Psalm 56 is David’s prayer when he is hunted by Saul and endangered among the Philistines at Gath. It is a Psalm for the moment when there seems to be no safe place: Israel has become dangerous because of Saul, and David is recognized in Philistia as the one who defeated its champion. The Psalm does not deny fear. It teaches what to do with fear: “I will not fear what flesh shall do to me.”
Its deepest spiritual line is not about bravery as personality. It is about remembrance before God: “thou hast set my tears before thee.” The Psalm teaches that tears offered to God are not wasted, weakness can become prayer, and the hunted soul can still walk before God in the land of the living.
Psalm Metadata
| Field | Notes |
|---|---|
| NKJV / Masoretic numbering | Psalm 56 |
| Septuagint / Coptic numbering | Psalm 55 |
| Accepted author | David, according to the superscription. Brenton reads, “For the end, concerning the people that were removed from the sanctuary, by David for a memorial, when the Philistines caught him in Geth.” |
| Period in David’s life | Saul-era danger, tied to David’s flight to Gath in 1 Samuel 21. David is exposed among the Philistines after fleeing Saul. |
| Christ prophecy status | Typological rather than a narrow single-verse prediction. The Church recognizes in David’s distress a pattern that reaches Christ, the righteous sufferer, and is also prayed by His Body under pressure. |
| Coptic lectionary/service use | A dated Holy Fifty Days Vespers witness prints Psalm 56:6 and reads of watched steps. A separate cycle witness gives Psalm 57:6, the net-and-pit verse. See the worship section for the distinction. |
| Numbering issue | The embedded Scripture is Brenton LXX Psalm 55, with its superscription numbered 55:1. References below give the Masoretic number first and the checked Brenton counterpart. |
Historical and Scriptural Context
The superscription points to David at Gath. In 1 Samuel 21, David flees from Saul, comes to Achish king of Gath, and is recognized as the one celebrated in Israel’s songs. David is caught between threats: Saul’s jealousy behind him and Philistine suspicion before him. The Psalm turns that trapped moment into prayer.
The phrase “what flesh shall do to me” is not contempt for the body. It is a refusal to make human hostility ultimate. People can threaten, watch, and press down, and the harm they do is real. They cannot erase God’s promise or remove a life from His remembrance.
Geographical Significance ⛰️
Gath was a Philistine city, linked with Goliath and Israel’s enemies. David had defeated Goliath, yet now he enters enemy territory as a fugitive. Spiritually, Gath can recall the place where a servant of God feels out of place everywhere.
The Characters 👥
David. The anointed fugitive, not yet reigning, learning to trust when neither homeland nor foreign land feels safe.
The Philistines. The people who catch David in Gath, according to the superscription.
Saul’s shadow. Though Saul is not named in the Psalm text, the historical background includes the pressure that drove David there.
The watchers. Those who reject the speaker’s words, hide themselves, and watch his steps.
God. The one who receives tears, remembers the sufferer’s life, turns enemies back, and keeps the feet from sliding.
Christ. The true David, rejected and opposed, who entrusted Himself to the Father when His enemies seemed to triumph.
🕯️ Light from the Word
Psalm 56:1-4 and superscription (Brenton LXX 55:1-5), Fear answered by trust
55:1 For the end, concerning the people that were removed from the sanctuary, by David for a memorial, when the Philistines caught him in Geth. 55:2 Have mercy upon me, O God; for man has trodden me down; all the day long he warring has afflicted me. 55:3 Mine enemies have trodden me down all the day from the dawning of the day; for there are many warring against me. 55:4 They shall be afraid, but I will trust in thee. 55:5 In God I will praise my words; all the day have I hoped in God; I will not fear what flesh shall do to me.
The first movement is pressure: “man has trodden me down.” David does not minimize the pressure. He names it. Yet his answer is not self-persuasion. His answer is trust in God.
Notice the reversal in Brenton’s wording: “They shall be afraid” refers to the enemies, while the speaker trusts God. This is not a demand that David never feel fear. The account of Gath says that he was very much afraid of Achish and changed his behavior before him (1 Samuel 21:12-13). The Psalm gives fear a prayer and trains it toward trust.
The pressure lasts all day, but so does the speaker’s hope. Enemies multiply, yet trust has one object. In the first refrain David says, “In God I will praise my words.” His speech is placed before the God in whom he hopes. Later he praises God’s word and saying (Psalm 56:10; LXX 55:11). Being wronged does not make every word we speak infallible; it gives us reason to bring our words honestly before God.
