Psalms 56King James Version
Be merciful unto me, O God. Thou tellest my wanderings: put thou my tears into thy bottle. In God have I put my trust: I will not be afraid what man can do unto me.
A Michtam composed when the Philistines took David in Gath. He is surrounded, daily attacked, his words twisted. But the pivot is clean and famous: 'What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee.' God tallies his wanderings and puts his tears in a bottle. The psalm oscillates between the pressure of enemies and declarations of trust, ending in confidence that he will walk before God in the light of the living.
Fear is not the opposite of faith; the psalm begins with fear and chooses trust, modeling the interior movement from one to the other.
verse: "What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee." Not 'I will not be afraid' but 'when I am afraid': the psalm accepts the emotion and redirects it.
Superscription: 'To the chief Musician upon Jonathelemrechokim, Michtam of David, when the Philistines took him in Gath.' The title's unusual phrase Jonathelemrechokim may mean 'the silent dove of far-off places,' suggesting the tune. The Gath incident (1 Sam 21:10-15) shows David feigning madness before Achish. One of six Michtam psalms, possibly indicating a golden or atoning poem.
David as the one surrounded in enemy territory; Philistines implied from the superscription; God as the one keeping account of tears; unnamed enemies who twist David's words.
Psalm 56 contains one of the most intimate images in the Psalter: God keeping David's tears in a bottle (v8). The bottle of tears became a significant image in Jewish mourning practice and Christian mysticism. The double refrain 'In God I will praise his word' (vv4, 10) frames the oscillation between fear and trust that is the psalm's emotional core.
For when you are genuinely afraid, not anxious in an abstract sense but facing real threat from real people. The psalm does not shame the fear; it shows what to do with it.
1[To the chief Musician upon Jonathelemrechokim, Michtam of David, when the Philistines took him in Gath.] Be merciful unto me, O God: for man would swallow me up; he fighting daily oppresseth me.
2Mine enemies would daily swallow me up: for they be many that fight against me, O thou most High.
3What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee.
4In God I will praise his word, in God I have put my trust; I will not fear what flesh can do unto me.
5Every day they wrest my words: all their thoughts are against me for evil.
6They gather themselves together, they hide themselves, they mark my steps, when they wait for my soul.
7Shall they escape by iniquity? in thine anger cast down the people, O God.
8Thou tellest my wanderings: put thou my tears into thy bottle: are they not in thy book?
9When I cry unto thee, then shall mine enemies turn back: this I know; for God is for me.
10In God will I praise his word: in the LORD will I praise his word.
11In God have I put my trust: I will not be afraid what man can do unto me.
12Thy vows are upon me, O God: I will render praises unto thee.
13For 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?