I am going to look primarily at vv. 1-5 today. Have you ever had anyone tell lies about you? Or maybe the story was partially true but exaggerated? It's very hard to take! Even worse would be if you were falsely accused of a terrible moral lapse or a crime. This is what David is facing in the this psalm. He praises God in the first line, and he asks for His help. Wicked and deceitful men have spoken against him, have spread lies and hatred, and have attacked him without cause. They have repaid his friendship with evil and hatred! But the last part of v. 4 really stood out to me, "...but I am a man of prayer." How can it help to be a person of prayer?
- A man or woman of prayer knows that God is greater than any gossip!
- A man or woman of prayer can trust God to unscramble a tangled mess.
- He or she knows that God is always in control.
- He or she has Someone to go to with frustrations and hurts.
- He or she knows and feels God's unconditional love.
- He or she knows that God can give wisdom in how to respond.
- He or she knows that God loves the person who seems to be our enemy!
- He or she can even pray for those who seem to be enemies.
The remainder of the psalm, especially vv. 6-15 is what is called an "imprecatory" psalm or a call for God to judge the wicked. I do not claim to understand this, and frankly I don't say we should model such prayers. But here it is! I'm pretty sure we've all wanted to wish all these terrible things on someone!
One thing that came to my mind was that David probably had the power to take vengeance into his own hands, but he did not. He asked God to judge the wicked.
In vv. 16-31, David alternates between telling God his troubles and asking God to work. What a great example. Really, people don't want to hear us complain about our troubles, and normally they can't do anything about them anyway. And so we must go to the only One who wants to listen as long as we talk and who can actually solve the matters at hand!
For our meditation: "With my mouth I will greatly extol the Lord; in the great throng I will praise him. For he stands at the right hand of the needy one, to save his life from those who condemn him." Psalm 109:31
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