“Lo, then would I wander far off, and remain in the wilderness. Selah.”
The petition to God to hasten deliverance and escape the enemies articulates the urgent desire for divine action to address the crisis immediately, expressing the sense that time itself has become an enemy. The request to escape the raging wind and tempest suggests that the psalmist experiences the conflict as a natural disaster beyond human control, requiring divine intervention to navigate. The language of hastening establishes that delay is itself unbearable; the psalmist cannot long endure the current circumstances. This verse returns to direct petition after the fantasy of escape, grounding the prayer in urgent request for divine action.
Church Fathers on Psalms 55:7
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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