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Psalm 55

Complaint about a Friend’s Treachery

To the leader: with stringed instruments. A Maskil of David.

Give ear to my prayer, O God;

do not hide yourself from my supplication.

Attend to me, and answer me;

I am troubled in my complaint.

I am distraught ³by the noise of the enemy,

because of the clamor of the wicked.

For they bring trouble upon me,

and in anger they cherish enmity against me.

My heart is in anguish within me,

the terrors of death have fallen upon me.

Fear and trembling come upon me,

and horror overwhelms me.

And I say, “O that I had wings like a dove!

I would fly away and be at rest;

truly, I would flee far away;

I would lodge in the wilderness; Selah

I would hurry to find a shelter for myself

from the raging wind and tempest.”

Confuse, O Lord, confound their speech;

for I see violence and strife in the city.

Day and night they go around it

on its walls,

and iniquity and trouble are within it;

ruin is in its midst;

oppression and fraud

do not depart from its marketplace.

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.

But it is you, my equal,

my companion, my familiar friend,

with whom I kept pleasant company;

we walked in the house of God with the throng.

Let death come upon them;

let them go down alive to Sheol;

for evil is in their homes and in their hearts.

But I call upon God,

and the L ord will save me.

Evening and morning and at noon

I utter my complaint and moan,

and he will hear my voice.

He will redeem me unharmed

from the battle that I wage,

for many are arrayed against me.

God, who is enthroned from of old, Selah

will hear, and will humble them—

because they do not change,

and do not fear God.

My companion laid hands on a friend

and violated a covenant with me

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.

Cast your burden on the L ord,

and he will sustain you;

he will never permit

the righteous to be moved.

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.

New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, 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.

22 Cast thy giving upon Jehovah. The Hebrew verb יהב, yahab, signifies to give, so that יהבע, yehobcha, according to the ordinary rules of grammar, should be rendered thy giving, or thy gift. ³²¹³²¹ “What thou desirest to have given thee,” according to the Chaldee, which renders the word thy hope; i e., that which thou hopest to receive. On the margin of our English Bibles it is, thy gift, which Williams explains by “allotment.” “Cast thy allotment upon the Lord,” says he, “on which we may remark, that whatever allotment we receive from God, whether of prosperity or adversity, it is our duty to refer it back to him: ‘He that giveth to the poor lendeth to the Lord, and he will repay him;’ or if our lot be adverse, ‘he will sustain’ under every burden, and ‘never suffer the righteous to be moved’ from his foundation.” In like manner Rogers understands the word. “Cast upon Jehovah what he allots you; i e., commit to Jehovah your destiny. Supply אשר before יהבך” — Book of Psalms in Hebrew, volume 2, p. 210. The Septuagint reads, μέριμνάν, thy care; in which it is followed by the apostle Peter, (1 Peter 5:5.) The reading of the Vulgate, Syriac, Æthiopic, and Arabic versions is the same. Most interpreters read thy burden, but they assign no reason for this rendering. The verb יהב, yahab, never denotes to burden, and there is no precedent which might justify us in supposing that the noun deduced from it can mean a burden. They have evidently felt themselves compelled to invent that meaning from the harshness and apparent absurdity of the stricter translation, Cast thy gift upon Jehovah. And I grant that the sentiment they would express is a pious one, that we ought to disburden ourselves before God of all the cares and troubles which oppress us. There is no other method of relieving our anxious souls, but by reposing ourselves upon the providence of the Lord. At the same time, I find no example of such a translation of the word, and adhere therefore to the other, which conveys sufficiently important instruction, provided we understand the expression gift or giving in a passive sense, as meaning all the benefits which we desire God to give us. The exhortation is to the effect that we should resign into the hands of God the care of those things which may concern our advantage. It is not enough that we make application to God for the supply of our wants. Our desires and petitions must be offered up with a due reliance upon his providence, for how many are there who pray in a clamorous spirit, and who, by the inordinate anxiety and restlessness which they evince, seem resolved to dictate terms to the Almighty. In opposition to this, David recommends it as a due part of modesty in our supplications, that we should transfer to God the care of those things which we ask, and there can be no question that the only means of checking an excessive impatience is an absolute submission to the Divine will, as to the blessings which should be bestowed. Some would explain the passage: Acknowledge the past goodness of the Lord to have been such, that you ought to hope in his kindness for the future. But this does not give the genuine meaning of the words. As to whether David must be considered as here exhorting himself or others, it is a question of little moment, though he seems evidently, in laying down a rule for his own conduct, to prescribe one at the same time to all the children of God. The words which he subjoins, And he shall feed thee, clearly confirm that view of the passage which I have given above. Subject as we are in this life to manifold wants, we too often yield ourselves up to disquietude and anxiety. But David assures us that God will sustain to us the part of a shepherd, assuming the entire care of our necessities, and supplying us with all that is really for our advantage. He adds, that he will not suffer the righteous to fall, or always to stagger If מוט, mot, be understood as meaning a fall, then the sense will run: God shall establish the righteous that he shall never fall. But the other rendering seems preferable. We see that the righteous for a time are left to stagger, and almost to sink under the storms by which they are beset. From this distressing state David here declares, that they shall be eventually freed, and blessed with a peaceful termination of all their harassing dangers and cares.

³²¹ “What thou desirest to have given thee,” according to the Chaldee, which renders the word thy hope; i e., that which thou hopest to receive. On the margin of our English Bibles it is, thy gift, which Williams explains by “allotment.” “Cast thy allotment upon the Lord,” says he, “on which we may remark, that whatever allotment we receive from God, whether of prosperity or adversity, it is our duty to refer it back to him: ‘He that giveth to the poor lendeth to the Lord, and he will repay him;’ or if our lot be adverse, ‘he will sustain’ under every burden, and ‘never suffer the righteous to be moved’ from his foundation.” In like manner Rogers understands the word. “Cast upon Jehovah what he allots you; i e., commit to Jehovah your destiny. Supply אשר before יהבך” — Book of Psalms in Hebrew, volume 2, p. 210. The Septuagint reads, μέριμνάν, thy care; in which it is followed by the apostle Peter, (1 Peter 5:5.) The reading of the Vulgate, Syriac, Æthiopic, and Arabic versions is the same.