April 13, 2024

Passage Read: Psalm 51-54
Meditation Verses: 54:4-7

Thought

David speaks in the past tense, that God has delivered him from all his trouble, and his eye has looked with satisfaction on his enemies. Yet he was being ratted out to Saul, enemies were calling the king to come and kill him. The previous verses he speaks in future tense: the Lord will recompense his enemies, He will destroy them. David has great faith, though he gets discouraged from time to time. He is learning that God will deliver him from all his enemies, though not all at once, not all right when he desires it. If not during this life, then afterward he will look in triumph on the wicked who opposed him.

Application

If I could curse my enemies and see them wither right then and there, many would see and fear. Is that what God wants? That was what Israel was supposed to do in their justice system, carry out sentence quickly and completely, so that no one would ever do such an evil thing again in Israel. But no one wants to execute judgment quickly, because we all know our secret sins, and sooner or later, justice would come for us. Unless we took warning and got serious about cleaning up our act. So sin is allowed to fester, until it becomes common knowledge, tolerated and accepted. Right and wrong break down, and no one does what is righteous. But God will cleanse the earth of the wicked, so to deny that, to fail to call out sin is to give everyone a false sense of security. It is to condemn everyone to destruction. How loving is that? David wasn't perfect, but he knew wickedness needed judgment. It was harder to bring judgment on his own family, and that brought him much grief and trouble, but judgment needed to come and it eventually did. It is right and necessary to call on God to punish the wicked. I can't back down for fear of being liable to judgment myself or for fear of someone I love being caught up in it. I need to purify my own life, just as surely as I need to call on God to purify the people around me.