Psalm 31:1-4

My Shepherd met me seeking His face, and guided me to Psalm 55. I didn’t know why. I considered Psalm 54 as a good place to forage; it was only seven verses, and I loved the connection between verses 1 and 7. Nevertheless, my mind was drawn to Psalm 55, so I thought I’d feed there a while. The Mind of the Spirit engaged me at verses 12-14:

Psalms 55:12 For it was not an enemy that reproached me; then I could have borne it: neither was it he that hated me that did magnify himself against me; then I would have hid myself from him:

Psalms 55:13 But it was thou, a man mine equal, my guide, and mine acquaintance.

Psalms 55:14 We took sweet counsel together, and walked unto the house of God in company.

Truly, I was engaged from verse one. I related powerfully to David’s description of his grief, the pain of his heart, the fearfulness, the trembling, and the horror (Psalm 55:1-5). The overwhelming desire to escape to some place safe from the “windy storm and tempest” (Psalm 55:8). The realization of the impossibility of escape, that I might just as well grow the wings of a dove and fly away into the solitude of the wilderness (Psalm 55:5-7).

I related to the desire for vindication from the tongue of my accusers. Perhaps David thought of God’s answer to Nimrod’s conspiracy when he saw the violence and strife that filled the streets of his beloved Jerusalem, and asked: “Destroy, O Lord, and divide their tongues” (Psalm 55:9), confuse the counsels of those who stir revolt (Psalm 55:9).

He bemoaned the persistence of his persecutors, “Day and night they go about it,” filling the city with their mischief and sorrow, wickedness, deceit, and guile take hold in the streets, refusing to yield to the righteous: no mercy, no grace, no place for God in their thoughts  (Psalm 55:10-11; see Psalm 10:4).

His complaint was against “their tongues,” against “they” that go day and night about their mischief. But there is a shift in the noun-number in verses 12-14: from plural to singular, from “they” and “their” to “thou”: “But it was thou, a man mine equal” (Psalm 55:13).

The prose returns to plural pronouns when speaking of the wicked.*

Of whom does David speak in Psalm 55:12-14? He asked God to “Destroy … and divide their tongues” (Psalm 55:9). When David fled the treachery of his son Absalom (2 Samuel 15-17), he learned that Ahithophel had joined the conspiracy (2 Samuel 15:12, 31). Ahithophel was a close confidant to David, a friend, someone David regarded as an “equal,” whose counsel he and all Israel regarded as if from God Himself (2 Samuel 16:23). (Read the account for how all this played out, but we will stay focused on David’s great grief at the betrayal of his friend.)

I think David speaks of Ahithophel in verses 12-14, and, faithful to the end, David did not name him expressly to avoid unnecessarily reproach that, otherwise, good name.

I noticed that David is alarmed, but does not seem surprised at the news of Ahithophel’s treason. Did David have reason to think Ahithophel would turn on him?

It turns out that Ahithiphel was Bathsheba’s grandfather (2 Samuel 11:3 with 23:34).**

Ahithophel does something that suggests he might have been thinking about the original rebuke of Nathan against the king for this sin: “Thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house, and I will take thy wives before thine eyes, and give them unto thy neighbour, and he shall lie with thy wives in the sight of this sun” (2 Samuel 12:11). When Absalom asked counsel of David’s friend, Ahithophel advised him to “Go in unto thy father’s concubines, which he hath left to keep the house; and all Israel shall hear that thou art abhorred of thy father: then shall the hands of all that are with thee be strong” (2 Samuel 16:21).***

My point is that the pain of Ahithophel’s betrayal was increased by David’s own betrayal of his friend. I think that is why David sets this segment of the Psalm apart from the rest and addresses him directly, “It was thou,” without entering his name into the record.

Along the still waters, I reflected on the double pain that comes when, sometimes, our actions hurt someone we love, and their retaliation is, by that, made so much more piercing.

I also thought of the horror that must have gripped the heart of Ahithophel when he realized his actions of vengeance against his King were not of GOD, but were a serious error. When Absalom took the counsel of Hushei over that of Ahithophel, the great man put his house in order, then hanged himself (2 Samuel 17:1-14, 23).

David committed a grievous sin in the matter of Bathsheba and her husband Uriah (2 Samuel 11). God reproved him, and David repented (Psalm 51). God forgave his servant, but, apparently, Ahithophel would not.

Satan is the accuser! He is so wicked: he tempts men into sin, then beats them with it to demoralize and sideline them from Christ’s service. Woe to all who join Satan in this evil work.

I counsel all who love Christ never to join Satan in his work to accuse, defame, and denounce the failed but forgiven saint.

In the valley, I hugged the Cross, where my Saviour died to forgive my sins. I thought, how foolish for any forgiven sinner to condemn another forgiven sinner. And what I’ve noticed, and ’tis so strange, so often the most vicious accusers are those who boast forgiveness of even greater sins. So many fixate on motes in the eyes of others, while beams obscure their sight. Jesus interrupted my musings when He called: “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me” (Luke 9:23).

At the table, we conversed awhile, the story of the wicked servant who received mercy and forgiveness of a great debt, but refused mercy and forgiveness to someone who owed him, by comparison, a very small debt (Matthew 18:21-35). I bowed my head to my Head: He anointed me with His oil, took my cup, and filled it with His grace. Goodness and mercy were called up and walked with us into the harvest.

Praying for revival! 🙏

Going live asap:

https://rumble.com/v79mvp6-shepherds-pasture.html

[*Psalm 55:15 (“them” 2x, and “their”), 55:19 (“them,” and “they” 2x). When speaking again of whoever is meant in Psalm 55:12-14, David shifts again, to second person singular at verse 20 (‘He” 2x,  ”his,” and “him”), verse 21 (“his” 3x). After an exhortation to the reader to “cast” his burden upon the LORD (see 1 Peter 5:7), he returns to the third person plural in the closing verse: Psalm 55:22 (“them”).]

[**Some point out that Ahithophel is never expressly identified as the grandfather of Bathsheba; however, no alternate chronology contradicts the conclusion, and without any evidence to the contrary, the verses speak for themselves (2 Samuel 11:3 with 23:34).]

[***Ahithophel did not advise Absalom to take David’s wives. To take his wives while David lived would have been abhorrent to the people. But invading his harem of concubines would be considered a humiliating act of dishonor to his father.]