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, that we read David’s rants against his personal enemies and the enemies of God. There was a clear distinction in his mind, there were people he knew who were wicked and beyond his love and favour. He could readily identify such people and had no qualms about condemning them. This verse seems to be stating the obvious, David asks God to not grant the desires of his enemies and to thwart all their plans. This is difficult, isn’t it? We are being asked to identify those who are the enemies of God and then to pray against them! They don’t tell you that on Songs of Praise! And yet, I can say from experience, that I have encountered people who have stood against the plans of the Lord and who have publicly declared their animosity towards Him and His people. It has not gone well for them. 

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