Psalm 55: When Someone You Trusted Has Betrayed You

Core Theme: For when you’ve been hurt by someone close: a friend who turned on you, a companion who broke faith, a person you once trusted with your heart

(Related Theme: Sorrow & Emotional Weight. This psalm also carries the deep grief and heaviness that betrayal leaves behind.)

Background

David wrote Psalm 55 during a season when danger surrounded him and the deepest blow came from someone he had trusted. The psalm doesn’t name the betrayer. Many have connected it with the rebellion of David’s son Absalom, when Ahithophel, the king’s own trusted counselor, joined the conspiracy against him. Scripture records the moment David heard the news: “And one told David, saying, Ahithophel is among the conspirators with Absalom” (2 Samuel 15:31). Ahithophel’s advice had been so highly valued that it was “as if a man had enquired at the oracle of God” (2 Samuel 16:23). Whether or not he is the man David had in mind, that is the kind of wound this psalm describes.

The heading calls it a “Maschil” [a psalm of instruction or understanding], set “on Neginoth” [stringed instruments] for the chief Musician. So David’s personal anguish was meant to be sung and learned by God’s people. His grief became a lesson for everyone who would one day be hurt the same way.

Psalm 55 (KJV)

1 To the chief Musician on Neginoth, Maschil, A Psalm of David. Give ear to my prayer, O God; and hide not thyself from my supplication.

2 Attend unto me, and hear me: I mourn in my complaint, and make a noise;

3 Because of the voice of the enemy, because of the oppression of the wicked: for they cast iniquity upon me, and in wrath they hate me.

4 My heart is sore pained within me: and the terrors of death are fallen upon me.

5 Fearfulness and trembling are come upon me, and horror hath overwhelmed me.

6 And I said, Oh that I had wings like a dove! for then would I fly away, and be at rest.

7 Lo, then would I wander far off, and remain in the wilderness. Selah.

8 I would hasten my escape from the windy storm and tempest.

9 Destroy, O Lord, and divide their tongues: for I have seen violence and strife in the city.

10 Day and night they go about it upon the walls thereof: mischief also and sorrow are in the midst of it.

11 Wickedness is in the midst thereof: deceit and guile depart not from her streets.

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:

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

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

15 Let death seize upon them, and let them go down quick into hell: for wickedness is in their dwellings, and among them.

16 As for me, I will call upon God; and the LORD shall save me.

17 Evening, and morning, and at noon, will I pray, and cry aloud: and he shall hear my voice.

18 He hath delivered my soul in peace from the battle that was against me: for there were many with me.

19 God shall hear, and afflict them, even he that abideth of old. Selah. Because they have no changes, therefore they fear not God.

20 He hath put forth his hands against such as be at peace with him: he hath broken his covenant.

21 The words of his mouth were smoother than butter, but war was in his heart: his words were softer than oil, yet werethey drawn swords.

22 Cast thy burden upon the LORD, and he shall sustain thee: he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.

23 But thou, O God, shalt bring them down into the pit of destruction: bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days; but I will trust in thee.

The heart of it

Betrayal hurts more than almost any other wound, and David says exactly why: “For it was not an enemy that reproached me; then I could have borne it.” An enemy’s attack is painful but expected. A friend’s betrayal reaches a place no enemy can touch, because it comes from someone you let close. The person who knew your heart used what they knew to break it.

The psalm does not hurry past this. David lets himself feel all of it: the pain, the terror, the longing to escape. He wishes he could fly away like a dove. And then, in the middle of the psalm, the turning point comes: “As for me, I will call upon God.” He does not deny what happened, and he does not pretend it does not hurt. He brings it to the One who can hold it.

That is the shape of this psalm and the comfort in it: honest grief, then a decision to pray. The psalm ends with the words that have steadied God’s people ever since: “Cast thy burden upon the LORD, and he shall sustain thee.” The burden of betrayal is real, but we do not have to carry it alone.

Walking through it

Verses 1–3: “Give ear to my prayer, O God; and hide not thyself from my supplication.”

David opens with a plain request: listen to me, God. A supplication is an earnest plea for help, and he asks that God not “hide” Himself from it. He says he mourns “in my complaint,” meaning he is grieving over his troubles and making a noise, and he names the pressure behind it: the voice of the enemy and the oppression of the wicked. Real prayer often begins this way, not with polished words but with a cry for God to listen.

