Lessons From the Psalms - Psalm 55

[00:00:07] Welcome to Lessons From The Psalms. This is Bill Kelley and I'll be your host. On this podcast, we will be going over the book of Psalms.

[00:00:21] So open and prayer. Father God, I thank you for anyone listening to this Psalm today. Lord, I pray that you would reveal to everyone listening how much you truly love each and every one of them.

[00:00:33] I ask this in Jesus name, Amen. This is Psalm 55. Give ear to my prayer, O God, and do not hide yourself from my supplication, attend to me and hear me.

[00:00:50] I am restless in my complaint and moan, noisily, because of the voice of the enemy, because of the oppression of the wicked.

[00:01:01] For they bring down trouble upon me and in wrath they hate me. My heart is severely pained within me, and the tears of death have fallen upon me.

[00:01:16] Fearfulness and trembling have come upon me, and horror has overwhelmed me. So I said, O, that I had wings like a dove.

[00:01:28] I would fly away and be at rest. Indeed, I would wander far off and remain in the wilderness, say law. I would hasten my escape from the windy storm and tempest. Destroy, O Lord, and divide their tongues.

[00:01:48] For I have seen violence and strife in the city. Day and night they go around it on its walls, iniquity and trouble are also in the midst of it.

[00:02:01] Destruction is in its midst. A pressure and a seat do not depart from its 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.

[00:02:21] Then I could hide from him, but it was you, a man, my equal, my companion, and my acquaintance. We took sweet counsel together and walked to the house of God in the throne.

[00:02:37] And death sees them, let them go down alive in the hell. For wickedness is in their dwellings and among them. As for me, I will call upon God, and the Lord shall save me. Evening and mourning and at noon, I will pray and cry aloud, and he shall hear my voice.

[00:03:03] He has redeemed my soul in peace, from the battle that was against me. For there were many against me, God will hear and afflict them, even he who abides from of old, say law.

[00:03:22] Because they do not change, therefore they do not fear God. He has put forth his hands against those who were at peace with him. He has broken his covenant.

[00:03:37] The words of his mouth were smoother than butter that war was in his heart. His words were softer than oil, yet they were drawn swords.

[00:03:49] Cast your burden on the Lord, and he shall sustain you. He shall never permit the righteous to be moved. But you, oh God, shall bring them down to the pit of destruction.

[00:04:04] Blood thirsty and deceitful men shall not live out half their days, but I will trust in you. Friends, this is a beautiful song, and is attributed to King David. This song is entitled Trust in God concerning the treachery of friends.

[00:04:29] And this song is about someone that David had counted as a true friend, but he turned his back on David and became basically his enemy.

[00:04:45] So anyway, this song was originally written to the chief musician and it says with stringed instruments. So initially when David wrote this song, it was played in a synagogue with stringed instruments.

[00:05:02] But let's break this song down beginning in verse 1. Give ear to my prayer, oh God, and do not hide yourself from my supplication, attend to me and hear me.

[00:05:16] I am restless in my complaint and moan, noisily. Friends, this could very well be our prayer to God today. Whenever we pray, we expect God to hear us, and hopefully we will get an answer soon.

[00:05:36] Verse 3, because of the voice of the enemy, because of the oppression of the wicked, for they bring down trouble upon me and in wrath they hate me.

[00:05:50] Now friends, when David wrote this song more than likely he was the king of Israel. So as the king he often had enemies who actually were out to kill him.

[00:06:04] That probably isn't the case with us today, but we do have people who are against us and sometimes make life difficult for us.

[00:06:15] And David is praying here that God will help us against those people. Let's go to verse 4. My heart is severely pained within me and the tears of death have fallen upon me.

[00:06:32] Fearfulness and trembling have come upon me and horror has overwhelmed me. And what David is saying here is sometimes things appear to be so bad, you don't know if you will be able to get out of that situation.

[00:06:52] Let's go to verse 6. So I said, oh, that I had wings like a dove. I would fly away and be at rest. Indeed, I would wander far off and remain in the wilderness, say law.

[00:07:09] So friends, what I have to say about these two verses is sometimes we wish we could do that. Sometimes things in life appear to be so overwhelming for us that we wish we could just fly away and it would all be gone in the morning.

[00:07:27] But that is where we need to put our trust in God and in His Son Jesus. We need to pray for peace. We need to pray to God and Jesus that these things would be removed from our life.

[00:07:46] Verse 8, I would hasten my escape from the windy storm and tempest. Destroy, oh Lord, and divide their tongues for I have seen violence and strife in the city.

[00:08:00] Day and night they go around it on its walls. Iniquity and trouble are also in the midst of it. Destruction is in its midst, oppression and deceit. Do not depart from its streets.

[00:08:15] And friends, there are sometimes in our world today is so much turmoil going on around us. We need you to simply stand still, cry out to God and just stand there and see what He does for us. Let's go to verse 12.

[00:08:34] 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 from Him but it was you, a man, my equal, my companion and my acquaintance.

[00:08:54] We took sweet counsel together and walked to the house of God in the throne. Now friends, I took the liberty of trying to do a little bit of research prior to beginning this podcast.

[00:09:10] And there is speculation that this friend that David supposedly had could possibly be a hit of fail. Now a hit of fail was the grandfather of Bathsheba who David had an adulterous relationship with and eventually had a son who later became King Solomon, but I am not going to say that that's the case.

[00:09:39] This is just a supposition that some person made. Let's go to verse 15. Let death sees them, let them go down alive into hell. For wickedness is in their dwellings and among them. And this is David pleading with God to take care of his enemies.

[00:10:04] Verse 16, I love this verse. As for me, I will call upon God and the Lord shall save me.

[00:10:13] Evening and mourning and at noon, I will pray and cry aloud and he shall hear my voice. And friends, this is all I'm going to go over for this song today. But what that means is that God is always wanting us to reach out to Him.

[00:10:34] To ask Him for help when we have a need and He will be there for us. And He will see to it that He brings us through that storm in our lives, and we will find our way out of it.

[00:10:53] Friends, please join me again soon as we take a closer look at Psalm 50s.