Commentary - Psalm 55:9-11

Bird's-eye view

In this portion of Psalm 55, David moves from a personal cry of anguish over betrayal to a broader lament over the state of the city, which is Jerusalem. He has been driven to this point by the treachery of a close friend, likely Ahithophel during Absalom's rebellion. But personal pain opens his eyes to the systemic corruption that has taken root in the capital. He prays for a divine intervention that mirrors the confusion of Babel, asking God to throw the counsels of the wicked into disarray. The city, which should be a bastion of order and justice under God, has become a cage of violence, strife, and ceaseless evil. David's prayer is not simply a desire for personal vindication, but a plea for God to cleanse His own city and restore righteousness where wickedness now patrols the walls day and night.

This passage is a raw depiction of a society rotting from the inside out. The walls, meant for defense against external threats, have become a parade route for internal corruption. The very heart of the city is diseased with mischief and destruction. It is a picture of what happens when the fear of God departs from the public square, and men give themselves over to oppression and deceit. David's imprecation is therefore a righteous one; he is asking God to do what a godly magistrate must do, which is to bring confusion and ruin to the plans of those who would ruin the city of God.

Outline

Context In Psalms

Psalm 55 is a lament, one that contains some of the most poignant expressions of betrayal in the entire Psalter. The historical context is most likely Absalom's rebellion (2 Samuel 15-18), a national crisis that was also a deeply personal one for David. His trusted counselor, Ahithophel, sided with his rebellious son, and the pain of this stings throughout the psalm (vv. 12-14). Our passage (vv. 9-11) is the pivot point where David's focus widens from his personal grief to the public consequences of this rebellion. The treachery he experienced is not an isolated incident but a symptom of a much larger spiritual sickness that has infected Jerusalem.

The prayer in verse 9, "divide their tongues," is a clear allusion to the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11). Just as God thwarted the arrogant, unified project of man at Babel by confusing their language, David asks God to bring the same kind of judicial chaos upon the conspiracy against him. This is a classic imprecatory prayer, which we find throughout the Psalms. It is not driven by personal vindictiveness, but by a zeal for God's justice and order. The enemies David describes are not just his personal foes; they are enemies of God's anointed king and, by extension, enemies of God Himself. Their sin is public, brazen, and destructive to the covenant community, and so the prayer for their downfall is a prayer for the health of the nation.

Clause-by-Clause Commentary

Verse 9: Confuse, O Lord, divide their tongues, For I have seen violence and strife in the city.

Confuse, O Lord, divide their tongues... The prayer begins with a startling imperative. The Hebrew for "confuse" can also be translated as "swallow up" or "destroy." David is not asking for a mild inconvenience to befall his enemies. He is asking for their complete and utter ruin. This is the prayer of a man who understands the stakes. The second part of the request, "divide their tongues," tells us how he expects this destruction to come about. He is asking for God to introduce internal dissent and miscommunication among the plotters. A conspiracy lives or dies on its ability to communicate and coordinate. David is praying that God would take a sledgehammer to their lines of communication. This is precisely what God did at Babel, and it is what God did when He turned Ahithophel's wise counsel into foolishness before Absalom (2 Sam. 17:14). When God's enemies are united in their rebellion, one of the most effective judgments is to make them turn on one another. Their unity is a fragile, sinful parody of true fellowship, and it only takes a nudge from God for the whole thing to come crashing down.

For I have seen violence and strife in the city. Here is the justification for such a stark prayer. David is not acting on rumor or paranoia. He is an eyewitness to the moral decay of Jerusalem. The words "violence" (hamas) and "strife" (riv) are potent. Violence here refers to brutal, lawless cruelty, the kind of sin that characterized the world before the flood (Gen. 6:11). Strife refers to contention, quarreling, and legal disputes. The city that was supposed to be the dwelling place of God's peace (shalom) has become a hotbed of violent crime and litigious bickering. Justice has fled the public square. This is what happens when a people forsakes God's law. The horizontal relationships between men fall apart because the vertical relationship with God has been severed. David sees this, and as the king, he knows it is his duty to appeal to the ultimate King for justice.

