Issue 34 Psalms of WarBlog | The wings of a dove: betrayal and abuse
The wings of a dove: betrayal and abuse
Author: Andy PeckPost Date: 24.03.23
Israel’s desert is a harsh, brutal place, where you might encounter wolves or die of thirst. It’s not the sort of place that one longs to visit for a rest or retreat. Even Jesus was ‘driven into’ the desert by the Spirit (Mark 1:12). So when the writer of Psalm 55 writes of his longing to take wing and flee into the desert, our curiosity might be piqued. What would make him feel that way?
What is so terrible that the desert is a preferable option? I’m reminded of ‘Home’, the poem about refugees written by the Somali British poet Warsan Shire. The poem begins by pointing out that nobody flees from their home unless their home has become ‘the mouth of a shark’.1 What is so terrible that the desert is a preferable option? If we take that question as a starting point, what we uncover in this psalm is something quite remarkable, perhaps unique in the psalter, and highly relevant to some important contemporary situations.
Like many others, the psalm begins by calling for God’s attention. ‘Listen to my prayer, O God, do not ignore my plea’ (verse 1). It then continues in a fairly typical manner, with a description of the psalmist’s distress. ‘My heart is in anguish within me; the terrors of death assail me’ (verse 4). Likewise, it contains a standard imprecation against the psalmist’s enemies, ‘Confuse the wicked O Lord, confound their speech’ (verse 9).
But unlike many psalms, this one goes into some specifics about the nature of the person whose assaults cause the psalmist such distress. In verses 12-14 he tells us this:
If an enemy were insulting me, I could endure it; if a foe were raising himself against me, I could hide from him. But it is you, a man like myself, my companion, my close friend, with whom I once enjoyed sweet fellowship as we walked with the throng at the house of God. The person the psalmist is seeking relief from is a close friend. Someone he has enjoyed conversations, perhaps meals, with. Someone who has worshipped alongside him in the Temple. This makes his situation all the more distressing. Aggression from an enemy is unpleasant, but is to be expected. But betrayal of the covenant of friendship is bitter indeed.
