Psalms 55

Psalms 55:1-23

The apostate. To the chief musician, on stringed instruments: Maskil of David. With the fifty-fifth psalm we reach the close of this Maskil series, and find the last word as to the wicked one. He has been seen in a certain relation to the dwelling-place of God, the “tent” in which He has sojourned among men. We have seen him also among the mass of the godless -atheists in heart -who carry to its height the lawlessness and rebellion of the last days. Here we go back to see how he has broken the bands and cast off the yoke of the Most High. Once an associate of the godly, and moving among the throng of worshipers in the house of God, he is become the persecutor of the righteous, the profaner of his covenant with God and man, his profession all through is shown to be mere subtlety and treacherous wickedness, under which Jerusalem itself becomes like another Babel, and its inhabitants invite a corresponding doom. These psalms share the character of all prophecy in needing to be put together in order to their full understanding. They are not meant for “private” or “separate interpretation” (2 Peter 1:20). They are connected together by the common title of Maskil as instruction for the men of understanding, the wise who are to instruct others (Daniel 11:33; Daniel 12:3). Put together, the awful figure of Antichrist emerges clearly enough, and in harmony with prophecies elsewhere, both Christian and Jewish. Like some image formed in the rock, you must catch it at the right angle to discern it; while when there, its features are too marked and many to be possibly mistaken. The accompaniment of “stringed instruments” is justified as the psalm goes on; though it begins with a wail of sorrow and an inward tumult under which the numerical structure for awhile seems to be lost, but to manifest itself again as faith more firmly lays hold upon divine strength, and the light of a new day begins to penetrate the gloom.

1. The first three verses give us the cry to God, with the cause of the cry, -the voice of the enemy and the oppression of the wicked, by whom the suppliant is traduced as well as suet with open violence. The conjunction of these things is too common to need much comment. Slander makes malice take the form of righteousness; and the strongest tyranny finds the necessity of justifying itself after this manner. Involuntarily it does homage to the moral government of God, even while its homage is itself immoral. “They cast iniquity on me,” says the sufferer, “and in anger persecute me.”
2. The next section dwells upon the misery of the remnant amid the general departure from God. They long to escape from the city which is yet to them the city of God; but defiled, profaned, the Spirit of Christ makes them cry out for separation from it. Accordingly opportunity is given them, as we know (Matthew 24:15 seq.), and they are found outside it in the first psalm of this book. The distress is extreme, and the confusion of mind seems to affect the numerical structure itself, which here at least I am unable to trace in two out of the five verses. This may be, of course, only from dullness of sight on my own part, or because the numbers themselves have not been traced out sufficiently in their application in the sphere of human emotion. Yet the only other place in these psalms in which we have hitherto found such an absolute failure (Psalms 10:8-10) is so near akin to this one as at least to suggest a designed connection between them. The former psalm; like the present, gives us a picture of the wicked one; and there the alphabetic construction fails, as well as (and to a greater extent than) the numerical. Thus there seems purpose manifest in this. In the present psalm, however, there is this difference, that the failure is not found in that part of it which speaks of Antichrist himself, but in that which speaks of the effect of the evil in the awful horror and dread which well-nigh overwhelm the godly.

