The Bible Study Hour

Guest (Male): Have you ever wanted to run away from your troubles? Today on the Bible Study Hour with Dr. James Boice, we'll study Psalm 55, where David is so anguished over having been betrayed by a close friend that he wishes he could fly away, just like a bird. What does David do with these overwhelming feelings? How does he approach God, and what can we learn from him?

Welcome to the Bible Study Hour, a radio and internet broadcast with Dr. James Boice, preparing you to think and act biblically. David's in trouble again, and he's feeling so distraught that he wants to run away from the pain. Can you relate to that feeling? If you have your Bible handy, turn now to Psalm 55.

Dr. James Boice: I'm sure you've noticed from your study of the Psalms that they don't always have a meaningful relationship to one another, but sometimes they do. That is, one Psalm will follow another for a reason. And that's been the case here with some of these Psalms we've been studying, particularly Psalms 52, 54, and 55. They all have to do with betrayal in some form, so you have a little grouping of Psalms.

And if you say to yourself, why is Psalm 53 there in the middle? The answer probably is because in Psalm 54 that follows it, it talks about those who have no regard for God, no fear of God before their eyes, and that's the kind of person that's described in Psalm 52. And not only is that mentioned in Psalm 54, it's mentioned in Psalm 55 as well, and that's the Psalm we come to tonight.

Now, there's a development in this matter of betrayal. In Psalm 52, David is betrayed by Doeg the Edomite. The title of the Psalm explains that that's what it's all about. And the Edomites were not Jews, and therefore this is a foreigner, one who might under certain circumstances be expected to be an enemy. You do not expect any particularly fine treatment from an enemy. This is not so surprising.

In Psalm 54, there is a progression because there the betrayal seems to be by those who were David's countrymen. The title of this Psalm says the betrayal is by the Ziphites. Ziph was an area of southern Palestine, south of Bethlehem and Hebron. Bethlehem is where David came from, so these are his country people there, and they turned their back on him. That cuts deeper.

And now in Psalm 55, we find David betrayed by one who was a very close friend. He describes it in very powerful language in verses 12 and following. Verse 13 says, "It's you, a man like myself, my companion, my close friend." So you kind of come to a climax of these Psalms of betrayal by the time we get to Psalm 55.

Now, it raises the question, of course, who was this close friend that betrayed David? The very best guess is Ahithophel. If you know the story of David, you know that the lowest point in his life came when his son Absalom turned against him. It was a coup, and David, caught off guard, not expecting this from his own son, had to flee Jerusalem. And he fled with those who were loyal to him.

One of his best advisors, the one he trusted the most, was a man named Ahithophel, and he might have expected that this man would have come with him. But Ahithophel didn't. He remained in Jerusalem and he became a counselor to Absalom. He actually gave Absalom good counsel, but the young man, being proud of his own ability, as young men often are, didn't pay attention to the wiser head.

And so Ahithophel's counsel was rejected, and when he understood how things were going, he understood that the coup would fail and he went home. You have the story in 2 Samuel chapters 15 to 17. He went home and hanged himself. Now, I said this is the best guess. And the reason I said it's the best guess is that the circumstances of the story don't actually fit Psalm 55 very well.

For one thing, we find in Psalm 55 that David, the author, seems to be in Jerusalem, settled down in Jerusalem. He's describing the evil things that are going on in the city. But if you read the story in 2 Samuel, you'll find that it was on his way out of the city when he'd already been forced to flee that he first found out about what Ahithophel was doing.

So it doesn't quite seem to fit. And there's this problem, too. Ahithophel might have been the counselor he trusted the most, but it's hard to imagine that he fits the description that you find there in verse 13: "My companion, my close friend, one with whom I once enjoyed sweet fellowship as we walked with the throng at the house of God." It may be that it's Ahithophel, but there's at least a question.

