“Let death seize upon them, and let them go down quick into hell: for wickedness is in their dwellings, and among them.”
The prayer that death would seize the betrayer and that they would go down to Sheol alive articulates the intensity of the psalmist's desire for divine judgment on the betrayer, expressing a wish that death itself would swallow them. The image of going to Sheol alive suggests premature death, a cutting off of life before its natural span; the betrayer should suffer the ultimate consequence for the ultimate betrayal. The location of this judgment in the heart (the center of being) suggests that the corruption is internal and fundamental. This verse expresses the raw desire for vengeance, the most extreme form of petition for divine justice.
Church Fathers on Psalms 55:15
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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