Psalm 35:1

Psalm 35:1

Heavenly King, defend Your servant

 The background to this Psalm is not completely clear. David was wandering and running and hiding for many months at different times in his life. It is possible that the events described in the previous Psalm were still hanging over him and so he penned Psalm 35. There is a military theme here, David calls upon the Lord to fight for him and then spends most of this song expressing his sense of injustice at the behaviour of his enemies.  There is no doubt that he sees their taunts and their lies as a dreadful slight against him and in this he is able to call upon the Lord and also to look forward to a time when his foes are beaten and he will publicly praise the Lord. 

If you are being persecuted or maligned or slandered unfairly, or if there are enemies who are speaking falsely about you, then take heart from this Psalm. 

 

V1        Contend means to oppose, challenge or resist. What an opening salvo this is to Psalm 35. David had enemies – plotters, schemers and wicked men who would do anything to bring about his downfall. He evidently felt helpless and unable to ward off their threats and so he turns to the Lord. “Anyone who is against me Lord, You take them on. You fight them off. You defend and protect me.” What a brilliant strategy! Instead of facing up to those who oppose us we ask the Lord to do it. Instead of plotting and scheming for justice or retribution we simply put the whole affair in God’s and hands and say, “You do it!” Let’s make that our plan today, if we are in a battle in our family, workplace, community or even our church, let’s just hand it over and ask the Lord to fight for us.

Of course, there is another more sinister angle here. Most of our troubles are spiritual ones that are stirred up by an unseen enemy. Here we really are out of our depth and that is why this cry of David’s should be our cry. “Father, when temptation and depression and fatigue and darkness oppress me. When unseen forces surround me. When the voices in my head, real or imagined, are more than I can bear; You fight for me, You resist them for me, You be my shield and my defender.” It is a good moment when we realise that we cannot fight on alone and we ask the Lord to take up the battle. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Psalm 4:1 Smear campaigns

Psalm 4:1    Smear campaigns   The background to this Psalm is so familiar; David is being slandered and maligned by his detractors.  It seems that some calamity has befallen the nation and the king is getting the blame! Lies are being told, a smear campaign has begun, and the reputation of the Sovereign is under threat.  As usual, if something goes wrong, culpability is laid at the feet of the one in charge.  David, quite rightly, turns to the Lord his God and prays for relief and for mercy. The Satan is a master of such campaigns and his emissaries gleefully turn on Christians in leadership positions although the whispering campaign can affect all of us. The whispering starts in our own heads, but it can also come from the lips of our detractors. It goes something like this: - You’re the reason it went wrong You messed up again You should have seen it coming Surely you know better You are not worthy You don’t know what you’re doing Someone else ought to be in c
Read more

Psalm 74:16

Psalm 74:16 God established the sun and the moon “ In  the beginning   God created   the heavens   and the earth.   2  Now the earth was formless   and empty,   darkness was over the surface of the deep,   and the Spirit of God   was hovering over the waters. 3  And God said,   “Let there be light,” and there was light.   4  God saw that the light was good,   and he separated the light from the darkness.   5  God called   the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.”   And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.” These, so familiar, words from Genesis 1 remind us of who is in charge! There would be no light without God. There would be no day or night without God. There would be no earth without God. And there would have been no living things unless God had created order out of chaos. The sun, moon and stars would not be fixed in their orbits without God and you and I would not exist unless He ordered our conception. It is because we see God as glorious, righteous
Read more
Psalm4:8        I will lie down and sleep                Th ere are times, in the life of all believers, when we no longer have control of situations. We can do nothing more. We have given our all, we have tried every possible solution and now it is out of our hands. As someone has wisely said, “It is time to let go and let God.” If we truly trust Him, if our faith will allow us, we can turn our backs on our enemies. We can block our ears to the threats. We can ignore the lies and the deceit and say,  “In peace I will lie down and sleep, for you alone Lord, make me dwell in safety.” I should imagine that the devil, having sent a hurricane our way is not amused, when we settle in our beds in the midst of it all and drift off into a peaceful sleep! But that is our right and privilege once we let the Lord God Almighty take control. These spiritual attacks are like whirlwinds, they blow with terrifying intensity and threaten to turn us upside down; the disciples witnessed one of thes
Read more