Psalm 55
23 verses · Psalm of lament
I said, “Oh, that I had wings like a dove! I would fly away and find rest.
Introduction
David, the Betrayed Friend, Book 2: The Elohistic Psalter, Poetry, Psalms Overview.
David wrote this out of a betrayal inside his own city by a man he had trusted with his counsel and his worship. Many readers have set it in Absalom's revolt, though the psalm names no one. It speaks for anyone wronged by a friend. Listen for the wish to escape, for the city described as a place where the wrong keeps watch, and for the moment he stops describing the traitor and speaks to him. It ends with counsel for the reader about a weight too heavy to carry.
Context
- Who
- Worshippers who had been betrayed by someone inside their own circle
- What
- A lament over a city given to violence and a close friend who turned traitor.
- Where
- A walled city where the night watch has become part of the danger
- When
- The reign of David by the superscription, and the traditional reading sets it in Absalom's revolt, about 979 BC.
- Why
- To bring the grief of betrayal into worship and hand both the burden and the betrayer to the LORD.
Historical context
The heading gives the psalm to David and calls it a maskil set to stringed instruments. The betrayal it describes comes from inside the city. A walled town posted men on the wall and in the gate towers in rotating watches, and verses 10 and 11 have violence and strife doing the patrolling. Eating at a man's table and travelling with him created obligations close to a covenant in that world, so a first hearer would have read the breach of verses 12 to 14 as treachery. The traditional reading connects the psalm with Ahithophel, David's own counsellor, who went over to Absalom during the revolt. The psalm names nobody, so this remains a reading that fits the shape of the grief. Rock doves nest in the cliff clefts of the Judean wilderness, and the wilderness is where a hunted man actually went.
Significance
For people sitting in the congregation beside someone who had wronged them, the song gave grief from inside the community a place in public worship. It ends by handing the case upward, which puts the betrayer before the Judge and takes him out of the injured man's hands.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
This psalm is where Rashi grounds the three prayer services of the Jewish day. On the line that names evening, morning and noon he writes:
Evening, morning, and noontime The evening prayer, the morning prayer, and the afternoon prayer, three prayers. (Rashi on Psalms 55:18:1)
A Jew who prays three times a day is doing what this line is read to set out, and the corpus ties the same line to the tractate on prayer at Berakhot 31a:23 and at Berakhot 20b:5, carrying each as a locator so the ruling stands at its reference. This site's study row for the chapter carries the Chaldee paraphrase on the betrayer of the psalm beside it.
How it is read
Rashi reads this psalm as David's own, spoken while a friend turned against him, and he names the friend:
He stretched forth his hands This refers to Ahithophel the wicked. (Rashi on Psalms 55:21:1)
That reading governs the psalm's hardest lines. The companion of the fourteenth and fifteenth lines is read as a man of David's own rank who had studied the Torah with him and walked with him in the house of God, at Rashi on Psalms 55:14:1 and Rashi on Psalms 55:15:1. The curse of the sixteenth line Rashi reads as a prayer that the angel of death be sent against them, at Rashi on Psalms 55:16:1. On the psalmist's wish for wings he writes out the whole picture of flight, at Rashi on Psalms 55:8:1. A Christian reader knows this psalm through the betrayal of Jesus by one of his own, and the Jewish reading keeps the betrayal where the psalm's heading puts it, in David's court. Ibn Ezra stands on this chapter at Ibn Ezra on Psalms 55:2:1, 55:6:1, 55:7:1, 55:9:1, 55:17:1 and 55:24:1 and Radak at Radak on Psalms 55:1:1, and Sefaria holds no English version of those references, so this card cites them without quotation.