Psalm 56:5-8 (Brenton LXX 55:6-9), Rejected words and remembered tears
55:6 All the day long they have abominated my words; all their devices are against me for evil. 55:7 They will dwell near and hide themselves; they will watch my steps, accordingly as I have waited patiently in my soul. 55:8 Thou wilt on no account save them; thou wilt bring down the people in wrath. 55:9 O God, I have declared my life to thee; thou hast set my tears before thee, even according to thy promise.
The enemies do not merely threaten David’s body. In Brenton’s wording, they abominate, or despise, his words and devise evil against him. They hide and watch his steps, while the speaker has waited patiently in his soul. Slander and the twisting of another person’s words are painful situations to which we may apply this prayer, but they are not the wording Brenton uses here.
The judgment in the next verse is severe: Brenton says that God will not save these opponents and will bring down the people in wrath. The speaker entrusts judgment to God. The verse does not authorize us to take revenge or pronounce another person’s eternal fate. We can ask God to stop evil and can also pray for those who do it. Patient waiting does not mean remaining in danger: seeking safety, trusted counsel, and accountability is compatible with prayer.
Then the Psalm turns from the hidden watchers to the God before whom nothing in David’s life is hidden. Some grief is unseen by people, misread by enemies, or too tangled to explain. David declares his life to God, and God sets his tears before Him according to His promise. Tears are not proof that the soul has failed. They need not be impressive or even easy to explain before they can be brought to God.
Psalm 56:9-13 (Brenton LXX 55:10-14), Praise, vows, and the land of the living
55:10 Mine enemies shall be turned back, in the day wherein I shall call upon thee; behold, I know that thou art my God. 55:11 In God will I praise his word; in the Lord will I praise his saying. 55:12 I have hoped in God; I will not be afraid of what man shall do to me. 55:13 The vows of thy praise, O God, which I will pay, are upon me. 55:14 For thou hast delivered my soul from death, and my feet from sliding, that I should be well-pleasing before God in the land of the living.
David calls on God and speaks of deliverance, though the Psalm does not tell us exactly when the danger ended. The voice whose words were despised is not silenced: it has a vow of praise to fulfill. The God who has received his tears is also the God to whom he offers thanks.
St Augustine hears these vows as an offering from within the heart, made from gifts first received from God. He uses the image of a coffer, or chest: “From the heart’s coffer bring forth the incense of praise; from the store of a good conscience bring forth the sacrifice of faith. Whatsoever thing thou bringest forth, kindle with love.”1
The Psalm speaks of rescue from death and feet kept from sliding so that the speaker may be pleasing before God in the land of the living. Survival is precious; here it opens into a life of gratitude before God. Christians hear this hope fulfilled in Christ, who does not evade the Cross but passes through death and rises, opening life in Him beyond death. This hope sets no timetable for a wounded person’s healing.
Christological and Prophetic Reading
The Christological reading of Psalm 56 is typological and ecclesial. It begins with David’s real danger and recognizes a pattern that reaches Christ and His Church.
In the Gospels, Christ meets opposition, and His words are challenged by those who seek to trap Him. That is a Gospel connection, not a substitution for Brenton’s wording about David’s rejected words. In Gethsemane, Jesus is deeply distressed and prays to His Father as death approaches (Mark 14:32-39). Through His death and Resurrection, He brings His people into life.
The Church also prays this Psalm as His Body. The disciple does not seek persecution, but when pressure comes, the disciple can turn toward Christ in prayer rather than surrender the heart to hatred.
Patristic and Orthodox Insights
St Augustine, the winepress and fruitful pressure
Augustine reads Gath spiritually through the image of a winepress. He sees the Church, Christ’s Body, pressed under persecution, and calls Christ the first cluster pressed. The image says that God can bring prayer, praise, patience, and witness even out of suffering.
It does not make the harm good. No one is asked to seek suffering or remain where they are being harmed in order to become fruitful. Augustine also urges prayer for human opponents rather than hatred of them. God’s mercy can work amid a long and difficult healing without excusing the wrong that made healing necessary.
St Athanasius, the Psalm as a mirror of fear
In his Letter to Marcellinus, Athanasius describes the Psalms as a mirror in which we recognize the movements of the soul. He also points persecuted people toward Psalm 55 in his numbering. His teaching helps us receive David’s prayer as words we may bring to God ourselves.
This does not erase David’s history. His danger in Gath gives the prayer its weight, even as the Church receives it for people facing other kinds of distress.
The Church’s Voice in Worship 📖
CopticChurch’s dated reading for May 5, 2020, Tuesday of the third week of the Holy Fifty Days, gives a Vespers Psalm printed as Psalm 56:6. Its words describe people gathering, hiding, watching the speaker’s steps, and lying in wait for his life. The corresponding passage in the embedded Brenton text is Psalm 56:6 (LXX 55:7), not LXX 55:6. Brenton also describes hiding and watched steps, but its closing clause speaks of the speaker waiting patiently in his soul.
