Psalms 55:23

bloody . . . days--(compare Ps 5:6; 51:14), deceit and murderous dispositions often united. The threat is directed specially (not as a general truth) against the wicked, then in the writer's view.

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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. Doubt not that virtue lengthens life, and that vice tends to shorten it. But I will trust in thee. A very wise, practical conclusion. We can have no better ground of confidence. The Lord is all, and more than all that faith can need as the foundation of peaceful dependence. Lord, increase our faith evermore.

But thou, O God, shalt bring them down into the pit of destruction - The Chaldee is emphatic: “And thou, O Lord, by thy Word (במימרך bemeymerach) shalt thrust them into the deep gehenna, the bottomless pit, whence they shall never come out; the pit of destruction, where all is amazement, horror, anguish, dismay, ruin, endless loss, and endless suffering.” Bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days - So we find, if there be an appointed time to man upon earth, beyond which he cannot pass; yet he may so live as to provoke the justice of God to cut him off before he arrives at that period; yea, before he has reached half way to that limit. According to the decree of God, he might have lived the other half; but he has not done it. But I will trust in thee - Therefore I shall not be moved, and shall live out all the days of my appointed time. The fathers in general apply the principal passages of this Psalm to our Lord’s sufferings, the treason of Judas, and the wickedness of the Jews; but these things do not appear to me fairly deducible from the text. It seems to refer plainly enough to the rebellion of Absalom. “The consternation and distress expressed in Psa 55:4-8, describe the king’s state of mind when he fled from Jerusalem, and marched up the mount of Olives, weeping. The iniquity cast upon the psalmist answers to the complaints artfully laid against the king by his son of a negligent administration of justice: and to the reproach of cruelty cast upon him by Shimei, 2Sa 15:2, 2Sa 15:4; 2Sa 16:7, 2Sa 16:8. The equal, the guide, and the familiar friend, we find in Ahithophel, the confidential counsellor, first of David, afterwards of his son Absalom. The buttery mouth and oily words describe the insidious character of Absalom, as it is delineated, 2Sa 15:5-9. […]

But thou, O God, shalt bring them down into the pit of destruction - The word “them,” here evidently refers to the enemies of the psalmist; the wicked people who were arrayed against him, and who sought his life. The “pit of destruction” refers here to the grave, or to death, considered with reference to the fact that they would be “destroyed” or “cut off,” or would not die in the usual course of nature. The meaning is, that God would come forth in his displeasure, and cut them down for their crimes. The word “pit” usually denotes “a well,” or “cavern” Gen 14:10; Gen 37:20; Exo 21:34, but is often used to denote the grave (Job 17:16; Job 33:18, Job 33:24; Psa 9:15; Psa 28:1; Psa 30:3, Psa 30:9, et al.); and the idea here is that they would be cut off for their sins. The word “destruction” is added to denote that this would be by some direct act, or by punishment inflicted by the hand of God. Bloody and deceitful men - Margin, as in Hebrew, “Men of bloods and deceit.” The allusion is to people of violence; people who live by plunder and rapine; and especially to such people considered as false, unfaithful, and treacherous - as they commonly are. The special allusion here is to the enemies of David, and particularly to such as Ahithophel - men who not only sought his life, but who had proved themselves to be treacherous and false to him. Shall not live out half their days - Margin, as in Hebrew, “shall not halve their days.” So the Septuagint, and the Latin Vulgate. The statement is general, not universal. The meaning is, that they do not live half as long as they might do, and would do, if they were “not” bloody and deceitful. Beyond all question this is true. Such people are either cut off in strife and conflict, in personal affrays in duels, or in battle; or they are arrested for their crimes, and punished by an ignominious death. […]