Psalms 55

Give ear; hide yourself from my plea for mercy. Wesley’s outline opens with complaint that must be heard—prayer is the first move when distress is heavy. The plea assumes God can hide; faith begs him not to.

Mercy is sought by petition. Grace invites the cry; the hearer must still pray rather than nurse silent despair.

Calvin: from the opening we conclude David was under heavy distress—no ordinary amount produced such an effect upon a saint of distinguished courage. He is anxious to convey wretchedness, constrained to cry out aloud.

The saint’s courage does not annul need of an open ear in heaven. Both note: hide-not is earnest pleading before God.

The noise of grief is not irreverence—Wesley’s later notes treat the complaint as prayer that God hears at stated times.

Restless moaning is brought to God, not suppressed as unworthy. Grace opens a path for honest anguish that still must be voiced.

Calvin connects the moan with the enemy’s voice: threatenings and unjust violence cast upon him. He will wail in his address and make a noise—not boast fortitude, but show distress.

Complaint before God is permitted; it is not the barren comfort of endless self-pity. Common confession: attend and answer are begged.

Wesley: Voice—their clamours and threats, and slanders. Cast—they lay many crimes to my charge. Oppression of the wicked drops trouble and nurses angry grudge.

False accusation and wrathful hatred are named so the sufferer may pray specifically. The wicked’s noise does not silence the plea; it fuels it.

Calvin: voice may allude to Saul’s threatenings; casting iniquity = discharging unjust violence, or deceitful treachery paired with open wrath. Applying wicked to enemies implicitly asserts innocence.

Conscious rectitude under persecution springs hope of the Lord’s help—he is shield of the distressed. Both readings hold: trouble dropped in anger is not denied.

Wesley: The terrors—deadly terrors; such as seize upon men in the agonies of death. Heart in anguish; death’s terrors fallen.

Even a believing king may feel death’s dread. The confession invites prayer, not stoic denial; grace meets anguish that is owned.

Calvin: additional evidence of extremity—no soft person, yet overwhelmed with terrors, heart not insensible. Fortitude of the greatest servants fails in severe trial; Satan suggests God has withdrawn Spirit’s supports.

Terrors of death show he was on the eve of sinking unless divine grace interposed. Anguish is not unbelief by definition.

Fear, trembling, and horror overwhelm him. Wesley leaves the verse terse under the deadly-terrors theme of v. 4—horror that floods the whole person.

Overwhelm names a spiritual and bodily crisis. Faith does not pretend calm; it brings horror to the God who still hears.

Calvin: fearfulness and trembling come; horror overwhelms—inward fears join outward calamities. We are good soldiers while things go well; close combat shows weakness.

The throne of God is where the sore conflict of spirit is brought. Both agree: horror is confessed, not curated away.

The wish is escape, not revenge: rest from betrayal and city strife.

Longing for flight can be honest prayer-language. Grace does not mock the desire for rest; it also trains the heart to cast the burden rather than only flee.

Calvin: more than no escape—exile coveted, and such as the dove’s flight to a deserted hiding-place. He could escape only by miracle; common banishment denied. Dove singled as timid and defenseless before the hawk.

Great straits made him almost forget the kingdom promise in agitation. Dove’s rest is the cry of a hunted soul.

Wesley’s tempest note (v. 8) frames this as flight from enemies’ fury into lonely quiet.

Wilderness lodging pictures desperate need of distance from corrupt company. The pause (Selah) invites the heart to feel the cost of betrayal.

Calvin: willing to prolong flight and repose in the wilderness—concession to adversaries’ fury, not a false truce to buy time. Words of a man driven near desperation.

Even contemplated disgraceful flight shows how deep the pit felt. Far wilderness is preferred to near treachery.

Wesley: Tempest—from the force and fury of mine enemies. Hurry to shelter from raging wind.

Shelter is sought from God-ward prayer as much as from geography. The haste is faith under pressure, not random panic.

Calvin: hasten a deliverance from the wind raised by the whirlwind—a violent storm that compels the traveler to fly to the nearest covert.

The image is providential peril, not mere weather. The storm stands for the rage of his enemies.

