Cast Your Burden on the Lord

Psalm 55:1-23 English Standard Version

Psalm 55:superscription

1. To the choirmaster:

2. with stringed instruments.

3. A Maskil of David.

a. Same superscription as Psalm 54 without the historical reference.

b. Its lack of a biographical superscription is strange, given its place in a series most of which have such, especially if it concerns David’s relations with Absalom or Ahithophel.59 Perhaps, like Psalm 53 with its obvious link with Nabal,60the redactor wanted to leave the reader to make the connection.[1]

c. Part of the subcollection of Davidic psalms of Book 2 that are maskil (Psalm 52-55).

Psalm 55:1

1. Give ear to my prayer, O God,

2. and hide not yourself from my plea for mercy!

Psalm 55:2

1. Attend to me, and answer me;

2. I am restless in my complaint and I moan,

Psalm 55:3

1. because of the noise of the enemy,

2. because of the oppression of the wicked.

3. For they drop trouble upon me,

4. and in anger they bear a grudge against me.

Psalm 55:4

1. My heart is in anguish within me;

2. the terrors of death have fallen upon me.

Psalm 55:5

1. Fear and trembling come upon me,

2. and horror overwhelms me.

Psalm 55:6-8

1. (v.6) And I say, “Oh, that I had wings like a dove! I would fly away and be at rest;

2. (v.7) yes, I would wander far away; I would lodge in the wilderness;

a. Wild “doves” often nested in remote and inaccessible cliffs in more deserted regions—thus the psalmist’s image of fleeing to the security and rest of the desert.[2]

3. Selah

4. (v.8) I would hurry to find a shelter from the raging wind and tempest.”

Psalm 55:9a

1. Destroy, O Lord,

a. Destroy - to confuse (make unclear) v. — to make unclear, indistinct, or blurred.

2. divide their tongues;

a. Genesis 11:6 And the Lord said, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.

b. Genesis 11:7 Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another’s speech.”

c. Genesis 11:8 So the Lorddispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city.

d. Genesis 11:9 Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth. And from there the Lord dispersed them over the face of all the earth.

i. Genesis 10:25 To Eber were born two sons: the name of the one was Peleg, for in his days the earth was divided, and his brother’s name was Joktan.

1. C.f. Genesis 11:16-19

e. Historically speaking, Psalm 55 has been associated with David’s betrayal by his trusted advisor Ahithophel, who turned against him and joined Absalom’s political coup. While the prayer of David against Ahithophel in 2 Samuel 15:31 (“Lord, turn Ahithophel’s counsel into foolishness”) is different from the prayer of verse 15, it is not all that different from verse 9, where David prays that the Lord will “confuse the wicked, confound their words.”[3]

f. 2 Samuel 15:31 And it was told David, “Ahithophel is among the conspirators with Absalom.” And David said, “O Lord, please turn the counsel of Ahithophel into foolishness.”

g. 2 Samuel 16:23 Now in those days the counsel that Ahithophel gave was as if one consulted the word of God; so was all the counsel of Ahithophel esteemed, both by David and by Absalom.

h. 2 Samuel 17:14 And Absalom and all the men of Israel said, “The counsel of Hushai the Archite is better than the counsel of Ahithophel.” For the Lord had ordained to defeat the good counsel of Ahithophel, so that the Lord might bring harm upon Absalom.

Psalm 55:9b-11

1. (v.9b) for I see violence and strife in the city.

2. (v.10) Day and night they go around it on its walls,

3. and iniquity and trouble are within it;

4. (v.11) ruin is in its midst;

5. oppression and fraud do not depart from its marketplace.

a. This time he or she surveys the city and finds “Violence and Strife” patrolling the walls, “Iniquity and Trouble” occupying the city, “Ruin,” “Oppression and Fraud” commanding the commercial center—seven personifications in all (vv. 9–11).[4]

b. The irony is that the city walls, built to provide protection from the attack of the enemy, are entirely ineffective when the true enemy is within—a point to which the psalmist will return in the next section.[5]

Psalm 55:12

1. For it is not an enemy who taunts me— then I could bear it;

2. it is not an adversary who deals insolently with me— then I could hide from him.

Psalm 55:13

1. But it is you, a man, my equal, my companion, my familiar friend.

a. Ahithophel (2 Samuel 15-17).

b. Note the piling up of terms to “express the severity of the accusation”:6 “a man like myself, my companion, my close friend.”[6]

c. The word translated as [familiar] friend comes from the Hebrew root ydʿ (“to know”) and indicates the most intimate of relationships.[7]

Psalm 55:14

1. We used to take sweet counsel together;

2. within God’s house we walked in the throng.

