Today’s Passage: Psalm 55
David is praying from inside a city full of strife, and his heart is pounding so hard that he longs for the wings of a dove, to fly away and be at rest. Then he names the wound that is really breaking him open, and it is not an enemy at all. It is a ’allūph, pronounced ah-LOOF. Strong's H441, close friend, familiar companion. The word means a close friend, someone so familiar and trusted that you walk beside him without a second thought. An enemy has a shape David already recognizes and can guard against, but this wound comes from inside the circle of trust, from a man who had gone up to the house of God at his side. That is what makes it cut so deep. , a close friend who once walked beside him into the house of God. Yet the psalm does not end in that bitterness. Its last word turns outward and upward: cast your burden on the LORD, and He will sustain you.
As you read, hold this: It was not an enemy. Cast your burden on the LORD.
Context A Maskil of David, with strings
The psalm opens with a line we might be tempted to skip, “For the choirmaster. With stringed instruments. A Maskil of David,” yet even this heading is part of the text handed down to us, telling us that these raw words were set to music and sung by the people of God. There are enemies in the psalm, and David will speak of them plainly. But it is worth seeing from the start that the enemies are not what breaks him open. A friend is.
Psalm 55:1-8 (BSB)
¹ For the choirmaster. With stringed instruments. A Maskil of David. Listen to my prayer, O God, and do not ignore my plea. ² Attend to me and answer me. I am restless in my complaint, and distraught ³ at the voice of the enemy, at the pressure of the wicked. For they bring down disaster upon me and resent me in their anger. ⁴ My heart pounds within me, and the terrors of death assail me. ⁵ Fear and trembling grip me, and horror has overwhelmed me. ⁶ I said, “Oh, that I had wings like a dove! I would fly away and find rest. ⁷ How far away I would flee! In the wilderness I would remain. Selah ⁸ I would hurry to my shelter, far from this raging tempest.”
Listen, David prays, and do not ignore me. Then he turns to what his body already knows: the pounding heart, the terrors of death, the fear and trembling, the horror sweeping over him. And out of that fear rises a wish this book has not often spoken so plainly, the wish for wings like a dove, for distance, for a quiet wilderness with no one in it and a shelter far from the storm. The psalm does not scold the longing to flee; it simply names it and lets it stand. But notice that David does not actually fly away. He stays where he is, and he keeps on praying.
Psalm 55:9-14 (BSB)
⁹ O Lord, confuse and confound their speech, for I see violence and strife in the city. ¹⁰ Day and night they encircle the walls, while malice and trouble lie within. ¹¹ Destruction is within; oppression and deceit never leave the streets. ¹² For it is not an enemy who insults me; that I could endure. It is not a foe who rises against me; from him I could hide. ¹³ But it is you, a man like myself, my companion and close friend. ¹⁴ We shared sweet fellowship together; we walked with the crowd into the house of God.
Psalm 55:15-21 (BSB)
¹⁵ Let death seize them by surprise; let them go down to Sheol alive, for evil is with them in their homes. ¹⁶ But I call to God, and the LORD saves me. ¹⁷ Morning, noon, and night, I cry out in distress, and He hears my voice. ¹⁸ He redeems my soul in peace from the battle waged against me, even though many oppose me. ¹⁹ God will hear and humiliate them—the One enthroned for the ages—Selah because they do not change and they have no fear of God. ²⁰ My companion attacks his friends; he violates his covenant. ²¹ His speech is smooth as butter, but war is in his heart. His words are softer than oil, yet they are swords unsheathed.
Study notes Teach the hard line
Verse 15 is severe, and we should not pretend otherwise: David asks that death seize his betrayers and take them down to Sheol. It is right to teach a line like this rather than soften it away or sand it down into a milder mood, and it is just as right not to bless it as a pattern for our own revenge. Notice what David actually does with the anger. He hands the judgment over to God rather than taking the street into his own hands, and after that one hard cry he turns straight back to prayer, “But I call to God,” morning, noon, and night. The betrayer’s words, he says, were smooth as butter and softer than oil, and all the while a drawn sword was hidden underneath them.
Psalm 55:22-23 (BSB)
²² Cast your burden upon the LORD and He will sustain you; He will never let the righteous be shaken. ²³ But You, O God, will bring them down to the Pit of destruction; men of bloodshed and deceit will not live out half their days. But I will trust in You.
After all the anguish, the psalm ends with an instruction aimed outward and upward: cast your burden upon the LORD, and He will sustain you. The betrayal itself is never undone on the page, for the friend does not become trustworthy again and the wrong is not explained away. What changes is where the weight is finally laid down.
Long after David, the apostle Peter would say the very same thing to a scattered and suffering church.
"Cast all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you." 1 Peter 5:7 (BSB)
Cast your burden, David says; cast all your anxiety, Peter echoes. Across the whole span of Scripture the counsel is one, because the weight was never meant to be carried alone. It was meant to be handed to the God who sustains.
It was not an enemy. Cast your burden on the LORD.