About this sermon
Psalm 55 turns from lament to confidence: cast your burden upon the Lord, and he will sustain you. David calls on God evening, morning, and noon, like Daniel after him, and he trusts God to bring the treacherous and unrepentant down to the pit. Vengeance belongs to the Lord, and the psalm reminds God’s people that they fight a spiritual war that Christ has already won. The church casts its burdens on God and prays that his enemies will become his friends in Christ.
Sermon transcript
remain standing for the reading of God’s Word. This evening we continue our consideration of the imprecatory Psalms, and in particular we continue our study of Psalm 55. On the last Lord’s Day we consider the first 15 verses. This evening we’ll consider verses 16-23, the second part of this psalm, but I want to read this psalm in its entirety to give the fuller context. So, dear friends, let us hear God’s holy word. This is entitled, for the choir director on stringed instruments, A Mascule of David. Give ear to my prayer, O God, and do not hide yourself from my supplication. Give heed to me and answer me. I am restless in my complaint and am surely distracted. because of the voice of the enemy, because of the pressure of the wicked. For they bring down trouble upon me, and in anger they bear a grudge against me.
My heart is in anguish within me, and the terrors of death have fallen upon me. Fear and trembling come upon me, and horror has overwhelmed me. I said, oh, that I had wings like a dove. I would fly away and be at rest. Behold, I would wander far away. I would lodge in the wilderness, Selah. I would hasten to my place of refuge from the stormy wind and tempest. Confused, O Lord, divide their tongues, for I have seen violence and strife in the city. Day and night they go around her upon her walls, and iniquity and mischief are in her midst. Destruction is in her midst. Oppression and deceit do not depart from her streets. For it is not an enemy who reproaches me, then I could bear it. Nor is it one who hates me who has exalted himself against me.
Then I could hide myself from him. But it is you, a man my equal, my companion, and my familiar friend. We who had sweet fellowship together walked in the house of God in the throng. Let death come deceitfully upon them. Let them go down alive to Sheol, for evil is in their dwelling in their midst. As for me, I shall call upon God. and the Lord will save me. Evening and morning and at noon I will complain and murmur, and He will hear my voice. He will redeem my soul in peace from the battle which is against me, for they are many who strive with me. God will hear and answer them, even the one who sits enthroned from of old, Selah, with whom there is no change and who do not fear God. He has put forth his hands against those who were at peace with him.
He has violated his covenant. His speech was smoother than butter, but his heart was war. His words were softer than oil, yet they were drawn swords. Cast your burden upon the Lord and he will sustain you. He will never allow the righteous to be shaken, but you, O God, will bring them down to the pit of destruction. Men of bloodshed and deceit will not live out half their days, but I will trust in you. The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God endures forever. Let us pray. Dear Lord and Father in heaven, how thankful we are for the Holy Scriptures. They are indeed a lamp unto our feet, a light into our path. And we thank you, O God, especially for the book of Psalms. We thank you, O God, for these wonderful, inspired prayers of your word, that we can take these prayers upon our lips, O God, and express our hearts to you.
We ask, O Lord, as we consider this portion of the book of Psalms in Psalm 55, that your spirit would open our minds and our hearts, that we might behold wondrous things from your word, that we might take instruction, that we would take these truths to heart and ponder them and mull over them, that they might become part of our piety, our prayer unto you. We ask all of these things in Christ’s name, and we ask, O Lord, that in this psalm you would show us Jesus. In his name we pray, and all of God’s people said, Amen. You may be seated. I’m sorry that I did not get you a sermon outline for this evening’s sermon, but there are a number of keywords that you can be listening for if you find that helpful.
Let me just name a couple. The words confidence, treachery, burden, imprecation, deliverance, and prayer. Well, dear ones, on this Lord’s Day evening, as I mentioned, we continue our consideration of Psalm 55 as we’ve been exploring a number of the so-called imprecatory psalms. Now, remember that the term imprecation means curse, and an imprecatory prayer, or a psalm that is described as an imprecatory psalm, is a psalm that contains prayers for God to bring his righteous judgment and wrath upon those who are impenitent and settled in their opposition to God and God’s kingdom as well as God’s King, King David. As I pointed out last week, Psalm 55 has the characteristics of what Bible scholars call an individual lament. So it is an individual lament psalm. As one scholarly note that introduces this psalm puts it, and I quote, like many laments, this psalm bemoans the attack of enemies.
