Psalms 55:5-15

5 Fear and trembling have overcome me. Horror has overwhelmed me.

6 I said, "If only I had wings like a dove-- I would fly away and find rest.

7 Indeed, I would run far away. I would stay in the desert. Selah

8 I would hurry to find shelter from the raging wind and storm."

9 Completely confuse their language, O Lord, because I see violence and conflict in the city.

10 Day and night they go around on [top of] the city walls. Trouble and misery are everywhere.

11 Destruction is everywhere. Oppression and fraud never leave the streets.

12 If an enemy had insulted me, then I could bear it. If someone who hated me had attacked me, then I could hide from him.

13 But it is you, my equal, my best friend, one I knew so well!

14 We used to talk to each other in complete confidence and walk into God's house with the festival crowds.

15 Let death suddenly take [wicked people]! Let them go into the grave while they are still alive, because evil lives in their homes as well as in their hearts.

Psalms 55:5-15 Meaning and Commentary

To the chief Musician on Neginoth, Maschil [A Psalm] of David. The occasion of this psalm was either the persecution of Saul, or the conspiracy of Absalom. Some think it was written when David understood that the inhabitants of Keilah would deliver him into the hands of Saul, 1 Samuel 23:12; and others when the Ziphites attempted a second time to do the same, 1 Samuel 26:1; but since a single person is spoken of that magnified himself against him, Psalm 55:12; and Ahithophel seems to be designed; it may be thought rather to be written on account of Absalom's rebellion, and Ahithophel's counsel against him; who is considered by many Christian interpreters as a type of Judas, the betrayer of our Lord; and, indeed, there are many things in this psalm, if not the whole, which may be truly applied to Christ, as will be seen in the following exposition of it.