Psalms 56 KJV
Trust in God's Word
About This Psalm
When I am afraid, I will trust in thee. Written while captured by enemies. Fear is real - but so is God.
1e merciful unto me, O God: for man would swallow me up; he fighting daily oppresseth me.
2 Mine enemies would daily swallow me up: for they be many that fight against me, O thou most High.
3 What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee.
4 In God I will praise his word, in God I have put my trust; I will not fear what flesh can do unto me.
5 Every day they wrest my words: all their thoughts are against me for evil.
6 They gather themselves together, they hide themselves, they mark my steps, when they wait for my soul.
7 Shall they escape by iniquity? in thine anger cast down the people, O God.
8 Thou tellest my wanderings: put thou my tears into thy bottle: are they not in thy book?
9 When I cry unto thee, then shall mine enemies turn back: this I know; for God is for me.
10 In God will I praise his word: in the LORD will I praise his word.
11 In God have I put my trust: I will not be afraid what man can do unto me.
12 Thy vows are upon me, O God: I will render praises unto thee.
13 For thou hast delivered my soul from death: wilt not thou deliver my feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the light of the living?
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Did You Know?
The superscription ties Psalm 56 to David's feigned madness before Achish of Gath in 1 Samuel 21, yet the body of the psalm deliberately avoids any explicit reference to that episode, transforming a personal anecdote into a template for any believer facing anonymous watchers and whispered plots.
The enigmatic title phrase "Jonath-elem-rechokim" ("the silent dove of the distant terebinths") functions simultaneously as a possible melody cue and a coded self-reference to David as a hunted, voiceless fugitive far from sanctuary, an image nowhere else attached to this incident in the historical books.
Verse 8's command that God "put my tears into thy bottle" draws on a documented ancient Near Eastern funerary practice of sealing mourners' tears in miniature vessels for burial with the dead, thereby casting divine remembrance as a counter-liturgy to human oblivion.
The psalm belongs to the small Michtam collection (Psalms 56-60), whose shared superscriptions and recurring "refuge" vocabulary suggest these texts once formed an independent sub-collection used in a post-exilic redaction to model trust during successive imperial threats.
The double occurrence of the refrain (vv. 4, 10-11) creates a deliberate asymmetry: the first instance rests on human fear, while the second is anchored in an explicit appeal to "the word," marking an internal movement from raw emotion to Scripture-grounded confidence unique among the individual laments.
Commentary & Study Notes Jamieson-Fausset-Brown (1871) ยท Public Domain would swallow โ literally, "pants as a raging beast" (Ac 9:1).
Classic verse-by-verse commentary on Psalms 56 from Jamieson, Fausset & Brown (1871). Covers: Upon jonath-elem-rechokim--literally, "upon the dove of silence" of distant places; Either denoting a melody (see on ps 9:1) of that name, to which this psalm was to be performed; Or it is an enigmatical form of denoting the subject, as given in the history referred to (1sa 21:11, &c.), David being regarded as an uncomplaining, meek dove, driven from his native home to wander in exile. Beset by domestic and foreign foes, David appeals confidently to God, recites his complaints, and closes with joyful and assured anticipations of God's continued help.
- 1,2
- would swallow โ literally, "pants as a raging beast" (Ac 9:1).
- 2
- enemies โ watchers (Ps 54:5). most High โ As it is not elsewhere used absolutely for God, some render the word here, arrogantly, or proudly, as qualifying "those who fight," &c.
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