Then my enemies will turn back in the day when I call. This I know, that God is for me.
David pours out complaint and prayer together, his mind caught between distress and confidence in God's mercy. Whether he wrote this during his desperate flight to Gath or after deliverance, the psalm shows him clinging to faith even when fear drove him to feign madness, a weakness of the flesh that did not extinguish the exercise of prayer.
AI summary
Commenting on Psalm 56:1-13
When I cry unto thee, then shall mine enemies turn back. So soon as I pray they shall fly. So surely as I cry they shall be put to the rout. The machinery of prayer is not always visible, but it is most efficient. God inclines us to pray, we cry in anguish of heart, he hears, he acts, the enemy is turned back.
Several things David here comforts himself with in the day of his distress and fear. I. That God took particular notice of all his grievances and all his griefs, Psa 56:8. 1. Of all the inconveniences of his state: Thou tellest my wanderings, my flittings, so the old translation.
Commenting on Psalm 56:8-13