As preached by Timothy O'Day.
Psalm 55 shows us that when you are faced with unrepentant sin, you should…
1. Pray in light of God’s character and being (1-8).
2. Pray to align your priorities with God’s (9-15, 19-21).
3. Pray to entrust yourself to God’s justice, goodness, and plan (16-19, 22-23).
Praying to God as God
Psalm 55
December 29, 2024
When discussing strategy in boxing, Mike Tyson is attributed with saying, “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.”
It’s a clever and punchy statement. In boxing, you would assume that one would plan on getting punched in the mouth at some point, which I am sure Tyson did plan on happening. His expression, then, captures a reality worth dwelling on: even when you plan on pain and difficulty, it is hard to actually deal with it and remain focused on what you know you need to do. Even with our best and most carefully laid plans, things rarely work out as we want or expect them.
Every single one of us has a plan or an expectation for how we want and think our lives will go, but undoubtedly things will not go as planned. And, when hardship strikes, our plans might seem to go to complete ash and we feel lost.
For example, we can in theory have a plan for how we will respond when someone sins against us. We live in a fallen world, after all, so we should expect it to happen just as a boxer should expect to be punched in the mouth. But when it happens, we can be disoriented.
That’s the reality on display for us in Psalm 55. In this psalm, David comes to the Lord in prayer as he is dealing with unrepentant sinners who seek his life. While the exact historical context of this event is uncertain, it fits with the events of 2 Samuel 15-18, in which David’s son Absalom tries to depose David and take the throne for himself. In doing this, David’s counselor Ahithophel turned against David, which matches the lament of a trusted friend turning against him in verses 12-14 of Psalm 55.
Thus, what we have in Psalm 55 is the reality of unrepentant sinners aiming to destroy David. But remember, in seeking to destroy David, they are not merely trying to destroy a man and a king. In rejecting David, they are rejecting the Lord’s anointed and thus making war on God himself.
All sin is against God, so when you are sinned against, it is really an assault on God more than anything else. As you are hit with sin, especially sin of which people refuse to repent, what are you supposed to do? Psalm 55 lays out how we are to conduct ourselves, and it begins with prayer. Psalm 55 shows us that when you are faced with unrepentant sin, you should…
1. Pray in light of God’s character and being (1-8)
Healthy prayer is more than simply speaking with God. It is speaking with God as God, which means speaking to him as he has revealed himself. As we look at David’s prayer in Psalm 55 (and all the psalms in general), David is speaking to God as God, not some lesser deity. This psalm only makes sense if God is…
Omnipotent: God is able to do all things to fit with his character and being, in particular overturning evil for the good of his people. Prayer happens as we see God as being able to do anything that fits with his character and plan to glorify himself and be good to his people.
Omnipresent: God is present everywhere in creation at the same time. It isn’t as if God is spread throughout creation, with a part of him here and a part of him there, but rather that all creation is equally present before him fully. A result of this is that there is nowhere in creation that lies beyond God’s cognition, care, and power. The wicked cannot escape from him and his people cannot be cut off from him.
Omniscient: God knows all things, which means that all events are present before God—past, present, and future. Since he knows all things and is working for the good of his people in all things, we can trust him even when we do not understand the what, why, and wherefore of a situation.
Omnisapient: God is all-wise, which is an implication of the previous three. Since God knows all things, can do all things, and is present in all places and times, we can trust that he is wise to bring about what we need and when we need it. No one and nothing is wiser than God.
When we run to God in prayer, we are confessing that we believe God is who he claims to be: omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient, and omnisapient. Troubles come our way and we choose not to pray, we pragmatically deny the fact that he is these things.
In Psalm 55, David prays to God as God, from which flow the following acts in prayer:
Prayer to God as God is Honest About Pain and Fear
If you have been paying attention to any of the Psalms as we have covered them through preaching, you will not be surprised by this point. In fact, you might think, “I know that we have covered that, why bring it up again?” Here’s why: because God brings it up again for us to consider. It is a reality that is so hard for us to grasp, that the Lord brings it up again and again for us to contemplate and to practice.
The Psalms model for us how we are to pray. While many of the psalms are prayers of joy and thanksgiving, even more of them are prayers of lament that flow from danger and fear. Psalm 55 fits this latter category and teaches us how we are to pray in such situations.