What the rabbis say
The corpus records 40 places where the rabbinic literature takes up a line of this psalm, 33 of them in the Midrash. The Midrash on the Psalms treats it at Midrash Tehillim 55:1, 1:11, 3:4, 120:2 and 55:3, Bamidbar Rabbah at Bamidbar Rabbah 18:17, 9:24, 10:4 and 14:1 and Bereshit Rabbah at Bereshit Rabbah 39:8, 60:14, 48:8 and 79:7. The Talmud takes up lines of the psalm at Sanhedrin 106b:22, Jerusalem Talmud Yoma 2:4:6, Jerusalem Talmud Shabbat 2:6:8, Berakhot 20b:5, Berakhot 31a:23, Bava Batra 116a:5 and Jerusalem Talmud Berakhot 9:1:21. Each is a locator, so the saying stands at its reference and is read there.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Psalms, in The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, under a CC-BY licence; Ibn Ezra, Ibn Ezra on Psalms, cited at Ibn Ezra on Psalms 55:2:1, 55:6:1, 55:7:1, 55:9:1, 55:17:1 and 55:24:1; Radak, Radak on Psalms, cited at Radak on Psalms 55:1:1; Midrash Tehillim, the Midrash on the Psalms, cited at Midrash Tehillim 55:1, 1:11, 3:4, 120:2 and 55:3; The Talmud, cited at Sanhedrin 106b:22, Jerusalem Talmud Yoma 2:4:6, Jerusalem Talmud Shabbat 2:6:8, Berakhot 20b:5, Berakhot 31a:23, Bava Batra 116a:5 and Jerusalem Talmud Berakhot 9:1:21; MannaFest, the chapter study of Psalm 55, at /read/psalms/55, 2026; MannaFest, the Sefaria corpus at scripts/data/sources/sefaria/psalms/55.json, fetched 2026-09-19, 2026.
Psalms 55:1-3
Listen to my prayer, O God: The pressure at verse 3 is a voice, and speech stays the weapon through this psalm, in the words softer than oil at verse 21. Verse 2 gives the effect on the man, restless and distraught. The prayer asks only to be heard.
Psalms 55:1
“Give ear to my prayer, O God. The fact is so commonly before us, otherwise we should be surprised to observe how universally and constantly the saints resort to prayer in seasons of distress. From the Great Elder Brother down to the very least of the divine family, all of them delight in prayer. They run as naturally to the mercyseat in time of trouble as the little chickens to the hen in the hour of danger.”
Charles Spurgeon · The Treasury of David, Vol. 3 (1872)Particular Baptist
I am restless in my complaint: David asks to be heard for the third time. Charles Spurgeon read the repetition as bitter earnest, a man who feels that all is over if God does not hear. John Gill notes that the word for complaint can mean his solitary brooding.
Psalms 55:2
“Attend unto me, and hear me,.... So as to answer, and that immediately and directly, his case requiring present help; I mourn in my complaint; or "in my meditation" (p); solitary thoughts, and melancholy views of things.”
1 more voice on this verse
Psalms 55:2
“Attend unto me, and hear me. This is the third time he prays the same prayer. He is in earnest, in deep and bitter earnest. If his God do not hear, he feels that all is over with him. He begs for his God to be a listener and an answerer. I mourn in my complaint, and make a noise. He gives a loose to his sorrows, permits his mind to rehearse her griefs, and to pour them out in such language as suggests itself at the time, whether it be coherent or not.”
Charles Spurgeon · The Treasury of David, Vol. 3 (1872)Particular Baptist
at the voice of the enemy: The enemy has a voice while the man praying has only a complaint. Charles Spurgeon held that slander is seldom short of words, and that neither David nor the Lord escaped venomous tongues. Their anger comes out as reviling.
Psalms 55:3
“Because of the voice of the enemy. The enemy was vocal and voluble enough, and found a voice where his godly victim had nothing better than a "noise." Slander is seldom short of expression, it prates and prattles evermore. Neither David, nor our Lord, nor any of the saints were allowed to escape the attacks of venomous tongues, and this evil was in every case the cause of acute anguish.”
Charles Spurgeon · The Treasury of David, Vol. 3 (1872)Particular Baptist
Psalms 55:4-6
My heart murmurs within me: The terror is named five times over, a murmuring heart, the terrors of death, fear, trembling and horror. Verse 6 answers it with a wish for a dove's wings, to fly away and find rest. Rest is the whole of the wish.
