Psalms 55:15
Let death seize upon them, and let them go down quick into hell: for wickedness is in their dwellings, and among them. Let death seize upon them, and let them go down quick into hell: for wickedness is in their dwellings, and among them.
The verse is a prayer for sudden judgment on the wicked because wickedness fills their homes and lives, asking that death seize them and they go down alive into the pit as Korah, Dathan and Abiram did. The place named is sheol, the grave or pit or state of the dead below, not upward toward God, meaning the common place of the dead where both righteous and wicked rest until the resurrection. Their destruction is deserved divine retribution and the call of justice upon incorrigible wrongdoers, yet alongside God's just anger against sin the psalm breathes His mercy and loving-kindness. The swallowing of Korah and his company stands for the final destruction of impenitent enemies of God, when the pit will shut them in forever. The psalm is a prophetic picture of Christ's inner feelings in His life-and-death struggle, weighed down and brought very low as man's substitute and identifying fully with man's weaknesses, infirmities, sins and sufferings while pleading God's promises for help. Going down alive and quickly to ruin also marks those destroyed by soul-polluting sexual vice and by dwellings and cities filled with systematic wickedness, where wealth spent on deadly sin entraps and drags thousands to swift destruction.
Words and Setting
The word rendered hell is the Hebrew word sheol, one of 31 places where the King James Version so renders it. Sheol means the grave, the pit, or the state of the dead, not specifically a place of torment. It is the New Testament hades, the common place of the dead where both the righteous and the wicked remain until the resurrection.
Sheol is spoken of as below rather than above, so that one said to go there goes down and not upward to God. The word quick means alive, that death seizes them and they go down alive. The going down alive into the pit is Korah, Dathan, and Abiram going down alive after rebelling against Moses and Aaron.
Judgment and Application
The verse is a prayer for sudden judgment and destruction to fall on the wicked, because wickedness fills their homes and their lives. Their death and destruction is deserved divine retribution for the wickedness that is among them. It is the call of justice for deserved punishment upon incorrigible wrongdoers, while alongside human wickedness and God's just anger against sin there breathes His mercy and loving-kindness.
The going down alive into the pit after rebellion against Moses and Aaron befell Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. That sudden destruction represents the final destruction of impenitent enemies of God, when the pit will shut them in forever.
The psalm is a prophetic word-picture revealing Christ's inner feelings as He faced life-and-death struggle with the enemy. In humiliation as man's substitute He took man's weaknesses, infirmities, and sins so fully as to identify with man in all his failings and sufferings. Weighed down and brought very low, He poured out His soul in agony for God's help while pleading God's promises.
Going down alive and quickly to perdition describes those ruined by soul-polluting, soul-destroying sexual vice. Even baptized youth with the gospel sounding in their ears hasten toward destruction and drag wretched associates with them to ruin. The wickedness in their dwellings extends to dwellings and cities filled with wickedness, where vast wealth spent on deadly sin and systematic entrapment ruins thousands and tens of thousands. One corrupt town is only a sample of the mass of the population under the same doom of swift destruction.