Psalm 55--Cast Your Burden on the LORD

Psalm 55
English Standard Version

Cast Your Burden on the LORD
To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments. A Maskil of David.
55 Give ear to my prayer, O God,
    and hide not yourself from my plea for mercy!
2 Attend to me, and answer me;
    I am restless in my complaint and I moan,
3 because of the noise of the enemy,
    because of the oppression of the wicked.
For they drop trouble upon me,
    and in anger they bear a grudge against me.

4 My heart is in anguish within me;
    the terrors of death have fallen upon me.
5 Fear and trembling come upon me,
    and horror overwhelms me.
6 And I say, “Oh, that I had wings like a dove!
    I would fly away and be at rest;
7 yes, I would wander far away;
    I would lodge in the wilderness; Selah
8 I would hurry to find a shelter
    from the raging wind and tempest.”

9 Destroy, O Lord, divide their tongues;
    for I see violence and strife in the city.
10 Day and night they go around it
    on its walls,
and iniquity and trouble are within it;
11     ruin is in its midst;
oppression and fraud
    do not depart from its marketplace.

12 For it is not an enemy who taunts me--
    then I could bear it;
it is not an adversary who deals insolently with me--
    then I could hide from him.
13 But it is you, a man, my equal,
    my companion, my familiar friend.
14 We used to take sweet counsel together;
    within God's house we walked in the throng.
15 Let death steal over them;
    let them go down to Sheol alive;
    for evil is in their dwelling place and in their heart.

16 But I call to God,
    and the LORD will save me.
17 Evening and morning and at noon
    I utter my complaint and moan,
    and he hears my voice.
18 He redeems my soul in safety
    from the battle that I wage,
    for many are arrayed against me.
19 God will give ear and humble them,
    he who is enthroned from of old, Selah
because they do not change
    and do not fear God.

20 My companion stretched out his hand against his friends;
    he violated his covenant.
21 His speech was smooth as butter,
    yet war was in his heart;
his words were softer than oil,
    yet they were drawn swords.

22 Cast your burden on the LORD,
    and he will sustain you;
he will never permit
    the righteous to be moved.
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23 But you, O God, will cast them down
    into the pit of destruction;
men of blood and treachery
    shall not live out half their days.
But I will trust in you.

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The beginning of this psalm sounds much like the beginning of Psalm 13, which was our text that we Pastor Kyle preached from yesterday.  In fact, this almost seems to be a longer, fuller version of that short prayer.  David cries out to the LORD for help but feels like the LORD is nowhere to be found, and that the LORD has not answered him.  He gives his reasons that he is crying out, for his enemies are winning and the wicked are oppressing the innocent.  David needs the LORD to step in and provide both justice and salvation.

Both of these things--seeing the people suffer, and the personal attacks against David--make his heart suffer, and David is even at the point of fearing death.  Like we mentioned yesterday, we don't have a specific event given to us in the superscript for this psalm, but it's not hard to imagine that perhaps this psalm is from a time when David is running from King Saul.  Certainly, that would fit the bill of there being injustice done to him and his people and David's life being in peril.  David wishes he could be like a bird that could fly away from his problems and rest in the wilderness until the trouble is over.  He would find shelter somewhere from the "raging tempest" until the LORD's justice and salvation had been provided.  (This sounds a lot like what the LORD is going to do for His people in the end when they will likely escape to a mountain fortress when the plagues of His wrath are poured out on the wicked in the end times).

David wants that judgment against the wicked to come right now.  He wants them to be revealed for who they are and for them to stand before the LORD as judge.  They are polluted the city and the marketplace with their wickedness and iniquity.  However, it is not the actions and the taunts of the wicked men that have put David into so much anguish.  No, it is the betrayal of someone close to him that he loved very much (probably Saul, but it could be someone else).  This was someone that he had deep conversations with and worshiped with.  David feels so betrayed that he wants the LORD to throw this person into "the grave" alive--I think it's fair to say that David wants God to send this adversary "straight to hell."  In Davd's mind, the trial can be skipped because everyone knows this man is guilty as charged.

That's what David feels, and he's being honest about it, but David then makes sure his feelings are in alignment with God's nature and character and Word.  David says he will not take vengeance for himself, but he will trust in the LORD to provide salvation for him, even if he has to cry out in anguish day and night until it comes.  David knows the LORD hears him, even if the LORD seems like He's ignoring David and his request.  God has always saved David in the past, even when he faced numerous foes from which he was outnumbered and trapped on every side.  He had no need to fear this time--he just needed to be patient and wait on the LORD to act.

David knows the LORD will get justice for him--he needs not seek vengeance.  He will be vindicated in the eyes of men by the actions of the LORD when the LORD destroys these evil, wicked men for their treachery.  They will have short lifespans, but David will rest and trust in the LORD and His unfailing, steadfast love (even though that's not directly mentioned here, that's the end of Psalm 13, and I think David rests in that truth here in Psalm 55 as well).