Psalms 55:4
“My heart is sore pained within me. His spirit writhed in agony, like a poor worm; he was mentally as much in pain as a woman in travail physically. His inmost soul was touched; and a wounded spirit who can bear? If this were written when David was attacked by his own favourite son, and ignominiously driven from his capital, he had reason enough for using these expressions. And the terrors of death are fallen upon me.”
Charles Spurgeon · The Treasury of David, Vol. 3 (1872)Particular Baptist
Fear and trembling grip me: Fighting outside has become fear inside. Charles Spurgeon compared the fear to housebreakers entering the soul, and held that sly whispering alarms a noble mind more than open attack. Matthew Henry, reading the psalm against Absalom's revolt, thought the memory of the sin against Uriah added to the fright.
Psalms 55:5
“Fearfulness and trembling are come upon me. Like house breakers these robbers were entering his soul. Like one who feels a fainting fit coming over him, so the oppressed suppliant was falling into a state of terror. His fear was so great as to make him tremble. He did not know what would happen next, or how soon the worst should come. The sly, mysterious whisperings of slander often cause a noble mind more fear than open antagonism; we can be brave against an open foe, but cowardly, plotting conspiracies bewilder and distract us. And horror hath overwhelmed me.”
Charles Spurgeon · The Treasury of David, Vol. 3 (1872)Particular Baptist
1 more voice on this verse
Psalms 55:5
“When without are fightings no marvel that within are fears; and, if it was upon the occasion of Absalom's rebellion, we may suppose that the remembrance of his sin in the matter of Uriah, which God was now reckoning with him for, added as much more to the fright.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
The dove is chosen for its speed and its harmlessness. John Gill set the trembling dove against enemies like a hawk. Charles Spurgeon called the wish a vain desire, since no wings could carry a man away from the sorrow of his own heart.
Psalms 55:6
“And I said, Oh that I had wings like a dove! for then would I fly away, and be at rest. If he could not resist as an eagle, he would escape as a dove. Swiftly, and unobserved, on strong, untiring pinions would he h away from the abodes of slander and wickedness. His love of peace made him sigh for an escape from the scene of strife. We are all too apt to utter this vain desire, for vain it is; no wings of doves or eagles could bear us away from the sorrows of a trembling heart.”
Charles Spurgeon · The Treasury of David, Vol. 3 (1872)Particular Baptist
2 more voices on this verse
Psalms 55:6
“And I said, oh that I had wings like a dove,.... The psalmist pitches upon this creature, partly to suggest that his enemies pursuing him were like the ravenous hawk, and he like the harmless, innocent, and trembling dove; and partly because of its swiftness in flying. Aben Ezra thinks the dove is mentioned, because it is sociable with men, and who send letters by them for quick dispatch, of which instances may be given (r). This wish is expressed suitably to his character and case.”
Psalms 55:6
As for the person who wishes to be lifted up by the hand of Christ, let him first fly away himself, let him have his own wings, for one who flees from the world has wings. And if he does not have wings of his own—and perhaps only the individual who is able to fly has them—if then he does not have his own, let him get them from the one who has them. Thus a person who flees from the world does fly. "Behold, I have gone far off flying away, and I remained in the wilderness."
Ambrose of Milan · written before 397 · Flight from the World 5:30patristic
Psalms 55:7-8
In the wilderness I would remain: The wish goes to the wilderness, the empty country away from the city. The tempest of verse 8 stands for the strife the psalm goes on to name in the city. He asks for a shelter from it.
Psalms 55:7
“Lo, then would I wander far off. Yet when David was far off, he sighed to be once more near Jerusalem; thus, in our ill estate we ever think the past to be better than the present. We shall be called to fly far enough away, and perchance we shall be loath to go; we need not indulge vain notions of premature escape from earth. And remain in the wilderness. He found it none such a dear abode when there, yet resolves now to make it his permanent abode.”
