Verse-by-Verse Bible CommentaryPsalms 55:7
"Behold, I would wander far away, I would lodge in the wilderness. Selah. Jump to: Clarke Commentary • Barne's Notes • Gill's Exposition • Trapp's Commentary • Poole's Annotations • Whedon's Commentary • Bullinger's Companion Bible Notes • Commentary Critical and Explanatory - Unabridged • Ellicott's Commentary • Treasury of Knowledge Other Authors
Adam Clarke CommentaryWould I wander far off - He did escape; and yet his enemies were so near, as to throw stones at him: but he escaped beyond Jordan. 2 Samuel 17:22, 2 Samuel 17:23. A passage in the Octavia of Seneca has been referred to as being parallel to this of David. It is in the answer of Octavia to the Chorus, Acts v., ver. 914-923. Quis mea digne deflere potest Mala? Quae lacrymis nostris quaestus Reddet Aedon? cujus pennas Utinam miserae mihi fata darent! Fugerem luctus ablata meos Penna volucri, procul et coetus Hominum tristes sedemque feram. Sola in vacuo nemore, et tenui Ramo pendens, querulo possem Gutture moestum fundere murmur. My woes who enough can bewail? O what notes can my sorrows express? Sweet Philomel's self e'en would fail To respond with her plaintive distress. O had I her wings I would fly To where sorrows I ne'er should feel more, Upborne on her plumes through the sky, Regions far from mankind would explore. In a grove where sad silence should reign, On a spray would I seat me alone; In shrill lamentations complain, And in wailings would pour forth my moan. J. B. Clarke. Copyright Statement Bibliography Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole BibleLo, then would I wander far off - literally, “Lo, I would make the distance far by wandering;” I would separate myself far from these troubles. And remain in the wilderness - literally, I would sojourn; or, I would pass the night; or, I would put up for the night. The idea is taken from a traveler who puts up for the night, or who rests for a night in his weary travels, and seeks repose. Compare Genesis 19:2; Genesis 32:21; 2 Samuel 12:16; Judges 19:13. The word “wilderness” means, in the Scripture, a place not inhabited by man; a place where wild beasts resort; a place uncultivated. It does not denote, as with us, an extensive forest. It might be a place of rocks and sands, but the essential idea is, that it was not inhabited. See the notes at Matthew 4:1. In such a place, remote from the habitations of people, he felt that he might be at rest. Copyright Statement Bibliography John Gill's Exposition of the Whole BibleLo, then would I wander far off, and remain in the wilderness,.... So David did when he fled from Absalom, 2 Samuel 15:23; so gracious souls desire to be; not in the wilderness of the people; but to be solitary as in a wilderness, clear of the company of wicked men, as Jeremiah wished for, Jeremiah 9:2; and that they might be more at leisure for and given up unto spiritual devotion, and be secure from their enemies: and as this may be applied to Christ, it shows the wickedness, cruelty, and barbarity of the men of that generation among whom he lived; that he chose rather to be in the wilderness, among wild beasts, than to dwell among them, Matthew 17:17; some apply this to the state of the primitive church under Jewish persecution, when it fled from Judea, and settled in the wilderness of the Gentiles; the preachers of the word being scattered abroad by the windy storm and tempest of persecution, and the Gospel taken from the Jews, and carried to a nation bringing forth the fruit of it, where it has remained ever since. With this may be compared the state of the church under Rome Pagan, in Revelation 12:6. Selah; on this word; see Gill on Psalm 3:2. Copyright Statement Bibliography John Trapp Complete CommentaryPsalms 55:7 Lo, [then] would I wander far off, [and] remain in the wilderness. Selah. Ver. 7. Lo, then would I wander far off] Far from the force and fury of these breathing devils. Jeremiah wisheth the like, as being tired out by the ungodly practices of his countrymen, Psalms 9:2. And many a dear child of God, forced to be in bad company, cries, Oh that I had the wings, &c. Or if that Oh will not set him at liberty, he takes up that Woe, to express his misery, Woe is me, that I sojourn in Meshech, &c.
And remain in the wilderness] Among wild beasts; which were better than to abide with these lycanthropi (a), men more cruel, savage, and bloody than any beasts. Copyright Statement Bibliography Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy BibleLike a dove; which being fearful, and pursued by birds of prey, flies away, and that very swiftly and far, and into solitary places, where it hides and secures itself in the holes of the rocks, or in some other secret and safe place; all which fitly represents David’s present disposition and desire. And be at rest; or, that I might, or where I might, be at rest, or dwell, in some settled and safe place, and be delivered from those uncertainties and wanderings to which I am now exposed. In the wilderness; where I might be free from the company, and rage, and treachery of my wicked enemies, who are worse than the wild beasts of the wilderness. Copyright Statement Bibliography Whedon's Commentary on the Bible7. Remain—Another word of the same signification as abide, be at rest, Psalms 55:6. Compare Jeremiah 9:2. Of the thirty-eight years of David’s public life twenty six had been disturbed and embittered by the persecutions of Saul; by the rivalry and civil war of Ishbosheth, Saul’s son; by foreign wars with the Syrian and Arabian nations; and by the conduct and conspiracies of Absalom. Copyright Statement Bibliography E.W. Bullinger's Companion Bible Notesremain = lodge. The Septuagint renders it by aulizomai, the word used in Matthew 21:17. Compare Luke 21:37. See also Jeremiah 9:2. wilderness. Compare 2 Samuel 15:28; 2 Samuel 17:16. Selah. Connecting his despondency with his escape from the cause of it. It was not merely comfort he desired, but deliverance. See App-66. Copyright Statement Bibliography Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible - UnabridgedLo, then would I wander far off, and remain in the wilderness. Selah. Lo, (then) would I wander far off - literally, 'be distant in fleeing.' And remain - Hebrew, lodge, or pass the night. In the wilderness - far from human society, which, though ordinarily desirable, has now become so corrupted that a solitary waste is preferable to it. Copyright Statement Bibliography Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(7) Remain.—Better, lodge. Copyright Statement Bibliography Treasury of Scripture KnowledgeLo, then would I wander far off, and remain in the wilderness. Selah.
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