What Does Psalm 55:3 Mean?
Because of the voice of the enemy, because of the squeezing of the wicked, for they bend crookedness upon me, and in the flare of their nostrils they press against me.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Because of the voice of the enemy, because of the oppression of the wicked: for they cast iniquity upon me, and in wrath they hate me.THE KEY
The psalm uses one root for what enemies do to your footing and for what their pressure cannot finally take from you.
THE MEANING
The voice targeting you and the harm it carries are real; the verse does not ask you to call them harmless. It locates the wickedness in those bringing the harm and the hatred in their anger, rather than making their hostility a verdict on your worth.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Being attacked does not prove that you deserve the attack; the verse names the wickedness and hatred as coming from the people acting against you.
THE ROOT
יָמִיטוּ
yāmîṭû
GROWS FROM
מוט
To totter, waver, or slip; in the causative form, to make someone totter.
“bend crookedness upon me” in this verse is yāmîṭû. The verb translated “cast” describes enemies making the speaker totter. Later in this psalm, the same root names being moved, binding the assault and the promise of steadied footing in one word.
ALSO GROWS
mōṭ: Slipping or tottering; rendered “to be moved” in Psalm 55:22.
מוֹט
The same root returns later in this psalm: the righteous are not left to totter under pressure.
ʾāmûṭ: “I am moved” or “I totter” in Psalm 13:4.
אָמוּט
The same verb pictures the threatened loss of footing when enemies press against the speaker.
THE PATTERN
Hostile pressure can knock a person down without becoming the final word over their footing.
Throw your load upon the LORD, and he holds you. He does not give the aligned one to totter for the ages.Though he falls, he will not be hurled down, for the LORD props him up with his hand.We are pressed on every side, yet not cramped into a narrow place; we are without a way through, yet not without a way out. Pursued, but not left behind; thrown down, but not perishing.THE THREAD
Throw your load upon the LORD, and he holds you. He does not give the aligned one to totter for the ages.In verse 3, the root מוט describes enemies making the speaker totter. In verse 22, the same root appears in the promise that the righteous will not be moved; one repeated word connects the hostile force with the footing that holds.
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