For Sermon Central researchers: I have posted a series of 15 sermons on the Psalms. In recent personal studies I have found the psalms to be richer and more thought-provoking than I had fully appreciated. I had too often swept swiftly through psalms without slowing down to inquire as thoroughly as I might have into the depths of meaning and feeling that are expressed by the psalmists. Upon deeper examination and reflection, I find the psalms to be highly relevant to Christians in every age. My most recent foray into the psalms led me to present a series of studies of selected psalms in a class environment.
In my classes I did not examine every psalm, or every verse of the ones I did. Rather, I presented selected psalms that I believe to be representative of the collection in the book of Psalms. The studies were held in a class environment suitable for pauses for questions and discussion, and to pose “thought questions” where the meanings are not readily apparent, as is often the case in poetry. My notes include suggested points for such pauses, and I have not removed them in Sermon Central posts.
I developed the material with the view in mind that the series may be well used as sermons. There is an introductory sermon that describes what psalms are (whether they are in the 150-chapter book or elsewhere) and explains my approach to the series. The psalms I selected were presented in no particular order in the classes; however, I suggest that anyone using this material as a series begin with the introductory sermon and follow it with Psalms 1 and 2 in that order, as the first two psalms function as a pair. Beyond that, the selected psalms may be presented in any order.
To get as much enjoyment as we could from our study, I did some of the reading from the KJV, which I believe is the most beautiful of the English bible translations. For clarity we also used other versions, mainly ESV, which I have used for several years and the one I have come to prefer.
PSALM 55
We cannot fix a certain time and occasion for this Psalm, but the content strongly suggests it is likely a song of the time of Absalom and Ahithophel than when David was a fugitive from Saul.
It was after David had enjoyed peaceful worship (verse 14), when he was or had just been a dweller in a city (9, 10, and 11), and when he remembered his former roamings in the wilderness, lending support to the choice of Absalom’s rebellion as the time of the psalm.
That case fits the content of Psalm 55, which springs from both a clear out-in-the-open enemy - David’s own son - and also from betrayal by a trusted friend.
We will consider the psalm under that assumption.
I. Backstory
I’ve chosen to begin the backstory with David’s son, Amnon.
• Amnon violated the sister of Abasalom, another of David’s sons (and Amnon’s half-sister) – 2 Samuel 13:1ff
• 2 years later, Absalom murdered Amnon and fled to Geshur (Syrian province east of the Sea of Chinnereth, which in Jesus’ time was called the Sea of Galilee) 2 Samuel 13:23-39
• There Absalom was self-exiled for 3 years (2 Samuel 13:37-38)
• Joab arranged for David to grant Absalom permission to return to Jerusalem. (2 Samuel 14:21-24)
• Two years passed with Absalom in Jerusalem but not coming into David’s presence (2 Samuel 14:28)
• Joab was again instrumental in securing the king’s permission for Absalom to meet the king (2 Samuel 14:29-33)
• V33 - Came into David’s presence
2 Samuel 14:33 Then Joab went to the king and told him of Absalom’s desire to meet with him, and he summoned Absalom. So he came to the king and bowed himself on his face to the ground before the king, and the king kissed Absalom.
The king had not seen Absalom for 5 years.
Seven years had passed since Amnon’s death.
• In the very next verse (2 Samuel 15:1) we see the beginning of Absalom’s conspiracy to topple his father and rule the kingdom of Israel as its king.
• Meanwhile, David was ruling as Israel’s king.
• He was advised by Ahithophel, a man whose council was deemed to be equal to the words of God.
2 Samuel 16:23 Now in those days the counsel that Ahithophel gave was as if one consulted the word of God; so was all the counsel of Ahithophel esteemed, both by David and by Absalom.
• When Absalom mounted a coup against his father, Ahithophel sided with Absalom (2 Samuel 15:31).
• Knowing this, David was approached by Hushai, offering to serve in the place of the faithless counselor (2 Samuel 15:32ff).
• David sent his new advisor Hushai to pretend to be a second advisor to Absalom and give advice advantageous to David (2 Samuel 15:34-37).