Most unusual is the sorrow over betrayal by a friend. The psalm descends to the pits of despair, but turns at the end toward the Lord with hope. And then the commentator says this, and I think this is very important. The psalm anticipates the suffering of Christ, who is betrayed by Judas, a disciple of his inner circle. Friends, in this psalm, David’s words of distress and suffering at the hands of violent, wicked men, exemplify and point forward to the redemptive sufferings of Christ our Lord, our Lord who is himself the suffering servant-king, our Lord who is great David’s greater son, the anti-type of whom King David was but a type.” Now, what was the historical background? to this psalm. What was the historical incident that led David, under the Spirit’s guidance and inspiration, to pen this beautiful and powerful psalm?
Well, the honest answer to that question is that we simply don’t know with any degree of certainty. We don’t know who in particular David had in mind when he describes in this psalm the traitorous, quote, friend and confidant who had betrayed him. Although a number of individuals might vie for that possibility, some suggest that David is here describing his traitorous son Absalom, who led a conspiracy to kill his father and seize his father’s throne. Others suggest that this would better describe David’s trusted counselor Ahithophel, Remember, Ahithophel had treacherously abandoned his loyalty to David and had joined in on Absalom’s insurrection. And both of those men would be possible men who would fit well the description of David’s treacherous friend as described in this psalm. But in any case, as I pointed out on the last Lord’s Day, all of this supports the view and reminds us of the fact that the Psalms are not ultimately the prayers of King David, nor the prayers of Asaph, nor the prayers of the sons of Korah, nor of any of the other psalmists whom the Holy Spirit employed to pen these inspired poems.
The Psalms, these inspired prayers and songs and poems that we find in the book of Psalms, these Psalms are ultimately the prayers of our Lord Jesus Christ. whose spirit moved David, David being a type of Christ, and other psalmists to pen their compositions by divine inspiration. And I would suggest to you, brothers and sisters, that if you approach the Psalms as the prayers of Christ, as you take those prayers upon your lips, as we pray the Psalms, as we sing the Psalms, we are praying and singing the prayers of King Jesus, great David’s greater son. Now, as an aside, some might say, well, wait a minute, Pastor, that doesn’t make sense because some of the Psalms contain confessions of sin. How could that represent the prayers of Jesus? Jesus had no sin, which is true.
He was the sinless one, the sinless son of God. But remember, my friends, that though Jesus is the sinless, thoughtless lamb of God, he had no sin. He never had sin. He never He never became a sinner, yet we are told in Scripture that Jesus identified, as our Savior, He identified with our sin. He took our sin upon Himself. As Paul writes, He who knew no sin became sin for us so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. Not that Jesus personally Himself became a sinner, but He took our sin upon Himself. And so, as the Spirit of Christ prays, these confessions of sin, for example, in the Scriptures, that represents Christ praying in union with his people, having taken their sins upon himself, having served as our sin-bearer, our substitute. I just wanted to kind of, I know that’s a little bit of off-roading there, but let’s bring it back to the imprecatory Psalms.
If these Psalms that pray for God to bring his destruction, his righteous judgment upon his settled enemies, these imprecations that are so troublesome to so many Christians. If we view these imprecatory psalms as the war psalms of Jesus the Prince of Peace, again to borrow from the title of a book by that name written by Reverend James Adams, if that is the case, then again, as we continue our consideration of these imprecations, we see them as representing the cries of our King Jesus. They are his cries to the Father as he engages in holy spiritual warfare against Satan and Satan’s pseudo-kingdom. So, with all of this kind of background information in mind, let’s again orient ourselves toward our passage for this evening. On the last Lord’s Day, we considered, as I mentioned, the first 15 verses of this psalm.
Psalm 55 begins with David in a very dark place. David writes this poem from a place of both deep distress and existential danger. We saw that in the opening section of the psalm in verses one through three, We consider David’s desperate prayer for God’s help as he cries out, Give ear to my prayer, O God, and do not hide yourself from my supplication. Give heed to me and answer me. I’m restless in my complaint. I’m surely distracted. We can feel the pathos of David as he cries out in anguish for deliverance from the Lord. In verses four through eight, we consider David’s description of the anguish that he had experienced as he goes into great detail about how the terrors of death, look at verse four, my heart is in anguish within me. The terrors of death have fallen upon me.
