‘God who delivers me’
[Psalms 35:9-16]
Pastor Spurgeon said: ‘Christians should be the iron support when the worldly people smash with a sledgehammer.’ The ‘sledgehammer’ we are talking about here is diverse. It can be insult, persecution, tribulation, slander, and evil. Satan is making his children to attack us, the saints, and to knock us down with different kinds of ‘sledgehammer.’ What should we do then?
In Psalms 35:9-16, we see the psalmist David who is being hit by the Satan's children with various kinds of sledgehammer. Even in such circumstance, David confesses, “And my soul shall rejoice in the LORD; It shall exult in His salvation” (v. 9). Surprisingly, this confession was made in the midst of tribulation and persecution by his enemies, and not after David had already been saved from that tribulation and persecution. How was this possible? This was possible only by faith. Furthermore, David is making this confident confession in faith in verse 10: “All my bones will say, ‘LORD, who is like You, Who delivers the afflicted from him who is too strong for him, And the afflicted and the needy from him who robs him?’” Here David acknowledges and confesses that who is like God, He is the God of salvation, the God who delivers us. Today, I want to meditate on Psalms 35:9-16, under the heading “God who delivers me” and think about four things regarding from whom God saves us and apply them in our lives. Therefore, I hope and pray that we, like David, will be able to confess, “And my soul shall rejoice in the LORD; It shall exult in His salvation” (v. 9).
First, ‘God who delivers me’ is the God who saves us from those ruthless witnesses who question us.
Look at Psalms 35:11 – “Ruthless witnesses come forward; they question me on things I know nothing about.” Here, “Ruthless witnesses” refers to ‘false witnesses who lay fasten sins on innocent David’. These false witnesses came to David, who was innocent, and questioned David and laid fasten sins on him by questioning him (Park). Why did the ruthless witnesses lay fasten sins on David by questioning him? This was because the ruthless witnesses tried to harm David's life ‘without cause’ (2x) (v. 7).
The Satan's children try to harm us, the God's children, without cause. They come to us as they did to David, and they lay fasten sins to us by questioning us with things we do not know. In anyway possible, they try to make us to live a sin-centered life. Therefore, they are trying to make us to be guilt-driven. We must be vigilant. We must not be caught up in the questioning of the ruthless witnesses. In particular, we must not be dominated by thoughts such as the questions by the ruthless witnesses. The ruthless witnesses try to make us to stop relying on the merits of Jesus' cross and keep trying to make us to focus on our human merits. In doing so, we keep focusing on our actions rather than trusting and relying on Jesus. We cannot live a life of faith because of the guilt we give ourselves. When I think of the word “question” here, I remember the word of Acts 4:14 when Apostle Peter and John’s enemies “had nothing to say in reply” when those enemies saw the man who had been healed standing with Peter and John. Why was there nothing to say? The reason is because there was no solid evidence. The obvious evidence of the miracle that the lame man walked again in the name of Jesus stood with Peter and John, so their adversaries had nothing to say. This is our responsibility. We are living in a faith in a gray area that is neither this nor that. That's why we are providing the Satan's ruthless witnesses something to question us. How can the ruthless witnesses question us if we have solid evidence is being manifested in our lives? But we should not be discouraged when we provide the ruthless witnesses things to ask, like David, in the midst of our weaknesses. Rather, like David, we must yearn for the grace of God's salvation. We must seek God's saving grace from our guilt. God saves us, but He saves us by looking at Jesus, who suffered the innocent death on the cross. In other words, God saves us from the feeling of guilt by the truth that we are forgiven through the blood of Jesus on the cross.
Second, ‘God who delivers me’ is the God who saves us from those who who make our soul forlorn.
Look at Psalms 35:12 – “They repay me evil for good and leave my soul forlorn.” The surprising fact is that the psalmist David loved his enemies and did good to them. But the enemies returned David's good for evil. At that time, David felt lonely. What was the good that David did to his enemies?
(1) David prayed for his enemies.
Look at Psalms 35:13 – “Yet when they were ill, I put on sackcloth and humbled myself with fasting. When my prayers returned to me unanswered.” David prayed with fasting when his enemies were sick, but his enemies were too evil to reject David, a benefactor who prayed and mourned for them (Park)
(2) David was concerned about his enemies.
