And I said, Oh that I had wings like a dove! I would fly away, and be at rest;
Psalm 55 is the prayer of a man who fears no army outside the gates. His danger is inside his own city, among friends he once worshipped with — and in verse 6 his heart gives up on the place and asks for wings.
The wish for wings comes out of a scene the psalmist knows from the inside.
Psalm 55 is a distressing picture of wickedness in Jerusalem. The speaker is outside the city, but he has felt this wickedness in the betrayal of his closest friends. His resource is in God: Jehovah will save… Wickedness went about her walls. Wickedness, deceit, and guile were in her midst, and did not depart from her streets. He would gladly have fled from it all. The enemy was outside, the wicked inside… Still his trust was in God, for where else should he seek help?
The choice of bird carries meaning. One writer traces what the dove's wing once did, and what it does now.
It is not without meaning that the dove — the type of heavenly purity and love and sorrow, the symbol of the Spirit of Christ, as in the gospels — is named here rather than any other bird. The wing of the dove carried Christ into the scene of sin and misery to deliver men. But here, when grace has been rejected and the sin of men has ripened, just ready for the harvest, the dove is preparing for her flight away. Holiness now means only separation from stubborn rebellion and unrelenting hatred of God. And now the solitude of the wilderness attracts her.
Notice what the psalmist is willing to trade: a walled city for open country where wild animals live.
We may notice that the strong thought in this Psalm is this: the city is worse even than a wilderness. For if the afflicted one here could have done it, he would have exchanged the first for the second. But what a view of man this gives us! He makes his place more terrible than the haunts of wild beasts! For "the city" is man's place. And through human strife and fraud and violence, it becomes worse than the place of the untamed creatures. … Jesus found it to be so, and His relief was only in God.
Commentators read the psalm on more than one level: David's own history, and a greater sorrow it points to.
This Psalm still, like the ones before it, has in view the lawless or wilful king and his faction. Some of it is the utterance of the Lord Jesus as He considers the treachery of Judas and the faction that followed him. … But 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 Sam. 15, 16.) John 13:21 shows us how deeply the Lord felt the conduct of Judas, as this Psalm does; as also Ps. 41. But His relief was in prayer.
This prayer is not a mood God corrects. One writer sees God meeting it with a real place.
God will answer the psalmist's desire. He will provide a place in the wilderness where the godly may fly away (Rev. 12:14), safe from the judgments that will fall on Jerusalem at that time — the three and a half year Great Tribulation. … In fact, the godly will be called at that time to "flee to the mountains," not even taking time to gather their possessions (Matt. 24:15-18).
In a later psalm the same image returns, but the wings are no longer his own.
When David was fleeing before Saul to the cave (Ps. 57:1), he cried out, "Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me, for in You my soul takes refuge; in the shadow of Your wings I will take refuge, till the storms of destruction pass by." Now he is not seeking the wings of a dove with which to fly away, but the shadow of the wings of the Most High to take refuge under. So we read at the end of Psalm 55, in verse 22: "Cast your burden on the LORD, and He will sustain you; He will never permit the righteous to be moved."
- Within — The threat is not an army at the gates. It is corruption inside the walls, and betrayal by trusted friends. Commentators find the same wound in David under Ahithophel and in Christ over Judas.
- Wings — The dove is no random bird. Its wing once carried Christ into the world's misery. Now it readies itself to leave a scene that has refused grace.
- Wilderness — His trade exposes man. He would sooner live among wild animals than in the city man built.
- Wish granted — God does not rebuke the longing to fly. One writer sees Him answering it with a real place of shelter, and a real call to flee.
- Wings again — But the psalm does not end in flight. The wings he rests under at the end are God's. The burden he wanted to outrun is one God tells him to hand over.
Behold, I would flee afar off, I would lodge in the wilderness; Selah;
The psalmist wants to be gone — out of the city, far away, camped in the wilderness. But the danger he wants to escape sits inside the walls of the very city God chose. So the psalm has to answer one question. Is running away the resource of faith, or is there something better?