Charles Spurgeon · The Treasury of David, Vol. 3 (1872)Particular Baptist
The wish runs on to a shelter reached in haste. Charles Spurgeon pictured David leaving without a moment's delay, unable to bear the clamour any longer, like a dove outflying a storm. The tempest is the trouble inside the city that verses 9 to 11 describe.
Psalms 55:8
“I would hasten my escape. He tried to pause but could not, like a horse which when pulled up slips on a little because of the speed at which he was going. David declares that he would not waste a moment, or stay to bid adieu to his friends, but up and away at once, for fear he should be too late, and because he could bear the clamour of his foes no longer. From the windy storm and tempest. A storm was brewing, and, like a dove, he would outfly it and reach a calmer region.”
Charles Spurgeon · The Treasury of David, Vol. 3 (1872)Particular Baptist
Psalms 55:9-11
violence and strife in the city: The prayer asks God to confuse and confound their speech, which is what He did at Genesis 11:7. The trouble is inside the city, and verses 10 and 11 keep it there, on the walls, within, and in the streets. Malice, destruction, oppression and deceit are what fill it.
Psalms 55:9
“Destroy--literally, "swallow" (Ps 21:9). divide their tongues--or, "confound their speech," and hence their counsels (Ge 11:7). the city--perhaps Jerusalem, the scene of anarchy. 10, 11. which is described in detail (compare Ps 7:14-16).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Day and night they encircle the walls: The walls meant to guard the city are patrolled by the evil itself. Charles Spurgeon pictured conspirators meeting in the dark and talking in knots in the streets by day. Matthew Henry wrote that wickedness had been made lawful.
Psalms 55:10
“Day and night they go about it upon the walls thereof. The city, the holy city had become a den of wickedness; conspirators met in the dark, and talked in little knots in the streets even in broad daylight. Meanwhile the country was being roused to revolt, and the traitors without threatened to environ the city, and act in concert with the rebels within.”
Charles Spurgeon · The Treasury of David, Vol. 3 (1872)Particular Baptist
1 more voice on this verse
Psalms 55:10
“If he looked into the heart of the city, mischief and injury, mutual wrong and vexation, were in the midst of it: Wickedness, all manner of wickedness, is in the midst thereof. Jusque datum sceleri--Wickedness was legalized.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
oppression and deceit never leave the streets: The streets were the city's public squares. Matthew Henry asked whether this could be Jerusalem, the holy city, in David's own reign. John Gill set the verse beside Isaiah 59:14, where truth has fallen in the street.
Psalms 55:11
“Wickedness is in the midst thereof,.... All manner of wickedness; abominable wickedness; wickedness as arrived to its highest pitch, and as having filled up its measure; see Eze 9:4; deceit and guile depart not from her streets; where truth was fallen, and equity could not enter, Isa 59:14; for these are contrary the one to the other, and are incompatible; where the one prevails, the other must give way.”
1 more voice on this verse
Psalms 55:11
“Is this the character of Jerusalem, the royal city, and, which is more, the holy city, and in David's time too, so soon after the thrones of judgment and the testimony of Israel were both placed there? Is this the city that men call the perfection of beauty?”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Psalms 55:12-14
an enemy who insults me: An enemy he could endure and a foe he could hide from. The blow comes from a man like himself, his companion and close friend, who had walked with him into the house of God. They had shared sweet fellowship together.
Psalms 55:12
“The reader will do well to observe how accurately the psalmist described his own Psalm when he said, "I mourn in my complaint, "or rather "give loose to my thoughts, "for he proceeds from one point of his sorrow to another, wandering on like one in a maze, making few pauses, and giving no distinct intimations that he is changing the subject. Now from the turbulent city his mind turns to the false hearted councillor. For is was not an enemy that reproached me; then I could have borne it.”
Charles Spurgeon · The Treasury of David, Vol. 3 (1872)Particular Baptist
a man like myself, my companion and close friend: The Targum names the friend as Ahithophel, and John Gill takes the words of him literally and of Judas as a type. Matthew Henry notes that Ahithophel was the king's counsellor, and that his joining Absalom discouraged David more than anything in the plot. The friend was an equal.
