Psalms 55

Psalms 55:5

Bulls - Wicked and violent, and potent enemies; for such are so called, Ezekiel 39:18 Amos 4:1. Of Bashan - As the cattle there bred were, and therefore fierce and furious.

Psalms 55:7

Water - My spirits are spent and gone like water which once spilt can never be recovered; my very flesh is melted within me, and I am become as weak as water. Bones - I am as unable to help myself, and as full of torment, as if all my bones were disjointed. Wax - Melted, through fear and overwhelming grief.

Psalms 55:8

Dried - I have in a manner no more moisture left in me, than is in a dry potsherd. Cleaveth - Through excessive thirst and drought. Death - Thy providence, delivering me into the power of mine enemies, and by thy terrors in my soul.

Psalms 55:9

Dogs - So he calls his enemies for their insatiable greediness, and implacable fierceness against him. Pierced - These words cannot with any probability be applied to David, but were properly and literally verified in Christ.

Psalms 55:10

May tell - By my being stretched out upon the cross.

Psalms 55:11

They part - This also cannot be applied to David, but was literally fulfilled in Christ, Matthew 27:35 John 19:24.

Psalms 55:13

Darling - Heb. my only one; his soul, which he so calls, because it was left alone and destitute of friends and helpers.

Psalms 55:14

Heard - Answered and delivered me.

Psalms 55:15

Declare - When thou hast delivered me. Thy name - that power and faithfulness and goodness, which thou hast manifested on my behalf. Congregations - The same whom he calls the congregation, and the seed of Jacob and Israel: which also does not so fitly agree to David, who never gives this title to any, but such as were near a - kin to him, as it does to Christ, who extends this name to all his disciples, Matthew 12:48,49, and to whom this very text is applied, Hebrews 2:11,12.

Psalms 55:17

Abhorred - He did not turn away his face from it, as men do from things which they abhor. From him - For ever: tho’ he did so for a time.

Psalms 55:18

Great congregation - In the universal church, of Jews and Gentiles.

Psalms 55:19

Satisfied - This is doubtless to be understood, of those spiritual blessings, that grace and peace, and comfort, which all believing souls have in the sense of God’s love, the pardon of their sins, and the influences of God’s spirit. Seek him - That seek his favour. Your heart - He speaks of the same persons still, though there be a change from the third to the second person, as is usual in these poetical books. For ever - Your comfort shall not be short and transitory, as worldly comforts are, but everlasting.

Psalms 55:20

The world - All nations from one end of the world to the other. So this is an evident prophecy of the calling of the Gentiles, and a clear proof, that this psalm immediately speaks of Christ; to whom alone, this and divers other passages of it, belong. Remember - They shall remember their former wickedness with grief and shame, and fear; particularly in worshiping dead and impotent idols. They shall remember their great and manifold obligation to God, which they had quite forgotten, his patience in sparing them so long, in the midst of all their impieties, and in giving his son for them: they shall remember the gracious words and glorious works of Christ, what he did, and suffered for them; which possibly divers of them had been eye and ear - witnesses of. The Lord - Into the only true God, and unto Jesus Christ, to whom this name of Jehovah is often ascribed in scripture.

Psalms 55:21

For - This is added as a reason, why the Gentiles should be converted, because God is not only God and the Lord of the Jews, but also of the Gentiles, and of all nations.

Psalms 55:22

Fat - Kings and princes, and the great men of the world. Shall eat - Shall feed upon the bread of life, Christ and all his benefits. Worship - This is added to shew what kind of eating he spoke of. Go down - That is, all mankind, for none can escape death.

Psalms 55:23

A seed - Christ shall not want a seed or posterity, for though the Jewish nation will generally reject him, the Gentiles shall come in their stead. A generation - That believing seed shall be reputed both by God and men, The generation, or people of the Lord, as the Jews formerly were.