One writer sets the scene. The wickedness is in Jerusalem itself, and the psalm looks at it from outside. Yet trust in God holds:
From outside, Psalm 55 grieves over the wickedness in their Jerusalem. Yet God is trusted, and Jehovah will save.
The wish sounds strange. The wilderness is empty, while Jerusalem had the temple. One commentator, writing about the land Jesus came into, explains why the empty place was still the better one:
It was a moral wilderness He came to, but the wilderness was better than the city with its temple, where they were all spiritually wrong. The Psalmist says, "Oh, that I had wings like a dove!" — he wants to get from the city to the wilderness.
Another writer shows how far things have fallen. Jerusalem should be an Israelite's greatest joy:
Inside the very city God chose as His earthly center, conditions will be such that God is pushed right out. Believing Israelites would normally value Jerusalem above their chief joy (Psalm 132:6), and would want to live there. But now the psalmist says, "Oh, that I had wings like a dove! I would fly away and be at rest" (v. 6).
Several writers read the psalm as a picture of godly Israelites in a coming time of trouble. God does not refuse their longing. He gives them the very escape they ask for:
God will answer that desire. He will provide a place in the wilderness where the godly may fly away (Rev. 12:14). There they will be kept safe from the judgments that will fall on Jerusalem at that time — "a time, times and a half a time" — the three and a half year Great Tribulation. In fact, at that time God will call the godly to "flee to the mountains." They will not even stop to gather their possessions (Matt. 24:15-18).
The oppressor here is not a foreigner. Another commentator names the man behind the terror, and names the storm the wings would carry the godly away from:
The man of sin, the Antichrist, stands out in this Psalm. Because of him and his oppression, the godly remnant calls for help. Horror overwhelms them. Seeing the abomination, they wish for wings like a dove, to escape the storm and tempest of the great tribulation. And this wicked one, the Antichrist, belongs to the nation itself. He is not a stranger. He is the man with a flattering tongue, who even walked in the house of God.
Yet the psalm does not end here. One writer sets this verse beside a later psalm of David, and the wings change owner:
When David was fleeing from Saul to the cave (Ps. 57:1), he cried out, "Be merciful to me, O God ... for in You my soul takes refuge; in the shadow of Your wings I will take refuge, till the storms of destruction pass by." Now he is not looking for the wings of a dove to fly away with. He wants the shadow of the wings of the Most High to shelter under. So at the end of Psalm 55, in verse 22, we read: "Cast your burden on the Lord, and He will sustain you; He will never permit the righteous to be moved."
- Wings wished for. The cry is honest panic in a city that has pushed God out, and the psalm records the wish without shame.
- Wings, because the city is worse. The wilderness wins not for its beauty, but because the city with the temple in it had gone wrong before God.
- Wings against a named storm. Commentators read the tempest as the great tribulation, driven by an oppressor from within the nation, not a stranger.
- Wings granted. God answers the longing instead of refusing it. He prepares a place in the wilderness and calls the godly to flee without stopping to pack.
- Wings to hide under. The psalm ends with better wings: not a dove's, to fly away with, but God's, to shelter under — and a burden handed to Him instead of carried out of town.
I would hasten my escape from the stormy wind, from the tempest.
Verse 8 closes a wish that began two verses earlier. The sufferer is not asking for a better mood. He wants distance — a shelter far off, reached in a hurry, before the storm breaks. Commentators ask two things of this wish: what is he running from, and does God ever say yes to a prayer like this?
Commentators read the wind and tempest as judgment gathering over Jerusalem. The flight is a move from a defiled place to an empty one.
The verses that follow show the misery of the godly remnant in Jerusalem, during the reign of antichrist. Inside, the heart of the godly man is deeply distressed. Outside, he faces death. He longs to flee from the defiled city to some lonely spot. There he may escape the storm and tempest of judgment about to break over the doomed city (see Matt. 24:15-22).
Escape looks attractive because no direction is safe. The trouble is not only at the gates.
