Very intense and very comforting. It is a prayer and a song. Calvin says the context belongs to the time when Saul was trying to kill David, while James Montgomery Boice dates it to Absalom’s rebellion. It is also a shadow of what would come with the Son of David, Jesus Christ.
- Believers can go through times of great distress.
- Ps 55:3-5. He is so afraid that he wants to fly away – Ps 55:6-8. Jerome says he wanted to flee into the desert for contemplation, but David is not wanting to be a monk, but a fugitive.
- Ps 55:9-11. The world is corrupt and threatening. His life is in danger, and he feels much anguish of heart.
- Distress is greatly increased by betrayal.
- David has been betrayed in some way – Ps 55:12-14. Spurgeon: ‘None are such real enemies as false friends.’ Paul & Demas in 2 Tim.4:10-11. William Tyndale was burnt at the stake after being betrayed in 1535 by Henry Phillips, who pretended to be an evangelical Christian.
- Ps 55:20-21. David could be referring to Ahithophel – 2 Sam.15:12, 31.
- Cast your burden on the Lord.
- David prayed – Ps 55:1-2. He calls for judgment on his enemies – Ps 55:9, 15. He has his set times for prayer, three times each day, like Daniel (Dan.6:10), and he prays for God to save him – Ps 55:16-19. Judgment and salvation go together in Scripture – Ps 55:23.
- Ps 55:22. Christopher Ash says this is ‘almost a motto for the psalm’. Also 1 Peter 5:7.