Psalm 55 - Bad Friends and Complaining To God

Well, welcome back to Tabernacle Talk today. And we are in Psalm 55.

We've been walking through what the kids today might call David's sad boy era. And by that, I mean that many of these Psalms in kind of the Psalm 50 all the way through, let me just peek over.

Man, almost every one of these Psalms until we get to about Psalm 61, or about a particular time in David's life where he's going through difficulties, people are betraying him, he's having to run for his life, God delivers him from a specific

circumstance where he could have died, and he is on the one hand thanking the Lord for his protection, and on the other, he's going like, God, I need you to like protect me, all these people that I thought I could count on, I can't. And I'm sure many

of us have been in that spot, because as we interact with people, people are imperfect, people will let us down. But I'm so thankful for God that never does.

So we're going to jump into Psalm 55 today, unlike what we will have for the next like five or six episodes. This one doesn't necessarily tie itself to a particular moment in David's life, as far as in the inspired caption.

The other ones do, and so we'll do kind of what we've been doing over the past couple of days, and taking a peek over to first and second Samuel to see what David did, what the circumstances were, and then go back to the Psalm to see how David sang

about it. Today's Psalm starts off with this inscription, for the choir director, with stringed instruments, a masqueal of David. He says this, God, listen to my prayer and do not hide from my plea for help. Pay attention to me and answer me.

I am restless and in turmoil with my complaint because of the enemy's words, because of the pressure of the wicked. For they bring down disaster on me and harass me in anger. My heart shudders within me.

Terror of death sweep over me. Fear and trembling grip me. Horror has overwhelmed me.

I said, if only I had wings like a dove, I would fly away and find rest. How far away I would flee, I would stay in the wilderness, I would hurry to my shelter from the raging wind and the storm.

Lord, confuse and confound their speech, for I see violence and strife in the city. Day and night, they make the rounds on its walls. Crime and trouble are within it.

Destruction is inside it. Oppression and deceit never leave its marketplace. Now it is not an enemy who insults me, otherwise I could bear it.

It is not a foe who rises up against me, otherwise I could hide from him. But it is you, a man who is my peer, my companion and good friend. We used to have close fellowship.

We walked with the crowd into the house of God. Let death take them by surprise. Let them go down to Sheol, the grave, alive, because evil is in their homes and within them.

But I call the God, and Yahweh will save me. I complain and groan morning, noon and night, and He hears my voice. Though many are against me, He will redeem me from my battle unharmed.

God, the one enthroned from long ago, will hear and humiliate them. Selah. Because they do not change, and do not fear God.

My friend acts violently against those at peace with him. He violates his covenant. His buttery words are smooth, but war is in his heart.

His words are softer than oil, but they are drawn swords. Cast your burden on Yahweh, and He will sustain you. He will never allow the righteous to be shaken.

God, you will bring them down to the pit of destruction. Men of bloodshed and treachery will not live out half their days, but I will trust in you.

Man, this is a great Psalm, and I'm looking forward to walking through this with you and taking note of just a few things that stood out to me as I was going through. He starts off by saying, My God, please listen to me. Please hear me.

I'm pleading for help. He says, pay attention to me. Answer me.

And I'm thankful that we can pray that to God because that's how we feel, but it's not how God's actually interacting with us. We are never outside of his attention or his care, and when we call to him, he will answer us. And I'm thankful for that.

He says, I'm restless. I'm in turmoil with my complaints. He mentions complaining several times through here, where he is taking to God things that are not right.

And we can complain to other people who can't do anything about our circumstances, and all we succeed in doing is making sure that we stay angry and we enlist other people to be angry too.

Let's take our complaints to the one who can actually do something about them. And I will say, that's true for God. That's true for us as people.

Gossip is, in a sense, taking things to other people that we should be taking to the person who has either wronged or been wronged or something like that. Like, let's take things actually to the person that it applies to.

