THE PSALMS Chapter 55 "Instruction as to Defeating of Enemies." This
Bible Study is
is provided by http://www.theseason.org/ and
shared with permission from it's author R. Christopherson
If someone offends you, they offend
Christ, and there is an entire host of angels ready to take
vengeance upon those that did your harm. God will do the
correcting of those that take action against you. God will handle
your protection, and He promises that to you, when you are in His
Will. If anything you task is to start praying for them.
In this chapter of Psalms 55, it is a continuation of the 54th chapter, as to the "destruction of our enemies". How do you destroy your enemies? You stay in the Father's Word and follow his ways and pray for his will in your life. Then God offers His protection over you, and He destroys them for you. That is how it works. Again, "To the chief Musician on Neginoth [on the Smiting of my enemies by YHVH]". We continue the deliverance of God's people by YHVH Father Himself. "Maschil, [The instructions] A psalm of David." This is instructions as to how Father will smite our enemies. Psalms 55:1 "Give ear to my prayer, O God; And hide not Thyself from my supplication." David is pleading to Father, when I pray to you O Lord, don't turn your back on me. Our Lord will never turn His back to you and your prayers of supplication, of making yourself humble and repentant before Him. Psalms 55:2 "Attend unto me, and hear me: I mourn in my complaint, and make a noise;" Our heavenly Father hears every word and reads every thought in your mind, and He doesn't miss one word. Psalms 55:3 "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." David is calling attention that all those around him are trying to kill him. In a prophetic sense to us living in these end times, remember that Psalm 52 that we covered relating to Antichrist. It talked about being delivered up before the enemy, and God promised that when that time comes, He will be with you. It doesn't matter what those times of trouble will be, God will be with you to see you through those times. God will give them the full force of what they have coming to them, even if you are standing in the midst of them; you will not be harmed. Psalms 55:4 "My heart is sore pained within me: And the terrors of death are fallen upon me." This is what happens when you allow yourself to be back into the flesh mentally, and forgetting that God is there to protect you. Psalms 55:5 "Fearfulness and trembling are come upon me, And horror hath overwhelmed me." Psalms 55:6 "And I said, "Oh that I had wings like a dove! For then would I fly away, and be at rest. David is thinking much like they do today, they are wishing for the wings to fly away and miss what God has told us would come on the earth at the end time. They have taken fairy-tales of the fly-away doctrine, and put their faith on something that goes complete against the Word of God. David is saying here that when this fear and trembling comes upon me, if I had wings like a dove, I would fly away. That is exactly the way that most of the church world is thinking today, as they sing their "fly away" songs. Psalms 55:7 "Lo, then would I wander far off, And remain in the wilderness. "Selah." We see another Selah, to tell us to pause, meditate and think of what has just been said. David is connecting his despondency, his hopelessness, with his escape from the cause of it. It was not merely comfort he desired, but deliverance from those that sought his life. So as we continue, think back on Psalms 52, and our dealing with the Antichrist. Psalms 55:8 "I would hasten my escape From the windy storm and tempest." Psalms 55:9 "Destroy, O Lord, and divide their tongues: For I have seen violence and strife in the city." When you "divide their tongues", you set up confusion in their minds so they have no direction to do harm to you. They argue amongst themselves, and forget the anger against you. Psalms 55:10 "Day and night they go about it upon the walls thereof: Mischief also and sorrow are in the midst of it." David is asking God to make them fight each other and not take their anger out on me. So what this is saying, is make their real trouble come from within themselves. The worst position that any one can be in is to be away from God, that is trouble from within. When we fight amongst ourselves, our enemies see our weaknesses. Psalms 55:11 "Wickedness is in the midst thereof: Deceit and guile depart not from her streets." God will move against her markets and commerce, and those places of business. Have you watched the prices climbing, and the businesses and jobs leaving our land. 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." Do you get it? When you are trying to teach the real truth of God's Word, Who gives you the most trouble? Who becomes your strongest enemy? The Communist, the Chinese, the people on the other side of the world? Hardly, your Christian brethren trying to defend their traditions that go against God's Word. They simply cannot stand the truth when it does not align with their traditions. Psalms 55:13 "But is was thou, a man mine equal, My guide, and mine acquaintance." This has a historical sense with David's relationship to Ahithophel. Ahithophel was the grandfather of Bath-Sheba, his favorite wife. A man right in His own family betrayed David. "Ahithophel" in the Hebrew tongue means "brother of foolishness". Historically, and prophetically, it also had to do with Judas, the one that betrayed Christ on that night of the last supper with His disciples. The time that you will be most likely caught off guard will be when your own turn against you. That time will also cause you the most pain. There is another time spoken of in Mark 11:12; "Now the brother shall betray the brother to death, and father the son; and children shall rise up against their parents, and shall cause them to be put to death." This is not far ahead. Psalms 55:14 "We took sweet counsel together, And walked unto the house of God in company." There was a time when we could all get along in the world together. We walked together and even praised Jesus' name together. When we were first saved we could all call on the name of Jesus and be in one accord. However the trouble comes when you get into the meat of God's Word, then the bottle suckers drop out and reject it. It becomes to much for the simplicity of their spiritually infant minds. They just do not want to take the time to study the in-depth truths of God's Word. That is what causes friends to turn against friends. Psalms 55:15 "Let death seize upon them, And let them go down quick into hell: For wickedness is their dwellings, and among them." David is asking