17 In the evening and in the morning and in the middle of the day I will make my prayer with sounds of grief; and my voice will come to his ears.
Now Peter and John were going up to the Temple at the ninth hour, the hour of prayer;
Let my prayer be ordered before you like a sweet smell; and let the lifting up of my hands be like the evening offering.
Who in the days of his flesh, having sent up prayers and requests with strong crying and weeping to him who was able to give him salvation from death, had his prayer answered because of his fear of God.
Now the day after, when they were on their journey and were near the town, Peter went up to the top of the house for prayer, about the sixth hour:
He saw in a vision, clearly, at about the ninth hour of the day, an angel of the Lord coming to him and saying to him, Cornelius!
To make clear your mercy in the morning, and your unchanging faith every night;
And he made a story for them, the point of which was that men were to go on making prayer and not get tired; Saying, There was a judge in a certain town, who had no fear of God or respect for man: And there was a widow in that town, and she kept on coming to him and saying, Give me my right against the man who has done me wrong. And for a time he would not: but later, he said to himself, Though I have no fear of God or respect for man, Because this widow is a trouble to me, I will give her her right; for if not, I will be completely tired out by her frequent coming. And the Lord said, Give ear to the words of the evil judge. And will not God do right in the cause of his saints, whose cries come day and night to his ears, though he is long in doing it?
And in the morning, a long time before daylight, he got up and went out to a quiet place, and there he gave himself up to prayer.
Then they came near before the king and said, O King, have you not put your name to an order that any man who makes a request to any god or man but you, O King, for thirty days, is to be put into the lions' hole? The king made answer and said, The thing is fixed by the law of the Medes and Persians which may not come to an end.
In the middle of the night I will get up to give you praise, because of all your right decisions.
But to you did I send up my cry, O Lord; in the morning my prayer came before you.
Truly, I make an outcry against the violent man, but there is no answer: I give a cry for help, but no one takes up my cause.
And seeing that they had trouble in getting their boat through the water, because the wind was against them, about the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea; and he would have gone past them;
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Psalms 55
Commentary on Psalms 55 Matthew Henry Commentary
Psalm 55
It is the conjecture of many expositors that David penned this psalm upon occasion of Absalom's rebellion, and that the particular enemy he here speaks of, that dealt treacherously with him, was Ahithophel; and some will therefore make David's troubles here typical of Christ's sufferings, and Ahithophel's treachery a figure of Judas's, because they both hanged themselves. But there is nothing in it particularly applied to Christ in the New Testament. David was in great distress when he penned this psalm.
In singing this psalm we may, if there be occasion, apply it to our own troubles; if not, we may sympathize with those to whose case it comes nearer, foreseeing that there will be, at last, indignation and wrath to the persecutors, salvation and joy to the persecuted.
To the chief musician on Neginoth, Maschil. A psalm of David.
Psa 55:1-8
In these verses we have,
Psa 55:9-15
David here complains of his enemies, whose wicked plots had brought him, though not to his faith's end, yet to his wits' end, and prays against them by the spirit of prophecy. Observe here,
Psa 55:16-23
In these verses,