Verses 4–8: “My heart is sore pained within me: and the terrors of death are fallen upon me.”

This is the emotional heart of the psalm, and it is raw. His heart is “sore pained,” fear and trembling have come over him, and “horror hath overwhelmed me.” The weight of sorrow is not a lack of faith. It is what betrayal does to a person. In verse 6 he says, “Oh that I had wings like a dove! for then would I fly away, and be at rest.” Almost everyone who has been deeply hurt knows that longing: to get away, to be far from it all, in the wilderness if need be. The Lord does not scold David for wishing it. He keeps the prayer in Scripture so we can see that our desire to flee is understood.

Verses 9–11: “Destroy, O Lord, and divide their tongues: for I have seen violence and strife in the city.”

David turns from his own heart to the city around him, where he sees violence, strife, mischief, and deceit. His prayer to “divide their tongues” echoes the scattering of Babel in Genesis 11, when God confused the language of those who plotted against Him. David asks the Lord to frustrate the plans of those who are working against him, and he does not take matters into his own hands. He puts them in God’s.

Verses 12–14: “For it was not an enemy that reproached me; then I could have borne it…”

Here is the center of the wound, and David names it with painful precision. The betrayer was “a man mine equal, my guide, and mine acquaintance” [close friend]. They had “sweet counsel together” and walked “unto the house of God in company.” This was no stranger. It was someone with whom David had prayed and worshiped. That is what makes this kind of hurt so deep. The very closeness that made the friendship precious makes the betrayal devastating. Our Lord Himself knew this: when Judas came to the garden, he said, “Hail, master; and kissed him. And Jesus said unto him, Friend, wherefore art thou come?” (Matthew 26:49–50). Christ understands what it is to be betrayed by someone close.

Verses 16–19: “As for me, I will call upon God; and the LORD shall save me.”

This is the turning of the psalm. After all the fear and pain, David makes a choice. He will call on God, and he will do it often: “Evening, and morning, and at noon, will I pray, and cry aloud: and he shall hear my voice.” He prays not once but through the whole day. And he speaks with confidence about what God has done: He “hath delivered my soul in peace from the battle that was against me.” Notice that the peace is described for the soul, even while the battle is still going on. Verse 19 adds that God sees those who “have no changes,” meaning they have never had a change of heart, and therefore they do not fear Him. David leaves the matter of justice to the One who “abideth of old.”

Verses 20–21: “He hath put forth his hands against such as be at peace with him: he hath broken his covenant.”

David describes the betrayer’s character: he turned on those at peace with him and broke his word. His speech was “smoother than butter” and “softer than oil,” yet underneath, “war was in his heart.” His words were “drawn swords.” This is the cruel pattern of betrayal: kindness on the surface, harm underneath. One of the hardest parts of being betrayed is looking back and wondering how much of it was real. David names it honestly, and he does not pretend the soft words were sincere.

Verses 22–23: “Cast thy burden upon the LORD, and he shall sustain thee: he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.”

These are the most quoted words in the psalm, and they come as the answer to everything before. The word “burden” is what has been laid on us, and we are invited to throw it onto the Lord. He promises to “sustain” [hold up] us, and He will “never suffer the righteous to be moved.” This is the same invitation our Savior gives in Matthew 11:28: “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Verse 23 closes the psalm the way a person in pain most needs it to close: the wicked will be brought down by God, and David says, “but I will trust in thee.” Justice is God’s to carry out. Trust is the part that is ours.

Carrying this forward

If the Lord has already carried you through a betrayal and you are standing on the other side of it, look back at what He did. The hurt may have healed more than you thought it could, and the burden you once could not set down may now be lighter. Do not let the memory harden you. David’s final word was not bitterness. It was “I will trust in thee.” Let the Lord keep your heart soft, and let what you went through make you gentle with someone else who is hurting the way you once did.

And if you are in the middle of it now, with the pain fresh and the faces of those who hurt you hard to forget, hear what this psalm says to you. Your sorrow makes sense. A wound from someone close goes deep, and David never says it should not. You may wish you could fly away like a dove, and that wish is not a failure. But bring it to God, morning, noon, and evening if you must, as often as it rises. Scripture does not promise that the relationship will be restored, but it does promise that you will not carry this alone: “Cast thy burden upon the LORD, and he shall sustain thee.” He holds up those who lean on Him, and He will not let the righteous fall.