Every day they wrest my words: all their thoughts are against me for evil.
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
Every day they wrest my words. This is a common mode of warfare among the ungodly. They put our language on the rack, they extort meanings from it which it cannot be made fairly to contain. Thus our Saviour's prophecy concerning the temple of his body, and countless accusations against his servants, were founded on wilful perversions. They who do this every day become great adepts in the art.
David threw himself into God's hands even though fear and folly had thrown him into the Philistines'. He was like a silent dove, driven from his nest, mourning and melancholy yet patient, murmuring neither against God nor against those who troubled him, a pattern for all the afflicted.
AI summary
Commenting on Psalm 56:1-7