As we look at the first 8 verses of Psalm 55, we see that David is anxious and deeply troubled by what has happened to him. Verses 1-3 show an intense urgency in his prayers, verse 2 shows that in particular, look there with me,
“Attend to me, and answer me; I am restless in my complaint and I moan.”
Have you ever felt that way? Have you ever felt unable to stop thinking about a situation that makes you anxious? Have you ever been in a situation for which the only answer you have to give is a moan of pain, fear, and anguish?
Look at David’s visceral reaction to what is happening to him in verses 4-5,
“My heart is in anguish within me; the terrors of death have fallen upon me. Fear and trembling come upon me, and horror overwhelms me.”
David is so disturbed, so anxious, that he is physically shaking. He is terrified about what may happen because he has, as verse 3 says, fallen into the hands of wicked men who, as verse 19 says, do not fear God.
Prayer to God as God is Honest About Our Desire for Escape
David is honest about how afraid he is and how urgent this matter is. Furthermore, he is honest with the Lord about what he immediately wants: he simply wants to escape and no longer be in this danger and trouble. This is what he confesses to the Lord in verses 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; I would hurry to find a shelter from the raging wind and tempest.”
In these verses, David is confessing that he simply wants to get away from the storm of his present troubles.
But you need to notice something important about how David is praying. While he confesses that he wants to simply escape from the trouble, he does not ask to simply escape from he trouble. What he is doing in verses 6-8 is confessing to the Lord that this is what he wants, but it is not what he will pursue. He knows that his desire to simply escape is not a godly desire, so he submits to the will of the Lord, but he does so honestly.
Do You Pray to God as God?
As you reflect on your prayers to God in the midst of trouble, do you pray to God as God?
Do you run to him with your fears and anxieties, or do you hold them and seek relief elsewhere?
Instead of confessing your desire for relief, do you simply try to escape a situation without dealing with it in God’s ways?
As you are confronted with unrepentant sin, pray to God as God, for he is the only one who can ultimately help you.
But this will require that you also follow the next instruction of prayer we see in Psalm 55.
2. Pray to align your priorities with God’s (9-15, 19-21)
As I said, verses 6-8 have David saying that he wishes he could just escape, but that isn’t what he asks God to do for him. Instead, in verse 9, David calls on God to destroy evil. Look there with me,
“Destroy, O Lord, divide their tongues; for I see violence and strife in the city.”
He is referring to the tongues of the wicked men in verse 3. In verse 10, the plural pronoun “they” refers to the violence and strife that these tongues are unleashing on the whole city. In short, what David is saying that violence and strife are going around Jerusalem on its walls; iniquity and trouble are within Jerusalem; ruin is in the midst of Jerusalem; oppression and fraud are spreading throughout Jerusalem—why? All because these wicked men are able to make their plans together against David.
David looks to the Lord for the solution: confuse their ungodly plans by dividing their tongues so they do not rightly communicate and listen to each other.
David’s concern isn’t just escape. He isn’t just looking for his own relief. While he is experiencing discomfort, he is not only concerned with his own well being. He is concerned with Jerusalem and all of God’s chosen people. His priority is God’s concern for the good of his people.
Personal Betrayal, But Not A Personal Vendetta
What makes David’s preoccupation with God helping his people instead of just focusing on himself is how personal this pain felt to him. In verses 12-14, we see that the reason things hurt so much for David and why things are so precarious is because of personal betrayal. Look down at verses 12-13
“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.”
Having a nemesis or an inveterate enemy does hurt, but at least you expect an attack from such a person. What makes this situation so difficult for David is that he has been attacked by someone he trusted and looked to as an ally. And this was not just a buddy, but a close confidante in his plans and kingdom. Just look what he says in verse 14,
“We used to take sweet counsel together; within God’s house we walked in the throng.”
“Sweet counsel” means it was dear to David. He found fellowship, comradely, help, and security in this man. On top of all this, they would worship together. But now all that was sweet now tastes like ash because David realizes it was all fake. Look down at verses 20-21,
“My companion stretched out his hand against his friends; he violated his covenant. His speech was smooth as butter, yet war was in his heart; his words were softer than oil, yet they were drawn swords.”
This traitor told David one thing, but his action of betrayal showed David that he did not really mean it. Evil isn’t just what this traitor did; evil resided hidden in his heart and came out only later, which is exactly what is written at the end of verse 15, “for evil was in their dwelling place and in their heart.”