Fear and trembling come upon me. Horror has overwhelmed me. And he just wants to escape. He wants to, he longs to become a dove and just be able to fly away and escape from his circumstances. And in verses from verses nine through 15, we consider David’s plea for God to manifest his justice against the enemies of God’s king and God’s kingdom. And this is where the imprecations, the prayers for judgment come in. As he says, not only prays in verse nine for God to confuse his enemies and divide their tongues, hearkening back to the Tower of Babel, for example, but also praying for the destruction of his enemies. And especially as you look at verse verse 15, as he describes the betrayal of his so-called friend who betrayed him. He says, let death come deceitfully upon them.
Let them go down alive to shale, like Dathan and Abiram, being swallowed up by the earth. Let them go down alive to shale, for evil is in their dwelling, in their midst. But after crying out to God in the first part of this psalm, in a lament of great emotion over being betrayed by a trusted friend and confidant. In this second part of Psalm 55, there’s a change. We see David’s faith rekindled. We see his hope revived. We see him beginning to emerge from the pit into a place of hope as he cast his burden upon the Lord and as he looks to his God for deliverance and vindication. As I hope to underscore, in this sermon this evening, that’s really what the so-called imprecatory Psalms are pointing us to. We are not to take vengeance upon ourselves.
We’re not to engage in personal revenge against personal enemies. Indeed, we are to pray for and love even our enemies. But when it comes to God’s settled enemies who seek to destroy his church and which seek to tear us down and and weigh us down with burdens. David reminds us here, we are to cast our burdens upon the Lord, and we can have hope because the Lord will hear us. And so let’s dive in. Let’s consider, first of all, from verses 16 through 19. We have here David expressing prayerful confidence that God will hear and act to deliver his servant. Prayerful confidence that God will hear and act to deliver his servant. Verse 16, David says, As for me, I shall call upon God. He has been calling upon God. He’s been calling upon God from this pit of despair, this pit of anguish.
But then he goes on to say, And the Lord will save me. Notice the word Lord there, all capital letters. What does that indicate? That’s an indication from the English translators that they are translating the Hebrew word for the covenant name of God, Yahweh. Even though David is so distressed by the enemies that surround him and seek to tear him down, and the violent men who threaten him and put him in danger, yet He still looks to his God as Yahweh, the faithful covenant God, the God who had promised David the kingdom, a secure and stable kingdom. Indeed, the God who had promised that David’s dynasty would be an everlasting dynasty because great David’s greater son would be the Messiah and God shall not go back on his promise. So the Lord Yahweh will indeed deliver him, save him.
And then he goes on to say, again, from the pit of dark despair, the light of hope begins to dawn as David resorts to prayer and trust in Yahweh for salvation from his enemies. And then in verse 17, he says, evening and morning and at noon, I will complain and murmur. These references to complaining and murmuring are, he will do so in prayer. He will bring his complaints. He will bring his burdens. to the Lord, calling upon the Lord. And what is his view? I’ll do it, but it’s not going to do any good. My prayers are going to bounce off the ceiling, right? No, he says he will hear my voice. Note. Note the confidence that David that emerges in David’s prayer here. Verse 16, the Lord will save me. Verse 17, he will hear my voice.
God hasn’t abandoned me, God continues to heed my voice. Now, this phraseology of evening and morning and at noon, crying out, complaining to God, obviously in prayer and lament, some see here a reference to the practice of three set prayer times per day. Prayer in the morning, prayer at noon, prayer in the evening. And we see that pattern sometimes in Scripture, for example, We see that pattern practiced by the prophet Daniel. If you look at Daniel chapter 6 verse 10, in fact, this is one of the things that got Daniel in trouble with his personal enemies. Daniel chapter 6 verse 10, what does it say there? It says, Now when Daniel knew that the document was signed, the document that said you’re not allowed to worship any god for a month but the king, when Daniel knew that the document was signed, he entered his house, Now in his roof chamber, he had windows open toward Jerusalem.
He prayed towards the holy city, toward the place of the temple where God had dwelt. And what does he do? Does he pray secretly? Does he make sure no one sees him? Nope. King says, you’re not allowed to pray to anyone but me. Daniel says, nope. I’m going to continue to pray to the true and living God. He opens up the windows towards Jerusalem. And what does it say? He continued kneeling on his knees three times a day, praying and giving thanks before his God as he had been doing previously. Now, back to our psalm, some suggest that, well, that’s what the psalmist here, that’s what David is referring to, his practice of praying formally three times a day. And perhaps David did that, but I tend to think that Dr. Willem van Gemmeren’s view makes more sense of the terminology of evening and morning and noon when he says these three temporal references, however, need not be limited to three specific prayers.