Wesley: Destroy—destroy them by dividing. Tongues—their speech, as at Babel (Gen 11:9), their votes, opinions, counsels—eminently among Absalom’s followers (2 Sam 17). Strife—injustice and fraud instead of the justice and peace David established. City—Jerusalem, in Absalom’s time a sink of all sins.

Prayer asks God to fracture wicked confederacy. Judgment that divides tongues is begged so violence in the city may not stand unchallenged.

Calvin: having composed his mind, he resumes prayer—not endless barren complaint. Divide their tongue alludes to Babel: break criminal confederacies, distract impious counsels. God still weakens church enemies by factions and disagreements.

Unbridled license signals judgments not far off—God visits the proud, gives grace to the humble. Agreed: divide tongues is holy petition.

Wesley: They—violence and strife. Go about—encompass as a garrison. Walls—outward parts and very midst; all parts horribly corrupted. Iniquity and trouble within.

Civic rot day and night is named so intercession can be specific. The righteous may still pray when walls themselves seem manned by strife.

Calvin: crimes go about the walls keeping sentry—order inverted; city beset with strife and oppression instead of protected. City may mean open public prevalence of crime under Saul’s confused government.

Inward corruption feeds outward violence. Day-and-night circuit of evil is seen and mourned.

Wesley: Streets—places of buying and selling and public commerce. Ruin in the midst; oppression and lies don’t depart from the marketplace.

Marketplace fraud is moral, not only economic. Prayer against city sin includes the square where deals are struck.

Calvin: wickedness in the midst; deceit and guile in the streets—source of prevailing crimes; the inwardly corrupt indulge violence against the defenseless. A nation of true religion with cities as dens of robbers faces portentous crisis.

Spirit’s judgment stands against such cities. Both hear: fraud in the market is ruin in the midst.

Wesley: Hated—with a manifest or old hatred. Not an enemy’s taunt—then bearable; not an insolent adversary—then hideable.

Open enmity can be met; familiar treachery blindsides. The wound of false friendship is named so healing prayer can be honest.

Calvin: not that he could patiently bear an open enemy’s reproach, but that he could meet and parry it; against a known foe we watch, but a friend’s unsuspected stroke surprises. Self-defense impossible against secret treachery.

Church history knows sword and also domestic fraud. The hurt is sharper because it was not an enemy.

Wesley: Equal—not in power, but in reputation for wisdom and influence. Guide—whose counsel I highly prized and constantly followed. All which agrees to Achitophel.

Betrayal by a prized counselor is the psalm’s knife-point. Friendship and guidance were not imaginary; their violation is not minimized.

Calvin: man of his own order—common bond of fraternity violated; leader and acquaintance; various bonds of relationship and office ought to be held sacred. Possibly a great man at court, or more than one sacrificing friendship for royal favor.

Satan raises domestic enemies with secret weapons. Both see: equal, companion, familiar friend—named and grieved.

Sweet counsel together; walked in God’s house in the throng. Shared worship deepened the bond—and the betrayal.

Religious fellowship made the friendship sweeter and the wound worse. Walking in God’s house together was not theater; its memory still teaches reverence for holy ties.

Calvin: sweet interchange of secret counsel; frequented religious assemblies in company—leader even in matters religious. Bond of religious fellowship is most sacred; such connections are providential design, not chance.

Treachery inside worship’s throng aggravates guilt. Undisputed: sweet counsel in God’s house is holy trust.

Wesley: Them—all such as pretend to religion and have manifestly apostatized from profession and practice. Grave—cut off by sudden and violent death. Among them—Heb. in their inwards; wickedness deeply rooted in their hearts. Go down to Sheol alive.

Imprecation targets apostate pretenders, not a vague vent. Evil in dwelling and heart is the stated ground.

Calvin: denounces the faction that persecuted him—not personal bad feeling but speaking in God’s cause under the Spirit. Alludes to Korah, Dathan, Abiram; proud persuasion they would escape death. Wickedness in their dwelling and in the midst of them—inseparable companion.

Regulated fervor of holy judgment differs from petty revenge. Sheol-alive language is judicial, not casual curse.

But I will call on God. The LORD will save me. Turn from the traitor’s circle to petition and promise.