Verse 10: Day and night they go around her upon her walls, And wickedness and mischief are in her midst.

Day and night they go around her upon her walls... The imagery here is striking. The walls of a city are its primary defense. The watchmen on the walls are supposed to guard against external threats. But here, the very personifications of evil, "violence and strife," are patrolling the walls. The guardians have been replaced by the predators. And their activity is ceaseless, "day and night." This is not a momentary lapse; it is a permanent state of affairs. The corruption is not hidden in some dark alley; it is marching brazenly on the ramparts for all to see. This is a picture of audacious, unashamed sin. The city's defenses have become the stage for its depravity. This is a profound picture of apostasy. When the things that are meant to protect and define a people are co-opted by evil, the ruin is not far off.

And wickedness and mischief are in her midst. The problem is not just on the perimeter; it has penetrated to the very heart of the city. "Wickedness" (aven) often refers to idolatry and iniquity, while "mischief" (amal) speaks of trouble, sorrow, and toil. The external violence on the walls is the fruit of the internal rottenness of the heart. The city is sick from the inside out. The public square is full of oppression because the private heart is full of idolatry. You cannot have a healthy society without regenerate hearts. David understands that the political and social chaos he sees is fundamentally a theological problem. The city is not just poorly managed; it is deeply sinful.

Verse 11: Destruction is in her midst; Oppression and deceit do not depart from her streets.

Destruction is in her midst... The word for "destruction" here speaks of a yawning abyss, a ruinous calamity. It is not just that things are going badly; the city is on the verge of collapse. It is hollowing itself out. Sin is not a creative force; it is a destructive one. It eats away at the foundations of everything good, true, and beautiful. When a city is filled with wickedness and mischief, the inevitable result is destruction. It is a spiritual law, as fixed as gravity.

Oppression and deceit do not depart from her streets. The "streets" or public squares were the places of commerce and justice. This is where business was to be conducted honestly and where grievances were to be heard fairly. But now, these places are permanently occupied by "oppression and deceit." Oppression is the abuse of power to crush the weak. Deceit is fraud, trickery, and false words. The marketplace is rigged, and the courts are a sham. When a society's economic and judicial systems become thoroughly corrupt, it is a sign of terminal illness. Trust, the glue that holds a civilization together, has dissolved. David's prayer is a plea for God to intervene before the entire structure implodes. It is a recognition that when sin becomes this entrenched, the only hope is a direct, supernatural act of judgment and grace.

Application

We must first recognize that our prayers are to be shaped by Scripture. David's prayer here is raw and unflinching, and it is inspired by the Holy Spirit. This gives us permission, and indeed a command, to pray with holy indignation against entrenched evil. We are not to make our peace with the "violence and strife" in our own cities. We are to see the wickedness, the mischief, the oppression, and the deceit for what they are: an assault on the crown rights of Jesus Christ. And we are to pray, like David, for God to bring confusion to the counsels of the wicked. We should pray that their tongues would be divided, that their unified fronts would shatter into a thousand squabbling pieces. This is not vindictive; it is a prayer for the advancement of the Kingdom.

Second, we must understand the connection between private morality and public order. The chaos in Jerusalem's streets was a direct result of the wickedness in the people's hearts. A nation cannot long survive if its citizens, and especially its leaders, have no fear of God. We cannot expect to have peace in the public square when we cultivate deceit in our own souls. The call for us, then, is to pursue personal holiness and to call our culture to repentance. The restoration of our cities begins with the revival of the church. When the people of God walk in righteousness, their salt and light begin to have an effect on the surrounding culture.

Finally, we must remember that our ultimate hope is not in political solutions, but in the King whose city cannot be corrupted. Jerusalem in David's time was a picture of the heavenly city, but it was a flawed and failing picture. We look to the New Jerusalem, where nothing unclean will ever enter, and where oppression and deceit will never be found in her streets (Rev. 21:27). Our prayers against the evil in our earthly cities are an expression of our longing for that final, perfect city. And in the meantime, we labor, we preach, we pray, and we work to see Christ's lordship acknowledged here and now, in our homes, in our churches, and yes, even upon the walls of our cities.