Psalms 55:13
“But it was thou,.... The Targum is, "but thou Ahithophel"; of whom the words are literally to be understood, and so they are in the Talmud (u); and mystically and typically of Judas; a man mine equal; "a man", and not a beast, nor a devil; but a man, from whom humanity, kindness, and tenderness might have been expected; though both Ahithophel and Judas acted the part of a devil; and the latter is expressly called one, Joh 6:70; "mine equal"; or like unto me; as the Targum.”
2 more voices on this verse
Psalms 55:13
“But it was thou. He sees him. The poetic fury is upon him, he sees the traitor as though he stood before him in flesh and blood. He singles him out, he points his finger at him, he challenges him to his face. But thou. Et tu, Brute. And thou, Ahithophel, art thou here? Judas, betrayest thou the Son of Man? A man mine equal. Treated by me as one of my own rank, never looked upon as an inferior, but as a trusted friend.”
Charles Spurgeon · The Treasury of David, Vol. 3 (1872)Particular Baptist
Psalms 55:13
“The Chaldee-paraphrase names Ahithophel as the person here meant, and nothing in that plot seems to have discouraged David so much as to hear that Ahithophel was among the conspirators with Absalom ( 2 Sam. xv. 31 ), for he was the king's counsellor, 1 Chron. xxvii.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
we walked with the crowd into the house of God: The friendship had been private counsel and public worship at once. Charles Spurgeon held that David had spoken freely before him and kept nothing guarded. Matthew Henry warned that the prayers against such men are to be read as prophecies, never copied into prayers against enemies of our own.
Psalms 55:14
“We took sweet counsel together. It was not merely the counsel which men take together in public or upon common themes, their fellowship had been tender and confidential. The traitor had been treated lovingly, and trusted much. Solace, mutual and cheering, had grown out of their intimate communings. There were secrets between them of no common kind. Soul had been in converse with soul, at least on David's part. However feigned might have been the affection of the treacherous one, the betrayed friend had not dealt with him coldly, or guarded his utterance before him.”
Charles Spurgeon · The Treasury of David, Vol. 3 (1872)Particular Baptist
1 more voice on this verse
Psalms 55:14
“David himself, though a very wise man, was thus imposed upon, which may make similar disappointments the more tolerable to us. His prayers against them, which we are both to stand in awe of and to comfort ourselves in, as prophecies, but not to copy into our prayers against any particular enemies of our own.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
go down to Sheol alive: The psalm asks for death by surprise and for them to go down alive to Sheol, the place of the dead. Numbers 16:30 has the same words, where the earth opened and Korah's company went down alive into Sheol. The ground given is the evil in their homes.
Psalms 55:15
“Let death seize upon them,.... Ahithophel and his accomplices, Judas and the men with him; as a mighty man, as the king of terrors, and shake them to pieces. Or, "let him exact upon them" (a); as a creditor upon the debtor, and demand the debt of punishment for sin: or let him come upon them at an unawares; let them not die a natural, but a violent death.”
2 more voices on this verse
Psalms 55:15
“Not thus would Jesus pray, but the rough soldier David so poured out the anguish of his spirit, under treachery and malice seldom equalled and altogether unprovoked. The soldier, as such, desires the overthrow of his foes, for this very end he fights; and viewed as a matter of law and justice, David was right in his wish; he was waging a just, defensive war against men utterly regardless of truth and justice. Read the words as a warrior's imprecation. Let death seize upon them.”
Charles Spurgeon · The Treasury of David, Vol. 3 (1872)Particular Baptist
Psalms 55:15
“This prayer is a prophecy of the utter, the final, the everlasting ruin of all those who, whether secretly or openly, oppose and rebel against the Lord's Messiah.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Psalms 55:16-19
But I call to God: The psalm turns to prayer at three fixed times, morning, noon and night, and He hears the voice. Verse 18 has God redeeming the soul in peace from the battle, with many opposing him. Verse 19 says they do not change and never fear God.
