#DailyDevotion Do You Trust God To Deal With Your Enemies?
Psalm 4 3You should know that the LORD makes the one He loves someone special to Him. The LORD hears me when I call to Him. 4 Tremble and don’t sin. Think about it on your beds and weep.
The one who trusts the LORD to be his righteousness is loved by the LORD and is special to Him. Faith in the LORD makes one able to receive the love the LORD God wants to give to all people. But without faith, you cannot recognize the love the LORD wants to show and give you. Because of the faith that believes the LORD loves him, David is able to open his mouth and believe the LORD hears when he calls to him. In similar fashion, when our LORD Jesus Christ called out to God his Father, he knew his Father heard him. While Jesus still had to drink the cup the Father gave him, he knew his Father would vindicate him, raise him from the dead and seat him at His right hand. We too, through faith in Christ Jesus receive the Father’s love and are special to him. He hears us when we cry to him. We can always be certain the LORD is going to do for us what is good, proper and just for our benefit and the good of His Church. Without faith it may seem as if the LORD is against us. But the LORD disciplines us as sons out of His great love for us. We know, like Christ, our faith in Him will be vindicated.
Our translation says, “tremble.” You might be more familiar with, “be angry.” It is a bodily motion caused by deep emotions. One is having such violent emotions the body is carried away with it. David is warning those who have sided against him with his son Absalom to check themselves lest their emotions get carried away into sinful actions. He calls them to ponder within themselves if rebellion against God’s anointed one is the right course of action. You might remember the times Saul sinned against David and wanted to kill David. While David could have responded in kind and killed the king (he had a number of opportunities to do so) he had respect for Saul’s anointing as king and let God deal with removing Saul as his enemy. We too should ponder upon our beds when we are disturbed and thinking evil thoughts. We should ponder what David is saying here and not carry out whatever evil thoughts we may have. We should reason them out to their end and see that such actions are opposed to the will of God.
Paul brings this up in Ephesians 4, “26Be angry but don’t sin. Don’t let the sun go down on your anger. 27Don’t give the devil a chance to work.” He is speaking to people who belong to the LORD Jesus Christ, who have been called out of darkness into Christ’s marvelous light. We are called to think things through ourselves. When someone angers us what should we do with it? We probably should think about it first. What part did we play in it? What is our fault? Is striking back the best course of action? Do we really believe God is on our side in Christ Jesus? If we do, then we should pay attention to the words, from Romans 12, “17Don’t pay back evil for evil. Be concerned with things that everyone considers noble. 18As much as you can, live in peace with everyone. 19Don’t take revenge, dear friends, but let God punish, because the Bible says: “I alone have the right to avenge. I will pay back,” says the Lord. 20But, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him a drink. If you do this, you’ll heap burning coals on his head.” 21Don’t let evil conquer you, but conquer evil with good.” If we trust God and our LORD Jesus Christ, then let us act on His promises and let God dispense with justice. We take up the example of Christ and do good to our enemies and seek their good. For that is how God in Christ Jesus has treated us.
Heavenly Father, give us faith that trusts you hear our prayers and answer them. Grant us your Spirit that we may follow in the example of your Son Jesus Christ and not sin in our anger but trust you for all justice, doing good to those who do evil to us. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.