Don't just spread around slander or ill thoughts of other people, or, man, I wish this would change at my work. I wish this would change in my home. I wish my wife would do this, or I wish, you know, maybe my Sunday school teacher was doing this.

Let's take the problems. Let's take our complaints to the person that can actually do something about them. That's just a generally good thing in life, and it's a great thing to do with the Lord.

He says, I have these complaints because of the enemy's words and because of the pressure of the wicked. And here there's these people that are bringing down disaster on David, harassing him in anger.

If you're angrily harassing someone, it's probably a pretty good idea that you're not walking in the Spirit. The Spirit of God is one that is entreating, bringing people, earnestly begging people to return to the Lord.

It's God saying through Isaiah to the Israelites, Hey, come, let's reason together. I will show you. It's Jesus saying, Hey, like, come, learn from me, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

It's Paul saying to Timothy, like, the people that right now are your enemies, are your opponents, like entreat them gently because it might be that God will grant them repentance so that they can come to a knowledge of the truth.

Then David says, Hey, here's how I'm feeling. Like, my heart is shuddering. I'm freaking out.

Tears of death sweep over me. I'm really scared that I'm going to die. He says, fear and trembling grip me.

Horror has overwhelmed me. He has anxiety here in a big way. He's like, man, if I could get out of this situation, I would and I would go so far.

He says, I wish I had wings to book it out of here and I would fly into the wilderness out where there are no people, where it's just animals. He says, I wish I could leave civilization.

He says, I'd hurry to my shelter from the raging wind and the storm, no doubt here thinking about some of the rocks that he would take refuge in, the caves that he would hide in during his running from Saul.

And I think it's really interesting in verses 9 through 11.

If you've been around the Bible for long, maybe if you were even with Tabernacle back at the end of May, back at the middle of June, whenever we were going through the book of Genesis, you might recognize these words in verse 9 where he says, Lord,

confuse and confound their speech, for I see violence and strife in the city. Here, the words used are to remind us of Babel, the Tower of Babel, that initial building of the Empire of Babylon and what they were doing there.

They wanted that universal kind of domination. They didn't want to obey God's outlook of the world, to go and multiply and be fruitful and to make all of the earth into kind of a new Eden. They didn't want to do that.

They wanted to consolidate their power. They wanted to protect themselves. They wanted to build a tower that would reach up to the skies, up to the gods, so that they would not be scattered again.

And so here David says, this is the people that I'm interacting with. That's their goal. They don't want to follow through on what God has.

They don't want to treat other people well. They've got their strife. They've got violence.

They are. They've got crime and trouble and destruction and oppression and deceit. And man, for our world today, many of you have seen it with the advent of social media.

We can see at any moment of the day in any city, you can Google, you can YouTube search, you can TikTok, you know, you can TikTok search any possible city and like crime or riot or people in social unrest. And you can find it everywhere in our world.

This is the natural state of mankind. This is what we naturally go to outside of a relationship with God. And here David, thousands of years ago, is saying, this is what I'm seeing in the people around me.

And so he says, God, do what you did back then. Like they've got their plans that they're working together. He says, confuse and confound them.

Make them do some infighting amongst themselves that they can't get on the same page anymore. They don't have the same goals. God, do this to them.

Then in verses 12 through 14, he says, it's not an enemy who insults me or a foe who rises up against me. He says, otherwise, I would bear it. I would hide from him.

What hurts the most God is not just like the social unrest or the craziness that's going on. He says, it's betrayal from a man who is my peer, my companion, and my good friend. We used to have close fellowship.

We walked with the crowd into the house of God. And I think here, there is probably no greater example than Jesus and Judas. That Jesus was one who invited Judas Iscariot to follow him.

That he made him the one who held the money, had that purse, all of the funds for Jesus and his disciples and his entourage for all of their mission. Judas was the one that had this bag of money.

And he was one that traveled with Jesus, heard Jesus' preaching, ate part of the last supper with Jesus. And was one that was close in proximity to him. And yet he betrayed Jesus.