Wickedness went around her walls. Wickedness, deceit and guile were inside her, and never left her streets. He would gladly have fled from it all. The enemy was outside, the wicked inside. But they charged the godly with wickedness, and hated them bitterly. Worst of all was the heartless treachery of those within — those with whom the godly had gone to the house of God. Still his trust was in God, for where else should he seek help?
The longing to be far away is not treated as a failure of faith to be corrected. One writer reads it as a prayer God intends to grant, in the very terms it was asked.
But now the psalmist says, "Oh, that I had wings like a dove! I would fly away and be at rest" (v. 6). God will answer that desire. He will provide a place in the wilderness where the godly may fly away (Rev. 12:14). There He will keep them safe from the judgments that will fall on Jerusalem at that time — "a time, times and half a time," the three and a half year Great Tribulation… In fact, at that time God will call the godly to "flee to the mountains," and they will not even take time to gather their possessions (Matt. 24:15-18).
Note what he leaves behind. It is not a foreign city. It is the one place he loved, now unfit to live in. So the cry is for separation, not comfort.
The next section dwells on the misery of the remnant amid the general departure from God. They long to escape from the city, which is still to them the city of God. But it is defiled and profaned, and the Spirit of Christ makes them cry out for separation from it. And they do get that chance, as we know (Matt. 24:15 and following); the first psalm of this book finds them outside the city.
This urge to leave a place that has shown its true character is not foreign to the Lord. One writer points to His own withdrawals in the Gospels.
It is, so to speak, the departure of Christ (in Spirit in the remnant) from the city in that day (Matt. 16:13; Mark 7:24; John 11:54). He has discovered — they have discovered — their true character. He withdraws, and His Spirit would withdraw as far as possible from such a scene and state… A friend or religious associate was the worst enemy, because the nearest. Everyone knows how this came true in the blessed Saviour Himself.
The escape wish is verse 8, but it is not the psalm's last word. By the end the same man is telling others what to do when the people they trusted turn on them.
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). He then advises other godly ones what to do in such a situation (22, 23)… Friends, counsellors and companions of years may fail. But Jehovah will sustain His servant, and He is ready to take his burden from him.
- Storm — The wind and tempest are judgment coming on a corrupt city. The enemy is outside and treachery inside, so no direction is safe.
- Escape — Wanting to fly far off and shelter in the wilderness is the honest cry of a believer who can no longer stay.
- Answer — Commentators read the wish as one God means to grant. He prepares a place in the wilderness and calls them to leave in haste, without packing.
- Separation — The place he flees is still "the city of God" to him. Defilement drives him out, so the flight is separation, not desertion.
- Rest — The psalm does not end in the wilderness. It ends with the burden handed over: friends may fail, but the Lord Himself sustains the one who trusts Him.
Swallow [them] up, Lord; divide their tongue for I have seen violence and strife in the city.
This prayer comes from a man standing outside a city that is tearing itself apart. He asks God to break up the plotting inside it. Two questions press. What does it mean to ask God to divide people's tongues? Can a believer pray that today?
Evil often turns on itself. Here the psalmist asks God to make that happen.
The psalmist calls on God to divide their tongues, that is, to set the enemies against one another, which is a normal result of evil (v. 9).
Violence and strife split a city's speech. Jerusalem then looks like Babylon, and shares her doom.
And now the city comes before us — Jerusalem; yet her name cannot be spoken now; she no longer answers to it. She is Babylon now, and Babylon's doom is on her. Violence and strife naturally lead to divided tongues, and her old unity is broken up into them.
The defences meant to guard the city now mark the edge of its corruption.
There follows a vivid description of the city of Jerusalem during the days of antichrist. Violence and strife mark the walls that should have protected the city from every attack. Iniquity and mischief are in the middle of the city, and oppression and deceit mark the streets. From the centre to the walls all is corruption and violence.
The speaker is not describing something he heard about. He knows it because he lived it, and the deepest wound came from people he had worshipped alongside.
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 help is in God: Jehovah will save… The enemy was outside, the wicked inside. They accused the godly of wickedness and hated them bitterly. Worst of all was the heartless treachery of those inside — the very people the godly had gone with to the house of God.
The sufferer would rather be in the empty wilderness than in the city. That choice is a verdict on what people build.
