1 Give ear to my prayer, O God; do not hide yourself from my supplication.
2 Attend to me, and answer me; I am troubled in my complaint.
I am distraught 3 by the noise of the enemy,
because of the clamour of the wicked. For they bring[a] trouble upon me,
and in anger they cherish enmity 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, ‘O that I had wings like a dove! I would fly away and be at rest;
7 truly, I would flee far away; I would lodge in the wilderness; Selah
8 I would hurry to find a shelter for myself
from the raging wind and tempest.’
9 Confuse, O Lord, confound their speech;
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 market-place.
12 It is not enemies who taunt me— I could bear that;
it is not adversaries who deal insolently with me—
I could hide from them.
13 But it is you, my equal, my companion, my familiar friend,
14 with whom I kept pleasant company;
we walked in the house of God with the throng.
15 Let death come upon them; let them go down alive to Sheol;
for evil is in their homes and in their hearts.
16 But I call upon God, and the Lord will save me.
17 Evening and morning and at noon
I utter my complaint and moan, and he will hear my voice.
18 He will redeem me unharmed from the battle that I wage,
for many are arrayed against me.
19 God, who is enthroned from of old, Selah
will hear, and will humble them— because they do not change,
and do not fear God.
20 My companion laid hands on a friend and violated a covenant with me[b]
21 with speech smoother than butter, but with a heart set on war;
with words that were softer than oil, but in fact were drawn swords.
22 Cast your burden[c] 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 lowest pit;
the bloodthirsty and treacherous shall not live out half their days.
But I will trust in you.
At what point does a civilisation start to crumble and a sense of peace and security leech away? And how would we notice? Is it when we start to lose trust in people? Is it when we no longer feel physically safe on an extensive scale? Is it when a large enough group of people become a threat to security of neighbourhoods and even cities or nations? Or is civilisation a very much more personal or relationship thing? So is when that vital sense of present peace and future hope is shattered by an act of betrayal so close to you. Is it when even your best friend betrays you and you have no one left to turn to for help?
Today’s psalm is a chaotic series of complaint, lament, petition and cries of profound faith and trust. There is nothing smooth in trajectory. It is jagged and raw in emotion. The psalmist has been wronged, hugely and is distraught (vs2). Their passions are high. They want to escape the situation as if on the wings of a dove (vs6), and flee far from civilisation to the wilderness (vs7) because they feel surrounded by violence and strife in the city (vs9). The city is also full of fraud, inequity, ruin, oppression and trouble (vs 10-11). Yet the greatest problem is not that strangers are the enemy; no. The greatest problem for the psalmist is that their closest companion, their familiar friend, the one they shared worship and fellowship with, has betrayed them in some way (vs12-14) And the aggrieved psalmist wants vengeance (vs15). The betrayal, which involved harm to a mutual friend, was delivered by words as sharp as a sword but disguised with smooth and oily tongue (vs20-21). Yet despite this rant, the psalmist then changes tack and seems to say to himself or herself those climactic words – ‘Cast your burden upon the Lord, for he will sustain you.’ (vs22). The psalm ends with a clear sense that God will act with vengeance on those who have been bloodthirsty and treacherous (vs23), and therefore is to be trusted.
Verses 6 and 22 are perhaps the most well known of this psalm. The former paints a picture of movement, of hurried flight and of escape out of a terrible situation or location. The second paints a more static picture of resignation almost, or at least perhaps of standing and letting go.
Hundreds of years later, Peter reflected upon this psalm. Perhaps it is not surprising. For Peter knew a lot about both betrayal and denial, running away and stoutly refusing to accept truth. For Peter, on that night of great foreboding and tears, the eve of Christ’s killing, plumbed depths of despair and anguish which Psalm 55 explores. Years after that dark episode, possibly the defining episode, Peter put down his thoughts in writing.
In his first epistle to groups of Christians scattered around Asia Minor, he ends that letter with these words to a suffering and persecuted church: 1 Peter 5.6-11: 6 Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, so that he may exalt you in due time. 7 Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you. 8 Discipline yourselves; keep alert. Like a roaring lion your adversary the devil prowls around, looking for someone to devour. 9 Resist him, steadfast in your faith, for you know that your brothers and sisters throughout the world are undergoing the same kinds of suffering. 10 And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, support, strengthen, and establish you. 11 To him be the power for ever and ever. Amen.
[1] New Revised Standard
Version Bible: Anglicised Edition, copyright © 1989, 1995 the Division of Christian
Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United
States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Footnotes:
Psalm 55:3 Cn Compare Gk: Heb they cause to totter
Psalm 55:20 Heb lacks with me
Psalm 55:22 Or Cast what he has given you
New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised (NRSVA)
Footnotes:
Psalm 55:3 Cn Compare Gk: Heb they cause to totter
Psalm 55:20 Heb lacks with me
Psalm 55:22 Or Cast what he has given you
New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised (NRSVA)
I know of a couple whose friend betrayed them, murdering the man’s mother. The funeral, with a police presence, took place during Holy Week and in the sermon a connection was made with the betrayal of Jesus by his friend Judas, on the night before his crucifixion. In the following months the couple’s response was the desire to “flee far away” (v8), to escape and make a new home somewhere completely different, an island maybe, and “be at rest” (v7). They experienced the psalmist’s anguish, disquiet, fearfulness and horrible dread. Yet, like the psalmist, they also called upon God and still continue day by day to cast their burden on the Lord, trusting him to sustain them. And like Peter, they remain alert to prowling evil, steadfast in faith, looking to God to restore, support, strengthen and establish them.
ReplyDeleteI know of no other psalm that speaks so clearly of their experience.