Psalm 54:3

Psalm 54:3

The opposition

It’s the same old story. Most of his life this great King and great man, David, was beleaguered by a succession of arrogant troublemakers and lying contemporaries who were intent on cutting him down and removing him from public life. They would go to any lengths to shut him up. In King Saul’s case, he would gladly have murdered his perceived enemy. Here, in this Psalm, as we have noted, David was a fugitive, he had no power, no influence and no place to hide and yet Saul was still terrified of his intentions and his potential threat to the throne. Saul may never have voiced it, but he also saw that the Lord God was with David.

I’ve been in leadership for many years, both secular and in the body of Christ, and nothing changes! David must learn to realise, long before I did, that if you exercise any kind of godly influence, you will have enemies! And they don’t just come from the world. Leadership is a lonely business at times, there are always those who want you out of the way, who think they know better and who are jealous of your position. Others just make trouble because they can. It still hurts and it still grates, why do people have to take the opposite view and try to undermine all that you are trying to do? The answers may be numerous and sometimes rational, but ultimately if you faithfully serve the living God, there will be opposition. There will be those who claim to serve the Lord and who claim to have faith in Him, but their actions reveal them to actually be against Him. So let us learn from David’s bitter struggles. Let us be sure that what we are doing is the Lord’s work, not our own agenda, and let us press on even if that brings unpopularity and opposition. In fact, if there is no opposition, something may be wrong!

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