Speaking of verse 15, this is what David asks God to do with this traitor and those who have joined with him,
“Let death steal over them; let them go down to Sheol alive…”
At first glance, that doesn’t sound like David is concerned with God’s priorities. After all, that sounds simply vengeful. But if we read this as David merely wanting God to smite these people because they hurt David, you are reading this wrong. This is where understanding the storyline and context of the Bible really helps us out. When people oppose David, they are not opposing some random guy. Rather, they are opposing God’s anointed king, the one he has chosen to lead Israel, his people. To go against the king is to go against God’s people and to oppose God’s purpose.
So when David calls on God to divide the tongues of these plotters in verse 9 and for death to carry them away in verse 15, he is not merely asking God to be his own personal hitman, he is actually aligning his prayer with God’s priorities.
Aligning Your Priorities with God’s in the Midst of Pain
One of the things we are most tempted to do when we are wronged, even sinfully wronged, is to assume the throne and let out judgment against those who have wronged us. We take the gavel from God or we direct God as if he is our own personal hit man, there to serve us instead of being the one we need to trust.
In his book Uprooting Anger, Robert Jones offers helpful questions to help us determine whether or not our anger is righteous, meaning that it is in line with what God calls good, or sinful, meaning that it is an attempt to throw off God’s authority.
First, when you are wronged and your feel angry, ask yourself “Has this person actually sinned?” Much of the time we are angry at people or even God because our preferences were denied, but we were not actually sinned against. Such an attitude reveals that we think we are God and we are not truly concerned with what God calls good and right.
Second, when you are wronged, ask yourself, “Am I concerned about my kingdom or God’s Kingdom?” Someone might have actually sinned, but if you are more concerned about the fact that he has sinned against you more than the fact that he has sinned against God, you do not have your priorities straight. All sin is ultimately against God. He is more glorious than you and more central than you. The reason it is wrong to sin against a person is because God says it is wrong to do so. When you are wounded by sin, you should be more zealous that a person acknowledges his wrong before God more than they acknowledge it before you.
Third, when you are wronged, ask yourself, “What fruit can I exhibit to honor Christ in this situation?” In order to align your heart with God’s agenda, you do not merely need to address how you think about something, but also how you feel and then act about the event. Turning to prayer instead of an angry outburst is fruit that honors the Lord and shows you want to align with his priorities. Asking God to judge instead of taking matters into your own hands is the fruit of being concerned with his priorities.
But what does this look like practically? That is our third point.
3. Pray to entrust yourself to God’s justice, goodness, and plan (16-19, 22-23)
Verse 16 is a contrast. Instead of looking one way on the outside being holding evil within and instead of saying one thing to others but having a different intent, and instead of not fearing God but pretending to do so by going to public worship, David calls out to God and trusts that the Lord, not his own clever plans, will save him. Look at verse 16,
“But I call to God, and the LORD will save me.”
David is saying that he will not be two-faced, he will act in a way that simply works to get him ahead despite what God thinks of his actions. He will deal with the sin that threatens him in the following ways
First, he will trust God through prayer. It is through prayer that David feels assurance. Do you remember how this psalm, which is David’s prayer, started? Verse 1,
“Give ear to my prayer, O God, and hide not yourself from my plea for mercy!” That does not sound like a man who feels assured. But when we get to verse 16, he does sound assured. Verse 19 confirms this, look there with me,
“God will give ear and humble them, he who is enthroned from of old, because they do not change and do not fear God.”
In this verse, David is saying that he knows God will hear him and as a result, those who are now working against him will be humbled since they are refusing to repent.
Don’t miss the order in which this works. He doesn’t feel assurance before he prays. He feels assurance through his prayers and as he prays. I am convinced that one reason people struggle to pray—and it is a reason I struggle to pray—is because a lack of belief that prayer will do anything at all. We want the peace of prayer before praying or even without praying, but God tells us and gives us models in the Bible that tell us otherwise. Consider Philippians 4:6-7,
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
Did you catch that? Peace comes through prayer and as you pray.
Do you want to feel assured of God’s provision and care for you? Then pray! O, how we rob ourselves of the peace of God by our stubborn refusal to trust in his prayer!
Second, David deals with the sin that threatens him by trusting God with persistent prayer. Look at verse 17,
“Evening and morning and at noon I utter my complaint and moan, and he hears my voice.”