We may observe that the strong thought in this Psalm is this: that the city is worse even than a wilderness. If the suffering man here could have done it, he would have traded the city for the wilderness. What a view of man this gives us! He makes his place more terrible than the haunts of wild beasts! For "the city" is man's place. And through human strife and fraud and violence, it becomes worse than the place of the untamed creatures.
Commentators read this scene as still future. They place it in a coming crisis in Jerusalem, under a ruler they call the Antichrist.
The great tribulation has begun, and of Jerusalem it will be true that "wickedness is in her midst; deceit and guile do not leave her streets." And this wicked one, the Antichrist, comes from the nation itself, not from outside. He is the man with the flattering tongue, who even walked in the house of God.
A caution is offered about copying such a prayer straight across into our own mouths.
In our own day of grace, we may not pray for such judgment on enemies. We pray instead that they may be saved. But when the day of grace has ended, the godly remnant of Israel will rightly plead for the judgment of the ungodly.
One writer applies these words to the night Judas betrayed Jesus. Jesus did not pull away from people. He did the opposite.
At the moment of His rejection, Satan had put it into the heart of Judas to betray Him. The Lord knew well the violence and wickedness going on in the city (Psalm 55:9-12)… In that moment He drew His own closer to Himself and drew closer to them. He spoke those wonderful words of love as He gave them the memorials of Himself in death.
- Seen — the prayer rests on what the man saw. He knew the city's violence from inside before he cried about it from outside.
- Divided — to divide their tongues is to ask God to set the plotters against each other. United evil then falls apart, and the city that no longer answers to its own name takes Babylon's doom.
- Surrounded — the walls that should shut evil out now shut it in. Corruption runs from the centre to the edge, so the wilderness is safer than the streets.
- Betrayed — the sharpest pain is not the enemy outside. It is the friend inside, the companion from the house of God.
- Answered — commentators place the full cry for judgment in a future day, not ours. In the same city Jesus met the same wickedness, and He answered it by drawing His own closer in love.
Day and night they go about it upon the walls thereof; and iniquity and mischief are in the midst of it.
Psalm 55 shows a city under siege from the inside. The speaker has begged for wings to fly away; now he reports what he saw — evil patrolling the walls, and wickedness settled in the heart of Jerusalem.
A city wall exists to keep danger outside. Here the wall does the opposite. The psalm never even names Jerusalem, and one writer explains why.
Now the city is set before us — Jerusalem, though her name cannot be spoken now; she does not answer to it. She is Babylon now, with Babylon's doom on her. Strife marks her, and goes about her walls with violence; the walls, instead of shutting the evil out, shut it in. Deep caverns of wickedness open up inside her. In her public streets, oppression and deceit walk openly, all the time.
The verse moves from the outer walls to the middle of the city, and nothing in between is clean.
What follows is a vivid description of the city of Jerusalem during the days of antichrist. Iniquity and mischief are inside it. From the centre to the walls, everything is corruption and violence.
Evil here does not clock off. Commentators differ on who walks the walls. One reads it as strife and violence themselves; another as the wicked, kept awake by their own cruelty. The second writer also says what the iniquity inside the city is.
Matthew 24 speaks of this time as the moment when the image of the beast of Rome will be set up in the temple area, so violence and strife will take over. Day and night the wicked will go around on its walls. They are so taken up with terrorising others that they take no time even to sleep (v. 10). Iniquity of the worst kind will be in the middle of the city. It is the bold adoption of outright idolatry, in the city God appointed as His centre. Trouble is bound to follow.
The psalm keeps two threats in view at once, and the second one hurts more.
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 within. These were people the godly had walked with to the house of God. Still his trust was in God, for where else should he look for help?
Commentators read this scene on more than one level. It fits David, betrayed by men close to him. It fits Christ, betrayed more deeply still. And it fits a crisis still ahead for faithful Jews in Jerusalem.