Rather, they express totality. In other words, Lord, I will pray throughout the day, not just in the morning, not just in the evening, not just at noon, but throughout the day. David is persistent in prayer, though David is in anguish, though David has experienced betrayal, he does not give up. He perseveres in prayer, just like our Lord Jesus Christ, great David’s greater son, was a model of persevering prayer. Jesus always made time, our Lord Jesus always made time to commune with God the Father in prayer. And then verse 18, David goes on to say, again expressing confidence in the Lord, he will redeem my soul in peace from the battle which is against me. For there are many who strive with me.” Obviously, he had that one friend who had betrayed him in mind, but other enemies as well he has in mind.
And again, he expresses confidence that God will redeem him, rescue him from all of his foes. And then verse 19, God will hear and answer them, even the one who sits enthroned from of old. Isn’t that an interesting description of our God? He is the one who sits enthroned. Who sits on the throne? The king. Royalty. David knows that God is sovereign. That God rules. That he is in control. And that is the foundation of his confidence. God is a faithful covenant-making, covenant-keeping God. And God sits, this covenant-keeping God, who had made promises to David that covenant-keeping God is enthroned from of old. He is the eternal King. And then it goes on to say, with whom there is no change, and who do not fear God. Now, here’s where it gets a little bit confusing in the Hebrew.
The line, with whom there is no change, does that refer to God? Certainly the Bible teaches that our God does not change. He is not a fickle God. change his mood. He is the same yesterday and today and forever. But others suggest that this reference to the one who does not change is referring to sinners who refuse to change, who refuse to repent, and who do not fear God. So, technically speaking, with whom there is no change could refer to the Lord, the one who sits enthroned from of old, or it could refer to David’s enemies, who refuse to repent and change their ways. The NASV that I’m using as the English translation that I’m preaching from, it’s a literal translation. It kind of leaves it a little bit ambiguous. But other English translations seem to be a little more definite.
For example, in the ESV, if you’re following along in the ESV, it says, because they do not change and do not fear God. Revised Standard Version reads, because they keep no law and do not fear God. And the NIV translates it, men who never change their ways and have no fear of God. I tend to think that David is probably referring here because he begins to focus not on God, but on those who do not fear God upon the wicked. I think this line, with whom there is no change, as probably referring to David’s enemies. And certainly, friends, it is a dangerous thing to refuse repentance, to refuse to change your ways and turn from them to the Lord God and to lack in fear of God. The bottom line, beloved, as we would put it in our New Testament lingo from the New Testament scriptures, David is basically expressing the view here that greater is he who is in us than he who is in the world.
He’s basically saying, like Paul would say, if God is for us, who can be against us? David knew that in his sovereign mercy, God was for him, for David, and for those whom David, as the theocratic king, represented. And if God is for him, who can be against him? Not even these violent enemies, not even Again, I know that we are familiar with this passage, but this psalm reminds me of what the Apostle Paul writes in Romans 8, verses 31 to 34. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? We have greater enemies in the flesh than a king like King David had. We have the world, the flesh, and the devil. But Jesus Christ has conquered them all. God is for us who can be against us.
Verse 30-32. He who did not spare his own son, but delivered him over for us all. How will he not also with him freely give us all things? Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies. Who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is he who died. Yes, rather, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God. who also intercede for us. Brothers and sisters in Christ, may that wonderful truth give you the kind of confidence that David expresses here in this portion of Psalm 55. May you and I say with David, as for me, I shall call upon God and the Lord will save me. The Lord will hear my voice. But as we move on in this section of the Psalm, Notice next the treachery of David’s, quote, friend, as it is described here in verses 20 and 21.
What we have here in verses 20 and 21 is David describing the treachery of his so-called friend, the one who had betrayed him. It says in verse 20, and here David again is speaking of this betrayer, he put forth his hand against those who were at peace with him. He violated his covenant. David’s traitorous friend was a covenant breaker. What is a covenant? We could spend a lot of sermons preaching on that subject, but to whittle it down to simple terms, a covenant is a solemn agreement with sanctions that are imposed for the breaking of the covenant and blessings for keeping that covenant. David’s friend was one who had made covenants covenant of friendship with him. He trusted this individual, but this individual with vileness and hardness of heart turned away from his loyalty to David, broke the covenant.
