Psalms 55:15

_LET DEATH SEIZE UPON THEM, AND LET THEM GO DOWN QUICK INTO HELL: FOR WICKEDNESS IS IN THEIR DWELLINGS, AND AMONG THEM._ Let death seize upon them So the Qeri' reads-literally, 'Let death deceive upon them,' - i:e., take them by surprise х_ YASHIY_ (H5377) _ MAAWET_ (H4194), from _ NAASHA'_ (H5377), to deceive]. But the phrase, 'deceive upon' х_ `AL_ (H5921)] is without example; and this reading has arisen from a desire to make the parallelism between the first and second clauses more exact. Read, therefore, as the Kethibh or Hebrew text, '(Let) desolations [yªshiymowt] (come) upon them.' AND LET THEM GO DOWN QUICK INTO HELL - "quick," not meaning fast, but living, as Korah and his company; cf....

15_Let death seize upon them. _He now denounces the whole faction, not the nation generally, but those who had taken a prominent part in the persecution of him. In imprecating this curse he was not influenced by any bad feeling towards them, and must be understood as speaking not in his own cause but in that of God, and under the immediate guidance of his Spirit. This was no wish uttered in a moment of resentment or of reckless and ill-considered zeal, and which would justify us in launching maledictions against our enemies upon every trivial provocation. The spirit of revenge differs widely from the holy and regulated fervor with which David prays for the judgment of God against wicked men, who had already been doomed to everlasting destruction. The translation, _Let death condemn them, _is forced, and so also is another which has been suggested, _Let him appoint death a creditor over t...

9-15 No wickedness so distresses the believer, as that which he witnesses in those who profess to be of the church of God. Let us not be surprised at the corruptions and disorders of the church on earth, but long to see the New Jerusalem. He complains of one that had been very industrious against him. God often destroys the enemies of the church by dividing them. And an interest divided against itself cannot long stand. The true Christian must expect trials from professed friends, from those with whom he has been united; this will be very painful; but by looking unto Jesus we shall be enabled to bear it. Christ was betrayed by a companion, a disciple, an apostle, who resembled Ahithophel in his crimes and doom. Both were speedily overtaken by Divine vengeance. And this prayer is a prophecy of the utter, the everlasting ruin, of all who oppose and rebel against the Messiah....

Verse Psalms 55:15. _LET DEATH SEIZE UPON THEM_] This is a prediction of the sudden destruction which should fall on the ringleaders in this rebellion. And it was so. _Ahithophel_, seeing his counsel rejected, _hanged_ himself. _Absalom_ was defeated; and, fleeing away, he was suspended by the hair in a tree, under which his mule had passed; and being found thus by Joab, he was despatched with _three darts_; and the _people_ who espoused his interests were almost all cut off. They fell by the sword, or perished in the woods. See 2 Samuel 18:8. _LET THEN GO DOWN QUICK INTO HELL_] Let them go down alive into the pit. Let the earth swallow them up! And something of this kind actually took place. Absalom and his army were defeated; _twenty_ th

LET DEATH SEIZE UPON THEM - This would be more correctly rendered, “Desolations (are) upon them!” That is, Desolation, or destruction will certainly come upon them. There is in the original no necessary expression of a wish or prayer that this might be, but it is rather the language of certain assurance - the expression of a fact - that such base conduct - such wickedness - would make their destruction certain; that as God is just, they must be overwhelmed with ruin. Injury is sometimes done in the translation of the Scriptures by the insertion of a wish or prayer, where all that is necessarily implied in the original is the statement of a fact. This has been caused here by the somewhat uncertain meaning of the word which is used in the original. That phrase is ישׁימות _yaśimâveth_. It occurs nowhere else. Our translators understood it (as the Septuagint, the Vulgate, and Luther do) as...

EXPOSITION THIS psalm has been assigned to Jeremiah by Hitzig, and by others to an unknown writer of the seventh century B.C. But no solid grounds have been shown for setting aside the traditionary evidence of the "title," which ascribes it to David. It is Davidic in its depth of feeling, in its abrupt transitions (verses 9, 15, 20), and in its reference to a faithless friend, who is the chief cause of the writer's sufferings (verses 12-14, 20, 21; comp. Psalms 41:9). The Davidic authorship is accepted by Hengstenberg, Dr. Kay, and Canon Cook. The probable date of the psalm is the time of Absalom's rebellion. David, still a dweller at Jerusalem (verses 9-11), has become aware of the conspiracy which has been formed against him (verses 3-8), and of the participation in it of his "familiar friend," Ahithophel (verses 12-14). He is already contempl

LET DEATH SEIZE UPON THEM,.... Ahithophel and his accomplices, Judas and the men with him; as a mighty man, as the king of terrors, and shake them to pieces. Or, "let him exact upon them" a; as a creditor upon the debtor, and demand the debt of punishment for sin: or let him come upon them at an unawares; let them not die a natural, but a violent death. The Targum mentions Doeg and Ahithophel; [AND] LET THEM, GO DOWN QUICK INTO HELL: as Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, went down quick or alive into the earth; so let these men die, and descend into the grave, in their full strength; and accordingly Absalom and Ahithophel died sudden and violent deaths, 2 Samuel 17:23; and so did Judas, Matthew 27:5; and the beast and false prophet, another part of the antitype, will be taken and cast alive i

To the chief Musician on Neginoth, Maschil, A Psalm of David. It needed the chief musician to sing such a Psalm as this; it is so full of sorrow, and yet so full of confidence in God. It is a Psalm upon the stringed instruments, and it sings not of man only, but of that Son of man that greatest of men, who was also greatest in grief as greatest in faith. Maschil: that is, «instructive,» «full of teaching.» The experience of one child of God is instructive to another, and especially the experience of the great First-born among many brethren. A Psalm of David David, that many-sided man, who seemed not one, but «all mankind's epitome.» Who has not found his own experience when he has read the Psalms of David? It is a looking-glass this Book of Psalms which reflects us all. See how he begins. Psalms 55:1. _Give ear to my prayer, O God;_ All the saints pray. There is no excep

HELL Or, the grave....

Psalms 55 In the Throes of the Great Tribulation _ 1. Prayer for help (Psalms 55:1)_ 2. Longings to escape (Psalms 55:4) 3. The great tribulation (Psalms 55:9) 4. The comfort of hope (Psalms 55:22) The man of sin, the Antichrist, stands out prominently in this Psalm. Because of him and his oppression, the godly remnant calls for help. They are overwhelmed with horror and beholding the abomination, they wish for wings like a dove and escape from the storm and the tempest of the great tribulation. This is in accordance