These psalms (Psalms 55-58) carry on in various forms the feelings produced by Christ's Spirit. The circumstances look on to the final crisis, when the godly Jews suffer from Antichrist and his supporters, above all in Jerusalem and the land. David went through these trials with Absalom and Ahithophel. Our Lord felt them far more deeply, through the treachery of Judas. But the Spirit of prophecy links everything past with the coming hour. Then outward oppression and inward apostasy bring the sense of evil at its worst on true-hearted Jews.
The wish to fly away goes unanswered. The psalm offers something better in its closing lines.
When David was fleeing from Saul to the cave (Psalm 57:1), he cried out, "Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me, for in You my soul takes refuge; in the shadow of Your wings I will take refuge, till the storms of destruction pass by." He is no longer looking for a dove's wings to fly away with. He wants the shadow of the wings of the Most High to shelter under. So we read at the end of Psalm 55, in verse 22: "Cast your burden on the LORD, and He will sustain you; He will never permit the righteous to be moved."
- Walls — the defences meant to keep evil out end up sealing it in; the city's own corruption now walks its wall.
- Clock — "day and night" means evil with no pause. The wicked are too busy terrorising others to sleep.
- Centre — the rot runs from the outer walls to the middle of the city. No part of it stays clean.
- Betrayal — you can bear an enemy outside. The friend who once walked with you to the house of God is the wound that will not close.
- Refuge — the answer is not escape on a dove's wings but shelter under God's wings; cast your burden on Him.
Perversities are in the midst thereof; and oppression and deceit depart not from its streets.
This verse describes a city rotting from within, not a city besieged from outside. So which city is it, and what does a godly person do when the place of worship becomes the place of danger?
The sting of this verse is the address. This was no pagan town. It was the city set apart for God's service, and the writer found there the opposite of what its name promised.
He had visited the city where Jehovah's name was honoured outwardly — the city of sacred feasts. But he found violence and deceit in the middle of the home of justice.
The verse names two places: the middle of the city and its streets. Together with the walls named just before, they cover the whole map.
There follows a vivid description of the city of Jerusalem during the days of antichrist. Violence and strife mark the walls that should have protected the city from every attack. Iniquity and mischief are in the middle of it, and oppression and deceit mark its streets. From the centre to the walls all is corruption and violence.
One writer notes that the psalm never names the city it describes. Its walls, meant to keep evil out, end up keeping it in.
And now the city is brought before us — Jerusalem; though her name cannot now be named; she does not answer to it. Rather is she now Babylon, and with the doom of Babylon upon her. Strife is her character, and with violence it goes about her walls — walls that, instead of shutting the evil out, shut it in. Caverns of wickedness gape open in the middle of her, and oppression and deceit stalk her public streets openly, all the time.
The psalm's worst blow does not come from the enemy at the gate. It comes from inside the city, from people the godly had trusted.
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… Wickedness, deceit, and guile were in her midst, and did not depart from her streets. He would gladly have fled from it all. The enemy was outside, the wicked inside. They charged the godly with wickedness and hated them bitterly. But worst of all was the heartless treachery of those inside — the very people with whom the godly had gone to the house of God. Still his trust was in God, for where else should he seek help?
Some writers read the psalm as a picture of a still-future crisis in Jerusalem. On that reading, the ruin at the city's heart is not ordinary street crime.
Iniquity of the worst kind will be in the middle of the city. Absolute idolatry will be boldly adopted in the city that God appointed as His Centre, and trouble is bound to follow. Destruction, oppression and deceit will be put openly on display, for this whole situation will be one last, determined attack of the enemy against the God of heaven and earth.
Another writer traces this treachery to one man: welcomed as an equal, trusted, and seen among the worshippers.
Now we come to the apostate. He had not been an open enemy — in that case it would have been easy to turn away from him. But he had been admitted as an equal, an associate, a close friend. More than that, he passed as one of the godly, and was among the crowds attending the house of God. So we see what bonds had been broken through — towards God as well as towards man.
One writer applies these verses to the night Jesus was betrayed. Jesus knew what the city was doing, and He answered it by drawing His disciples nearer.
