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| Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash |
Psalm for Today =
109:3-5
and attack me without cause.
4 In return for my love they accuse me,
but I give myself to prayer.
5 So they reward me evil for good,
and hatred for my love.
Comments:
In this lament, David asked God for deliverance from the
wicked men who pursued him verbally and physically. They were evil men in every
sense of the word. But how did David respond to such injustice? He gave
himself to prayer. I wish I was so consistently spiritual when faced with rejection,
slander, and hate.
David also gave himself to prayer in a way that Christians
usually don’t. It is called “imprecatory prayer” and is like praying judgment
or a justly-deserved curse down on the wicked. I read “They
encircle me with words of hate” in verse 3 and am struck with the word
picture. It seems that David’s prayer encircles their words of hate with his words
of trust that God will deal with them righteously…though they are not kind
words. Verses 6-20 ask God to deal with these specific oppressors in very
specific ways appropriate to their sins (esp. v.17).
As followers of Christ, we are to pray for those who curse
us. Like the psalmist, we can process our emotions honestly through the
character of God and his commitment to justice. We can also pray and ask God, like
the martyred souls in heaven when will He avenge all the innocent blood that
has been shed by the wicked (Revelation 6:10)? But like Jesus prayed on the cross we
should also pray for their forgiveness “for they don’t know what they do” (Luke
23:34).
Ultimately, all judgment is in God’s hands and he will make
it all right!
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