Passage Read: Psalm 55-58
Meditation Verses: 56:5-7
Thought
In all these psalms where David recounts the cruelty of his enemies, he never turns and attacks them, but calls out to God to deliver him. They publicly humiliate and attack him, but his response is not to fight fire with fire, but to turn to the Lord to save him from those who have made themselves his enemies. Those who hate him twist his words to accuse him of wrong or to make him look bad. They keep close watch on him to find something bad to say about him or to trap him or kill him. But he doesn't lift a hand against them, he only lifts a prayer against them. He calls on God to deal with them, to remove them, to drive them away.
Application
When people speak evil of me, that doesn't give me the right to speak evil of them. If they show themselves to be the wicked ones, I need to be sure not to likewise show myself to be wicked. They have no other weapons but words. They look for ways to do me harm, because they have no other recourse. But I can trust in the Lord and call on Him to deliver me. I don't need to fight back with human weapons. If I have been walking in integrity, working to walk as God desires, then I can have confidence in my innocence and trust in the Lord to hold fast to me and deliver me in His time. I can call on the Lord to save me from those who seek to destroy me. I can ask God to remove them far from me.