Psalm 55
Lord’s Day, October 4, 2020
First Christian Church, Owensville, IN
Bart W. Newton, Preaching Minister
(Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations taken from The Holy Bible: English Standard Version.)
To hear an audio recording of this sermon, click on the following line: “Psalms of Cursing & Vengeance. Really?”
• What do we do with prayers from Psalms that include these kinds of requests to God?
• Psalm 109:6-15: 6 Appoint a wicked man against him;
let an accuser stand at his right hand.
7 When he is tried, let him come forth guilty;
let his prayer be counted as sin!
8 May his days be few;
may another take his office!
9 May his children be fatherless
and his wife a widow!
10 May his children wander about and beg,
seeking food far from the ruins they inhabit!
11 May the creditor seize all that he has;
may strangers plunder the fruits of his toil!
12 Let there be none to extend kindness to him,
nor any to pity his fatherless children!
13 May his posterity be cut off;
may his name be blotted out in the second generation!
14 May the iniquity of his fathers be remembered before the Lord,
and let not the sin of his mother be blotted out!
15 Let them be before the Lord continually,
that he may cut off the memory of them from the earth! (ESV)
• Psalm 137:7-9: 7 Remember, O Lord, against the Edomites
the day of Jerusalem,
how they said, “Lay it bare, lay it bare,
down to its foundations!”
8 O daughter of Babylon, doomed to be destroyed,
blessed shall he be who repays you
with what you have done to us!
9 Blessed shall he be who takes your little ones
and dashes them against the rock! (ESV)
• Is it ever appropriate for us to pray those kinds of prayers? Is there a way to pray this way without sinning? That’s what we’re going to consider today. We’re going to use Psalm 55 as an example:
Psalm 55: To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments. A Maskil of David.
1Give 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.
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. (ESV)
• “When we read the Psalms, we are meant to learn things about God and about human nature and about how life is to be lived. Some poetry makes no claim to instruct the mind. The Psalms do. They are meant to be instructive about God and man and life.”― John Piper
• Last week, we were introduced to Psalms that deal with the human experiences of disorientation and anxiety: lament (complaint) prayer songs.
• Forms of disorientation & anxiety come from going through various stages of life; unexpected trials or tragedies; and changes in the world around us.
Psalms of Cursing and Vengeance (Imprecatory) are prayers that seek God’s retaliation against enemies.
• Vengeance psalms keep us from sining by showing us how to channel and control our potentially sinful anger.
• They allow us to express anger verbally to God rather than through actions.
• Ephesians 4:26-27: 26 Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, 27 and give no opportunity to the devil.
• They allow us to feel anger, but not do anger.
“This is the voice of resentment and vengeance that will not be satisfied until God retaliates against those who have done the wrong. While we may think this ignoble and unworthy, it demonstrates that in these psalms of disorientation, as life collapses, the old disciplines and safeguards also collapse. One speaks unguarded about how it in fact is.”—Walter Brueggemann, Spirituality of the Psalms, p. 33
• The Psalmist prays out of God’s promise in…
• Deuteronomy32:35 – “It is mine to avenge, I will repay.” (NIV)
• Cursing and vengeance psalms are rooted in the justice of God (Ex. 34:6-7)
• Do we ever see this kind of thing in the NT? Remember last week’s reference to Revelation 6:9-11: 9 When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne. 10 They cried out with a loud voice, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” (ESV)
• Galatians 5:12: I wish those who unsettle you would emasculate themselves! (ESV)—Apostle Paul
• God’s grace does not demand that we tolerate evil!
• We must learn to hate what God hates and love what God loves!
• David is experiencing an event that is extraordinarily stressful.
• This may be why, unlike Psalm 13 that we looked at last week, Psalm 55 doesn’t follow a strict, poetic, artistic format. It’s as though David in his anxiety is all over the place as he pours out his heart to God about his crisis.
What’s happening to David? (vv. 3, 9-14, 20-22)
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.
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.
• Betrayal is the cause of trouble: 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.
