Psalms 55:5-15

5 fear and trembling overwhelm me, horror covers me.

6 I said, "I wish I had wings like a dove! Then I could fly away and be at rest.

7 Yes, I would flee to a place far off, I would stay in the desert. (Selah)

8 I would quickly find me a shelter from the raging wind and storm."

9 Confuse, Adonai, confound their speech! For I see violence and fighting in the city.

10 Day and night they go about its walls; within are malice and mischief.

11 Ruin is rife within it, oppression and fraud never leave its streets.

12 For it was not an enemy who insulted me; if it had been, I could have borne it. It was not my adversary who treated me with scorn; if it had been, I could have hidden myself.

13 But it was you, a man of my own kind, my companion, whom I knew well.

14 We used to share our hearts with each other; in the house of God we walked with the crowd.

15 May he put death on them; let them go down alive to Sh'ol; for evil is in their homes and also 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.