Psalms 55:16
“As for me, I will call upon God. The psalmist would not endeavour to meet the plots of his adversaries by counterplots, or imitate their incessant violence, but in direct opposition to their godless behaviour would continually resort to his God. Thus Jesus did, and it has been the wisdom of all believers to do the same. As this exemplifies the contrast of their character, so it will foretell the contrast of their end—the righteous shall ascend to their God, the wicked shall sink to ruin. And the Lord shall save me.”
Charles Spurgeon · The Treasury of David, Vol. 3 (1872)Particular Baptist
1 more voice on this verse
Psalms 55:16
“As for me, I will call upon God,.... Not upon a creature, on idols and images, on angels or saints departed; but upon God, in his time of trouble, for salvation and deliverance from enemies; who is able to save.”
Morning, noon, and night: The Hebrew order is evening, morning and noon, counting the day from sunset. Charles Spurgeon read the three times as a line of prayer run right along the day, tracking the sun. Matthew Henry reads the first verb as meditation.
Psalms 55:17
“Evening and morning, and at noon, will I pray. Often but none too often. Seasons of great need call for frequent seasons of devotion. The three periods chosen are most fitting; to begin, continue, and end the day with God is supreme wisdom. Where time has naturally set up a boundary, there let us set up an altar stone. The psalmist means that he will always pray; he will run a line of prayer right along the day, and track the sun with his petitions.”
Charles Spurgeon · The Treasury of David, Vol. 3 (1872)Particular Baptist
1 more voice on this verse
Psalms 55:17
“He will pray fervently: " I will pray and cry aloud. I will meditate " (so the former word signifies); "I will speak with my own heart, and the prayer shall come thence." Then we pray aright when we pray with all that is within us, think first and then pray over our thoughts; for the true nature of prayer is lifting up the heart to God.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
He redeems my soul in peace: The verb is past in the Hebrew, and Spurgeon read the verse as faith seeing the rescue as already done. Matthew Henry takes the many of the last line as those with him, like the chariots of fire round Elisha at 2 Kings 6:17. The Berean reads them as opponents.
Psalms 55:18
“He hath delivered my soul in peace from the battle that was against me. The deliverance has come. Joab has routed the rebels. The Lord has justified the cause of his anointed. Faith sees as well as foresees; to her foresight is sight. He is not only safe but serene, delivered in peace—peace in his inmost soul. For there were many with me; many contending against me.”
Charles Spurgeon · The Treasury of David, Vol. 3 (1872)Particular Baptist
1 more voice on this verse
Psalms 55:18
“There were many with him; for though his subjects deserted him, and went over to Absalom, yet God was with him and the good angels. With an eye of faith he now sees himself surrounded, as Elisha was, with chariots of fire and horses of fire, and therefore triumphs thus, There are many with me, more with me than against me, 2 Kings vi.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
because they do not change: God is the One enthroned for the ages, and the enemies are men who never change. John Wesley read the change they lack as crosses and disappointments, so their unbroken success makes them careless of God. God hears their noise too, as Charles Spurgeon put it.
Psalms 55:19
“God shall hear, and afflict them. They make a noise as well as I, and God will hear them. The voice of slander, malice, and pride, is not alone heard by those whom it grieves, it reaches to heaven, it penetrates the divine ear, it demands vengeance, and shall have it. God hears and delivers his people, he hears and destroys the wicked. Their cruel jests, their base falsehoods, their cowardly insults, their daring blasphemies are heard, and shall be repaid to them by the eternal judge. Even he that abideth of old.”
Charles Spurgeon · The Treasury of David, Vol. 3 (1872)Particular Baptist
1 more voice on this verse
Psalms 55:19
“Eternity - Who is eternal, and therefore unchangeable, and almighty. Because - They meet with no crosses nor disappointments. Therefore - Their success makes them go on securely, without any regard to God, or dread of his judgments.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Psalms 55:20-21
My companion attacks his friends: The charge in verse 20 is a broken covenant, and the man attacked his own friends. Verse 21 sets two pairs against each other, speech smooth as butter over war in the heart, words softer than oil that are swords unsheathed. The weapon in this psalm is a man's speech.