When you pray your problems and anxieties, you aren’t supposed to simply pray them once. You are to pray them as long as they persist. I’ve heard it again and again: “I tried prayer, but it didn’t help.” As I ask more questions about this, what I found is that people find prayer helpful, but then they feel anxious later and they think that prayer thus didn’t work. “I prayed and I felt better for a while, but then later in the night I felt anxious again.” That’s when you are supposed to pray again! To say that prayer doesn’t work because you feel anxious later is like saying sleep doesn’t work because you get tired at the end of the day. “I tried that sleep stuff and got 8 hours last night, but I felt tired again at 10 pm.” Well of course you did!
You are not an independent being and you need to go to God for provision, solutions, and help.
Peace comes through prayer and persistent peace comes through persistent prayer.
Third, when confronted with sin David also trusts God in his actions. Look at verse 18,
“He redeems my soul in safety and from the battle that I wage, for many are arrayed against me.”
This verse shows us that David doesn’t just pray. After he prays, he trusts God as he walks in his responsibilities. David is waging the battle, but he is trusting that God is going to keep him safe. In other words, he trusts God to deliver him, but he doesn’t throw away his sword. He knows that God has things that he alone can do, but he also knows that there are things that God will do through him.
Just think about what David said and did when he slew Goliath. As he walked out to face Goliath, the giant taunted him. To these taunts David replied, “
“You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, who you have defied. This day the LORD will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down and cut off your head. And I will give the dead bodies of the host of the Philistines this day to the birds of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel and that all this assembly may know that the LORD saves not with sword and spear. For the battle is the LORD’s, and he will give you into our hand” (1 Samuel 17:45-47)
The battle is the Lord’s and he is the one who delivered Goliath into David’s hand, but that didn’t stop David from collecting 5 smooth stones and it didn’t keep his hand from using his sling. He trusted God, but he also was responsible to do what he needed to do in order to be used by him to gain the victory.
Years ago I got a helpful tool for this from Paul Tripp. When you feel anxious, take a piece of paper and mark out three columns on it. Label them “Me, Others, and God” respectively. Then, as you consider your anxious situation, ask yourself, “What does God actually want me to do and require me to do?” Then ask, “What is something I cannot do and must depend on others?” Then ask, “What must God do in this situation?” Whatever you have written under the “me” column, get about doing it. But whatever falls into the column of others or God, you need to commit to prayer.
Cast your Burden on the LORD
This is how you obey verse 22 and cast your burden on the Lord: trust God through persistent prayer and then act in that trust.
As you do this, he will sustain you and he will not permit you to be moved. But what does that mean? It doesn’t mean that you won’t be troubled. It doesn’t mean that you won’t be sinned against. It doesn’t mean that your life will be easy.
It means that as you trust him, you will be counted as righteous and he will not let you be moved from your proper course, which is to grow into Christlikeness and be with him in the New Heavens and the New Earth. Your destiny will be secure. But it won’t be secure because you hold yourself secure. You will be secure as he holds you.
Christ Will Hold You Fast
The reason you know you can be secure is that Christ holds all those who come to him and he will not let them go. He is the only reason we will remain secure.
In truth, none of us deserve that. While many of us have stories of how we have been betrayed, this earth is full of traitors. Our sin against the holy God is the ultimate treason and each one of us has committed it. In this psalm, David is a type of Christ, meaning that he is a picture of the Savior to come. As he was betrayed by a close companion, Jesus was betrayed by his close companion Judas. As Jesus was led into Jerusalem, he was surrounded by evil plots against him that came from tongues plotting his destruction. And as Jesus faced this betrayal and his capture into the hands of wicked men, he did not seek escape. He willingly laid down his life because this was God’s agenda all along.
The punishment for our sin is eternal death and punishment in hell. The only way to escape this righteous punishment is for one who is completely innocent to step into your place and bear the punishment you deserve. This is the good news of the gospel. Jesus is God the Son, who is himself very God, and he took on flesh and lived a life of perfect obedience, died a substitutionary death on the cross, and rose again from the grave to display the fact that he really has conquered death for all who believe in him. He will come again to judge those who continue to rebel against the Lord, as verse 23 says. But if you turn to him now, admitting that you are a sinner who deserves hell, then you will be spared. Better than that, you will be counted as perfectly righteous and as one of God’s children. You can find forgiveness and new life in Christ today. If you want to talk to me or another believer about that today, we would love to do that with you. Then you can tell us and we can see that you are baptized and brought into the loving membership of this local church so that we can stand with you in trusting Christ. Calling out to God in this way is how you need to start praying to God as God.
Let’s pray.
Comments