Satan had put it into the heart of Judas to betray Him, and He well knew the violence and wickedness that was going on in the city (Psalm 55:9-12). At that moment of rejection the Lord drew His own closer to Himself and drew closer to them. He spoke those wonderful words of love with which He instituted the memorials of Himself in death, and by those memorials we are drawn together in the fellowship of that death!
- Inside — the evil is not outside the walls. It sits at the centre and walks the open streets. From the middle of the city to its defences, all is corruption and violence.
- Insiders — the worst pain comes from within. These were people who went to the house of God alongside the godly, and then turned on them.
- Identity lost — the city that carried God's name is never named. She no longer answers to it. She has taken Babylon's character, and Babylon's doom.
- Intensifying — some writers read the picture forward to a coming crisis in Jerusalem. Idolatry takes the city, and the godly suffer under one last attack aimed at God Himself.
- In God — the psalmist's answer is trust, not escape. On the night the city's wickedness closed in, the Lord drew His own closer and left them the memorial of His death.
For it is not an enemy that hath reproached me -- then could I have borne it; neither is it he that hateth me that hath magnified [himself] against me -- then would I have hidden myself from him;
Psalm 55 is the cry of a man trapped in a violent city. His sharpest pain comes not from the enemy outside but from a friend inside, and verse 12 names what he could have borne and what he could not.
The verse works by comparison. You can see an open enemy coming, and you can hide from him. What breaks the sufferer is hostility wearing the face of a friend.
You can expect opposition from an obvious enemy (v. 12) and may be ready to protect yourself from harm. But someone who acts as a companion is different. He walks and talks as a friend. Above all, he professes faith in the living God. You would hardly expect such a man to reverse his whole direction and prove himself a vicious enemy of both God and Israel.
The bond may be a religious one, and held in name only.
The treachery came from those who were associated with Him in name only... A friend or religious associate was the worst, because he was the nearest enemy.
The psalm sets this betrayal in a corrupted city. Danger presses from two directions at once.
Psalm 55 is a distressing picture of wickedness in Jerusalem. The speaker is outside, but he has felt this wickedness in the treachery of his dearest friends... The enemy was outside, the wicked inside. They charged the godly with wickedness and hated them completely. Worst of all was the heartless treachery of those within. These were the people the godly had walked with to the house of God. Still his trust was in God, for where else should he look for help?
Commentators do not tie the traitor to one man. The same words fit David's own history, the treachery Jesus suffered from Judas, and a deceiver still to come. Ahithophel was David's trusted adviser who turned against him. Judas was one of the twelve disciples of Jesus.
Some of it is spoken by the Lord Jesus as He looks at the treachery of Judas and the party that followed him. In the end it is the lawless one, or someone joined with him. The godly remnant in the last days feel his treachery and plead against him. They are deceived by him, as Jesus was by Judas... But this psalm is also David's own words, in his measure. He suffered the craft and treason of Ahithophel, who joined Absalom (see 2 Samuel 15, 16). John 13:21 shows how much the Lord felt what Judas did, as this psalm does. But His relief was in prayer.
This psalm's own words explain what troubled the Lord Jesus at the last supper.
Sin worked among the chosen twelve, and one of them became a tool of Satan to betray his Master. On the night of the last Supper, the Lord spoke to His disciples. He told them He knew the man who would do this shameful thing was there among them. He "was troubled in his spirit, and testified, 'Truly, truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me'" (John 13:21). One of you — one of my familiar friends — one of the holy circle (compare Psalm 41:9; Psalm 55:12-14): this troubled His spirit.
Several writers read verses 12-15 as a portrait of a deceiver still to come. He does what verse 12 names: he taunts the godly and he lifts himself up. Older translations render those two words as "reproached" and "magnified himself."
There follows what appears to be a description of the character of antichrist, a man who abandons the faith. He had professed to be among the godly, as an intimate and familiar friend. He had gone to the house of God in company with the people of God. Now he had turned against the godly, heaping reproaches on them and venting his hatred against them, while seeking to "magnify himself."
When the last trustworthy person fails, the sufferer is pushed off human support entirely — and that is treated as the point of the whole group of psalms.