Psalms 55:20
“The psalmist cannot forget the traitor's conduct, and returns again to consider it. He hath put forth his hands against such as be at peace with him. He smites those to whom he had given the hand of friendship, he breaks the bonds of alliance, he is perfidious to those who dwell at ease because of his friendly profession. He hath broken his covenant. The most solemn league he has profaned, he is regardless of oaths and promises.”
Charles Spurgeon · The Treasury of David, Vol. 3 (1872)Particular Baptist
1 more voice on this verse
Psalms 55:20
“He hath put forth his hands,.... The psalmist returns and describes, in this verse Psa 55:3, the cruelty, perfidy, and hypocrisy of his false friend; who had stretched forth his hands against such as be at peace with him, or he pretended to be at peace with.”
His speech is smooth as butter: Butter and oil are soft to the touch, and the words were pleasant to hear. Charles Spurgeon warned that soft words are most plentiful where truth is scarce, and he recalled Jael's tent pin behind the lordly dish. John Gill set the kiss of Judas beside the verse.
Psalms 55:21
“The words of his mouth were smoother than butter. He lauded and larded the man he hoped to devour. He buttered him with flattery and then battered him with malice. Beware of a man who has too much honey on his tongue; a trap is to be suspected where the bait is so tempting. Soft, smooth, oily words are most plentiful where truth and sincerity are most scarce. But war was in his heart. He brought forth butter in a lordly dish, but he had a tent pin ready for the temples of his guest.”
Charles Spurgeon · The Treasury of David, Vol. 3 (1872)Particular Baptist
1 more voice on this verse
Psalms 55:21
“The words of his mouth were smoother than butter,.... Such were the words of Ahithophel, when in counsel with David; and such the words of Judas, when he said to Christ, "hail, master", and kissed him, Mat 26:49; but war was in his heart; even a civil war, rebellion against his prince; that was what Ahithophel meditated in his heart; and nothing less than to take away the life of Christ was designed by Judas.”
Psalms 55:22-23
Cast your burden upon the LORD: The last counsel is to cast the burden on the LORD, who sustains and never lets the righteous be shaken. Verse 23 puts the men of bloodshed and deceit short of half their days. Verse 6 wished for wings, and verse 23 ends on trust.
Psalms 55:22
“Thy burden, or what thy God lays upon thee, lay thou it upon the Lord. His wisdom casts it on thee, it is thy wisdom to cast it on him. He cast thy lot for thee, cast thy lot on him. He gives thee thy portion of suffering, accept it with cheerful resignation, and then take it back to him by thine assured confidence. He shall sustain thee. Thy bread shall be given thee, thy waters shall be sure. Abundant nourishment shall fit thee to bear all thy labours and trials. As thy days so shall thy strength be.”
Charles Spurgeon · The Treasury of David, Vol. 3 (1872)Particular Baptist
2 more voices on this verse
Psalms 55:22
“But do not lament a burden that surpasses your strength. For if you were the one destined to bear this responsibility alone, it would not be merely heavy but utterly unendurable. But, if the Lord is the one who helps you bear it, "Cast your care on the Lord," and he himself will bear it. Only, let me urge you in all things to guard against this—that you be not carried along with others by wicked customs, but that through the wisdom given to you by God you change the formerly adopted evil practices into something good.”
Basil of Caesarea · written before 379 · LETTER 161patristic
Psalms 55:22
“Cast thy burden upon the Lord,.... These are either the words of the Holy Ghost to David, according to Jarchi; or of David to his own soul in distress, and may be directed to any good man in like circumstances.”
will not live out half their days: The Pit is the grave, and the men who planned death for others go down to it early. Matthew Henry takes half their days as not half so long as men ordinarily live. The psalm ends on trust.
