Do you have a lot of enemies?
I don’t. For which
I am thankful. It is hard when people
conspire against you.
In our psalm for today, King David found himself
surrounded by enemies. It was not the
Philistines or some other nation that has risen up against him. His enemies were his son, Absolom, and those
who supported the prince to replace David on the throne. What an awful situation!
In the midst of his struggle David cries out to the LORD, saying, “My enemies are saying there is no
hope, no salvation, for me, ‘But you, O LORD,
are a shield about me, my glory, and the lifter of my head.’”
You and I may (or may not) have enemies among our fellow
human beings; people who actively seek to undermine, discredit or harm us. Even if we don’t, though, there are enemies
out there who seek to do us harm. Not
only do they seek to harm us, they want to do the worst kind of harm
possible: tear us away from our Lord
Jesus. These enemies are the devil, the
world, and our own sinful nature.
What David is praying for in this psalm is the same thing
we pray for when we pray, “deliver us from evil,” in the Lord’s Prayer. We are asking God to, “rescue us from every
evil of body and soul, possessions and reputation, and finally, when our last
hour comes, give us a blessed end, and graciously take us from this valley of
sorrow to Himself in heaven.”
David does not hesitate to throw himself on the LORD’s mercy, and neither should we. We cry out to the one who has promised to
never leave us or forsake us. We remind
Him, “You promised, ‘Behold, I will be with you always.’” There is absolutely nothing wrong with calling
to God and saying, “Be with me now! I
need you!” As David says, “Arise, O LORD! Save
me, O my God! For you strike all my
enemies on the cheek; you break the teeth of the wicked.”
Luther reminds us that God’s will is done when He
breaks and hinders every evil plan and purpose of the devil, the world and our
sinful nature. I find comfort in that
when dealing with such adversaries. God
is not whispering sweet nothings in our ears as if to say, “It’ll be okay. What you’re going through isn’t so bad.” No. He
sees us as His children who are in danger and He leaps into action for us. He breaks.
He hinders.
“Salvation belongs to the Lord; Your blessing be on Your
people!” With these words, David puts
himself in the Lord’s hands, trusting Him.
What will God do? He will save
him. What will that salvation look
like? In our earthly needs, it can take
a wide variety of forms, one as unlikely as the next – including allowing us to
die a good Christian death. In our
eternal need, God’s salvation looks like a man dying on a cross, for that is
exactly how God saved us; Jesus crucified for our sins.
Jesus knows what it is like to be surrounded by
enemies. He knows what it is like to
bear temptation and scorn. He knows
because he was surrounded for us. Indeed,
He died for us. But salvation belongs to
Him! He rose, and because He is risen we
can say with David, “I will not be afraid of many thousands of people who have
set themselves against me all around!”
Why? Because our God saves.
Father in Heaven,
help me to resist the enemies of this world with boldness and confidence in
Your power to save me. Fix my eyes on
Jesus and fill me with faith. Amen.
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