This is plainly a great difference, and must justly raise the question again, Is it anything more than a failure of discernment, such as here and there may well be expected in a first endeavor to trace out the numerical clue. On the other hand, it is still possible that as in the tenth psalm the moral disorder is reflected in the structural one, -God’s government appearing for a while to be lost in the uprising of human will against it, -so here may be intimated the blur of vision that may be induced by the contemplation of successful wickedness, even on the part of the righteous, and against which the thirty-seventh psalm warns us. In this case, may not the irregularity of the alphabetic structure of both the ninth and tenth psalms (even where it does not fail) point to a similar perturbation? especially as only in the mind of man can the government of God lapse at all, even for a moment. And is not this indeed an evil so great and so universal as to make it necessary to enforce the warning upon us in an exceptional manner? Alas, how the disorder manifest in the world tends to induce a similar disorder, even among those who dread and abhor it! as with an infectious disease, the dread of which increases the susceptibility of infection. How the simple lesson needs to be continually repeated in our ears, that “God sitteth upon the throne, judging right.” How little frankly do we accept this first postulate of faith! and if there be but hesitation here, how the vision fails, how the heart sickens and faints, what a collapse is there of strength! And is it not so in the psalm before us? — “My heart is writhing within me; and the terrors of death are fallen upon me! Fear and trembling is come upon me; and horror hath wrapped me round!” Then notice how in the next verse the numerals appear again: for not without meaning is it that the dove, the type of heavenly purity and love and sorrow, -the symbol of the Spirit of Christ, as in the gospels, -is named here rather than any other bird. The wing of the dove bore Christ indeed into the scene of sin and misery to deliver men; but here, when grace has been rejected, and the sin of men has ripened as just ready for the harvest, the dove is preparing for her flight away. Holiness now means only separation from stubborn rebellion and implacable enmity to God; and now the solitude of the wilderness attracts her: the earth is become truly that; and judgment is foreseen, -a tempest of wrath, from which she would hasten the escape of those that sigh and cry for these abominations. 3. And now the city is brought before us -Jerusalem; though her name cannot now be named; she does not answer to it. Rather is she now Babylon, and with the doom of Babylon upon her. Violence and strife issue naturally in divided tongues, into which her whilom unity is broken up. Strife characterizes her, and with violence goes about her walls, which instead of shutting out the evil, shut it in. Cavernous depths of wickedness yawn in the midst of her; and openly in her public streets stalk all the time oppression and deceit. 4. Now we come to the apostate. Not an open enemy had he been in that case it would have been easy to turn away from him as such. But he had been one admitted to terms of equality, an associate, an intimate; nor that only, but professedly also among the godly, and among the throngs frequenting the house of God. Thus we see what bonds had been broken through -Godward as well as manward. For him and those with him the psalmist predicts the sudden calamity of the apostates in the wilderness, death surprising them in such a way that Sheol might seem to swallow them up alive. This is another link with prophecy: for it is written of the two great confederates in evil in the fast-hastening day of the Lord, that they shall be taken and cast alive into the lake of fire (Revelation 19:20). 5. The fifth section of the psalm displays in contrast with all this the assured hope of the righteous. He calls upon God, from whom the wicked had departed; he knows that God will save him. Complain and groan though he may, it is to One who hears his voice. And redemption is realized at last from the midst of many enemies, who are incapable of doing him the harm they seek to do. 6. But again he returns to speak of the wicked one and his company. He sees the Unchangeable and Eternal setting Himself against the unchanging stubbornness of impenitent sinners. Again he singles out one special one among these, marking him out by another sign which is very distinct in prophecy, the breach of the covenant. So the angel says to Daniel of the “prince that shall come,” that “he shall confirm a covenant” -make a binding agreement -“with many for one week” -of years; “and in the midst of the week shall he cause sacrifice and oblation to cease.” Idolatry takes the place of the worship of the true God: “for the overspreading (or ‘wing’) of abominations there shall be a desolator” (Daniel 9:27, Heb.). Thus we have the “abomination of desolation” afterwards referred. to (Daniel 11:31; Daniel 12:11; Matthew 24:15); and the nature of the broken covenant is plainly shown. Israel back in the land is sheltered by it in the setting up again of their old ritual worship: the “prince” or his representative in the land takes his place with the rest in apparently heartfelt homage to the King of kings. For the first half of the week he is the smooth-tongued hypocrite described in the psalm. Then comes a change; the cessation of prescribed legal offerings; the setting up of idolatry in its place: “he hath put forth his hands against those that were at peace with him; he hath profaned the covenant.” This completes the instruction of these Maskil psalms. 7. The seventh and last section closes therefore now with the contrary portions of the righteous and the wicked; in which God appears at last as Jehovah -Israel’s God. How the covenant-Name here shines out in contrast with all human dependence! That treacherous covenant they had trusted in, and it had deceived them; now, “cast thy burden on Jehovah, and He shall sustain thee: He shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.” On the other hand, “Thou, Jehovah, shalt bring them down to the pit of destruction: men of blood and deceit shall not live half their days; but I will trust in THEE.”