• If Absalom accepted Hushai’s counsel, word of Absalom’s plans would be sent to David.
• That happened.
Ahithophel’s advice was rejected; Hushai’s proposal became the plan.
Word was sent to David.
We will talk a little more about that in a minute.
II. Read the psalm
Before we come to the part about Ahithophel’s betrayal, I want to talk about some other things.
Psalm 55:1-8
The opening words set out that David is seeking an audience in heaven.
Give ear to my prayer, O God.
In Psalms David’s prayers are so frequent that we know well how constantly he calls to God in times of distress – which for David were many.
He runs as naturally to God’s throne in times of trouble as the little chickens to the hen when danger is near.
Hide not yourself from my plea for mercy.
Might God under any circumstances hide himself from pleas for mercy?
Discuss
In Jesus’ most dreaded hours when Jesus hung dying on the cross, his Father did hide himself, and did not hear.
Psalm 22:1-2 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning? O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer, and by night, but I find no rest.
The cries of Jesus from the cross were unanswered.
Why? Because our sins had been placed on Jesus – not rhetorically or figuratively, but in brutal reality.
God actually poured out his wrath on his Son, the bearer of sin.
For that to be real, Jesus had to bear the full consequence of our sins resulting in alienation between Son and Father.
Isaiah 59:2 … but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.
This, I believe, was the most dreadful part of all the agony Jesus suffered.
But Jesus, not David, was the sin-bearer.
Regarding vs 1-8 - Charles Spurgeon:
“What a comfort that we may be thus familiar with our God! We may not complain about him, but we may complain to him.
We may bring our rambling thoughts when we are distracted with grief before him in words fit only for his ears.
He listens so carefully and understands us, and he will often fulfil desires which we could not have expressed in intelligible words.
‘Groanings that cannot be uttered,’ are often prayers which are not refused.
Our Lord himself used strong cryings and tears, and was heard in that he feared.
Psalms 55:6-8 And I say, ‘Oh, that I had wings like a dove! I would fly away and be at rest; yes, I would wander far away; I would lodge in the wilderness; Selah I would hurry to find a shelter from the raging wind and tempest.’
If he could not resist as an eagle, he would escape as a dove. Swiftly and unobserved, on strong, untiring pinions he would get away from the wickedness his son was wreaking in Jerusalem. His love of peace made him long for an escape from that passage in his strife.”
Psalm 55:9
“Destroy, O Lord.” … “Divide their tongues.”
David suggests that God make another Babel in their debates and councils of war.
Impede and confuse their plans.
Set them at cross purposes.
That very thing happened.
The prayer of David was heard, the rebels were soon divided in their councils.
• Ahithophel the traitor proposed one course of action – Take 12,000 men and fall on David’s group with a surprise attack while they slept.
• Hushai – David’s planted agent proposed another, suggesting a flaw in Ahithophel’s proposal. He advised Absalom to personally lead his army and meet David out in the open.
• Absalom chose Hushai’s plan. Husahi sent word to David.
Ahithophel – whose words had once been deemed to be equal to God’s - went his way to hang himself with a rope.
Absalom to be hanged without one.
Vs 10-11 are David’s description of the nefarious actions of Absalom and his band or rebels.
We’re not going to inspect that in detail, except to notice that David’s thoughts seem to meander from one aspect to another of the terrible circumstances leading to his condition of mind.
Our private prayers may be similar in that as we pray, our thoughts my seem to wander from one thing to another as one thought triggers another and we go on mental tangents, still in prayer or perhaps not…
So our prayers are led in this and that direction spontaneously.
III. David’s anguish at Ahithophel’s betrayal
Psalms 55:12-14 – vividly shows the depth of David’s sadness of being betrayed:
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. But it is you, a man, my equal, my companion, my familiar friend. We used to take sweet counsel together; within God's house we walked in the throng.
To say that being betrayed by a trusted friend is painful is an understatement.
“But it is you.” This alone brings other scenes to mind.
