The Unshaken Resolve of the Righteous Text: Psalm 55:16-19
Introduction: A World of Treachery
We live in a world that is shot through with treachery. This is not a new development. From the moment the serpent whispered his treason in the Garden, the story of man has been a story of betrayal. Friendships crumble, marriages dissolve in bitterness, business partners defraud one another, and politicians lie with a straight face. The psalm before us is David's raw cry in the midst of just such a situation. He has been betrayed, and not by an open enemy, which would be bad enough, but by a close companion, an equal, a familiar friend with whom he took sweet counsel. The pain is therefore sharp, personal, and deeply disorienting.
But this psalm does not leave us in the slough of that disorienting pain. It shows us the path out. And the path out is the path up. When men betray us, when the world around us seems to be a whirlwind of deceit, the righteous man has a recourse that the world knows nothing of. He has a direct line to the throne room of the universe. The chaos of horizontal relationships is met by the stability of a vertical relationship. David, surrounded by enemies, cornered by liars, and stabbed in the back by a friend, shows us what a man of God does. He doesn't just despair. He doesn't just plot revenge. He resolves to call upon God.
This passage is a pivot. The first part of the psalm is a torrent of anguish, a description of the wickedness that surrounds him, and the deep wound of personal betrayal. But here, in our text, David makes his stand. He plants his feet on the bedrock of God's faithfulness and declares his unwavering intention. This is the great antithesis. The world of the wicked is a world of strife, lies, and ultimately, self-destruction. The world of the righteous is a world of prayer, deliverance, and ultimate peace, even when surrounded by battle. As we walk through these verses, we must see that this is not just David's story. It is our story. It is the story of every believer who must navigate a world that is hostile to our King, and it is preeminently the story of the Lord Jesus Christ, who faced the ultimate betrayal and yet entrusted Himself to the one who judges justly.
The Text
As for me, I shall call upon God, And Yahweh will save me. Evening and morning and at noon, I will bring my complaint and moan, And He will hear my voice. He will redeem my soul in peace from the battle which is against me, For they are many who strive with me. God will hear and answer them, Even the one who sits enthroned from of old, Selah. Because they do not change, And do not fear God.
(Psalm 55:16-19 LSB)
The Great "As For Me" (v. 16)
The first verse of our text is a declaration of spiritual independence from the surrounding chaos.
"As for me, I shall call upon God, And Yahweh will save me." (Psalm 55:16)
Notice the glorious defiance in that little phrase, "As for me." This is the righteous man drawing a line in the sand. All around him is the swirling vortex of sin and betrayal. His friend has become his enemy. The city is filled with violence and strife. But in the midst of it all, David refuses to be defined by his circumstances. He will not be swept away by the current. He says, "You can all do what you want. You can lie, you can betray, you can plot. As for me, I have a different strategy. I will call upon God."
This is the fundamental choice every believer must make. Will you allow the wickedness of others to dictate the terms of your life, to fill you with bitterness, anxiety, and a lust for retaliation? Or will you, like David, plant your flag on higher ground? To "call upon God" is not a pious platitude. It is an act of war. It is to appeal to a higher authority, to bring the case into a courtroom where the judge is not corruptible. It is an acknowledgment that the battle is ultimately not yours, but the Lord's.
And look at the confidence that follows. It is not, "I shall call upon God, and maybe He will hear me," or "I hope He will do something." No. The declaration is followed by a statement of fact: "And Yahweh will save me." This is not presumption; it is faith. Faith is not a leap in the dark; it is a stand in the light of God's revealed character. David knows God. He knows that Yahweh is a covenant-keeping God. He is the God who saves. This is the logic of faith: because God is who He is, I will act in a certain way, and I can be certain of the result. The salvation may not come on David's timetable, or in the precise manner he expects, but it will come. Yahweh will save.
The Rhythm of Righteous Complaint (v. 17)
David then describes the shape and texture of his calling upon God.
"Evening and morning and at noon, I will bring my complaint and moan, And He will hear my voice." (Psalm 55:17 LSB)
This is not a one-off, emergency prayer. This is a disciplined, persistent, relentless rhythm of supplication. "Evening and morning and at noon." This is the pattern of a man whose life is oriented toward God. Like Daniel, who prayed three times a day even under threat of death, David has structured his life around communion with his King. When crisis hits, he does not have to invent a new spiritual discipline; he simply deepens the one he already has. The crisis intensifies the prayer life; it does not create it out of nothing.