David had these trials in the case of Absalom and Ahithophel; our Lord far more deeply, through the treachery of Judas. But the Spirit of prophecy links all that is past with the coming hour. Then oppression from outside and apostasy inside bring the sense of evil at its worst on true-hearted Jews. So they look more and more to God, not to man or circumstances. He does not only hold the sufferers up in patience; He brings in deliverance and blessing in power.
- Nearness wounds. You can bear an open enemy, because you see him coming. The wound you cannot guard against comes from the one closest to you.
- Nearness in worship. The traitor is no stranger. He walked with the godly to the house of God, and that is what makes his turn so shocking.
- Nearness betrayed in Christ. What troubled the Lord's spirit was not the plot but that one of His own circle carried it out.
- Nearness counterfeited. Writers see the same pattern ahead: a deceiver poses as one of the faithful, then turns on them.
- Nearness to God remains. Every human support fails. The sufferer falls back on the One who never fails, and finds his relief in prayer.
But it was thou, a man mine equal, mine intimate, my familiar friend. ...
Psalm 55 is the cry of a man hemmed in by violence and treachery. Its sharpest pain is not the open attack. It is the one voice he never expected to hear among his accusers. Who is this equal, this companion? And why do writers hear a far greater grief in the words?
The verse works by contrast. An open enemy is one you can see coming and guard against.
One can expect the opposition of an obvious enemy (v. 12) and may be ready to protect himself from harm. But think of a man who acts as a companion. He walks and talks as a friend, and he even professes faith in the living God (vv. 14-15). You would never expect such a man to reverse his whole direction and prove himself a vicious enemy of both God and Israel!
Commentators hear these words on the lips of Christ. Judas betrayed Him from inside the circle of His own disciples.
Jesus had ways of infinite love before His heart. Yet the devil had already planted in the heart of Judas Iscariot that terrible treachery against his divine Master, which no passing of the ages can erase. So it was with Jesus. The more the love of God showed itself in and through Him, the more the enemy's hatred came out. And how crushing to human pride, that the devil worked through a man and a disciple — the close, personal, honoured follower of the Lord Jesus! "It was you, a man my equal, my guide, and my acquaintance" (Ps. 55:13). In that holy companionship he had toyed with sin — with the greed that always gripped him. Now the devil prompted him to satisfy it by betraying the Son of God.
(Kelly quotes an older translation. Where it says "my guide, and my acquaintance," the ESV reads "my companion, my familiar friend.")
One name stands behind the psalm: Ahithophel, the counsellor who turned against David. Writers draw a rule from him that reaches much further.
Psalm 55 is Messiah's complaint against the Jews. He had expected sympathy and agreement from them… It was the treachery of those who were associated with Him in name only — the Jews joined with hostile power — that gave it this character, as with Ahithophel… There was nothing to be had but God, whose character did not change, even if their prosperity did not change either (v. 19). A friend or religious associate was the worst because he was the nearest enemy. Everyone knows how this came true in the blessed Saviour Himself.
The traitor did not start outside the circle of faith. He started inside it, among the worshippers.
He was once an associate of the godly, moving among the crowd of worshippers in the house of God. Now he has become the persecutor of the righteous, the man who profanes his covenant with God and man. His whole profession turns out to be mere cunning and treacherous wickedness.
The same wound falls on God's servants in every age. Nehemiah rebuilt Jerusalem's wall under attack from enemies outside the city.
Nehemiah was the one obstacle to the enemy's success, and so the target of all his hatred. In a time of general unfaithfulness he stayed faithful, held up in his path by the grace of his God. For that very reason he found the path a lonely one. He knew there were enemies outside. Now he has to discover that professed friends were among his foes. So he followed, however far behind, in the way our blessed Lord walked. On the human side, the Lord's sharpest sorrow was that one of His own disciples betrayed Him.
The psalm does not end in the wound. It ends by telling the betrayed man what to do with his burden.
"Cast your burden on the LORD, and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved. 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." 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.
- Not an enemy — you can face an open opponent or keep away from him. The grief here is that this attacker came from inside the circle of trust.
