Psalm 55:
"The psalm is a prayer by one who is being unjustly harassed and who has been betrayed by a friend.
My heart is sore pained within me: and the terrors of death are fallen upon me.
Fearfulness and trembling are come upon me, and horror hath overwhelmed me.
Oh that I had wings like a dove! for then would I fly away, and be at rest.
vs.4-6
The high point of the psalm for Christians who have been “stabbed in the back” by a confidant is verse 22. David seems to be painted first, and then there is painted an image of our Lord.
I. The Prayer of Distress (55:1-8).
I mourn in my complaint, and make a noise; vs.2
Destroy, O Lord, and divide their tongues: vs.9
Evening, and morning, and at noon, will I pray, and cry aloud: and he shall hear my voice. vs.17
II. The Prayer for Justice (55:9-15).
III. The Prayer of Assurance (55:16-23).
It is a looking-glass — this Book of Psalms — which reflects us all.
For it was not an enemy that reproached me; then I could have borne it:
But it was thou, a man mine equal, my guide, and mine acquaintance.
We took sweet counsel together, and walked unto the house of God in company.
vs.12-14
There always has been, and always will be, a mixture of good and bad, sound and unsound, in the visible church, between whom, perhaps for a long time, we can discern no difference; but the searcher of hearts does. David, who went to the house of God in his sincerity, had Ahithophel in company with him, who went in his hypocrisy....
It is Ahithophel;
it is Judas Iscariot;
it is either; it is both.
Who will give me wings like a dove? (vs.6) These words mean more than merely that he could find no mode of escape."
Cast thy burden upon the LORD,
and he shall sustain thee: vs.22
BooksOfTheBible/MatthewHenry/CharlesSpurgeon/Calvin