Now, that has caused some commentators to suggest all kinds of alternative interpretations. Some ascribe the Psalm to other people. One of them ascribes it to Jeremiah. And some place it, as they do many of the other Psalms, much later in Jewish history, in a later period of the declining monarchy. And yet the title of the Psalm says it's by David.

Probably the wisest thing we can do at that point is to say this is about a betrayal by somebody very close to David, but it's a story that we just don't know anything else about. And there's no reason we should know it. Certainly the account that we have of David's long reign, 40 years as king, is not given in complete form in the historical books of the Old Testament. Many things must have happened there that aren't recorded.

Well, how about an outline for the Psalm? That's the second thing we need to deal with in an introductory way. Many commentators propose a three-part outline. I suppose the majority do, and that's a very useful thing. The form I find it in that is most intriguing and commends itself best is by G. Campbell Morgan. He divides it this way: verses 1 through 8, fear; verses 9 through 15, fury; verses 16 through 23, faith. Fear, fury, and faith.

I can never do that. I wish I could come up with outlines that are nice and alliterative like that, but I can never do it. One of the more modern commentators, Marvin Tate, finds ten parts to it. Now, sometimes I preach a five or six part sermon, but a ten part sermon is more than I can handle, so I'm not going to pay attention to that.

The outline that commends itself to me the most is an alternating outline of six or seven parts, and it's something that we've seen elsewhere in the Psalms. We saw it, for example, in Psalm 5 and Psalm 18. Psalms 42 and 43 that go together are like that. What you have is a stanza that takes one point of view, and then you have an alternating stanza. Then the third stanza goes back to the first idea, and then you have the second idea again. It goes back and forth that way.

But what usually happens is that the part of the Psalm that describes the psalmist's feelings shows progress as you move throughout the Psalm. And that's what you have here. Let me suggest how I see it. I would propose this kind of an outline: verses 1 through 8 are the first disclosure of the psalmist's anguish. Verses 9 through 11 describe the wicked. This is the first description of the wicked in the Psalm.

Verses 12 through 14 go back to the psalmist's anguish and you have, therefore, a second analysis of what's bothering him. The fourth section, verse 15, stands all by itself and is a second description of the wicked. So far, that's been very neat. You've got the psalmist's pain, then you've got the wicked that are causing the pain, then you've got the psalmist's pain again, and then you've got the wicked again.

The fifth section is about the psalmist, but this time the psalmist is talking about his faith in God. There's been progress. That's verses 16 to 19. Then in 20 and 21, you have a third description of the wicked. And then finally, at the very end, 22 and 23, you have the psalmist's final conclusion and advice. Now, I think that's helpful and I want to pursue it. I'll take more time with the earlier stanzas and less time with those that come toward the end.

Let me begin by pointing out that there's a significant difference between the setting of Psalms 52 and 54 that are also about betrayal and this one. Psalms 52 and 54 describe David in a period in his life when he was in the wilderness before he became king. Saul was pursuing him. It was a tough period in his life. He's calling out to God, afraid that Saul's going to catch him and take his life.

He's got all of these men that have come to follow him, who later became the core of his army. All of those people to take care of, and he didn't have any place to go. People were betraying him on every hand. But he's in the wilderness. Now, when you come to this Psalm, he seems to be well settled in Jerusalem. If that's the case, then this is reflecting a period in his life when Saul has died and he's taken the throne.

We would say to ourselves, well, at last it's worked out all right. David went through a bad period, but life is like that. God took care of him. God protected him there in the wilderness. He became the king and settled on the throne. Certainly, everything's going to be all right now. And yet when we come to this Psalm, we find David wrestling with exactly the same things.

Moreover, if you look at it closely, the pain and anguish that he reflects in this Psalm seem to be even greater than what he was talking about in Psalms 52 and 54. The language is very strong. He says at the beginning that he's distraught, verse 2, and in anguish, verse 4. Verse 4 says, "the terrors of death are assailing me." Fear and trembling beset him. Horror overwhelms him, verse 5.