Psalms 55:23
“For the ungodly a sure, terrible, and fatal overthrow is appointed. Climb as they may, the pit yawns for them, God himself will cause them to descend into it, and destruction there shall be their portion. Bloody and deceitful men, with double iniquity of cruelty and craft upon them, shall not live out half their days; they shall be cut off in their quarrels, or being disappointed in their artifices, vexation shall end them. They were in heart murderers of others, and they became in reality self murderers.”
Charles Spurgeon · The Treasury of David, Vol. 3 (1872)Particular Baptist
1 more voice on this verse
Psalms 55:23
“Those that are not reclaimed by the rod of affliction will certainly be brought down into the pit of destruction. They are bloody and deceitful men (that is, the worst of men) and therefore shall not live out half their days, not half so long as men ordinarily live, and as they might have lived in a course of nature, and as they themselves expected to live.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
How this psalm is built
The form: A lament over a betrayal from inside the circle, closing in counsel to anyone in the same place, as Wesley classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| The terror named five times | Verses 4 and 5 list the fear rather than summarise it: a murmuring heart, the terrors of death, fear, trembling, and horror that has overwhelmed him. The list is what verse 6 answers with a single wish for wings.Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Psalms, cited in this site's exposition note on Psalm 55:4 to 5. | Psalm 55:4, Psalm 55:5 |
| Speech as the weapon | The pressure of verse 3 is a voice, the prayer of verse 9 asks God to confuse their speech. Verse 21 sets smooth speech over war in the heart, with words softer than oil that are swords unsheathed. The psalm names no blade except a tongue.Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David, Vol. 2, 1870, on Psalm 55:21. | Psalm 55:3, Psalm 55:9, Psalm 55:21 |
| The enemy he could have borne | Verse 12 states twice what would have been endurable, an enemy who insults and a foe who rises, and verse 13 puts the real case against both. Spurgeon reads the moment as the poet pointing at the traitor and challenging him to his face.Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David, Vol. 2, 1870, on Psalm 55:13. | Psalm 55:12, Psalm 55:13, Psalm 55:14 |
| Morning, noon and night | Verse 17 sets the prayer at three fixed times of the day, against a city where violence patrols the walls day and night at verse 10. The habit of the psalm answers the habit of the city.Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710, on Psalm 55:17. | Psalm 55:10, Psalm 55:17 |
The psalm's own pattern is a weight moving from one place to another. It is carried by a man for twenty-one verses, and at verse 22 it is put on the LORD.
8 more paragraphs on the patterns
The New Testament's use
The counsel of verse 22 is the line the church has carried furthest. Peter's instruction to cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you takes up the same picture at 1 Peter 5:7, and the church has read the two together since. Wesley reads the verse as spoken by the psalmist to his own soul and to all good men in the same circumstances, which is how it became a general counsel rather than one man's resolution.
Where it points
Two lines borrow from Israel's own story. The prayer of verse 9 asks God to confuse their speech, which is what He did at Genesis 11:7. The request of verse 15 that they go down to Sheol alive uses the words of Numbers 16:30, where the earth opened under Korah's company. The site's exposition notes record both.
The debate
Who the friend of verses 13 and 14 was is open. The Chaldee paraphrase names Ahithophel, and Henry reports it and adds that nothing in Absalom's plot discouraged David more than hearing that his counsellor had joined it. Augustine reads the verse without a name, as any man who once gave good counsel and walked to the house of God in the same crowd. The psalm supplies no name, so both readings stand and neither is settled here.
Where it stands
It belongs beside Psalm 41, the other psalm of a friend's betrayal, and beside Psalm 52, where the harm is done by an informer from outside the circle.
Keep studying
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The form and classifications
Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David, Vol. 2, 1870, on Psalm 55:13 and John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament, 1765, on Psalm 55:22.
The exposition
Albert Barnes, Notes on the Book of Psalms; Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David; Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Psalms; Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.
The painting
Sower with Setting Sun. Vincent van Gogh, mid July 1888. Sotheby's, New York, 18 November 2025, lot 4. Public domain.