• “Et tu, Brute” – “And you, Brutus” said Julius Caesar as one by one, members of the Roman senate stabbed him to death.
• Judas Iscariot betrayed the Lord to the chief priests and the elders by a kiss, the token of love and devotion.
• Tiberias – betrayed by Sejanus.
“a man, my equal” – David did not consider his advisor to be an underling, a subject on his staff – but a man equal to himself –
“my companion, my familiar friend” - never looked upon as an inferior, but as a trusted friend with whom he could relax and be himself.
A memorable quote from ? 19th century English writer Dinah Maria Mulock Craik, A Life for a Life, published 1859:
“Oh, the comfort — the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person — having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but pouring them all right out, just as they are, chaff and grain together; certain that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping, and then with the breath of kindness blow the rest away.”
This appears to describe the comfortable, trusting relationship of David and his chief advisor, Ahithophel.
The personal relationship of Jesus with Judas over time is not as clear.
Jesus had washed Judas’ feet after Judas had a deal in place to betray him that very night.
Judas knew all the Master's movements, and yet he betrayed him to his adversaries.
Think how justified Jesus would have been to have thrown Judas out of the last supper, but instead, in the mildest manner Jesus let the betrayer know he was fully aware of the sinister plan.
But Jesus knew, and now Judas knew that.
That would have been the perfect time for Judas to abandon his evil purpose, confess it, and pled for the Lord’s mercy, which Jesus would surely have given.
Psalm 55:14
“We took sweet counsel together.” The traitor had been respected, treated lovingly and trusted.
There were confidences between them beyond ordinary communication of information.
However pretended the affection of the treacherous one might have been, his friend David had not dealt with him coldly as an adversary.
“Within God's house we walked in the throng.”
This may be the aspect of king and advisor that made the betrayal so stunning!
Adapted from Charles Spurgeon’s Treasury of David:
• Religion had rendered their interactions sacred.
• They had mingled their worship, and communed on heavenly themes.
• If ever any bonds ought to be held inviolable, religious connection should be.
• There is a measure of impiety, of a detestable sort, in the deceit which debases the union of those who make professions of godliness.
• Shall the very altar of God be defiled with hypocrisy? Shall the gatherings of the temple be polluted by the presence of treachery?
• All this was true of Ahithophel, and similarly, of Judas. His union with the Lord was on the score of faith, they were joined in the holiest of enterprises, he had been sent on the most gracious of errands, His co-operation with Jesus to serve his own abominable ends stamped him as the firstborn of hell.
• Let all deceitful professors be warned by his doom, for like Ahithophel he went to his own place by his own hand, and retains a horrible pre-eminence in the calendar of notorious crime.
• Here was one source of heartbreak for the Redeemer, and it is shared in by his followers.
• Of the serpent's brood some vipers still remain, who will sting the hand that cherished them, and sell for silver those who raised them to the position which rendered it possible for them to be so abominably treacherous.
IV. Deaths of the rebel and betrayer
Psalms 55:15
v15 Let death steal over them; let them go down to Sheol alive, for evil is in their dwelling place and in their heart.
The KJV says “let them go down quick into hell.”
However, that is a mistranslation.
Sheol in Hebrew is not the place of eternal damnation, but rather the same as hades in the Greek.
Both refer to the grave, or by extension – death.
So the meaning is - “Let them go down into the grave.”
In short, “Let them die.”
This rings with a tone similar to that of Psalms 58 and 109, in which the psalmist pours out his anger and frustration with his enemies to the Lord.
Viewed purely as a matter of law and justice, David was right in his wish; he was waging a just, defensive war against traitors who had no regard for truth and justice.
Traitors such as these may - within the law - be sentenced to die.
What happened to Absalom?
Read 2 Samuel 18:8-15
So ended the life of the rebel son.
David’s grief. 2 Samuel 18:33
And the king was deeply moved and went up to the chamber over the gate and wept. And as he went, he said, “O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! Would I had died instead of you, O Absalom, my son, my son!”
Such was the heart of David.
What happened to Ahithophel?