And David here and Jesus and all of us know what it's like to feel betrayal. And so I want you to know, betrayal doesn't mean that God isn't with you, because if that was true, then God wasn't with Jesus. Otherwise Judas wouldn't have betrayed him.

Betrayal is what happens as a result of sin in this world. But when we experience betrayal, when we wanted to count on people, and then those people turned out to be untrustworthy, we have a refuge in God. And that's what David is asking for.

He's like, God, I need you to be my safe shelter. And then he asks for God to bring justice. He says, God, let death take them by surprise.

These people that are violent, that are oppressive, that are committing crimes, that are lying, that are deceiving, that are betraying, that are seeking the downfall of others, let them experience downfall.

He says, evil is in their homes and within them. They're worshiping false idols. They have other people's property inside of their homes, and it's all coming from an evil heart.

He says, but I call to God, and Yahweh will save me. He says, these people are trusting in their stuff. They're trusting in their plans that they're working out with other people.

And he says, but I'm trusting in God, and God will save me. And I love, he says, I complain and groan morning, noon and night, and he hears my voice and he answers me. Though many are against me, he will redeem me from my battle unharmed.

I'm thankful that God can provide us with safety. God can make it so that we are not ended through what happens, but that we can trust in him, that he provides a way out.

It's that way of escape that Paul mentions in 1 Corinthians 10, that no temptation has overtaken us, but what is common to mankind and with the temptation, God will provide a way of escape. And I'm thankful for that.

God is the one that's enthroned from long ago. And he calls on people to repent, but they do not change. They do not fear God.

And so they experience humiliation when God's way, when God's results happen, those that have not listened to God and not followed him will be ashamed because their plans came to nothing and God's plans were accomplished.

Verses 20 and 21, we see kind of this warning against saying nice words to people, but in our hearts, like doing wrong by them, like we, you know, maybe dislike a co-worker, but we don't have maybe the character to be like, hey, could you stop doing

this action? Could you stop saying this thing? Hey, I like have been really counting on you to get these projects done, but you haven't done it.

Maybe it's with a family member and you're like, hey, you know, I trusted you to bring these items and you didn't do it. I trusted you to show up when you said you were going to show up and you didn't.

And so maybe there's some fighting, there's some conflict there.

But instead of actually saying that to the person, we act like everything's fine to them and then we just like completely destroy and talk bad about them and everything behind their back. And let's not do that. That's what wicked people do.

That's not a godly action. Then I love verse 22, and this is probably where we'll end today. Cast your burden on Yahweh and He will sustain you.

He will never allow the righteous to be shaken. And I don't know about you, I've got some burdens going on in my heart and my life right now. I'm thankful that when we throw that on the Lord and we say, God, I can't take this.

I can't carry this. It's going to stress me out too much. I'm going to have too much anxiety.

I can't fix this other person or this situation or defend myself or make my own provision in this way. God, you've got to help me. When we cast our burdens on Him, He sustains us.

He keeps us lifted up and He will not allow us to be shaken. That like an earthquake that would tear down an ancient city wall of Jericho or something like that, God will not have that happen to His children, those that are following Him.

We have a firm foundation in Christ, that when the rains and wind and all of that from this life, when that comes in and it attacks, that the foundation of our house stands sure that our life is not dismantled through the shaking of this world and

circumstances, but that God is our foundation and in Him, there is certainty and security. Something that Peter would even mention in 1 Peter chapter 5. Cast all your cares on Him because He cares for you.

So today, are you talking to the person that can actually do something about what you're concerned about? Are you genuine with people? Are you going behind their back?

Are you relying on the Lord to be your source of security? Are you calling on Him for justice? Are you calling on Him to confound the wicked plans of our world or people that we know?

Like, are you turning to God? Cast your burden on Yahweh and He will sustain you. He will never allow the righteous to be shaken.

Thanks for tuning in today. Hope that it was an encouragement to you. See you next episode.