Now, we must pay close attention to the words "complaint and moan." Our therapeutic age is uncomfortable with such language. But the Bible is not. The Psalms are full of raw, honest, and often brutal language directed at God. But we must distinguish between a righteous complaint and a sinful one. A sinful complaint, what the Bible calls murmuring, is a whining accusation against God's wisdom and goodness. It is the spirit that says, "God, you are not running my life correctly." It is a subjective attitude of discontent. But a righteous complaint is objective. It takes the facts of the situation, the sin, the injustice, the pain, and lays them out before the throne of God as an appeal for Him to act according to His own character and promises. David is not whining; he is litigating. He is saying, "God, look at this injustice. This is not right. You are a God of justice. Act!" This is what God invites us to do, to cast our anxieties on Him, because He cares for us.
And again, the verse ends with settled confidence: "And He will hear my voice." It is not the loudness of our voice that gets God's attention, but the faith behind it. God is not hard of hearing. He is attuned to the cries of His people. To know this is to have an anchor in the storm. The world may be deaf to your pleas, but the one who matters, the one who sits enthroned, will hear.
The Peace of Redemption (v. 18)
The result of this confident, persistent prayer is a profound peace, even in the midst of conflict.
"He will redeem my soul in peace from the battle which is against me, For they are many who strive with me." (Psalm 55:18 LSB)
The word "redeem" here means to buy back, to ransom. David sees himself as a captive in this battle, and he looks to God as his kinsman-redeemer. But notice what God redeems his soul in. It is "in peace." This is a staggering statement. The battle is still raging. The enemies have not disappeared. He says, "the battle which is against me," present tense. "They are many who strive with me," present tense. The circumstances have not yet changed, but David's soul has been garrisoned with peace.
This is the peace that passes all understanding. It is not the peace of escapism, pretending the battle isn't real. It is the peace of confidence, knowing who wins the war. God does not always redeem us from the battle, but He always redeems us in the battle. He gives us a supernatural calm in the eye of the hurricane. Why? Because our peace is not located in our circumstances; it is located in Him. He redeems our soul, our very life, and places it in a fortress of tranquility that the enemy cannot breach. The fact that "they are many" is not a cause for fear, but rather a backdrop against which God's singular power will be displayed.
The Unchanging Judge and the Unchanging Wicked (v. 19)
Finally, David contrasts the unchanging nature of God with the stubborn rebellion of the wicked.
"God will hear and answer them, Even the one who sits enthroned from of old, Selah. Because they do not change, And do not fear God." (Psalm 55:19 LSB)
The first clause here is tricky. Who are the "them" that God will hear and answer? Given the context, it refers to the wicked. God hears their plotting, their treachery, their blasphemies. And He will answer them, not with deliverance, but with judgment. The one who hears this is "the one who sits enthroned from of old." This is a magnificent vision of God's sovereignty. He is not a new king, scrambling to react to a rebellion. He is ancient, eternal, and utterly unthreatened. The rebellion of men is a tiny, fleeting tempest in the eternal ocean of His reign. The word "Selah" invites us to pause and meditate on this profound truth. Stop. Think about the eternal King on His throne. Let that reality recalibrate your perspective on your temporary troubles.
And why will this judgment come? "Because they do not change, And do not fear God." Here is the root of all wickedness. It is a stubborn refusal to change, a hardened heart that is rooted in a fundamental lack of fear for God. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, which means the lack of that fear is the beginning of all folly. These men have no reverence, no sense of accountability to the eternal Judge. They believe they can get away with it. They are unchanging in their rebellion. And because they will not change their ways, God will give them an unchanging judgment. Their doom is fixed because their character is fixed.
Conclusion: The Great Betrayal and the Greater Redeemer
As we read this psalm, we cannot help but see the shadow of a greater David. The Lord Jesus Christ was the man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. He was betrayed by a familiar friend, one who dipped his bread in the same bowl. He entered a city, Jerusalem, that was filled with violence and strife, a city that would cry out for His crucifixion. In the Garden of Gethsemane, He brought His complaint and moan before His Father with loud cries and tears.
And what did He do? "As for me, I shall call upon God." He entrusted Himself to the one who sits enthroned from of old. And God heard Him. God redeemed His soul in peace, not by sparing Him from the cross, but by sustaining Him through it and raising Him out of the grave. The battle was fierce, and those who strove against Him were many. But God gave Him the ultimate victory.
And because of His victory, we can have this same confidence. When we are betrayed, when we are surrounded by enemies, when the battle is against us, we have a high priest who can sympathize with our weaknesses. We can follow His pattern. We can say, "As for me, I will call upon God." We can bring our righteous complaints to the throne of grace. And we can know, with unshakable certainty, that Yahweh will save us. He will hear our voice. He will redeem our souls in peace. And He will one day answer all our enemies, because He is the one who sits enthroned from of old. Let us therefore pause, Selah, and rest in that glorious, unshakeable truth.