• It may be during the great rebellion when David’s throne was usurped by his son Absalom.
• Or quite possibly Absalom himself! (See 2 Samuel 15:1-6)
• David can’t get over the treachery of his companion so he comes back to it in vv. 20-21: 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.
• This may be a reference to his adviser Ahithophel.
What’s happing in David? (vv. 2b, 4-5)
• David may very well be having an anxiety attack!
• 2b I am restless in my complaint and I moan,… 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.
• It affects him physically! He gets the shakes, probably an upset stomach.
• What could David do? What were his options?
Option 1: Opt out; run away from the problem (vv. 6-8).
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.”
• Just walk (run) away from the trouble.
• Go on a vacation. Have a drink or a several drinks. Take an anxiety pill.
• He could run like when the prophet Elijah ran when he felt threatened by Queen Jezebel.
• But the right response to fear and panic was to face them.
Option 2: Opt in; face the issue with prayer and confidence in God (vv. 1-2a, 16-18, 22, 9, 15, 19, 23)
• David already had a great start by choosing to pray: 1Give ear to my prayer, O God,
and hide not yourself from my plea for mercy!
2a Attend to me, and answer me…
• David Wilcock brings up the old hymn “What a Friend We Have in Jesus.” “Have we trials and temptations? Is there trouble anywhere? We should never be discouraged; Take it to the Lord in prayer.”
• David has past experiences of God hearing and answering his prayers:
• Vv. 16-18: 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.
• Compare v. 1 with v. 22.
1Give ear to my prayer, O God,
and hide not yourself from my plea for mercy!
22 Cast your burden on the Lord,
and he will sustain you;
he will never permit
the righteous to be moved.
• “Talk about it, says David—don’t try to hold it down or bottle it up, to block it out or keep it in! Talk about it to the one person with whom you really can say exactly what you feel. Throw it back on him.” –Michael Wilcock, The Message of Psalms, Vol. 1, pp. 201-202.
9 Destroy, O Lord, divide their tongues;
for I see violence and strife in the city.
• Like those who built the tower of Babel: Genesis 11:9: Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth. And from there the Lord dispersed them over the face of all the earth.
15 Let death steal over them;
let them go down to Sheol alive;
for evil is in their dwelling place and in their heart.
• v. 15, NLT: Let death stalk my enemies;
let the grave swallow them alive,
for evil makes its home within them.
• Remember Korah’s rebellion against the leadership of Moses and Aaron? What happened to the families of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram and their followers?
• Numbers 16:32-33: 32 The earth opened its mouth and swallowed the men, along with their households and all their followers who were standing with them, and everything they owned. 33 So they went down alive into the grave, along with all their belongings. The earth closed over them, and they all vanished from among the people of Israel. (ESV)
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.
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.
• Let it out! God’s shoulders are broad enough!
A pattern & a promise (vv. 23b, 22)
• V. 23b: Murderers and liars will die young,
but I am trusting you to save me.
22a Cast your burden on the Lord,
and he will sustain you;
• 1 Peter 5:7: Turn all your anxiety over to God because he cares for you. (GW)
• “Nowhere does the one who prays these psalms want to take revenge into his own hands. He calls for the wrath of God alone…Therefore he must dismiss from his own mind all thought of personal revenge…The prayer for the vengeance of God is the prayer for the execution of his righteousness in the judgment of sin.” –Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Psalms: The Prayer Book of the Bible, p. 57
• Romans12:19: Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.”
• The Father raised Jesus from the dead. It is Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come (1 Thessalonians 1:10, ESV)
• “I leave the vengeance to God and ask him to execute his righteousness to all his enemies, knowing that God has remained true to himself and has himself secured justice in his wrathful judgment on the cross, and that this wrath has become grace and joy for us. Jesus Christ himself requests the execution of the wrath of God on his body, and thus he leads me back daily to the gravity and the grace of his cross for me and all enemies of God.”—Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Psalms: The Prayer Book of the Bible, p. 59