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Gustave Doré’s engraving of David standing crowned and bowed as he mourns Absalom

Psalm 56

One of the psalms St Athanasius said to pray when you are hunted and people want you handed over, in a letter from the 300s.

  • 13Verses
  • 1Situation

St Athanasius, Letter to Marcellinus

When to pray it

In the 300s, St Athanasius of Alexandria wrote a letter to his friend Marcellinus about praying the Psalms. In it he matched psalms to what people go through. This is what he gave this one for.

You're being hunted, and people are informing on you because they want you handed over.

When you are hunted, and people inform on you because they want to hand you over, as the Ziphites and the Philistines did to David, don't lose heart. Trust in the Lord, praise Him, and say Psalms 54 and 56.

Letter to Marcellinus

For this, the quiz gives Psalm 54, and this psalm beside it.

13 verses, Berean Standard Bible

The whole psalm

Psalm 56

Its own heading For the choirmaster. To the tune of “A Dove on Distant Oaks.” A Miktam of David, when the Philistines seized him in Gath.

  1. 1Be merciful to me, O God, for men are hounding me; all day they press their attack.
  2. 2My enemies pursue me all day long, for many proudly assail me.
  3. 3When I am afraid, I put my trust in You.
  4. 4In God, whose word I praise— in God I trust. I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?
  5. 5All day long they twist my words; all their thoughts are on my demise.
  6. 6They conspire, they lurk, they watch my steps while they wait to take my life.
  7. 7In spite of such sin, will they escape? In Your anger, O God, cast down the nations.
  8. 8You have taken account of my wanderings. Put my tears in Your bottle— are they not in Your book?
  9. 9Then my enemies will retreat on the day I cry for help. By this I will know that God is on my side.
  10. 10In God, whose word I praise, in the LORD, whose word I praise,
  11. 11in God I trust; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?
  12. 12Your vows are upon me, O God; I will render thank offerings to You.
  13. 13For You have delivered my soul from death, and my feet from stumbling, that I may walk before God in the light of life.

Psalm 56 is 55 in the Greek numbering Athanasius used, which Orthodox Bibles and some older Catholic ones still follow.

When people turn against you

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All 53 situations, in one guide.

Your turn

Which Psalm are you living right now?

A few honest taps about your life right now, and the psalm an early Church Father gave for exactly that.

  • 3 min
  • 7 questions
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Bible text: Berean Standard Bible, public domain. Athanasius’s advice is paraphrased from his Greek.