2 Samuel 17:23 gives us the answer:
When Ahithophel saw that his counsel was not followed, he saddled his donkey and went off home to his own city. He set his house in order and hanged himself, and he died and was buried in the tomb of his father.
Both Ahithophel and Judas ended their own lives, both by hanging.
Psalm 55:16
As for me, I will call upon God and the Lord shall save me.
David did not try to thwart the plots of his adversaries by schemes of his own, but in direct contrast to their godless behavior did as he always did - he turned to God.
Psalm 55:17
Evening, and morning, and at noon, will I pray.
Often, but not too often.
Times of great need call for frequent times of prayer and petition.
The three periods chosen are most fitting; to begin, continue, and end the day with God is supreme wisdom.
But what David means that he will always pray; he will run a line of prayer all through the day.
Is that possible? Can one pray all day long?
Discuss
But now something changes abruptly:
Psalm 55:18
He hath delivered my soul in peace from the battle that was against me. God shall hear, and afflict them.
The deliverance has come. Joab has routed the rebels.
The Lord has preserved the king he himself anointed by the hand of Samuel.
When the righteous call out to God, the wicked sink to ruin not by our hand, but God’s.
IV. The breaking of a covenant
Psalms 55:20
He hath put forth his hands against such as be at peace with him: he has violated his covenant.
I will come back to the matter of covenant in a minute, but for now let me say:
It is hard to find words in the bible more fatal to a relationship than these five: He has violated his covenant.
How can you ever trust someone who offers a chair, then yanks it away as you accept it?
Psalms 55:22
Cast your burden upon the Lord and He will sustain you; He will never allow the righteous to be shaken.
There’s something in this verse that I find curious.
In this verse only the pronouns “your” and “’you” appear in this way.
The word “you” - or its equivalent in the original language – does not appear in the original text, but is implied by the verb “cast” preceding them.
So the translators are justified in inserting it for clarity.
In verse 23 “you” clearly refers twice to God, and clearly, “you” in verse 23 (God) is the “you” in verse 22.
Psalms 55:23 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.
Who then does David address in v22?
Discuss
My idea is that David breaks into a rhetorical mode. The “you” is universally applicable.
Continuing with verse 23:
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.
David’s trust is in God, not Ahithophel. Whatever trust David place in him turned out to have been ill-placed.
V. What is our take-away?
Discuss
A. This was not merely some unhappy incident in the life of Ahithophel.
To David, the breaking of trust by Ahithophel WAS the breaking of a covenant.
A covenant of trust.
In human relations, a covenant is as serious as it gets.
Marriage is a covenant so intimate Moses said,
They shall become one flesh.
That passage was directly quoted by Jesus not less than 3 times, quoted twice by Paul.
It is not possible to exaggerate the seriousness of breaking a covenant.
Something precious is destroyed – mutual trust.
Jesus tells us there is an unforgivable sin - sinning against the Holy Spirit.
There is another – also coming from Jesus of which we cannot be forgiven.
The sin of unforgiveness.
For humans, I believe the most difficult sin to forgive - and keep it forgiven - is the betrayal of a friend.
Breaking the marriage covenant is no small thing.
There is a path back even from betraying a covenant – the path of forgiveness.
David – as we saw last time – was generous to the point of extravagance with forgiveness in forgiving Saul.
Ahithophel could have sought it. He did not.
B. Perhaps this was part of the price that David - though abundantly penitent - paid for his sin with Bathsheba and Uriah.
Did David’s penitent and contrite heart which was displayed in Psalm 51 restore everything to “just as if he hadn’t sinned?”
Discuss
With respect to his guilt for that sin, yes.
But although forgiven, and having the guilt of that sin removed by the blood of Christ, there was still a consequence that stemmed from the sin.
2 Samuel 12:10-12 'Now therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised Me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.' "Thus says the Lord, 'Behold, I will raise up evil against you from your own household; I will even take your wives before your eyes and give them to your companion, and he will lie with your wives in broad daylight. 'Indeed you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel, and under the sun.'"
