#DailyDevotion Having Opposition In Your Life?
Psalm 7 6Arise and be angry, O LORD; rise against the fury of my enemies; awake, my God, order a trial; 7have an assembly of peoples gather around You and over them reign on high. 8 O LORD, judge the nations. Judge me, O LORD, according to my integrity; judge me according to my innocence, O Most High.
It’s another one of those places we may have trouble praying a psalm. Jesus after all tells us to love our enemies. James tells us to bless them and not curse them. On the other hand, David is leaving getting justice and/or vengeance to the LORD alone. One can understand David’s anger here about the rebellion against him. He just lost his son, Absalom, who rebelled against him. Because he mourned Absalom’s death, Sheba is leading Israel against him. However, when Samuel anointed David to be king, David did not rebel against Saul. When Saul was trying to kill him and he had a chance to kill Saul, David would not go against the LORD’s anointed. David waited until the LORD arraigned for Saul’s death. Rebelling against the LORD’s anointed is rebelling against the LORD himself. So you can see a bit why David calls down the LORD’s anger and fury upon them.
We have feelings of wrath and anger at people too sometimes. What should we do with it? We should follow David’s example and turn to the LORD Jesus Christ for justice. We should not seek ways to get revenge on people. Let the LORD sort it out. We see David here asking the LORD to wake up and order a trial. We too, in the midst of our suffering may feel like God is sleeping on the job. David wants witnesses, an assembly of people to judge the facts. David wants the LORD to judge the nations. If anything, this tells us again, David is not striking out on his own here. It is an admonishment to us to hand things over to God when we face unreasonable opposition in life, to seek God to make things right and not strike out on our own.
Now David asks the LORD to judge him, according to his own integrity and his own innocence. That is certainly a ballsy move. Considering elsewhere in the Psalms it is written, “There is no one who does good, not one.” But I believe he is speaking here concerning this situation in his life that has come about. Has David acted wrongly in this situation? Well, he may have not acted wisely in it. He outwardly mourned the death of his rebellious son Absalom. This upset those who risked their lives to defend and restore David back to the throne. Then he let the house of Judah lead him back to the capital and didn’t think about the other tribes who fought for him. So while these things weren’t sinful, they contributed to the situation. Perhaps we ourselves should examine ourselves and see if we contributed to our own situation which has gone bad.
Ultimately, this is a prayer of Jesus. Jesus could and did pray this psalm. He had his enemies who rejected his rule just as his father David did. Jesus continues to this day having enemies and opposition to his rule. We who belong to Jesus face the same enemies of Jesus. Jesus is one who is truly innocent and is perfect in his integrity. He also prays this prayer to the Father to this day as he waits for his enemies to be made a footstool for him. True he also prays for their repentance and their turning to him in faith so they are no longer enemies. As long as people reject his rule in their hearts they remain his enemies. We also join with Jesus in praying for their conversion. Can we appeal to God the Father based on our integrity and innocence? Perhaps. We should pray to God for justice but we also pray that our enemies be made our friends in Jesus Christ.
Heavenly Father, have mercy upon us and in all our situations give us justice, overcome our enemies with your love and show us our own faults so we may repent of them and return to your mercy. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.