And there's also this: in verses 6 and 8, we find something new. What he says here is that he has been thinking about how wonderful it would be if he could just run away and escape these problems. He does it in beautifully poetic language. He's been fearful before and he's anguished over evil before, but now for the first time he says what he'd really like to do is run away.

"I said, 'Oh that I had the wings of a dove, I would fly away and be at rest. I would flee far away and stay in the desert. I would hurry to my place of shelter, far from the tempest and storm.'" I ask at that point, what's happening here? Why do we find this new element? In my judgment, what we have here is an example of the weariness that comes to a valiant worker or warrior later in life.

That is after the youthful battles are in the past and the enemies of the past have been overcome. When we're young, we don't expect life to be easy. We expect it to be tough, but we tackle it with youthful vigor. And we achieve some victories by the grace of God. But then we go on in life and as we get older, we get to the point where those problems are still there.

That's what really grinds you down. You thought you had them licked at one time, and then there they are. They're still there again, and it's at that point that the warrior who was successful once finds himself saying, "What I'd really like to do is run away." Don't you find that true? All of you who are real young, you don't know anything about this. You just forget about it for a while.

I'm speaking to the people that are older. Isn't it true? You've been working for a company and the problems that you had in your company are still there. The company seems just as bad as it did when you started out so many years ago. Or you've been paying your taxes all these years and your taxes are still higher. You read the newspapers and the murder rate has not gone down.

Or the problems that you thought you had solved with your children when they were young are still with you and they're in middle age. And you say to yourself, "I'm just getting old and I don't have the energy to cope with these things anymore. What I'd really like to do is run away." Many people do that, of course, if they have the money to do it. It's what keeps the travel industry going. They'll just fly off to a nice island where you don't have to worry about these things anymore.

What I want to say, however, is that it is not always possible to do it, and it was not possible for David. You see, he said, "Oh that I had the wings of a dove that I might fly away," but he didn't have the wings of a dove and he didn't fly away. He had to stay there. And even though things were bad and he describes some of it in the Psalm, he wasn't able to do it.

He had to carry on until God himself retired him in a permanent way by taking him home to heaven. Now, what does that first stanza tell us? It's a lesson in perseverance, isn't it? It's saying this is something God values in his children: perseverance, especially when you get tired, especially in middle or late age. Perseverance is one of the things that God looks for in his children.

Now, having unburdened himself of these inner feelings and done it as David does in a very forthright way—he's not pretending to be one thing for the sake of the Christian people or the religious people that are surrounding him, he's quite honest in telling about how he feels—he now turns to the wicked who are causing havoc in the city.

His description of this evil in the city is really something that we who live in cities today readily understand. In verse 2, David talked about the enemy, and you might say to yourself, well, he's the king, he's talking about the enemy, what he means are these nations that are roundabout. Like the Philistines, you have to go out with your armies and knock them down.

But when we get to this stanza, we find that's not what he's talking about. He's not talking about the enemy without, he's talking about the enemy within. Remember that great line from the Pogo cartoon? Pogo has a little cartoon where he's following the enemy and they see the footsteps and they follow them. Pretty soon somebody else joins in and they've got two enemies they're following.

They follow further and there are a few more footsteps. They discover that what they've been doing is going around in a circle and it's their own footsteps that they're following. And the line that comes at the very end of the cartoon is this: "We have met the enemy and he is us." That's what David is saying here. The enemy's not out there, the enemy's within.

That is what's wrong with America's cities, isn't it? As a matter of fact, that's what's wrong with our country. There was a time in the Cold War where we said to ourselves, "Well, the enemy is Russia." Ronald Reagan called it the great evil empire. It's interesting, isn't it? There's probably more of a true spiritual nature going on in Russia today than going on here.

And if you want to think of religious freedom, there's far more religious freedom in Russia today than we have in this country. They are looking for religion. You can teach it over there, but you can't teach it here, not in the public schools. The problem isn't the enemy without, the problem is the enemy within. And the problem with America today is Americans. Don't blame it on anybody else. It's us.

