Prayer and psalm 55

By: Chris Gaffney

Central to this psalm is the ability of God to secure you even in the midst of deep strife.

For David, the author of this psalm, things are going so bad that he says this in verse 6 thru 8, “ I said," Oh that I had wings of a dove, I would fly away and be at rest, I would flee far away, and be in the desert, I would hurry to my place of shelter, far from the tempest and storm."

These verses reveal some of the realities of how it can feel to be in deep trouble. His desire for wings like a dove, is not going to be realized. He could maybe run away on foot or call a chariot, but here he has envy for the ability of a dove to just fly quickly away to another faraway location and hide away, fully released from the reality of the experienced fury. The reality is, some of the aspects of the human condition are fixed, and there is no way around it. I can't catapult myself to the moon, make myself 5 inches taller, and so on. Attraction is an example, you can’t get fully away from it. Even going to a church, someone might be distracted by attraction. There is no fix around the idea of escaping this. Of course in a science fiction or fantasy novel, story or movie, people can change forms, and maybe fly away, but the sheer reality is, we cannot do this. This makes a painful situation even more painful, in that, you realize there is no escape that is going to give you a chance to utterly change form, even for a short period of time. These types of escapes are only imaginary, as David is doing here.

Here David is also saying he would hurry to a place of shelter. In other words, lets hurry up and get out of here. How many times have you been in the situation or maybe even God has said this to you, hurry up and do this. Or you can reverse this, instead of God asking you to hurry, you can ask God to answer you quickly or hurry up and give you an answer, since David, a man after God’s heart according to Scriptures, is using this type of language, it is okay to say the same thing in prayer.

This is what David is thinking and actually feels, but the idea just isn’t available or feasible to him in the moment of distress. Here is an example though, where we can bring imaginary musings into prayer, in that it might be helpful in expressing the truth of how we feel, both to ourselves and to God.

In verse 9 he says," confuse the wicked, O Lord confound their speech, for I see violence and strife in the city."

What this is saying, is that being confounded or in the midst of confusion isn’t exactly a blessing as David is asking God to do this for either direct enemies or those who are randomly violent whom he perceives as evil. More often we would be asking God to take away confusion or at least take away some of the confusion and lessen the confusion around difficulties we are experiencing. Confusion isn’t exactly a blessing and opposes God’s grace for good. It is however something that will come for those on the side of evil doings and something that God may intensify.

Within all this distress and evil, present to David’s eyes, is a betrayal by good friends and companions, whom he had spent time in camaraderie while worshiping the Lord, and to see what he thought were faithful friends just dissappear as such from his personal landscape and it's corresponding place of seeking the Lord, adds greatly to that sinking feeling of overall distress.

Despite just about everything and everybody going by the wayside and turning their backs to the Lord, David singles out himself and says, in verse 16 thru 18, “ But I call to God, and the Lord saves me, evening, morning, and noon, I cry out in distress, an he hears my voice, He ransoms me unharmed, from the battle waged against me, even though many oppose me."

Here David really is the lone ranger, basically the only one still calling out to the Lord. Many oppose him, the rest just didn’t get to him yet as they are making their rounds, they are busy going after others. It is interesting that as David portrays himself as the lone ranger in this psalm, he speaks of wanting to be like a dove, singly, not joining a flock of doves going away, again signaling that there is no one else on the side of good that can flee with him and he feels quite alone in his situation, even those who were his best and loyal friends, have dropped off at the divide. Here is an example, where the majority viewpoint, can be wrong. David is at best in the vast minority in calling upon the Lord morning thru night. In fact, he may be the only one. If he went with the majority, he would have joined in the evils of the day, supporting and expounded by the vast majority and given up on calling out to the Lord for justice and relief. The majority sometimes may rule not for good but for evil and its fullest expansion.

In verse 18, “ He ransoms me unharmed." This is saying, the Lord will pay any price or full price to get his elect thru these maelstroms unharmed. The ransom will not be on the short side as far as negotiating into the situation. Here is an example of God doing the negotiating for you and your side and position, and following all the way through to safety and sustenance. What God wants for David in this situation will not be compromised no matter what the cost This shows that God holds David in high esteem. Ransom means, get you out, getting you out of the situation to which you are held hostage in some way.

In verse 20 and 21, he reiterates his distress of a personal betrayel." My companion attacks his friends, he violates his covenant, He speech is smooth as butter, yet war is in his heart, his words are more soothing than oil, yet they are drawn swords."

Here, it is saying, be careful of the smooth talker who on top of everything else seems to have words that resonate, but who will sell you down the river. Here his former friend has used the gift of speech to work towards evil intentions. Just because someone has turned to the dark side, doesn’t mean they lose theire charm, charisma, and ability to speak deftly, and this is what made them win friends and influence people in the first place. But the next step after this was a step out into darkness and the idea was to draw the friends first winning them over in a type of light and then bringing them into the darkness. This is why they can sometimes win over others or even the crowd. But according to the Bible, you will know them by their fruits. In this case, follow the works, the actual fruit of the tree,rather than the words and see what they say about the person, lest you yourself come under the spell of evil charms.

Verse 22 says," Cast your cares upon the Lord, and he will sustain thee, he will never let the righteous fall."

Following the previous verses, don’t make the mistake of casting your cares to some smooth talking charmer who seems to have all the right words and delivery on them, but doesn’t have righteous motives. The thing to do, is cast your cares directly and only to the Lord, who will take those cares, and sustain those cares. The sustenance will revolve around the cares. I might not care about the exact thing that you care about in the same way. If what you care about is running a marathon, God will sustain that for you, or meld your cares more towards the truth of what you deep down care about, and then sustain that. If you care about getting on a golf course unimpeded once a week, God might have another few golf courses built in the area just for you, and sustain good weather for this on the days you are scheduled to golf. So this sustenance would be something you would watch for, but would be at least in part individualistic and of course there are some more universal cares that everyone shares, but again not in the same degree. So what you want to do is watch for a sustenance that is clearly pointed to you and what you as an individual truly care about, and give thanks for it as it occurs, while naming it for what it is, God's sustenance for you. If you want high waves for your surfing, and this is what you care about, God can bring about the type of surf you want on the ocean on some of the particular days you visit the beach. This is another practical example of how the sustenance might be pointed to an individual. The back and forth of this, casting your cares and seeing quite specific sustenance on them, is confirmation of the Lord's presence to you.

As this pertains to prayer, what you are looking for is to bring your cares to the Lord, and start to look for his sustenance around this exact care and cares you are bringing, which again, might differ for you and may at times be unique to you.

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