God to let them go to the grave quick. Psalms 55:16 "As for me, I will call upon God; And the Lord shall save me." David knew that he could call upon God, and God would save him. That is what we call faith, acting on something that can not be seen; forgetting all I trust God. When you have trouble, are you aware that all you have to do is call upon God to help. If you are earnest in your heart in your prayer, and your trust is in Him, He will see you through that problem. Our Heavenly Father will protect His children. Psalms 55:17 "Evening, and morning, and at noon, will I pray, and cry aloud: And He shall hear my voice." We are to pray and be mindful of our Lord at all times of the day. When troubles face us, that is the time to call on the Lord; when we fall that is the time to repent and confess that sin and get right with God. Father can read our mind, and he knows what you are going through as you are experiencing your problems. We are also to be mindful for those blessings that Father gives us and thank him for the help and blessings. This is prophecy, and it is also a promise that our Lord is giving to each of us that Love Him. Psalms 55:18 "He hath delivered my soul in peace from the battle that was against me: For there were many with me." Did you get that? This is a promise from our Lord to you personally. God is telling each of us, that He will deliver you soul and give you peace right in the middle of the raging battle, your troubles that are going on all around you. As Satan and his realm is trying to put you out of circulation, God is there to see to it that it does not happen. God will surround you with that shield of protection that is His glory, and give you peace. "For there were many with me"; in the Hebrew text reads; "for there were many in conflict against me." God protected David right in the midst of all those that sought to kill David. God will do that for you also today, and that is His promise to you personally. Friend this time of life is not a game, but God is in control of everything. He controls the elements of the earth, the stars and heavenly bodies, and even the minds of men that are against you. He can shut the mouths of wild animals, and protect you for the wrath of your enemies. God created everything, and He controls everything. Psalms 55:19 "God shall hear, and afflict them, (Even He That abideth of old). Selah. Because they have no changes, Therefore they fear not God." "This Selah"; is connecting the true confidence of David with the false confidence of the ungodly. David's true confidence was based on the fact that His God was the mighty One enduring for ever. "El" here is emphasized by the double accent "Pasek, or "note line" each side of it. "Because they have no changes, Therefore they fear not God." Because those that do not trust in God have a false confidence within themselves, no they don't fear God for their confidence is build on a false hope. They don't believe that the things stated in God's Word are going to come to pass, for their whole concept of life is built on the idea that things will continue the way they are for ever. That is what their theory of evolution is based upon; "no changes" for the past 240 million years. That same mind set is giving them a false direction for their lives, and they live their lives by chance. Why reverence God, when they think everything happens by chance. They can't be confident of anything. With each generation they grow worse, for there is no grounding in the things of God. They even become more bold and open to Satan as then continue in their policies that go against God's Word. Psalms 55:20 "He hath put forth his hands against such as be at peace with him: He hath broken his covenant." This is want happened in the case of Ahithophel, Bath-Sheba's grandfather; in the case of Judas with Jesus; and it will happen with your own loved ones with you. Expect a friend to betray you, at the coming of Satan, for God has warned you. It is going to happen, and that person will actually think that they are doing you a favor. Their confidence is wrong, and they will not even give a second thought that they are braking their covenant with you. When that loved on turns on you, they turn on God. Psalms 55:21 "The words of his mouth were smoother than butter, But war was in his heart: His words were softer than oil, Yet were they drawn swords." Sure this one that will betray you will think all the time that he is helping you, his words will try to console you as he is putting the spiritual dagger to your heart. His words will sound so good and smooth that it will be hard to refuse his help, but look out, those words are going to be more damaging than a drawn sword. For ever positive there is a negative, and just as Christ's tongue is His sword, the smooth words that come out of your friend's mouth will be like a sword to destroy your very soul. Satan's false words will cut just as deep. You don't have to allow that sword of Satan to come near you, that is why you order it away from you. Psalms 55:22 "Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and He shall sustain thee: He shall never suffer the righteous to be moved." This is an absolute statement and promise, so go back and read it again. You can count on it. "Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and He shall sustain thee:" You know that you can stand bold, and you may never be moved. God is promising you that when you cast your burdens upon Him, He will give you full protection. God will bless that stand that you took. God will honor you and bless you for that stand. The point here is that you are in God's will and that your stand is not against God and his ways, they you have the protection. Psalms 55:23 "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." "To the chief Musician upon Jonath-elem-rechokim." The evil deeds that men do, allows them to dig their own pit for destruction. This also applies to the end times, when most people will not live out half their days. Though Daniel prophesied seven years, we see that the time was shortened to three and a half days, and then shortened to five months. The covenant will be broken in the middle of the week; how can this be? Because the people were all deceived by Satan in his role as the Antichrist. When all this is happening, I will trust in Thee. In the title of the next Psalm "To the chief Musician upon Jonath-elem-rechokim", reads "The dove of the distant Terebinths." A pictorial description of David in the wilderness, fleeing from Absalom. In the next chapter we will see and hear the loud cry of a dove, as David cries out for Father help.
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