And then verse 21, it says, His speech was smoother than butter, but his heart was war. He was so smooth talking on the outside. Ever met anyone like that? Someone who just overwhelms you with their friendly personality and so smooth talking. But then when you get to know them, their words become like daggers. His heart was war. In other words, he was deceptive. He was intentionally deceptive and evil in his behavior towards David. Because even though his outward speech sounded wonderful, His heart was war. His words were softer than oil, yet they were drawn swords. To quote from one commentator, his heart was actuated by malice for all the suavity of his speech. His former words, interpreted now by his subsequent action, are like sword thrusts in the heart. Again, all of this anticipates the malicious deception of Christ’s betrayer, Judas Iscariot.
Judas was himself deceptive and intentional in his evil scheming against our Savior. Judas was not simply a misguided unbeliever who got it wrong theologically. Judas was an intentional, willful deceiver and schemer. And Judas betrayed his master, not with a slap or with a punch or with a sword thrust. How did Judas betray his master? Do you remember? He betrayed his master. He said, friend, betrayed him with a kiss. And how that must have crushed our Lord’s spirit. Jesus knew it was going to happen. Jesus, in his divine nature, knew. what Judas was going to do. But still, Judas was among our Lord’s trusted confidants. Judas was among the inner circle of his disciples. And so what Judas did was inexcusable. Again, this passage reminds us that the imprecatory prayers of the Psalms are directed against the settled enemies of God and God’s kingdom.
They’re not directed against personal enemies that you might have a personal vendetta against, or people that you might not happen to like very much. It’s against the enemies of God and God’s kingdom. They are not prayers calling for personal vengeance against merely personal enemies. They are kingdom-focused prayers. We see that as David prays against his so-called friend who betrayed him who broke covenant with him and proved himself to be a settled, impenitent enemy of God and God’s people. And so, what is the conclusion of this matter? What is the conclusion of Psalm 55? The conclusion is, brothers and sisters, cast your burden upon the Lord. Cast your burden upon the Lord. Verse 22, cast your burden upon the Lord, upon Yahweh. the faithful covenant God and Savior who sent his son Jesus to redeem you and me from our sins, beloved.
Cast your burden upon the Lord and what’s the promise? He will sustain you. He will never allow the righteous to be shaken. It doesn’t mean God promises to make life easy for us if we are rightly related to him. Indeed, those who are saved, those who are justified those who are among the righteous in this present age often face many obstacles, many persecutions, many sufferings, many troubles and trials. But he will never allow us to be shaken in the ultimate sense. He keeps us in his sovereign care. He guards us. He shepherds us. Verse 22 But you, O God, will bring them down to the pit of destruction. Men of bloodshed and deceit, like Judas Iscariot, like this enemy of David that he mentions, this betrayer of David, will not live out half their days.
But how does he end this psalm? Not on the note of bitterness towards his former friend who had betrayed him, but on a note of trust and confidence in the God who had redeemed him. the God who had raised him up to be a king, the God who continued to abide with him even through all of his trials as the theocratic king of Israel. Here we see confidence that God will sustain and preserve the righteous from ultimate destruction, but will also bring the unrepentant wicked down to the grave, to the pit of destruction. Again, ultimately, the imprecatory Psalms direct us to cast our burdens upon the Lord. It’s not for you or for me to bring judgment or vengeance upon the unrepentant wicked. Vengeance belongs to the Lord. The imprecatory Psalms remind us of that.
They also remind us that the scriptures also remind us that we are engaged in a spiritual warfare, the kingdom of God against the kingdom of Satan. Oftentimes on the outside, it looks like Satan’s kingdom is doing pretty well and the kingdom of God is not fair and too well. But we walk by faith, not by sight, because in Christ we are already victorious. And he has promised never to leave us nor forsake us. Whatever your circumstances, brothers and sisters in Christ, whatever our circumstances together as a church, may we cast our burdens upon the Lord, trusting in his justice in due time. and also praying for his mercy upon those who now oppose his kingdom. May we pray that those who are now his kingdom enemies might be converted and become his friends in Christ.
Amen. Let us pray. Our Lord and Father in heaven, we thank you, O God, for the richness of Holy Scripture, for these rich prayers in the book of Psalms, We pray, Heavenly Father, that you would give us grace to take these truths to heart and grant us grace, Lord, as we face the burdens of walking with you in this present evil world. May we cast our burdens upon you, and we thank you, Lord Jesus, that you take our burdens off of us, that you’ve borne our burdens on the cross so that we might find that your yoke is easy, your burden is light. May we find our rest in you. In your name we pray and all of God’s people said, Amen.
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