Be Not Silent, O God



Psalm 109
To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.
1Be not silent, O God of my praise!
2For wicked and deceitful mouths are opened against me, speaking against me with lying tongues.
3They encircle me with words of hate, and attack me without cause.
4In return for my love they accuse me, but I give myself to prayer.
5So they reward me evil for good, and hatred for my love.
6Appoint a wicked man against him; let an accuser stand at his right hand.
7When he is tried, let him come forth guilty; let his prayer be counted as sin!
8May his days be few; may another take his office!
9May his children be fatherless and his wife a widow!
10May his children wander about and beg, seeking food far from the ruins they inhabit!
11May the creditor seize all that he has; may strangers plunder the fruits of his toil!
12Let there be none to extend kindness to him, nor any to pity his fatherless children!
13May his posterity be cut off; may his name be blotted out in the second generation!
14May the iniquity of his fathers be remembered before the Lord, and let not the sin of his mother be blotted out!
15Let them be before the Lord continually, that he may cut off the memory of them from the earth!
16For he did not remember to show kindness, but pursued the poor and needy and the brokenhearted, to put them to death.
17He loved to curse; let curses come upon him! He did not delight in blessing; may it be far from him!
18He clothed himself with cursing as his coat; may it soak into his body like water, like oil into his bones!
19May it be like a garment that he wraps around him, like a belt that he puts on every day!
20May this be the reward of my accusers from the Lord, of those who speak evil against my life!
21But you, O God my Lord, deal on my behalf for your name’s sake; because your steadfast love is good, deliver me!
22For I am poor and needy, and my heart is stricken within me.
23I am gone like a shadow at evening; I am shaken off like a locust.
24My knees are weak through fasting; my body has become gaunt, with no fat.
25I am an object of scorn to my accusers; when they see me, they wag their heads.
26Help me, O Lord my God! Save me according to your steadfast love!
27Let them know that this is your hand; you, O Lord, have done it!
28Let them curse, but you will bless! They arise and are put to shame, but your servant will be glad!
29May my accusers be clothed with dishonor; may they be wrapped in their own shame as in a cloak!
30With my mouth I will give great thanks to the Lord; I will praise him in the midst of the throng.
31For he stands at the right hand of the needy one, to save him from those who condemn his soul to death.

I cannot remember a time in my life when I felt these kinds of negative emotions about another person or group of people. In that regard, I consider myself blessed. But neither have I tried to rule a nation and had the population turn on me, as is the case with this psalm of King David. His role as leader was difficult indeed.

As I peruse these words, one pervasive thought strikes me; David has huge issues to face as king, but instead of trying to handle all of those problems on his own, he surrenders them into God’s hands. David is convinced of his own helplessness and that is not a negative place to be. Pressing into God’s presence and sharing your struggles with Him must be the take home point of this psalm - even for those of us who are not world leaders.

With his first words, David implores God to “be not silent”. That is a prayer with which I can relate. There have been many times in my life when I asked God to speak into a situation or grant me the wisdom to act in accordance with His will. Those prayers have been answered repeatedly. On the opposite end of the psalm we find the words, “let them know this is Your hand; You, O Lord, have done it.” It is my joy to point to the Lord and declare that He has saved us; He has provided the resources; He has moved circumstances to line up with His will. And so, “with my mouth I will give great thanks to the Lord; I will praise Him in the midst of the throng.”

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

יהוה שָׁמַר--Yahweh Shamar (God Watches)

Image
Psalm 121 1 I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? 2 My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. 3 He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber. 4 Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. 5 The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade on your right hand. 6 The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night. 7 The Lord will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life. 8 The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore. There are numerous passages I cling to when stress takes over my life. I would be hard pressed to declare a favorite, but this psalm would come close. So this morning I listened to Psalm 121 about 20 times as I meditated through the verses. First, I want to point out that the word or idea of shamar appears in every verse expect 6. The NIV uses the word "watch" while the ESV uses "keep". The...
Read more

Excusez-moi

Image
2 Kings 23:31-37 31 Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he began to reign, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. 32 And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his fathers had done. 33 And Pharaoh Neco put him in bonds at Riblah in the land of Hamath, that he might not reign in Jerusalem, and laid on the land a tribute of a hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold. 34 And Pharaoh Neco made Eliakim the son of Josiah king in the place of Josiah his father, and changed his name to Jehoiakim. But he took Jehoahaz away, and he came to Egypt and died there. 35 And Jehoiakim gave the silver and the gold to Pharaoh, but he taxed the land to give the money according to the command of Pharaoh. He exacted the silver and the gold of the people of the land, from everyone according to his assessment, to give it to Pharaoh Neco. 36 Jehoiakim was twenty-fiv...
Read more

Narrow Door

Image
Luke 13:22-30 22 He went on his way through towns and villages, teaching and journeying toward Jerusalem. 23 And someone said to him, “Lord, will those who are saved be few?” And he said to them , 24 “Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able. 25 When once the master of the house has risen and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, open to us,’ then he will answer you, ‘I do not know where you come from.’ 26 Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.’ 27 But he will say, ‘I tell you, I do not know where you come from. Depart from me, all you workers of evil!’ 28 In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God but you yourselves cast out. 29 And people will come from east and west, and from north and south, and recline at tabl...
Read more