Bird's-eye view
This passage is a raw depiction of what it is like to be pursued by implacable enemies. David, writing from a place of great personal peril, is not dealing with a simple misunderstanding. He is surrounded by men who are malevolent, whose entire intellectual and emotional energy is bent on his destruction. This is not a business dispute; it is a blood feud. The psalmist details the tactics of the wicked, their constant perversion of his words, their obsessive plotting, and their slithering, snake-like approach to murder. He then turns from this horizontal pressure to a vertical appeal. His only hope is in God, and he calls upon God to act in righteous anger, to bring down the very nations that harbor such men. This is a cry for divine justice in a world that is manifestly unjust. The movement is from a detailed description of the enemy's malice to a heartfelt plea for God's intervention.
What we see here is the anatomy of hatred. It is not a passing emotion but a settled disposition that corrupts everything it touches. It twists words, it schemes for evil, it lurks in shadows. And the only answer to this kind of deep-seated wickedness is not human ingenuity or diplomatic negotiation, but the sovereign wrath of a holy God. David understands that the problem is too big for him, and so he hands it over to the only One who can deal with it justly.
Outline
- 1. The Ceaseless Malice of the Enemy (Ps 56:5-6)
- a. The War on Words (v. 5a)
- b. The Unifying Purpose of Evil (v. 5b)
- c. The Tactics of Ambush (v. 6)
- 2. The Confident Appeal for Divine Justice (Ps 56:7)
- a. The Rhetorical Question of Escape (v. 7a)
- b. The Imprecatory Plea (v. 7b)
Context In Psalms
Psalm 56 is one of the Miktam psalms of David, and the superscription places it specifically "when the Philistines seized him in Gath." This is likely a reference to the events of 1 Samuel 21. David is on the run from Saul, a desperate fugitive. He flees to the territory of his enemies, the Philistines, hoping to find refuge, but is instead recognized and brought before their king. He is trapped. His own people want him dead, and now his foreign enemies have him in their grasp. It is out of this claustrophobic pressure cooker of fear and danger that he cries out to God.
The psalm oscillates between fear and faith. David acknowledges the reality of his terror (v. 3), but he repeatedly grounds himself in God's word and God's character. The verses we are examining (5-7) form a crucial part of this pattern. They are a stark, unvarnished description of the evil he faces. This is not hyperbole; it is his lived reality. By laying out the malice of his enemies in such detail, he is justifying his appeal for God's intervention. He is not asking God to act against mere rivals, but against men who have given themselves over entirely to the work of darkness.
Commentary
Psalm 56:5
5All day long they distort my words; All their thoughts are against me for evil.
The first front in this war is the war on words. "All day long they distort my words." The Hebrew word here for distort can mean to grieve, or to vex, or to twist. The malice of these men is remarkable. They are not interested in understanding David; they are interested in trapping him. Anything he says, no matter how innocent, is taken and bent into a malicious shape. This is what haters do. They take your words and put them on the rack, stretching them until they confess to a crime they never committed. Part of their delight comes from being unfair. They know the pain they inflict will hurt, but the pain they inflict for no good reason, through sheer misrepresentation, will hurt more. Because they are haters, this is part of their satisfaction.
And this is not a part-time job for them. It is an "all day long" occupation. Their hostility is the sun they orbit. It is the first thing they think of in the morning and the last thing they meditate on at night. This leads to the second clause: "All their thoughts are against me for evil." There is a terrible unity in their purpose. They are not distracted by other concerns. Every thought, every plan, every whispered conversation is bent toward one goal: David's harm. This is the nature of true malevolence. It is focused, obsessive, and all-consuming. They are not just disagreeing with David's policies. They are plotting his ruin.
Psalm 56:6
6They attack, they lurk, They watch my heels, As they have hoped to take my life.
From the war of words, David moves to their physical actions. "They attack, they lurk." The word for attack can also mean to gather together, to stir up strife. They form committees. They conspire. They are not lone wolves, but a pack. And their primary tactic is stealth. "They lurk." They hide themselves. They are cowards, operating in the shadows because their deeds are evil. They do not want a fair fight in the open field; they want an ambush in a dark alley.
"They watch my heels." This is a vivid image, drawn from the language of a hunter tracking his prey. They are marking his steps, not the way God does in order to preserve him, but in order to trip him, to ensnare him. They are looking for any misstep, any moment of vulnerability. This is the "gotcha" mentality, the spirit of the ambusher. And the goal of all this watching and lurking is made explicit: "As they have hoped to take my life." The Hebrew word for "hoped" here is one of longing, of patient waiting. They are not just willing for him to die; they are eagerly anticipating it. Their hope is set on his death. This is the ultimate end of all their word-twisting and their scheming. It is not about winning an argument. It is about ending a life.
Psalm 56:7
7On account of their wickedness, will they have an escape? In anger, bring down the peoples, O God!
Having laid out the case against his enemies, David now turns to the judge. The first clause is a rhetorical question that expects a resounding "No!" "On account of their wickedness, will they have an escape?" The idea is unthinkable. Can this kind of calculated, persistent, murderous evil simply get away with it? Will there be no reckoning? David's faith in a just God demands that such iniquity cannot go unpunished. To let them escape would be a blot on the character of God Himself.
And so, he moves from the question to the petition, which is a raw imprecation. "In anger, bring down the peoples, O God!" David is not praying for their conversion here. He is praying for their judgment. He asks God to act "in anger," because holy wrath is the only appropriate response to this kind of high-handed evil. And notice the scope of his prayer. He does not just say "bring down my enemies," but "bring down the peoples." He understands that this kind of wickedness does not exist in a vacuum. It is representative of the rebellion of entire nations against God's rule. He is asking God to act on a grand scale, to vindicate His own name and His own justice in the sight of all. This is not personal vengeance. It is a prayer for the establishment of God's kingdom, which necessarily involves the overthrow of all rival kingdoms built on lies and murder.
Application
We live in an age that is squeamish about imprecatory prayer. We have been taught a soft and sentimental version of Christianity that has little room for the righteous anger of God. But the Psalms are our prayer book, given by the Holy Spirit, and they teach us how to pray. This passage teaches us that there is a time to call evil what it is, and to ask God to deal with it decisively.
First, we must recognize that the war on words is still a primary tactic of the enemy. Christians who stand for the truth will have their words distorted. They will be slandered, misrepresented, and accused of the very things they oppose. We should not be surprised when this happens. It happened to David, it happened to the Lord Jesus, and it will happen to us. Our job is not to become so guarded that we say nothing, but to speak the truth in love and entrust our reputations to God.
Second, we must understand the nature of the opposition. It is not random or haphazard. "All their thoughts are against me for evil." The world system, energized by the prince of the power of the air, has a unified purpose: to oppose Christ and His kingdom. When we face hostility for our faith, it is not just a personal conflict. We are caught up in a cosmic battle. This should not lead us to despair, but to sobriety. We are not wrestling against flesh and blood alone.
Finally, our ultimate recourse is to the throne of God. Like David, we must learn to lay out the specifics of the evil we face before the Lord. And like David, we must pray for God's justice to be done. This is not a sin. It is a righteous desire for God's name to be hallowed and for His kingdom to come. We pray for the salvation of our enemies, yes, but we also pray for the overthrow of their wicked systems and for the judgment of those who harden their hearts in rebellion. Our confidence is not in our ability to out-maneuver them, but in the fact that God is a righteous judge who will, in His anger, bring down the peoples and establish His Son's throne forever.