Look at Psalms 35:14 – “I went about mourning as though for my friend or brother. I bowed my head in grief as though weeping for my mother.” Here “I bowed my head in grief” refers to heavy sorrow. In other words, David was concerned because of the disease of his enemies (Park).
The Bible says that we are “His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works” (Eph. 2:10). In other words, our saint's responsibility is to do good. Even if they are our enemies, like David, we must do good to them. But his enemies, who repaid David's good for evil, weren’t usually kind of evil. This is what Dr. Park Yun-sun said: ‘He who harms us who has done good to him is a man who has no conscience and no human duty and he is God’s enemy and the saints’ enemy’ (Park). As wee do good, we must do good even to our enemies. We intercede for them, and we should be concern about them when they are ill or in trouble. But what we need to keep in mind is that doing this good can discourage us. We can be discouraged, especially when we do good but the other party pays back with evil. At that time, we may be thinking, ‘Why should I do this?’ We may be wondering how long we have to endure and do good. In that thought, we may feel spiritually lonely. The reason is because we have to do something that no one knows. That is, we must do things that only the Lord knows. We must look to the Lord for deliverance when we fall into this spiritual loneliness: “Turn to me and be gracious to me, for I am lonely and afflicted” (25:16).
Third, ‘God who delivers me’ is the God who saves us from those who rejoice in our stumbling.
Look at Psalms 35:15 – “But at my stumbling they rejoiced and gathered themselves together; The smiters whom I did not know gathered together against me, They slandered me without ceasing.” David's enemies gathered with joy and celebrated on seeing David's troubles and then to further harm him. It is evidence that they were extremely evil (Park). Those who rejoice when we are in trouble, those who gather to rejoice at when things go wrong in our lives rather than to comfort and help us, and talk to each other and gossip about us, and David knew that kind of gathering. And even the lowest among the people (see Job 19:18, 30:1) (Park) joined that gathering and rejoiced in David's tribulation.
It is very interesting that in opposing God's children, Satan's children become friends even when they were enemies (ex. Herod and Pilate), and they unite regardless of status, whether low or high. In Psalms 35:15, David said “I did not know” and it means that even the simiters he didn’t know, even the lowest among the people, gathered together with his enemies against him and rejoiced David’s tribulation without ceasing. We have already seen the phrase “I do not know” in verse 11. For some reason, the enemies of David and also our enemies seem to consist of people who question us and whom we don’t know. In other words, someone whom we don’t know opposes us and question us and harasses us with things we don't know. But one thing is certain: they rejoice together when we are in trouble. The lesson here is that our souls rejoice in the Lord and rejoice in His salvation (v. 9), but our enemies rejoice in our stumbling (v. 15). The reason for each other's joy is so different. Even if our enemies gather together and rejoice in the midst of our tribulation, and mock our character with slander and insult, we must rejoice in God and in His salvation (v. 9).
Fourth and last, ‘God who delivers me’ is the God who saves us from those gnash at us with their teeth.
Look at Psalms 35:16 – “Like godless jesters at a feast, They gnashed at me with their teeth.” In this verse, we can see that the enemies of David, even at the table of the banquet, concealed David, their benefactor, as a ridicule, and tried to harm him at any time. Although the banquet is a place where even the enmity is being released, David’s enemies attempted to be jealous and harmed the benefactor. This was an extremely unjust spirit (Park).
These spirits are always trying to harm us by forming a team around us all the time and attack us. This is Satan's scheme. Look at Acts 7:54 – “Now when they heard this, they were cut to the quick, and they began gnashing their teeth at him.” Those who were listening to the sermon of Stephen who was filled with the Holy Spirit and who opposed Stephen, were cut to the quick and began to gnashed their teeth instead of repenting their sins. And eventually they went on stoning Stephen and killed him (vv, 59-60). David rejoiced in God and rejoiced in His salvation, believing that God would deliver him from his enemies who were gnashing at David with their teeth.
I personally realize that I need to change my prayers. I am receiving the lesson that even though it is important to pray with my heart as I intercede and cry out for those whom I love, I also must pray by faith with the assurance of salvation. I hope and pray that we are determined to rejoice in the Lord and His salvation as we look to Him and as well remember God’s past deliverance even in the circumstance in which our enemies strike us with ‘a sledgehammer.’ Therefore, I hope and pray that we may eventually experience the grace of God's salvation.
By praying, looking forward, waiting by faith in the salvation of God who delivers me,
James
(With gratitude to God's grace)