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Imprecation
55
Betrayal and the watching enemy · A psalm of David

It was not an enemy that reproached me

23 verses
Common metre 8.6.8.6
BPW 55A · 55B
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Summary

The psalm begins in bodily fear — a heart in anguish, the terrors of death, a wish for the wings of a dove to be away in the wilderness. Then it names the real grief: not the open enemy, but the equal and companion with whom he took sweet counsel and went to the house of God.

Against that the prayer asks God to divide their tongues, as at Babel, and to bring the confederacy of violence to nothing. The movement is downward and then decisively upward: cast thy burden upon the LORD, and He shall sustain thee. The psalm ends in the settled trust of a man who has put the case out of his own hands, and the betrayed friend of verse 13 is heard again at another table, in another garden.

Outline
1–8
Anguish and the wish for wings

Fear and trembling, the terror of death; if only he could fly away and be at rest.

St. 1 · 1–5The complaint: a heart sore pained
St. 2 · 6–8Oh for the wings of a dove
9–15
The familiar friend

Violence and strife in the city; the wound is a companion, one who walked with him to the house of God.

St. 3 · 9–11Divide their tongues; the city walled with mischief
St. 4 · 12–15Not an enemy — my equal, my guide
16–23
Cast thy burden upon the LORD

Evening, morning and noon he calls; God has heard; the burden is transferred and the treacherous are left to God.

St. 5 · 16–19Thrice daily prayer; God hears and abases
St. 6 · 20–23Words smoother than butter; the burden cast

Stanza divisions provisional — to be conformed to the Book of Psalms for Worship. References NASB.