Monday
So why is this alright? Didn’t Jesus tell to love our enemies? To do good and not harm? Absolutely. But the Psalms are not about hiding our feelings from God. First of all, He knows us, He knows what we are thinking, and He wants us to share all our emotions with Him, even the negative ones. These psalms speak to our frustrations and hurts and anger. David is letting it all out. But…
You will notice that even though David poured out all this anger and frustration and dare I say hatred toward his enemies, in the end He turns it all over to God. It is God’s place to do something about them. And David trusts that God, who is just, will do what needs to be done.
David doesn’t have to take revenge into his own hands. He doesn’t have to find ways to destroy his enemies. You’ll remember in our reading where David had the opportunity to kill Saul but he refrained from it. He had the opportunity to kill Nabal, but Abigail showed him a better way and in the end, didn’t God take care of Nabal for David? Didn’t God take care of Saul and put David on the throne?
When we are faced with similar emotions and I am pretty sure most of us have felt this way at some point in time, we, just like David, are given permission to scream and yell at God for a time, but then just like David, remember to give it all to God. Start praising God and before you know it, the negative feelings are gone. Then, like David, you can say “I will praise you as long as I live and in your name I will lift up my hands. My soul will be satisfied… with singing lips my mouth will praise you.” (63:4-5).
Singing God’s praises
Pastor Kathy