Psalm 69:16 -36
7-6-2022
Answer me, O Lord, for your steadfast love is good; according to your abundant mercy, turn to me. Hide not your face from your servant, for I am in distress; make haste to answer me. Draw near to my soul, redeem me; ransom me because of my enemies! You know my reproach, and my shame and my dishonor; my foes are all known to you. Reproaches have broken my heart
so that I am in despair. I looked for pity, but there was none and for comforters, but I found none. They gave me poison for food, and for my thirst, they gave me sour wine to drink. Let their own table before them become a snare; and when they are at peace, let it become a trap. Let their eyes be darkened, so that they cannot see, and make their loins tremble continually. Pour out your indignation upon them, and let your burning anger overtake them. May their camp be a desolation; let no one dwell in their tents. For they persecute him whom you have struck down, and they recount the pain of those you have wounded. Add to them punishment upon punishment; may they have no acquittal from you. Let them be blotted out of the Book of the Living; let them not be enrolled among the righteous.
One may wonder how can a man who makes so many mistakes become a man after God’s own heart? I believe we find some of the answers in this prayer. David is experiencing heartbreak over the circumstance he finds himself in. It may be when Absalom turns the people's hearts against David. David is expressing his feelings to God, but he also wants God to destroy his enemies. If it is Absalom turning on him, why did he weep for so long when he found he had been killed. Maybe David began to understand his shortcoming as a dad, and his lack of involvement with his children, in the area of love and discipline.
So how have we been instructed to pray for our enemies? Jesus tells us how in Matthew 5: 43-45, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.
The question each of us must grasp, is do we want to be sons of our Father in heaven? I heard Pastor Peace make this statement, “hating your enemy is like drinking poison and believing the person you hate will die.”
But I am afflicted and in pain; let your salvation, O God, set me on high! I will praise the name of God with a song; I will magnify him with thanksgiving.
This will please the Lord more than an ox or a bull with horns and hoofs. When the humble see it they will be glad; you who seek God, let your hearts revive. For the Lord hears the needy and does not despise his own people who are prisoners. Let heaven and earth praise him, the seas, and everything that moves in them. For God will save Zion and build up the cities of Judah, and people shall dwell there and possess it; the offspring of his servants shall inherit it, and those who love his name shall dwell in it.
Do you see the confidence and love David has for the Lord, we could learn much from this prayer, on how to enter God's throne room.
I believe many of us have been taken prisoners, by our flesh, we are not putting it under the authority of the Spirit, but have quenched the Spirit by allowing the flesh to rule in our life. We also see David as a profit in these last verses and the insight the Holy Spirit has shown him.
From the Back Porch.
Bob Rice
No comments:
Post a Comment