When I say ‘just because’ it doesn’t mean that the enemies are just, or that there is a reason, a ‘because’ to their unjust choice. No. There isn’t. And this is precisely why I tag it this way.
The devil not only finds work for idle hands to do but dumps evil thoughts into the minds of those who cannot be bothered to let their grey cells do some thinking and put good ideas and concepts into these brains. They will not consider themselves agents who could possibly be invested with goodness; and their jealousy starts there. If only then stopped to consider their own inherent talent, their God given endowments, they would get busy developing these and not give Satan a break in their thoughts to even let them be so envious of others that they appoint themselves enemies of those who do good!
So David writes 3 for no transgression or sin of mine, O Lord, 4 for no fault of mine, they run and make ready.
It has been my style to seek confession mode, and when wrongly accused, to consider just what I might have said or done to inflict hurt on the one who seems poised like an enemy. And that is what I encourage those I lead to do too. But the truth be told, one can do much soul searching and not find good reason for the enemy’s desire to destroy you, because ever so often there is no just cause. People have just been swayed off into harm’s path because of their idle stance that makes them become breeding grounds for evil thoughts. Pure thoughts elude idle minds just as bad deeds invite hands willing to be used for doing the wrong.
So, morning and evening, as the psalmist writes, they’re out for prey, out for kill, out to damage somebody’s reputation or just play bad mind. I repeat, it’s not ‘just play’. English is so funny sometimes. It’s just mischief.
Hear the psalmist again: 6 Each evening they come back, howling like dogs and prowling about the city.7 There they are, bellowing with their mouths, with sharp words on their lips- for “Who,” they think, “Will hear us?
Yes, sharp words that can cut to kill. Misinformed utterances that destroy- all because they won’t take stock of their own path to goodness! Of course, their master, the enemy is pleased. But God sees them too, and the psalmist is sure that God laughs at them in derision. Me? I think that God is pained to think that we so often choose to be and to do evil.
So Dear God, even as I join in this prayer of deliverance from enemies, please protect me from the folly of being anyone’s enemy, thereby robbing myself of time, effort and all the resources you provide to do your will. Amen