Psalms 56

Section 2. (Psalms 56:1-13; Psalms 57:1-11; Psalms 58:1-11; Psalms 59:1-17; Psalms 60:1-12.)Confirmation of faith. As the psalms of the former section were connected together by their common Maskil character, so those of the present are by the fact that they are all Michtams, a title which only occurs elsewhere in connection with the sixteenth psalm. Of the various meanings there referred to, the last two seem best to suit as applied to these. They are epigrammatic, the sharp-cut maxims of faith, which here strengthens itself by them. And that connects plainly with the derivation from the word catham; to “engrave,” such epigrammatic writing being that found in inscriptions while it is fitted to engrave itself durably on the memory, as these maxims need to be engraved.*
“Hidden” their meaning certainly is not. We have only as Christians to remember that it is Israel’s voice to which we are listening, and therefore Israel’s promises that are before us in them, and they are then in general simple enough. In truth God’s comfort is not far to seek; whether men will take it or not is another question. “The confirmation of faith” may well be the title of the whole section, as I have given it; and in this way it fitly follows that description of the wicked one with whom the mass of the nation in the latter days will identify themselves. From the contemplation of that terrible scene, the soul needs to withdraw itself into its strongholds, and comfort itself with the assurance of the goodness and the, might of God. And these psalms are of this nature, not forgetting the evil, but bringing it into the presence of God, that it may be seen in its weakness and mutability. Then are its instruments so truly workers of vanity," that it can even be asked, “Shall they escape by vanity?” -this nothingness which belongs to them: are they too feeble to be taken notice of?

Psalms 56:1-13

God’s faithfulness His people’s strength. To the chief musician, upon Jonath-elem-rechokim: Michtam of David, when the Philistines took him in Gath. The special title of the fifty-sixth psalm; “Upon Jonath-elem-rechokim,” the “dove of silence of far off places,” has naturally suggested Christ to many interpreters. But the whole connection of the psalm; as well as the contents of it, seem to me against the personal application. The connection with the cry of the last psalm -“Oh that I had the wings of a dove” -(and which is evident) is also, I think, against it. The Spirit of Christ is surely in both psalms; but that is a very different thing. The Septuagint is nearer the truth, with its rendering, “Upon the people driven afar off from the holy place”; while the Targum paraphrases it, Concerning the congregation of Israel, which is like to a silent dove, at the time they are removed far off from the cities." If we remember that in the previous psalm we have seen the remnant of Israel in Jerusalem with antichristian wickedness risen to such a height, as to force upon them the necessity of flight, we shall easily realize in the “dove of far-off places” the remnant escaped and outside the city. They are still in danger, but from an outside enemy, they are wandering (ver. 8), and not shut up. The historical occasion of the psalm is given us as during David’s first flight to Achish, “when the Philistines took him in Gath.” Delitzsch says of it that it “exhibits many points of the closest intermingling with the psalms of that period, and thus justifies its inscription.” But the connection of the history with the prophetic application is more difficult. The Philistines were of course an outside enemy; and David had against him both these and the people of Israel as well, so that he was a wanderer between perils on either hand. In these respects the remnant’s experiences resemble his. The burden of the psalm is the faithfulness of God as being the strength of His people; and, spite of sorrowful circumstances, the confidence expressed is very bright.

1. The circumstances and the strength found to stand under them are given briefly in the first three verses. The enemies are round about, and men are constantly contending with him and oppressing him. The psalmist describes them as wild beasts panting after him. He hears their loud breathing in pursuit, but checks his fears with the thought of what God is for him: “What time I am afraid, I will trust in Thee.” Perfectly suited to the persecuted people of God at any time, I cannot recognize in such language the experience of the Lord Jesus. For it is here fear of men that is expressed, though checked -the purely personal fear of enemies around, and not the horror of their wickedness. Nor could the blessed Lord have need to still a fear that was never present by calling up a faith that was never absent.
2. But the psalmist rises to a higher altitude, and the faithfulness of God becomes his triumphant assurance. His word is his dependence, which in its fulfillment by Him will surely gain for itself praise. The living word can never stand without a living God behind it; and it fears not to pledge Him to the fulfillment of its promises. Faith may be timid, but not Scripture; and when we realize the riches it guarantees us, we shall fear no poverty for evermore. “If God be for us, who can be against us?” And so here: “In God I have trusted; I fear not: what can flesh do to me?” The enemies are still there, but they are powerless: torturing his words; plotting evil against him uniting together, consulting in secret, dogging the heels, intent on his life. Even so, in all this there is a consciousness of weakness which strangely contrasts with their number and apparent power. After all, they have uneasy suspicion -they fear a fear, as a former psalm expresses it, for God is in the generation of the righteous: for how much may not that count? Vain it all is, this malice: they are in hands to which they yield at every point, even where most seemingly triumphant. “He maketh the wrath of man to praise Him; and the remainder of it He restrains.” So impotent are they, that it can be asked with Elihu (Job 35:6), “If thou sinnest, what doest thou against Him? and if thy transgressions be multiplied, what doest thou unto Him?” But if this be so, “on account of” this “vanity, shall they escape?” Can He let it go on, unmoved by it? Nay, he replies, not so: show, Lord, that it is not so; “in anger cast down the peoples, O God!” And this shall be; but the psalmist does not here go on to it. He turns back to think of the tenderness of divine sympathy towards him, amid all the roughness and sorrow of the way. Here is a comfort to which Christianity has added so much that it seems as if it could not rightly have been known before. The Son of man down in our world, and not in a sheltered place, but in the bitterest blast that ever blew there, -this has changed all for him that has seen it. Yet the Spirit of Christ was in the Old Testament, and the revelation of God clothed itself already in the human form, in anticipation of the Word made flesh. “Thou countest my wanderings; my tears have been put into thy bottle: are they not in Thy book?” Tender counterpart, these tears preserved by Him now, to the future wiping them away with His own hand! But they are noted also in His book, just as they fall! Now the psalmist looks on to the end; and he can be nothing else but confident. God is for him: therefore when he calls, his enemies shall turn back. This he knows. The psalm ends accordingly with the fullest assurance and praise to God. The former strain of confidence is renewed and amplified. He repeats, “Through God will I praise the word,” -more abstractly than “His word”: perhaps, as if there were no word that could be named but His. And then he varies this, claiming God fully as His by the covenant-Name: “Through Jehovah will I praise the word.” Then he once more puts forth his challenge “In God I have trusted; I fear not: what can man do to me?” His vowed thank-offerings are ready, too; and he will not fail to have his life also a thank-offering. Like the apostle, who, when he has urged that by Christ we should “offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of the lips, confessing His Name,” adds also: “but to do good and to communicate forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased” (Hebrews 13:15-16). So here, the psalmist realizes that the deliverance of his soul from death, and his feet from falling, is that he “may walk before God in the light of the living.” This does not mean merely, as Moll says, that he may walk under “divine protection,” however much the last phrase may infer this.

Nay, he is to walk before God who has protected him. And this means what “to walk with God” meant for Enoch, and means for all in the same path ever since, -the simplest expression for a life suited for such companionship.