard to trust Him with a small worry.
One writer suggests a clearer wording for this verse. What you cast on God is not only the trouble you feel, but the portion He has given you.
A small change would improve this often-quoted verse. It should read, "Cast your lot" — that is, cast what God has appointed for you.
The verse contains an instruction and a guarantee, and the guarantee does not promise an easy road. It promises that evil will not have the last word.
The second point is the infallible faithfulness of God. He will never let the righteous be moved. Tried they may be, but He cannot allow evil in the world to prevail, and He will not. We may learn to trust while the evil lasts. In trusting, we know the Lord will keep us. And the sheer scale of the evil only shows more clearly that God must step in.
Another writer applies the promise to the worst trouble that can come.
It is a wonderful certainty that "He will never permit the righteous to be moved," even for those passing through worse trouble than the earth has ever known.
Casting is an act, not a mood. It means handing the whole matter over and keeping nothing back.
Are you at this moment under any pressure, in any trial, need, or difficulty? If so, we urge you to look simply and only to the living God... Put your whole case into His almighty hand. Cast your burden, whatever it is, upon Him. Let there be no reserve. He is as willing as He is able, and as able as He is willing, to bear it all. Only trust Him fully. He loves to be trusted — He loves to be used.
Trouble can push us away from the Lord, or it can draw us toward Him.
These troubles can come between our souls and the Lord. Instead, let us make them reasons for drawing near to Him. Then we will learn what it is to be strong in the Lord while we feel our own weakness.
- Setting. The verse closes a psalm about betrayal by a trusted friend. It speaks straight into the moment when people fail you.
- Cast. It covers a guilty conscience first, then every burden of daily life. We often trust Him with our salvation, yet not with a small worry.
- Lot. The load includes the portion God has appointed you, not only the trouble you feel.
- Sustain. God's covenant name stands where a broken human promise stood. He is ready to take the burden off His servant.
- Unmoved. Trials will come, but defeat will not. God will not let evil win, and the worse it gets, the more certain His stepping in becomes.
And thou, O God, wilt bring them down into the pit of destruction bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days. But as for me, I will confide in thee.
This closing verse answers a psalm born out of betrayal. Commentators trace that betrayal through more than one man. One writer sets the psalm's background beside its forward reach:
These psalms (Psalms 55–58) keep expressing, in various forms, the feelings that Christ's Spirit produced in such circumstances. They look on to the last crisis, when the godly Jews suffer from the Antichrist and those who side with him, especially in Jerusalem and the land. David went through these trials with Absalom and Ahithophel. Our Lord went through far deeper trials in the treachery of Judas.
The two words describing these men are not one accusation repeated. Each points in a different direction:
The same eternal God who defends the righteous will bring down to the pit of destruction the bloodthirsty and deceitful men who have sought to destroy the godly. Because they are bloodthirsty, they set themselves against mankind. Because they are deceitful, they expose their hatred toward God. Such men, including the antichrist, will not live out half their days. His prominence will be very short lived.
The words "half their days" point to timing, not only to the end. The blow falls while the career is still climbing:
The psalm ends with God's recorded judgment against men of blood and deceit — the diligent doers of their father's work (John 8:44). God brings their chance to do evil to an abrupt end. Their sun goes down suddenly, at the very noon of their strength.
Part of the shortening is built into the sin itself, and part of it is God stepping in directly:
Sin tends to shorten life. "Men of blood and treachery shall not live out half their days." Excess brings its own consequences, and violence often brings human vengeance down on the violent man's head. Besides this, God makes examples of evil men, especially of those who claim to live under His rule. Korah, Dathan and Abiram are an instance of this in the Old Testament, and Ananias and Sapphira in the New.
The same writer at once guards the verse. It is not a rule for judging anyone who dies young:
But this is not the universal rule, or even the ordinary one. Many evil men go on for years in outward prosperity. They pass to their account in another world with little visible change… God varies His dealings with men, so that in every possible way they are left without excuse. He has tried swift judgment, long patience, chastening and prosperity, so that men might somehow be brought to repentance… Our Lord rebukes the habit of treating sudden death as a mark of special sin (Luke 13:1-5).
Job's friend Bildad shows how the verse gets misused. Said to a grieving father, it becomes cruelty:
Bildad assumes that Job's children had received the due reward of their wickedness, and had been cut off: "Men of blood and treachery shall not live out half their days." That is deeply painful to a parent. He had found no evidence of such wickedness in his children, and he had watched carefully over their spiritual state. Bildad is driven to this by his wrong theory of God's ways.
The psalm has already spoken of an agreement that was broken. The last word sets God's covenant name against everything the psalmist had leaned on:
How the covenant Name shines out here, in contrast with all human dependence! They had trusted a treacherous agreement, and it had deceived them… "You, Jehovah, will bring them down to the pit of destruction. Men of blood and deceit shall not live half their days. But I will trust in YOU."
This writer used an older translation, which prints God's covenant name, Jehovah, where the ESV has "O God."
The verse does not end with the fate of the wicked. It ends with a person speaking:
In contrast to the godly, 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."
- Betrayal. The psalm grows out of treachery: Ahithophel against David, Judas against the Lord. It also looks on to the last crisis, when the godly suffer from the Antichrist and his followers.
- Two directions. Bloodthirstiness sets a man against people. Deceit exposes his hatred toward God. The verse names both.
- Timing. The judgment cuts a career short at its peak. God ends their chance to do evil, and their sun goes down at noon.
- Restraint. Sin does shorten life, and God has made public examples of it. But this is not the ordinary rule. Bildad's cruelty to Job shows what happens when someone turns the verse into a measuring rod for another person's loss.
- Trust. The agreement they trusted deceived them. The psalmist's answer is short and settled: "I will trust in you." There the psalm rests.