Enemies upstairs, downstairs, in front, behind, and all around!
It must be really frightening to dread a multitude of enemies who seem to be on top of you, beneath you, behind you, in front of you, on top of you and below you!
That’s how the psalmist describes it.
They are like flood waters up to his neck (verse 1). In fact, he corrects this in verse 2 and writes that he is losing foothold in the more and the flood of adversaries has swept over him! But he is wet only on the outside, because his throat is arched. Weary of crying, maybe the tears have extracted all his juice on his inside.
They are so many, these enemies, that he describes them as innumerable, “more than the hairs of my head” (verse 4). Silly man. He says that they hate him without cause. I say he’s silly because he’s chosen not to understand why they hate him, and he assumes that these people have no cause for hating him. Maybe he’s doing too well, and they, on the other hand, are having it so had. Sometimes, people who thrive in one sense can be so naïve in another that they don’t have the foggiest idea that others who can’t find the road to success find successful people a mighty big problem. You don’t have to do wrong to be hated.
I learned that the hard way.
I’m not suggesting that we absolve jealous people from all guilt for wanting to undermine the successful, telling lies at times to get their hate message across. No, I’m not suggesting that at all.
But on reflection, I had to get a glimpse into the misery state of my haters to discover that they didn’t really hate me. They just wanted to be me, kind of.
The psalmist asked, “What I did not steal must I now restore?” (verse 4) Yes. You may not have stolen it, but because they never had it, you, the one, who poses peace, joy and gladness might well be able to give them some. Some of them. Some people are going to hate you, regardless. You’re not going to win them all. But you can help put some of them out of their misery.
Maybe you can, simply because you too have negotiated the way from wrong to right. Like the psalmist you might just confess “O God, you know my folly; the wrings I have done are not hidden from you”. (verse 5) And when I consider that my own wrongs did not overtake me, but rather, that God has given a me a break to move on and do good, and better… then I feel qualified to encourage the would-be hater to do something better with her life. It is true that success breeds success.
You don’t even have to follow through on the prayer that a trap be set for them and their allies (verse 22) even though that would feel good. But the good feeling won’t last. Neither is it worthwhile to other victims that guilt be added to their guilt (verse 27).
Just thank God that you’re off the hook and maybe better placed to let some so-and-sos also find a way out. That’s how I read it.