55

Psalm 55 · Book Two · David

For the choirmaster. With stringed instruments. A Maskil of David.

The Hebrew title · Berean Standard Bible

Maskil · For the choirmaster

About this psalm

The line everybody remembers is the wish to escape: Oh that I had wings like a dove! for then would I fly away, and be at rest. But the psalm is not really about running. It is about betrayal by somebody close — it was not an enemy that reproached me... but it was thou, a man mine equal, my guide, and mine acquaintance. Near the end comes the instruction people have leaned on since: Cast thy burden upon the LORD.

Read it when the person who hurt you used to walk to church with you.

My psalms

One verse at a time · it stops at the Selah

¹Give ear to my prayer, O God;and hide not thyself from my supplication.²Attend unto me, and hear me:I mourn in my complaint, and make a noise;³Because of the voice of the enemy, because of the oppression of the wicked:for they cast iniquity upon me, and in wrath they hate me.⁴My heart is sore pained within me:and the terrors of death are fallen upon me.⁵Fearfulness and trembling are come upon me, and horror hath overwhelmed me.⁶And I said, Oh that I had wings like a dove! for then would I fly away, and be at rest.⁷Lo, then would I wander far off, and remain in the wilderness.

Selah

⁸I would hasten my escape from the windy storm and tempest.⁹Destroy, O Lord, and divide their tongues:for I have seen violence and strife in the city.¹⁰Day and night they go about it upon the walls thereof:mischief also and sorrow are in the midst of it.¹¹Wickedness is in the midst thereof:deceit and guile depart not from her streets.¹²For it was not an enemy that reproached me;then I could have borne it:neither was it he that hated me that did magnify himself against me; then I would have hid myself from him:¹³But it was thou, a man mine equal, my guide, and mine acquaintance.¹⁴We took sweet counsel together, and walked unto the house of God in company.¹⁵Let death seize upon them, and let them go down quick into hell:for wickedness is in their dwellings, and among them.¹⁶As for me, I will call upon God;and the LORD shall save me.¹⁷Evening, and morning, and at noon, will I pray, and cry aloud:and he shall hear my voice.¹⁸He hath delivered my soul in peace from the battle that was against me:for there were many with me.¹⁹God shall hear, and afflict them, even he that abideth of old. Selah. Because they have no changes, therefore they fear not God.²⁰He hath put forth his hands against such as be at peace with him:he hath broken his covenant.²¹The words of his mouth were smoother than butter, but war was in his heart:his words were softer than oil, yet were they drawn swords.²²Cast thy burden upon the LORD, and he shall sustain thee:he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.²³But thou, O God, shalt bring them down into the pit of destruction:bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days;but I will trust in thee.

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