Deliver Me from My Enemies

  

Psalm 59:1-17

 

June 18, 2022

Deliver Me from My Enemies

 

Deliver me from my enemies, O my God; protect me from those who rise up against me; deliver me from those who work evil, and save me from bloodthirsty men.  For behold, they lie in wait for my life; fierce men stir up strife against me.  For no transgression or sin of mine, O Lord, for no fault of mine, they run and make ready.  Awake, come to meet me, and see!  You, Lord God of hosts, are God of Israel.  Rouse yourself to punish all the nations; spare none of those who treacherously plot evil. Selah

 

Each evening they come back, howling like dogs, and prowling about the city.  There they are, bellowing with their mouths  with swords in their lips—for “Who,” they think, “will hear us?”   But you, O Lord, laugh at them; you hold all the nations in derision.  O my Strength, I will watch for you, for you, O God, are my fortress.   My God in his steadfast love will meet me; God will let me look in triumph on my enemies.   Kill them not, lest my people forget; make them totter by your power and bring them down, O Lord, our shield!   For the sin of their mouths, the words of their lips, let them be trapped in their pride.  For the cursing and lies that they utter, consume them in wrath; consume them till they are no more, that they may know that God rules over Jacob to the ends of the earth. Selah

 

Each evening they come back, howling like dogs and prowling about the city.  They wander about for food and growl if they do not get their fill.  But I will sing of your strength; I will sing aloud of your steadfast love in the morning.  For you have been to me a fortress and a refuge in the day of my distress.  O my Strength, I will sing praises to you, for you, O God, are my fortress, the God who shows me, steadfast love.

 

We have witnessed that power and the fear of losing it can destroy a nation.  Today, I have no understanding of who the President of the United States of America is, do you?  But each time I go to the grocery store, I see shelves that have no food on them, and each time I buy gasoline I’m amazed that the country with the most reserves in the world of gas and oil is buying from people who want to destroy us.  You have to wonder, is the person who is pulling the strings our enemy?  Saul sent men to watch his house in order to kill David. Why the fear of losing power?  Yes, Saul had a plan, “But God” plan was for David to rule His people and remove their enemies. 

 

One must wonder what if the Church of the Living God, would have the faith of David to cry out to the Lord to fight for us?  Deliver me from my enemies, O my God; protect me from those who rise up against me; deliver me from those who work evil, and save me from bloodthirsty men.

The church, not the one who shows up on Sunday morning but those who have by faith entered into a relationship with Jesus.  The one who warms the pews but has no desire to follow the teaching of Scripture, they are not the Church.  I was one of them for 27 years, but when Jesus came into my life, it was not religion, no it was a relationship.  I was part of the Church, but I carry a lot of my history as a religious person with me and it took years of sitting under a good Bible teacher and preaching to open my eyes that everyone is religious about something.  David understood that He needed God, and the Church, must awake and ask God to not only be their refuge but to fight evil in our nation.

 

What would happen if the Church believed and had the faith of a David; O my Strength, I will watch for you, for you, O God, are my fortress.   My God in his steadfast love will meet me; God will let me look in triumph on my enemies. That praise is one of assurance, not fear of the unknown.

 

Will you ask the Father to give you the faith to believe, David had men that were ordered by King Saul to kill him, yet he was living as if he had received the victory.  Listen and ask, for God loves to give faith to His children.  But I will sing of your strength; I will sing aloud of your steadfast love in the morning.  For you have been to me a fortress and a refuge in the day of my distress.  O my Strength, I will sing praises to you, for you, O God, are my fortress, the God who shows me, steadfast love.

 

From the Back Porch,

 

Bob Rice