Thoughts On Psalm 109
WHAT TO DO TO OUR ENEMIES – TO CURSE OR NOT TO CURSE
Main Text:
Psalm 109:4
“In return for my love they are my accusers, But I give myself to prayer”.
Supporting Scriptures
Psalms 109:2-4
For the mouth of the wicked and the mouth of the deceitful have opened against me;
They have spoken against me with a lying tongue.
They have also surrounded me with words of hatred, and fought against me without a cause.
Psalms 109:8-9
Let his days be few,
And let another take his office.Let his children be fatherless,
And his wife a widow.
Psalms 109:26
Help me, O LORD my GOD! Oh, save me according to Your mercy,
Psalms 109:30
I will greatly praise the LORD with my mouth;
Yes, I will praise HIM among the multitude.
Psalms 109:31
For He shall stand at the right hand of the poor, To save him from those who condemn him.
Proverbs 25:21-23
“If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat; And if he is thirsty, give him water to drink; For so you will heap coals of fire on his head, And the LORD will reward you”.
Romans 12:17-18 “Repay no one evil for evil. Have regard for good things in the sight of all men”.
If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men.
Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the LORD.
Romans 12:21- “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good”.
Luke 6:26-28
“Woe to you when all men speak well of you, For so did their fathers to the false prophets. But I say to you who hear: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who spitefully use you”.
Sometimes, when the wickedness of the wicked is so very overpowering, we want to cry out to GOD to deal with them, just’ like David was doing here; moreso when all we have ever shown them is love.
Most often, we use passages like this to justify our prayers against our enemies.
Note that in the old to the testament, they were operating under the law of Moses which makes David’s prayer against his enemies, very appropriate. Remember too that Elijah called up lions to devour some young rascals that were mocking him. So checking through the old testament, we will find so many passages praying for GOD’s punishment on our enemies which was appropriate as at that time.
However, a wholistic study of the scriptures plainly reveals that this law of Moses became obsolete with the coming of JESUS. It then went ahead to show us how to deal with our enemies as shown here in the supporting scriptures.
So we find in the new testament, passages telling us to love, rather than hate our enemies and pray for their conversion.
Love your enemy, pray for those who despitefully use you is not a suggestion; it is a command. However, it is still left to us to choose to obey or not.
The enemies have uses that will work out for our good in the future as in the case of Joseph, Paul. Imagine if Joseph and Stephen prayed down fire for their enemies.
Furthermore, in the new Testament, the very first teaching CHRIST gave was a very strange one – complete opposite to the one they know. JESUS commanded them to love their enemies.
GOD who sees the end from the beginning warns us to apply caution and leave the matter of dealing with the enemy in HIS hands.
When we concentrate on our enemies, we grow bitter and loose our peace. In this mindset, our prayers may be wrong and we unknowingly shut down fellowship with GOD.
We are in the era of a new and different dispenstion.
We were once sinners and candidates of condemnation but CHRIST came and died for us, forgave us all our sins and by HIS grace, we have been saved
In the same vein, JESUS expects us to be able to forgive our enemies and pray that they too receive salvation.
And the LORD assures us that when we do this, we will receive a reward from me.
Lessons:
1. No matter how much love we show the wicked, that may not stop them from doing evil to us.
2. The old testament approves of praying against your enemy
3. David recognized the place of prayers and praising GOD in the midst of wickedness.
4. In the new testament, we are commanded to love our enemies
5. There is.a reward in loving our enemies.
6. Only GOD has the right to carry out vengeance on our enemies.
Prayers:
– Father, thank you for enlightening me on how to deal with enemies.
– Grant me strength to enable me to know to pray for them in the name of JESUS, Amen
