“Wickedness is in the midst thereof: deceit and guile depart not from her streets.”
The specific mention of malice, deceit, and oppression as the constant occupants of the streets articulates the spiritual and moral quality of the evil that pervades the city. The personification of these vices as inhabitants suggests that the city has been taken over by forces opposed to God; evil has displaced righteousness. The reference to oppression indicates that the problem has concrete human consequences: people are being harmed through the institutional wickedness. This verse deepens the analysis of the city's condition: it is not merely chaotic but actively malevolent, actively working toward the harm of the righteous.
Church Fathers on Psalms 55:11
1. Of this Psalm the title is: “At the end, in hymns, understanding to David himself.” What the “end” is, we will briefly call to your recollection, because you have known it. “For the end of the Law is Christ, for righteousness unto every man believing.” Romans 10:4 Be the attention therefore directed unto the End, directed unto Christ. Wherefore is He called the end? Because whatever we do, to Him we refer it, and when to Him we shall have come home, more to ask we shall…
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
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