And if we're going to see any progress, there has to be a moral change in us, in our citizens. And there's only one way that comes about, and that's by rediscovering God. The only moral advance that has ever taken place in history in any way has taken place when people have discovered God and understood what he demands of them and how they can do that through the power of God.

What do you do until that comes? David gives us an answer in verse 9. One thing you can do before revival comes—because it may not come, as God may not grant that to us—is pray, as David does in verse 9, that God will confound the wicked and confuse their speech. He's referring to something interesting there. Those words ring a bell for anybody that knows the Old Testament.

Back in the eleventh chapter of Genesis, you have the story of the building of the tower of Babel and what God does is come down and confound the speech of the people so they can't rebel in this way against him. It was a godless city, and that's what's referred to here. David is saying, "Well, God, if you're not changing things, I see evil all around me and it's a terrible thing."

He personifies it. He uses violence, strife, malice, abuse, threats, and lies. Three pairs of two, he's personifying them. He says, "I see it everywhere, and if you're not going to blot that out, at least confound the language and the tongue and the thinking of the people who are going about the evil." And God does it, too. God does confound evil. We stand on the side of righteousness and we are greatly distressed at the evil we see about us.

But it would be far worse if those who are practicing evil could only get their act together and cooperate with one another. But they don't, you see, they're sinners like everybody else and they can't get along either. And one thing we can pray is what David prays and that is that God will confound them. And he does. It's one of the great blessings that God does not allow evil to triumph as evil obviously wants to do.

Now, when we come to verses 12 through 14, it would be possible, I think, to regard this as an extension of the psalmist's description of the evil that he is seeing in Jerusalem. He's described it very vividly, and here he begins to talk about a particular aspect of it. This is this man who's betrayed him. But I think that what we really have here is David probing his own feelings a little bit deeper.

He's like a trained psychologist or psychiatrist in analyzing what's going on in his own mind. And what he's saying here is, "I'm greatly distressed about the wickedness in the city, but when I get right down to it, what is really bothering me most is that my own friend has turned against me." He seems to know himself. He says, "If an enemy were insulting me, I could endure it; if a foe were raising himself against me, I could hide from him."

And that's right, of course. He could have done it. And not only could he do it, he did it. That story that's recorded when he was fleeing from Jerusalem on that first desperate day when he was trying to get away and save his life, there was a man named Shimei. He was a Benjamite and this man hated David because he had supplanted King Saul who was a Benjamite.

This man stood on a hill over against David as he went and he cursed him. He cursed him with these words: "Get out, get out, you man of blood, you scoundrel! The Lord has repaid you for all the blood you shed in the household of Saul, in whose place you have reigned." But David didn't respond by retaliating against Shimei. He could have done it. He had his soldiers with him.

He could have said, "Go up and cut that man's head off," but that wasn't his response. What David said instead was this: "My son, who is of my own flesh, is trying to take my life. How much more then this Benjamite? It may be the Lord will see my distress and repay me with good for the cursings that I've endured this day." David was well able to handle abuse.

If an enemy should lift up his hand against me, I could bear it. And he did. But this wasn't an enemy. This was somebody who was close to him, and this is what made it hurt. This was his friend with whom he had enjoyed sweet fellowship, a person in whose presence he had worshipped at the house of God. It's people who are close to us that hurt us the most. Spurgeon said, "None are such real enemies as false friends."

Then we come to verse 15. That's the next section. It stands all by itself. It's the low point of the Psalm, and it is this prayer or wish in which David calls for the destruction of his foes. Now, the language is important here because just as earlier in verse 9, he uses language that looks back to God's confusion of tongues at Babel, here he refers back to something else in the Old Testament.

In the days of Moses, there was a rebellion led by a man named Korah. And this man and those who were with him were judged by God in this way. Let me read it for you: Numbers 16, verses 31 and following. "The ground split apart under them and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them with their households and all Korah's men and all their possessions. They went down alive into the grave with everything they owned; the earth closed over them and they perished and were gone from the community."