Psalm 55:15

1. Let death steal over them;

a. tc The meaning of the MT is unclear. The Kethib(consonantal text) reads יַשִּׁימָוֶת עָלֵימוֹ (yashimavet ’alemo, “May devastation [be] upon them!”). The proposed noun יַשִּׁימָוֶת occurs only here and perhaps in the place name Beth-Jeshimoth in Num 33:49. The Qere(marginal text) has יַשִּׁי מָוֶת עָלֵימוֹ (yashi mavet ’alemo). The verbal form יַשִּׁיis apparently an alternate form of יַשִּׁיא (yashi’), a Hiphil imperfect from נָשַׁא (nasha’, “deceive”). In this case one might read “death will come deceptively upon them.” This reading has the advantage of reading מָוֶת (mavet, “death”) which forms a natural parallel with “Sheol” in the next line. The present translation is based on the following reconstruction of the text: יְשִׁמֵּם מָוֶת (yeshimmem mavet). The verb assumed in the reconstruction is a Hiphil jussive third masculine singular from שָׁמַם (shamam, “be desolate”) with a third masculine plural pronominal suffix attached. This reconstruction assumes that (1) haplography has occurred in the traditional text (the original sequence of three mems[ם] was lost with only one mem remaining), resulting in the fusion of originally distinct forms in the Kethib, and (2) that עָלֵימוֹ(’alemo, “upon them”) is a later scribal addition attempting to make sense of a garbled and corrupt text. The preposition עַל(’al) does occur with the verb שָׁמַם (shamam), but in such cases the expression means “be appalled at/because of” (see Jer 49:20; 50:45). If one were to retain the prepositional phrase here, one would have to read the text as follows: יַשִּׁים מָוֶת עָלֵימוֹ(yashim mavet ’alemo, “Death will be appalled at them”). The idea seems odd, to say the least. Death is not collocated with this verb elsewhere.[8] tc The meaning of the MT is unclear. The Kethib (consonantal text) reads יַשִּׁימָוֶת עָלֵימוֹ (yashimavet ’alemo, “May devastation [be] upon them!”). The proposed noun יַשִּׁימָוֶת occurs only here and perhaps in the place name Beth-Jeshimoth in Num 33:49. The Qere(marginal text) has יַשִּׁי מָוֶת עָלֵימוֹ (yashi mavet ’alemo). The verbal form יַשִּׁיis apparently an alternate form of יַשִּׁיא (yashi’), a Hiphil imperfect from נָשַׁא (nasha’, “deceive”). In this case one might read “death will come deceptively upon them.” This reading has the advantage of reading מָוֶת (mavet, “death”) which forms a natural parallel with “Sheol” in the next line. The present translation is based on the following reconstruction of the text: יְשִׁמֵּם מָוֶת (yeshimmem mavet). The verb assumed in the reconstruction is a Hiphil jussive third masculine singular from שָׁמַם (shamam, “be desolate”) with a third masculine plural pronominal suffix attached. This reconstruction assumes that (1) haplography has occurred in the traditional text (the original sequence of three mems[ם] was lost with only one mem remaining), resulting in the fusion of originally distinct forms in the Kethib, and (2) that עָלֵימוֹ(’alemo, “upon them”) is a later scribal addition attempting to make sense of a garbled and corrupt text. The preposition עַל(’al) does occur with the verb שָׁמַם (shamam), but in such cases the expression means “be appalled at/because of” (see Jer 49:20; 50:45). If one were to retain the prepositional phrase here, one would have to read the text as follows: יַשִּׁים מָוֶת עָלֵימוֹ(yashim mavet ’alemo, “Death will be appalled at them”). The idea seems odd, to say the least. Death is not collocated with this verb elsewhere.[9]

2. let them go down to Sheol alive;

a. David wants the Lord to swallow his enemies up, and he uses the term employed to describe the earth swallowing Korah and the men of his rebellion in Num 16:32.[10]

i. Numbers 16:32 And the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, with their households and all the people who belonged to Korah and all their goods.

ii. Numbers 16:33 So they and all that belonged to them went down alive into Sheol, and the earth closed over them, and they perished from the midst of the assembly.

3. for evil is in their dwelling place and in their heart.

a. dwelling n. — any type of housing for living in as a home.

Psalm 55:16

1. But I call to God,

2. and the Lord will save me.

