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Psalm 140:13

Psalm 140:13 Justice for all The concluding verse of this Psalm allows us to change direction, and it ends on a positive note. David has been brutally honest in his assessment of his adversaries, and he has made his feelings about them public. He has also had the temerity to turn this all into a prayer and plead to God for their judgement. How many of us have asked the Lord to deal with our / His enemies by, pouring burning coals on them, throwing them into the fire and condemning them to the miry pit? Have we prayed that disaster might hunt down those who are violent? If not, why not? David did! In verse 12 he reminds himself that the Lord God does not overlook the cause of the needy and he will secure justice for the poor and when this happens there will be cause for rejoicing rather than bitter recriminations. And that is the point, those who do not believe, who have no ultimate arbiter and judge who acts for them, end up descending slowly and bitterly into a pit of despair and desp...
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Psalm 140:12

Psalm 140:12 The poor and needy When David talks here about the poor and needy, he is not just referring to the homeless, to vagrants or social welfare dependants. There’s little doubt that he is also thinking about his own people, the much-beleaguered Israelites and their tempestuous history, so full of threats and incursions by surrounding nations. The poor are not just those who have no money or possessions, the Bible also includes those who have no means to look after their lives, their safety or their mental well-being. In other words, it’s possible to be financially wealthy but still poor in spirit and in resources. If we applied these definitions to the Jews today, we might say that they are economically secure, they have a very efficient and well-armed military and they excel in food production, technology, the arts etc. But these people are hated by the world in general and threatened daily by their neighbours, in that sense they are poor and needy.  Where does this leave ...
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Psalm 140:11

Psalm 140:11 A prayer against our enemies Maybe, like me, you are reluctantly pondering this Psalm and David’s vehement condemnation of his enemies. My initial problem has been trying to establish who my enemies are! Don’t we all try to be at one with everyone and at peace with our neighbours? In fact, the Bible seems to suggest that it is perfectly normal to have enemies, they are simply the people who oppose us or who are opposed to us.   So, let’s spend a moment or two thinking about this, are there people in the workplace who deliberately put us down, gossip about us and who try to undermine our authority or our roles? They are our enemies.  Are their individuals who make overtures to our husband or wife and send them messages in secret? They are our enemies. Are there people on committees, boards, leadership teams or even church bodies who always take the opposite view to us and express their opinions arrogantly? They are our enemies. Do we know people who are consta...
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Psalm 140:10

Psalm 140:10 Burning coals! It would be easy to simply skip over this verse, but there is more to it than perhaps meets the eye. Firstly, burning coals were very much part of Israel’s religious life, coals were burned on the altar of sacrifice at the Tabernacle and the Temple, and burning coals were taken by the priests into the Holy Place and laid on the altar of incense at least twice a day. There is an element of God’s justice involved in these practices; indeed, the prophet Isaiah pours scorn and condemnation on necromancers, sorcerers, astrologers and the like, saying that they will never be able to save themselves from the fire of judgement, people who think their spiritual coals provide warmth and cosy comfort have got it completely wrong! Isaiah 47:12-15. Their fiery coals will come back to haunt them, an irony if ever there was one!  In Psalm 18:8 God’s power and majesty come down to the earth with consuming fire and burning coals erupting from His mouth. There is no quest...
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Psalm 140:9

Psalm 140:9 Dealing with mischief - makers Oh dear, don’t you wish you had read this verse before succumbing to the latest workplace gossip? Why is that everywhere we go, especially in employment, there are always people who use their lips and tongues for mischief. Sadly, we try to trust our leaders, but experience shows that they are no better, they speak mischief, and thousands are conned into believing them.  As a King, David was well-versed in political games, and he soon saw through the arrogance and duplicity of those who opposed him. I apologise for being cynical, but this is the way of the world, there are few people we can really trust, everyone seems to have an agenda. I used to tell myself that most of my work colleagues were playing games, all I had to do was to decide at what level I would play along and at what point I would say, “no more”. If we do that, we become players too, but at least we have choices and are in control of our own destinies! David constantly make...
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Psalm 140:8

Psalm 140:8 A prayer against the wicked This Psalm is a far cry from the watered-down mantras of the liberal church where love and tolerance to everyone is promoted. I watched a short excerpt from the BBC’s Songs of Praise recently where a vicar was promoting community, inclusivity, the common bonds between all races and nations, and how the church is there to bring people together and to create unity and kinship. It all sounded wonderful, but there was no mention of the Gospel or of repentance from sin. These are the things that God sets before us in His Word as being fundamental to our walk with Him, and from these grows a community of love and fellowship that crosses all racial and international borders. Through the Gospel broken families are restored and individuals learn to love each other. What’s the point of constantly promoting the outcome if we do not teach and preach the means and the cause? It's against the background of tolerance, a word that is extremely popular today,...
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Psalm 140:7

Psalm 140:7 Shield my head in the day of battle I wonder if the Apostle Paul was thinking of this verse when he wrote about the armour of God and in particular, the helmet of salvation? (Ephesians 6:17.) When David wrote these words he could, have course, been referring literally to his head, the part of his body where his brain lived! He could also have been referring to his headship, in other words, when he went into battle the Lord God protected the head of Israel, He looked after the monarchy. Maybe what was in his mind was his thoughts and decision-making processes, the judgements that needed to be made in the heat of the moment, when danger was all around and, as we would say, the king needed a clear head.  After our journey through Psalm 139 it should be obvious that the Lord is able to be all of the above, we could simply say that when the battle rages God is with us, He is our protector, our inspiration, our guide, our deliverer and our salvation. Let’s transfer that infor...
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