That's what David's referring to here because that's the language. "Let them go down alive into the grave." He's thinking back to what God did in that time of great rebellion. Now, let's ask the question: why? Why this vehemence at this particular point in the Psalm? Well, one of the commentators, J. J. Perowne, says, and I think he's right at this point, it's because of the betrayal by his friend.

That's what brings out the emotion of David. At this point, you're beginning to understand why he's speaking in such strong language at the beginning. Here's what Perowne says: "To have trusted and to find his trust betrayed, to have been one with a man in public and in private, bound to him by personal ties and by the ties of religion, and then to find honor, faith, affection, all cast to the winds, this is what seems so terrible and this is what caused the curse."

And yet I want you to see something interesting. I want you to notice that although David talks about his enemies in these terms, wanting them to go down alive into the grave, he doesn't specifically mention his former friend. David really does surprise you at that, and it would even seem to me that he's distinguishing here between his enemies—certainly those who practice evil—and the former friend whom he has in a separate category in the verses that go before.

I don't know whether that's reading too much into it, but it seems to me that he was reluctant to pronounce a harsh judgment on his friend. Well, what is most important is that you do get a turning point in verse 16. Earlier in the Psalm, David had called on God. That's the way the Psalm began. He says, "Listen to my prayer, oh God, do not ignore my plea; hear me, answer me."

But that was uttered out of his anguish and pain. It was almost desperate. It's almost like he didn't know whether God was going to listen. Here when we come to verse 16, we find something different. It's a different tone. "I called to God," he says, "and the Lord saves me." Here he's expressing what his experience has been, and he uses a number of phrases here that are significant.

Verse 16, the Lord saves me. Verse 17, he hears my voice. Verse 18, he ransoms me unharmed. What's happening here? What you have here is faith. That's what's come through in the Psalm at this point. David's still in trouble. His enemies are still there in the city and he's got enemies outside as well, and his friend has betrayed him, but he calls upon God and he reminds himself that God in the past when he has called upon him has saved him and has delivered him and has ransomed him from those that would do him harm.

And with a settled trust in God now, he begins to think on that and strengthen himself as he thinks on that and actually to grow by the prayer we have recorded as the Psalm. Now, that's part of the point of the alternating structure, isn't it? He's expressed his anguish, he's reflected on the problem, he's expressed his anguish again, he's reflected on the problem again, going a little deeper each time.

But now, having done all of that and having brought all of this to God, he finds his faith growing. That's what the Psalm is trying to teach us. It's saying, look, you can come to God, you can say to yourself, "I'm overwhelmed by anguish, terror is all about me, I don't know where to turn, I'm in absolute desperation." It's not anything bad to bring that to God. That's what you're supposed to do.

But if you do that, if you bring it before him, if you lay it all out, if you explain the problem and explain it again and explain it again, what you'll find is happening, if you're really laying it before God and are conscious of God, you'll find your strength growing because God will begin to remind you of what he's done for you in the past and assure you that he's going to do it again.

In verses 20 and 21, we have a final glance at the wicked, and I think even here the tone is changed. Earlier David was deeply pained by this betrayal. I don't think that's quite the case here. Rather, he's stepping away from his feelings and he's reflecting on the wrongdoing itself and he's saying about this man, "The problem is that he's a covenant breaker."

What that really means is that he's a hypocrite. He pretended one thing and did another. He spoke peace when actually his heart was devising war. He's saying, "I understand that. I know what he was doing now. I didn't understand it then. It hurt me when he did it, but I understand it. He's revealed his character." And isn't David saying, "And I don't want to be like that. I want to be among the righteous, not among the wicked"?

That brings us to the very last section, which I would call his conclusion and his practical advice. There are always going to be traitors and hypocrites and covenant breakers in the world. It's a sinful world. You can hope for righteousness, but you'll always find sin. But what are you to do in circumstances like that? What's the righteous person to do?