Psalm 55:17

1. Evening and morning and at noon I utter my complaint and moan,

a. Psalm 55:2 Attend to me, and answer me; I am restless in my complaint and I moan,

b. Psalm 55:10 Day and night they go around it on its walls, and iniquity and trouble are within it;

a. Daniel 6:10 When Daniel knew that the document had been signed, he went to his house where he had windows in his upper chamber open toward Jerusalem. He got down on his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as he had done previously.

2. Evening and morning and at noon I utter my complaint and moan,

a. Genesis 1:5 God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.

3. and he hears my voice.

Psalm 55:18

1. He redeems my soul in safety from the battle that I wage,

a. Safety - (šālôm). n. masc. peace, wholeness. A state of well-being or health. The term šālômin the ot expresses profound wholeness and well-being. The term can be used in many ways, but it especially designates a state of prosperity or good health. This is commonly seen in questions about one’s current welfare (šālôm; Gen 43:27; Exod 18:7; Judg 18:15; 1 Sam 17:18).[11]

2. for many are arrayed against me.

Psalm 55:19

1. God will give ear and humble them,

2. he who is enthroned from of old,

3. Selah

4. because they do not change and do not fear God.

Psalm 55:20

1. My companion stretched out his hand against his friends;

a. Friend - שָׁלוֹם (šā·lôm); same word translated as “safety” in Psalm 55:18.

2. he violated his covenant.

a. covenant, treaty, compact, i.e., an agreement between two parties (Ge 6:18; 14:13), note: the exact relationships of the two parties will vary according to context; 2. LN 34.42–34.49 pledge, a binding oath of promise (2Ki 11:4);[12]

Psalm 55:21

1. His speech was smooth as butter, yet war was in his heart;

2. his words were softer than oil, yet they were drawn swords.

Psalm 55:22

1. Cast your burden on the Lord, and he will sustain you;

2. he will never permit the righteous to be moved.

a. Suddenly a voice interrupts the discourse, either a liturgical oracle or an inner voice (v. 22).[13]

b. The closing four lines constitute declarations that Yhwh will answer the prayer. They begin with two parallel lines addressed to the person under pressure, then two parallel lines and a final statement of trust addressed to God (there is no parallelism within any of these lines). The encouragement in v. 22 speaks to an individual “you,”40 [The Targum to the Psalms adds “David” to make this explicit.[14]] suggesting that it addresses the suppliant and is a response to the preceding protest (not, for instance, an exhortation by the suppliant to other people), though one could again not exclude the possibility that it involves self-address by the suppliant, and this is how subsequent readers would often use it.[15]

c. This verse, considered by some to be an oracle of salvation spoken by a temple prophet,9is a parenthesis in the psalm, a self-instruction of the psalmist, and intended for other worshipers, bidding them turn to Yahweh and he will sustain them in this difficult situation of betrayal.[16]

d. The exhortation, cast your (sing.) cares on the Lord, may have been the petitioner’s self-exhortation or an exhortation recited by a liturgist. If the latter, the voice of the petitioner returns in the closing line affirming he will indeed do as instructed: But as for me, I trust in you (the lxx adds, “O Lord”).[17]

Psalm 55:23

1. But you, O God, will cast them down into the pit of destruction;

2. men of blood and treachery shall not live out half their days.

3. But I will trust in you.

a. The I is emphatic, dismissing the preoccupation with the enemy. In effect, there are two parties involved, not three. ‘As for me, I will trust in the Lord.’[18]

1 Peter 5:7 casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.

Psalm 54:23 Lexham English Septuagint Cast your care upon the Lord, and he will continually sustain you. He will never give a surging wave to the righteous one.

The old hymn may seem simplistic—‘Have we trials and temptations? Is there trouble anywhere? We should never be discouraged; Take it to the Lord in prayer.’[19]

Joseph Scriven, ‘What a friend we have in Jesus’. The line ‘Do thy friends despise, forsake thee’, later in the hymn, is especially apt in David’s situation.[20]

The betrayal that David describes in Ps 55 shadows and typifies what Jesus would endure from Judas. [21]

It is particularly poignant since it seems to respond to the hurt of betrayal by a close friend (55:12–14, 20–21). This fact has led some to connect the psalm to Judas’s betrayal of Jesus.[22]

At least one manuscript of the Latin Vulgate makes this connection explicit in the heading to this psalm: “The voice of Christ against the chiefs of the Jews and the traitor Judas” (see J. W. Rogerson and J. W. MacKay, Psalms 51–100 [Cambridge Bible Commentary; New York: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1977], 29).[23]

