World English Bible
- For the Chief Musician. On stringed instruments. A contemplation by David. Listen to my prayer, God. Don’t hide yourself from my supplication.
- Attend to me, and answer me. I am restless in my complaint, and moan
- because of the voice of the enemy, because of the oppression of the wicked. For they bring suffering on me. In anger they hold a grudge against me.
- My heart is severely pained within me. The terrors of death have fallen on me.
- Fearfulness and trembling have come on me. Horror has overwhelmed me.
- I said, “Oh that I had wings like a dove! Then I would fly away, and be at rest.
- Behold, then I would wander far off. I would lodge in the wilderness.” Selah.
- “I would hurry to a shelter from the stormy wind and storm.”
- Confuse them, Lord, and confound their language, for I have seen violence and strife in the city.
- Day and night they prowl around on its walls. Malice and abuse are also within her.
- Destructive forces are within her. Threats and lies don’t depart from her streets.
- For it was not an enemy who insulted me, then I could have endured it. Neither was it he who hated me who raised himself up against me, then I would have hidden myself from him.
- But it was you, a man like me, my companion, and my familiar friend.
- We took sweet fellowship together. We walked in God’s house with company.
- Let death come suddenly on them. Let them go down alive into Sheol. For wickedness is among them, in their dwelling.
- As for me, I will call on God. The LORD will save me.
- Evening, morning, and at noon, I will cry out in distress. He will hear my voice.
- He has redeemed my soul in peace from the battle that was against me, although there are many who oppose me.
- God, who is enthroned forever, will hear and answer them. Selah. They never change and don’t fear God.
- He raises his hands against his friends. He has violated his covenant.
- His mouth was smooth as butter, but his heart was war. His words were softer than oil, yet they were drawn swords.
- Cast your burden on the LORD and he will sustain you. He will never allow the righteous to be moved.
- But you, God, will bring them down into the pit of destruction. Bloodthirsty and deceitful men shall not live out half their days, but I will trust in you.
If Psalm 54 showed betrayal by one’s own people, Psalm 55 turns the wound inward another inch: the betrayer is not merely familiar; he is a worshiping companion. He knows the road to the house of God. He knows the songs.
This psalm may well stand in the shadow of 2 Samuel 15–17, when David fled Jerusalem during Absalom’s revolt and Ahithophel, his trusted counselor, turned against him. If so, this is not only personal pain. It is covenant sabotage.
David’s first instinct is strikingly human: not revenge, but escape. He does not ask for eagle’s wings, but dove’s wings. In Scripture, the dove is not a bird of power. It is gentle, vulnerable, even the offering of the poor. David wants not victory, but disappearance. There is something holy in that honesty. Mature faith does not deny the nervous system. Sometimes the soul is so battered that rest itself feels like a distant country.
Yet the psalm does not stay in private emotion. David looks at the city: violence on the walls, trouble in the streets, fraud in the market. For an ancient Israelite, this is chilling. The city gate and open square were where justice was meant to live—elders judged there, trade happened there, covenant life took public shape there. When deceit fills the marketplace, society is not merely “having problems.” Its moral center has cracked.
That helps explain David’s strange prayer: “divide their tongues.” It echoes Babel. We often treat unity as an unquestioned good, but Psalm 55 reminds us that some unity is a conspiracy. Sometimes God’s mercy appears not in gathering voices, but in breaking wicked agreement.
Then comes the deepest grief: “my companion… my familiar friend.” Calvin remarked that open enemies wound less than false friends. And verse 21 is unforgettable: words smooth as butter, soft as oil, yet drawn swords. Here the psalm exposes a dark truth: treachery often sounds gentle. Evil does not always shout. Sometimes it speaks in a pastoral tone and breaks covenant with a smile.
This is why the psalm reaches beyond David to Christ. Jesus, too, was betrayed by one who knew the pattern of worship, one who came near enough to kiss. Psalm 55 is not merely a record of David’s pain; it is part of the inner vocabulary of the Man of Sorrows.
And then the turning line: cast your burden on the Lord. The Hebrew word is unusual—more like “what has been laid on you,” your appointed load, your given portion. We are not only to hand God our panic; we are to hand Him the whole hard weight of this day. He may not remove it at once. But He will sustain the one who gives it over.
David prays evening, morning, and noon. Complaint becomes liturgy. Betrayal does not silence prayer; it schedules it.
Suggested cross-references: 2 Samuel 15–17; Numbers
16:30–33; Daniel 6:10; Matthew 26:47–50; 1 Peter 5:7.
Hymn suggestion: O Love That Wilt Not Let Me
Go
Lord, when words turn false and trust is broken, keep me from running anywhere but to You. Break every wicked alliance, in the world and in my own heart. Teach me to cast on You not only my fear, but the whole weight You have allowed me to carry. Sustain me, and make me faithful where others have not been. Through Jesus Christ, betrayed yet steadfast, amen.