Psalm 56

Psalm 56 To the Chief Musician. Set to “The Silent Dove in Distant Lands.” A Michtam of David when the Philistines captured him in Gath. 1 Be merciful to me, O God, for man would swallow me up; fighting all day he oppresses me. 2 My enemies would hound me all day, for there are many who fight against me, O Most High. 3 Whenever I am afraid, I will trust in You. 4 In God (I will praise His word), in God I have put my trust; I will not fear. What can flesh do to me? 5 All day they twist my words; all their thoughts are against me for evil. 6 They gather together, they hide, they mark my steps, when they lie in wait for my life. 7 Shall they escape by iniquity? In anger cast down the peoples, O God! 8 You number my wanderings; put my tears into Your bottle; are they not in Your book? 9 When I cry out to You, then my enemies will turn back; this I know, because God is for me. 10 In God (I will praise His word), in the Lord (I will praise His word), 11 in God I have put my trust;I will not be afraid. What can man do to me? 12 Vows made to You are binding upon me, O God; I will render praises to You, 13 For You have delivered my soul from death. Have You not kept my feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the light of the living? “’To the Chief Musician. Set to ‘The Silent Dove in Distant Lands.’ A Michtam of David. etc. In the prior psalm David had wished to escape to the wilderness— outside of Judah, as a dove, Psalms 55:6. In the world, you will have tribulation. “He was now the dove of dumbness among foreigners, Philistines, those ravenous hawks that were ready to seize and tear him.” (Trapp) But alas, it was a futile longing. “There was no ‘man,’ wherever he might go, on whom he could rely, or whom he could trust; and his only refuge, therefore, was in God.” (Barnes) They also wanted to kill him. “The same words are applicable to the situation and circumstances of David, pursued by his enemies; of Christ, persecuted by the Jews; of the church, afflicted in the world.” (George Horne) “‘Be merciful unto me, O God.’ His first wrestling in prayer is with the check of his conscience, whether for his daily sins, or in particular for casting himself in such apparent danger, as to have ventured without probable security, to seek shelter among the enemies of the people of God, whose blood he himself had shed abundantly; for this rashness or other sins he begs mercy.” (David Dickson)— “‘For man would swallow me up.’ “‘For man.’— He uses the indefinite term man in this verse, though in the next he speaks of having many enemies, the more forcibly to express the truth, that the whole world was combined against him, that he experienced no humanity amongst men, and stood in the last necessity of divine help.” (John Calvin) — “‘would swallow me up.’ as a ravenous wild beast.” (John Trapp) “The word used here (swallow) means properly to breathe hard; to pant; to blow hard; and then, to pant after, to yawn after with open mouth. The idea is, that people came upon him everywhere with open mouth, as if they would swallow him down whole.” (Albert Barnes) — “‘My enemies would hound me all day,’ He gives me no interval— he fights daily. He is successful in his unrighteous war— he oppresses me, he crushes me, he presses me sore. David has his eye on the leader of his foes, and lays his complaint against him in the right place. If we may thus plead against man, much more against that great enemy of souls, the devil.” (C. H. Spurgeon) “For there are many who fight against me,” etc. Whenever I am afraid, I will trust in You.’ (3) In the Hebrew, the words run in the future tense, but they must be resolved into the praeterite. He acknowledges his weakness, in so far as he was sensible of fear, but denies having yielded to it.” (John Calvin) “Fear of man'- Cast down this idol. This keeps some of you from secret prayer, from worshipping God in your family, from going to lay your case before ministers, from openly confessing Christ. You that have felt God's love and Spirit, dash this idol to pieces. ‘Who art thou, that thou shouldest be afraid of a man that shall die?’ ‘Fear not, thou worm Jacob.’ What have I to do any more with idols?" (Robert Murray Macheyne) “’In God (I will praise His word), in God I have put my trust;’ Or praise Him for His Words for the whole Scripture that was then in being; for those testimonies which were David's counsellors in times of difficulty and distress; and particularly for some Word of promise made unto him, he was persuaded would be fulfilled, and in which he gloried and made his boast of, and on which his faith and hope were built; and this he did, and determined to do, in the strength of the Lord, and by the assistance of His grace;— ‘in God I have put my trust.’” ( John Gill) “‘Every day they wrest my words.’ “Whatever Christ said in justification of Himself was twisted to a meaning injurious to Him. So it is still in the world, self justification by words answers but little purpose with ungodly men.” (W. Wilson, D.D., 1860) “Thus our Saviour's prophecy concerning the temple of his body, and countless accusations against his servants, were founded on wilful perversions. They who do this every day become great adepts in the art. A wolf can always find in a lamb's discourse a reason for eating him. Prayers are blasphemies if you choose to read them the wrong way upwards.— ‘All their thoughts are against me for evil.’ No mixture of good will tone down their malice. Whether they viewed him as a king, a psalmist, a man, a father, a warrior, a sufferer, it was all the same, they saw through coloured glass, and could not think a generous thought towards him. Even those actions of his which were an undoubted blessing to the commonwealth, they endeavoured to undervalue. Oh, foul spring, from which never a drop of pure water can come! ‘They gather themselves together.’ Firebrands burn the fiercer for being pushed together... ‘They hide themselves.’ In ambuscade they wait their opportunity. Men of malice are men of cowardice. He who dares not meet his man on the king's highway, writes himself down a villain. Constantly are the reputations of good men assailed with deep laid schemes, and diabolical plots, in which the anonymous enemies stab in the dark.— ‘They mark my steps,’ as hunters mark the trail of their game, and so track them. Malicious men are frequently very sharp sighted to detect the failings, or supposed failings, of the righteous. Spies and mouchards are not all in the pay of earthly governments, some of them will have wages to take in red hot coin from one who himself is more subtle than all the beasts of the field. ‘When they wait for my soul.’ Nothing less than his life would content them, only his present and eternal ruin could altogether glut them.” (C. H. Spurgeon) “‘Shall they escape by iniquity?’ Shall they secure themselves by such injurious and malicious practices, whereby they do not only vex me, but provoke and despise thee? Shall they have success instead of the punishments which thou hast threatened, and they have deserved? But the words may be read without an interrogation, ‘By their iniquity they hope to escape;’ or, ‘they do escape,’ namely, at present: but, Lord, do not suffer them thus to escape. ‘In thine anger cast down the people, O God.’” (Joseph Benson)— who seek my life. “‘You number my wanderings; put my tears into Your bottle; are they not in Your book?’ David was continually removing from place to place, as if he had been a vagabond: (Genesis 4:14) but the Lord numbered all his wanderings, and watched over him wherever he went. His tears also were noticed, as if preserved in a bottle, or registered in a book : no doubt therefore his life would be precious in the sight of the Lord. ‘If God keep the tears of his saints in store, much’ more will He remember their blood to avenge it; and ‘though tyrants burn the bones, yet can they not blot the ‘tears and blood out of God’s register.’ ‘When I cry out to You, then my enemies will turn back; this I know, because God is for me. In God (I will praise His Word), in the Lord (I will praise His Word), in God I have put my trust; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me? Vows made to You are binding upon me, O God; I will render praises to You, for You have delivered my soul from death. Have You not kept my feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the light of the living?’,… he meant, that God, having saved his soul by converting grace, would uphold him in the ways of holiness, in which he desired to walk till he came to heaven…Notes, Job 33:27-30. Revelation 21:22-27.” (Thomas Scott)