1 Peter 2:23 When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.

59 See the comment on vv. 12–14. It is possible, of course, that the redactor, like the modern commentator, could not identify the enemy with certainty. 60 See the comments on Ps 53. [1]Geoffrey W. Grogan, Psalms, The Two Horizons Old Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, U.K.: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2008), 110. [2]Gerald H. Wilson, Psalms, vol. 1, The NIV Application Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2002), 809. [3]C. Hassell Bullock, Psalms 1–72, ed. Mark L. Strauss and John H. Walton, vol. 1, Teach the Text Commentary Series (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2015), 416. [4]Konrad Schaefer, Psalms, ed. David W. Cotter, Jerome T. Walsh, and Chris Franke, Berit Olam Studies in Hebrew Narrative and Poetry (Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 2001), 137. [5]Gerald H. Wilson, Psalms, vol. 1, The NIV Application Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2002), 810–811. 6 A. A. Anderson, Psalms 1–72, 416. [6]C. Hassell Bullock, Psalms 1–72, ed. Mark L. Strauss and John H. Walton, vol. 1, Teach the Text Commentary Series (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2015), 418. [7]Nancy deClaissé-Walford and Beth Tanner, “Book Two of the Psalter: Psalms 42–72,” in The Book of Psalms, ed. E. J. Young, R. K. Harrison, and Robert L. Hubbard Jr., The New International Commentary on the Old Testament (Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, U.K.: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2014), 477. tcText-critical Note—discusses alternate (variant) readings found in the various manuscripts and groups of manuscripts of the Hebrew Old Testament and Greek New Testament. MT Masoretic Text (the traditional rabbinical text of the Hebrew Bible dating from the medieval period) [8]Biblical Studies Press, The NET Bible First Edition; Bible. English. NET Bible.; The NET Bible (Biblical Studies Press, 2005). tcText-critical Note—discusses alternate (variant) readings found in the various manuscripts and groups of manuscripts of the Hebrew Old Testament and Greek New Testament. MT Masoretic Text (the traditional rabbinical text of the Hebrew Bible dating from the medieval period) [9]Biblical Studies Press, The NET Bible First Edition; Bible. English. NET Bible.; The NET Bible (Biblical Studies Press, 2005). [10]James M. Hamilton Jr., Psalms, ed. T. Desmond Alexander, Thomas R. Schreiner, and Andreas J. Köstenberger, vol. 1, Evangelical Biblical Theology Commentary (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Academic, 2021), 530. [11]Chris Byrley, “Healing,” ed. Douglas Mangum et al., Lexham Theological Wordbook, Lexham Bible Reference Series (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2014). LN Louw-Nida Greek-English Lexicon [12]James Swanson, Dictionary of Biblical Languages with Semantic Domains : Hebrew (Old Testament)(Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1997). [13]Konrad Schaefer, Psalms, ed. David W. Cotter, Jerome T. Walsh, and Chris Franke, Berit Olam Studies in Hebrew Narrative and Poetry (Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 2001), 138. 40 Tg adds “David” to make this explicit. [14]John Goldingay, Baker Commentary on the Old Testament: Psalms 42–89, ed. Tremper Longman III, vol. 2 (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2006). [15]John Goldingay, Baker Commentary on the Old Testament: Psalms 42–89, ed. Tremper Longman III, vol. 2 (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2006), 177. 9 See A. A. Anderson, Psalms 1–72, 419. [16]C. Hassell Bullock, Psalms 1–72, ed. Mark L. Strauss and John H. Walton, vol. 1, Teach the Text Commentary Series (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2015), 419. sing. singular lxxSeptuagint (the ancient Greek translation of the Hb. Bible) [17]Robert L. Jr. Hubbard and Robert K. Johnston, “Foreword,” in Psalms, ed. W. Ward Gasque, Robert L. Hubbard Jr., and Robert K. Johnston, Understanding the Bible Commentary Series (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2012), 240. [18]Derek Kidner, Psalms 1–72: An Introduction and Commentary, vol. 15, Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1973), 220. [19]Michael Wilcock, The Message of Psalms: Songs for the People of God, ed. J. A. Motyer, vol. 1, The Bible Speaks Today (Nottingham, England: Inter-Varsity Press, 2001), 201. [20]Michael Wilcock, The Message of Psalms: Songs for the People of God, ed. J. A. Motyer, The Bible Speaks Today (Nottingham, England: Inter-Varsity Press, 2001). [21]James M. Hamilton Jr., Psalms, ed. T. Desmond Alexander, Thomas R. Schreiner, and Andreas J. Köstenberger, vol. 1, Evangelical Biblical Theology Commentary (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Academic, 2021), 532. [22]Gerald H. Wilson, Psalms, vol. 1, The NIV Application Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2002), 807. [23]Gerald H. Wilson, Psalms, vol. 1, The NIV Application Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2002).