Calling is the believer’s act under pressure. Salvation is expected from the LORD; the call must still be made evening, morning, and noon (v. 17).

Calvin: future tense retained—he excites himself to prayer, hope, and confidence. No apparent escape; on the brink of destruction, yet resolves to continue in prayer assured it will succeed.

The turn is faith stirring itself, not stoic grit. Call and save stand together.

Wesley: Evening, &c.—the three stated times of prayer among the Jews. Complaint and moan uttered; he hears my voice.

Fixed hours help weak hearts keep praying. Grace enables; the saint still shows up morning, noon, and night with moans God hears.

Calvin: not content with bare praying—many do that perfunctorily and weary. Assiduity and vehemency; stated hours respect our indisposition. Cry aloud denotes vehemency under grief.

Restrict yourself to a rule or remissness grows. No dispute here: he hears the thrice-daily voice.

Wesley: He hath—speaks of future deliverance as done because of certainty. Restored to former peace. For—more with me than against me; even holy angels employed to defend.

Redemption into safety is trusted as sure. Angelic help and answered prayer are gifts received, not self-secured.

Calvin: redeemed into peace—strong phrase for danger and near-miraculous deliverance. Many arrayed against him magnifies the rescue (or, some hear angels with him).

Thankfulness names the mercy already as good as done. Both affirm: safety from the battle is God’s redeeming.

Wesley: Hear—my prayers. Eternity—who is eternal, therefore unchangeable and almighty. Because—they meet no crosses. Therefore—success makes them go on securely without regard to God or dread of judgments. They never change and don’t fear God.

Unbroken prosperity can harden. Prayer asks the eternal God to humble the fearless.

Calvin: God shall hear and afflict them—he who sits from ancient time. Elevating thoughts to God’s eternity checks impatience. No changes → therefore they fear not God: indulgence hardens; pride forgets we are men.

Compare short human life with God’s eternity; do not measure God by feeble apprehensions. Changeless ease without fear of God invites humbling.

Wesley: He—they, the persons last mentioned. Companion stretched hand against friends; violated covenant.

Covenant-breaking friendship is sin with a name. Peaceable bonds were true; the stretched hand is treachery, not misunderstanding.

Calvin: leader of the wicked conspiracy—war in the midst of peace, breach of faith; attack unexpected and treacherous.

Holy Spirit marks reprobation on crafty seduction. Violated covenant is the charge.

Speech smooth as butter; war in the heart; words softer than oil, yet drawn swords.

Flattery that kills is exposed so the simple may watch. Soft lips do not prove soft hearts; discernment is part of walking wisely under grace.

Calvin: butter and oil on lips, war in heart, words as darts—poison besmeared with honey. Saul’s fair promises and courtiers’ arts. Special trial: crafty attempts to seduce the Lord’s people.

Cultivate simplicity of intention against treacherous flatteries. Where they meet: smooth speech can be a drawn sword.

Wesley: Burden—all thy crosses, cares, and fears, lay them upon the Almighty by faith and prayer. Directs this speech to his own soul and to all good men in like circumstances. Suffer—as he doth wicked men. Though he may for a season suffer them to be shaken, yet not to be overwhelmed. Cast your burden; he will sustain; never allow the righteous to be moved.

Casting is an act of faith and prayer the believer must take up. Sustain and unmoved are promised to those who actually lay the burden down.

Calvin: cast thy giving/gift upon Jehovah—resign into God’s hands the care of what concerns our advantage; not clamorous dictation. He shall feed thee as shepherd; will not suffer the righteous always to stagger—eventually freed from harassing cares.

Absolute submission to the divine will checks impatient prayer.

Wesley: Them—the wicked. Not live—cut off by untimely and violent death. Trust in thee—in this confidence quietly wait for deliverance. Pit of destruction; blood and treachery.

Trust is the saint’s settled choice while judgment on bloody men is expected. Waiting is active confidence, not fatalism.

Calvin: different end for oppressors—pit of corruption/everlasting destruction; bloody and deceitful. Life under God’s curse is death-like; career of the wicked short. Closes: I will hope in thee—judgment must be waited for in faith and patience.

Fraud and violence do not rewrite the end. Trust in God while the pit waits for treachery.