David tells us here. He says, look, what you're to do is this: verse 22, cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you. He will never let the righteous fall. That classic statement is what Peter picked up in his first letter. If you turn to 1 Peter, the fifth chapter, verse 7, you'll find that Peter is quoting this. Peter says, "Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you."

That's what Peter learned to do. Peter was an anxious kind of person. Before the crucifixion, he was very worried about what was going to happen to his Lord. Afraid they were going to arrest him and then something terrible would happen. So he had a sword and he was going to defend his Lord if he could. And then when they did arrest Jesus, he was even more worried about himself.

So he was afraid to stand with him and he denied him, and you know that sad period, that sad experience for Peter. He was a great worrier. But he learned that the Lord he followed was the King of Glory, the resurrected, all-powerful Lord, and he was able to bear any burden that Peter might have to lay upon him. So having learned that, he says to those who are reading his letter, "Look, here's the way to live: cast all your burdens on him. And if you do that, you'll find that he cares for you and takes care of you."

Now, someone will say at that point, isn't that a kind of escapism? No, it's exactly the opposite of escapism. You see, the escapism is earlier in the Psalm: "Oh that I had the wings of a dove, I'd just get away from here." It's not that at all. This is a person who is standing in the midst of the problem and who puts his burdens on the Lord, not that he might escape the responsibility, but that he might stand there and face the responsibility triumphantly for Jesus Christ.

Why should he do it? Well, David spells it out. He says there are three things God will do. First, he'll sustain you. When we're down, it's natural to think that we'll never be able to bear up under the troubles that come. We say, "How can I ever stand up under these troubles?" But you can because God will sustain you. You know, it says in 1 Corinthians 10:13, "No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful. He will not let you be tempted above that you are able to bear, and with the temptation he'll provide a way of escape that you may be able to bear it."

That's a promise of God. And David said, "I found that to be true, and so have all God's people." Second, says David, he will never let the righteous fall. There was a time in Peter's life when he wasn't so sure of that and was out walking on the water and he stopped looking at Jesus, and he began to sink. He thought he was going to fall and he said, "Lord, save me," calling out loudly, but Jesus did save him, just as God saved David, and just as he saves all who call upon him.

The third thing David says is that God will also defeat the wicked; he'll bring them down. It's true, we see it again and again, that evil may succeed for a time. But it's a promise of God as well as a judgment of history that evil contains within itself the seeds of its own destruction. And although the evil may survive for a time, eventually they do find that they come down. And David said you can be assured of that because God is in control.

The bottom line, of course, is what we find at the very end of the Psalm. David has recovered faith here as he's worked his way through these problems and he gets to the end and he says, in effect, "As for me, I'm going to keep on doing exactly what God has brought me to as I've laid the burdens before him. I am going to continue trusting him." That's his final testimony.

And there needs to be put in the form of a question: are you able to do that? Will you do that? If you're focusing on the evil around you instead of thinking about God and the Lord Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit, you probably won't be able to say that as for me, I trust in you. You are in that timorous stage, you don't know what to do.

But if you'll cast your cares upon him, then you'll find that his shoulders are broad enough to bear them and his legs are strong enough to carry any weight you may impose. Furthermore, he's anxious to do it. And while he's doing it, he'll also sustain and protect and comfort you. And you'll be able to say, as David does, "As for me, I trust in you." And he who trusts in God will never be disappointed.

Let's pray. Our Father, we thank you again for this Psalm, for its great teaching about how to live and how to lay our request before you, even in the midst of our anguish, knowing that you're the one to whom we must turn and find as we do that you are able to sustain us in the midst of the trouble and protect us and keep us and give us strength to carry on to do what you have called us to do.

So Father, help us to be like that and to learn this matter of the Christian life as a matter of learning step by step and day by day, sometimes just moment by moment, minute by minute. And we pray that you'll help us to do that in order that we might grow in godliness and in that way that you have set out for us by Jesus Christ. We pray in his name. Amen.

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