The Vespers Gospel alongside that selection is Matthew 18:6-7, where Christ warns against causing little ones who believe in Him to stumble. The pairing invites us to hear the prayer of a threatened person and to take care that we do not become a cause of harm to the vulnerable.
A separate Katameros cycle witness for the occasion prints Psalm 57:6 and gives the net-and-pit verse of a different Psalm, not an exaltation refrain. The witnesses differ; the dated reading should not be treated as proof of a universal or present-day appointment. The Psalm’s closing hope of life before God also resonates with the Paschal season, but that resonance is not an appointment of those closing verses.
Iconography Connection 🖼️
The Davidic Geography in the Psalms teaching schematic can help readers follow the movement toward Philistine Gath. David’s fear is not generic anxiety. He is in enemy territory, and his watched steps and tears belong to a concrete crisis.
If artwork is used, choose Davidic images carefully. A harp image can introduce David the Psalmist, but this Psalm speaks of hunted fear, rejected words, and tears before God. The visual should sharpen the movement from fear to trust, not prettify the danger.
Spiritual Fruit 🍇
- Bring fear to God without dressing it up as strength; seek trusted help when danger is real.
- When your words are rejected or misrepresented, hold to truthful speech without assuming that every reaction is right.
- Place one grief before God, trusting that your life and tears are seen.
- Ask God to stop harm and guide your response; leave vengeance to Him.
- Give thanks for help already received, and take one faithful step toward life before God.
Teaching Guide
Big idea
Faith does not mean the absence of fear. Faith means fear is carried into trust, tears are placed before God, and the soul learns to walk before Him even under pressure.
Discussion questions
- Why does David repeat both the danger and the trust? What does repetition do spiritually?
- What is the difference between hiding fear and praying fear?
- How does the line “thou hast set my tears before thee” change the way we understand grief?
- How do rejected words, watched steps, and trust in God help us recognize a pattern that reaches Christ?
- What would it mean this week to walk before God in the land of the living?
For personal prayer
Pray Psalm 56:8 (Brenton LXX 55:9) slowly: “O God, I have declared my life to thee; thou hast set my tears before thee.” Name one grief honestly before God, and ask for His help to bear it and take the next wise step.
Teacher's Notes
- Keep the historical setting concrete: David in Gath, not generic anxiety.
- Emphasize that the Psalm validates fear but does not enthrone fear.
- Use Augustine’s winepress image carefully. It is about fruitfulness in God, not glorifying harm.
- Be explicit about the lectionary numbering caution so the study does not overstate an uncertain reference.
Glossary
- Gath / Geth: Philistine city associated with Goliath and David’s flight in 1 Samuel 21.
- Flesh: Here, human weakness and opposition, not the body as something evil.
- Land of the living: The place of life before God after deliverance from death, heard by Christians in the light of resurrection life.
- Typological reading: Reading David’s experience as a pattern fulfilled more deeply in Christ and His Body.
Translation and Source Notes
- Embedded Scripture is from Brenton’s English Septuagint (LXX), Psalm 55. Its verse 1 is the superscription.
- Historical setting: 1 Samuel 21.
- Patristic interpretation: St Augustine, Exposition on Psalm 56, and St Athanasius, Letter to Marcellinus. Athanasius is used here in paraphrase.
- The dated Vespers selection and the separate cycle witness have different printed Psalm references and words; the worship section preserves that distinction.
Sources
Scripture and ancient text
- Brenton Septuagint, Psalm 56 (LXX 55).
- 1 Samuel 21, David in Gath.
- Mark 14:32-39, Christ’s prayer in Gethsemane.
Patristic and Orthodox interpretation
- St Augustine of Hippo, Exposition on Psalm 56 (Latin Psalm 55), §§3-4, 7, 17, for the winepress, Christ and His Body, speech, and the vows of praise.
- St Athanasius of Alexandria, Letter to Marcellinus, for the Psalms as a mirror of the soul and as prayer in persecution.
Coptic Orthodox / liturgical sources
CopticChurch.net, readings for May 5, 2020, Vespers Psalm and Gospel.
Katameros cycle witness for Tuesday of the third week of the Holy Fifty Days, Vespers.
Davidic Geography in the Psalms, a project-created teaching schematic for David’s flight and Gath context, not a period-accurate map.
Footnotes
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St Augustine of Hippo, Exposition on Psalm 56 (Latin Psalm 55), §17, in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, first series, vol. 8; translated by T. Scratton, condensed by A. Cleveland Coxe, general editor Philip Schaff. ↩