Read Psalm 55
At first read of this psalm it’s easy to confuse it with countless others, the psalmist (David) is in anguish, he wants his enemies to be punished, but remembers who God is and trusts in Him ultimately.
And I’m not going to distinguish it from the countless others that there are. Because I think that this honestly resembles our lives (and the psalmist’s). Life is full of hardship and anguish. We live in a fallen world full of sinful people- there is brokenness in environment, relationships, political systems, etc. We live currently in a world where there is “oppression by the wicked” and “violence and strife in the city” and “oppression and fraud” in our marketplace. This is our reality as well as David’s.
We then also come to find out that the “enemy” David is referring to is not just an enemy that taunts him but a former friend who has betrayed him! Someone he grew up with in the church and is now walking down a destructive path aimed at David (and who knows how many others). Who of us has experienced this before in some form or fashion? Who of us, like David, have at one time or another been the “enemy”?
David is “restless in his complaint” and he “moans”, “his heart is in anguish within him” and “fear and trembling come over him and horror overwhelms him”. He just wants to fly away from all his troubles like a bird. I have thought this before and completely relate to having moments when I just want to be able to get away from the troubles in my life.
But David doesn’t keep all these emotions in (or even go to his friends), he goes to God with them. He doesn’t sugarcoat them or hide them or pretend to be something he isn’t. And he calls on God constantly—evening, morning and at noon. He recalls the character of God and what he knows to be true. God is enthroned over all and is the ultimate protector of justice. God saves him (us), hears his (our) voice, redeems his (our) soul in safety, sustains him (us), and is worthy of his (our) trust.
You see, this is our battle. As we continually feel and experience sin and its consequences in our lives, city, nation, etc. we battle amidst the battle to continually come to God with those feelings and experiences. And to continually dwell on who God is and what he says about these things. This is the story over and over in the psalms, in this psalm, and honestly the story of our lives. Not that there aren’t moments of joy, of course there are! But regardless of circumstance let’s make it our aim to have honest conversation with God and to remind ourselves daily who He is in the midst of our circumstances, because that never changes.
— Ally Landis