Context No. 2650 of 4322 · Psalms

Psalms 55:1-16: in context

1Listen to my prayer, God. Don’t hide yourself from my supplication. 2Attend to me, and answer me. I am restless in my complaint, and moan 3because of the voice of the enemy, because of the oppression of the wicked. For they bring suffering on me. In anger they hold a grudge against me. 4My heart is severely pained within me. The terrors of death have fallen on me. 5Fearfulness and trembling have come on me. Horror has overwhelmed me. 6I said, “Oh that I had wings like a dove! Then I would fly away, and be at rest. 7Behold, then I would wander far off. I would lodge in the wilderness.” Selah. 8“I would hurry to a shelter from the stormy wind and storm.” 9Confuse them, Lord, and confound their language, for I have seen violence and strife in the city. 10Day and night they prowl around on its walls. Malice and abuse are also within her. 11Destructive forces are within her. Threats and lies don’t depart from her streets. 12For it was not an enemy who insulted me, then I could have endured it. Neither was it he who hated me who raised himself up against me, then I would have hidden myself from him. 13But it was you, a man like me, my companion, and my familiar friend. 14We took sweet fellowship together. We walked in God’s house with company. 15Let death come suddenly on them. Let them go down alive into Sheol. For wickedness is among them, in their dwelling. 16As for me, I will call on God. The LORD will save me.

David pours out a prayer of anguish, restless and moaning, wishing he had wings like a dove to fly away and be at rest. But the wound that cuts is not from an enemy. It was not an enemy who insulted me, he says, then I could have borne it; it was you, a man my equal, my companion, my familiar friend. We took sweet counsel together and walked to the house of God in company. The wound comes from someone close.

There is a particular agony to betrayal by a friend. An enemy's attack we can brace for; a friend's, we cannot, because we let them near, trusted them, shared the house of God with them. David does not pretend the wound is small or that he is above the pain; he names it, the sweet fellowship now turned, the familiar friend now against him. And yet the psalm does not end in bitterness. As for me, he says, I will call on God, and the LORD will save me. He takes the friend's betrayal, one of the deepest human wounds, straight to God. Centuries later, another would be betrayed by a companion who ate at his table.

How do I carry the wound of a friend's betrayal, do I nurse it in bitterness, or take it, named honestly, to the God who saves?

Sources

Psalm 55:12: For it was not an enemy who insulted me, then I could have endured it.
Psalm 55:13: But it was you, a man like me, my companion, and my familiar friend.
Psalm 55:16: As for me, I will call on God. The LORD will save me.