- An equal — the betrayer once moved among the worshippers in God's house, beside the man he later turned on.
- A disciple — writers hear the verse fulfilled in Judas. The devil struck the Son of God through a close, honoured follower.
- A pattern — from Ahithophel to Nehemiah's professed friends, the nearest enemy is always the worst.
- A refuge — friends and counsellors of many years may fail. The psalm's answer: cast the burden on the LORD. He sustains, and He never lets the righteous be moved.
We who held sweet intercourse together. To the house of God we walked amid the throng.
Psalm 55 is the cry of a man in deep trouble. His sharpest pain is not an open enemy, but a friend who once shared his worship and then turned on him. This verse looks back on that friendship, and it raises a question many readers face: what do you do when the betrayal comes from inside the circle of faith?
The words describe two ties at once — a shared life and a shared worship — and both were snapped by the same act.
Now we come to the apostate. He had not been an open enemy — in that case it would have been easy to turn away from him as such. But he had been admitted to terms of equality, an associate, an intimate; and not only that, but professedly also among the godly, and among the crowds who went regularly to the house of God. So we see what bonds had been broken through — Godward as well as manward.
Commentators read the psalm on more than one level: David's own history, the Lord's betrayal by Judas, and a crisis still to come.
These psalms (Psalms 55-58) go on expressing, in various forms, the feelings produced by Christ's Spirit. The circumstances look on to the last crisis, when the godly Jews suffer from Antichrist and his supporters, above all in Jerusalem and the land. David went through these trials with Absalom and Ahithophel. Our Lord went through far worse in the treachery of Judas. But the Spirit of prophecy links all that is past with the coming hour. Then outward oppression and inward apostasy will bring the sense of evil at its worst on the true-hearted Jews.
Judas had walked in that company. He was not an outsider who broke in. He was a disciple, and the betrayal came through the closeness this verse describes.
If Jesus had ways of infinite love before His heart, the devil had already planted in the heart of Judas Iscariot the awful treachery against his Divine Master, which no passing of the ages can erase. So it was with Jesus: the enemy's hate came out most as the love of God showed itself in and by Him. But how crushing to all human pretension that the devil worked through a man and a disciple, the close, personal, honoured follower of the Lord Jesus!
You can keep your distance from an open enemy. You cannot keep your distance from a friend who worships beside you. That is why this wound is the worst, and why God alone is left as a refuge.
There was nothing to be had but God, whose character did not change, even if the prosperity did not. A friend or religious associate was the worst, because he was the nearest enemy. Everyone knows how this was fulfilled in the blessed Saviour Himself. But it reaches on to that whole solemn scene of the last days. Then the faithful must follow that faithful One and Guide, who leads them outside the camp.
Writers see the same method used again by the coming Antichrist. He copies the friendship of this verse to climb into a position of power.
He will use the godly remnant of Israel to help him gain a place of authority. Psalm 55:12-14 shows how. He keeps company with them as one of them, takes sweet 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 place of prominence among them, he will cruelly turn against them. He will persecute the people who had befriended him.
The verse can also describe your own past. Sweet counsel is often given up step by step, with no dramatic act of betrayal.
Perhaps you are a backslider. You have lost the assurance of your interest in Christ. You were once happy in the Lord, and happy with His people. You took sweet counsel together, and found His ways to be ways of pleasantness and peace. But you grew careless. You neglected private prayer. You stopped reading the Scriptures each day. Little by little you gave up the company of God's children, in public and in private.
- Nearness — The verse describes shared talk and shared worship. That closeness is what makes the later betrayal the psalm's deepest wound.
- Two bonds — The traitor was a trusted equal, and also one of the crowd at God's house. So the ties he broke were "Godward as well as manward."
- Nearest is worst — You can avoid an open enemy. But "a friend or religious associate was the worst, because he was the nearest enemy."
- Repeated — The same pattern runs through David and Ahithophel, and through Christ and Judas. It returns in a coming deceiver who joins the godly to gain power, then turns on them.
- Refuge — When friendship fails, "there was nothing to be had but God, whose character did not change." He is the one friend who never turns.