Ok. It’s more stuff about enemies. But please note, this time it’s a declaration of trust in God for deliverance from enemies. Way to go!
Still, I find this a bit scary, because of the bold yet true affirmations concerning God that the psalmist makes in this song of prayer.
Number one, God does not delight in wickedness. True. He also notes that the boastful will not stand before God. OK. I am truly not a boastful person. Friends critique my modesty even though they never describe it’s as false. They just say that I’m a humble person.
The psalmist notes further, that “evil will not sojourn with God.” Good to know that those who plot evil against me will not find support from God. But if God therefore “hates all evildoers and will “destroy those who speak lies,” where does this leave me? To destruction? I am not sure how many digits will make up the number if I were to tally all the lies I’ve told over the past seventy years! Maybe, indeed, that liar is me has been destroyed, or at least, partly destroyed, and at best, wholly destroyed. That’s what God does for the unrighteous as we continue to keep company with hm. Christians call it “sanctification” or “becoming holy” or “becoming like Christ” as the Holy Spirit works in us on our journey to God.
I like it that God abhors the “bloodthirsty and deceitful” and I pray that just as God has been working in me to dismantle untruth telling, that murderers and deceitful schemers will let God help them too.
Praise God for the abundant goodness that is celebrated in the seventh verse. We, bad people, need it.
And whether or not my enemies remain, or whether they persist in being, doing and telling untruth (verse 9) their throats will not be “open graves” for me. I will NOT fall into them. God has been too good for me to let that happen in my old age!
I cannot pray that God will make them bear their guilt (verse 10) since most of them have turned around to friendship. I continue to pray that transgressors like me and those possibly worse than me, will take refuge in the one who purges untruth tellers, would-be enemies, transgressors of all sorts, enemies of righteousness who take refuge in the Lord. God has been doing this for me. God can do it for you, and in you, too.
Let us all take refuge in God where all enemies, including our very own selves, our worst selves, will be conquered, and we experience the abundant favour of God.