Let us ponder what God has done.
[Psalms 64]
While reading the Bible this Monday evening, I meditated on Ecclesiastes 3:18 – “I said to myself concerning the sons of men, "God has surely tested them in order for them to see that they are but beasts.” When I faced this word, my first reaction was a little puzzled because God's purpose of testing man is to make us realize that we are no different than beasts. What do you think about this word? As I meditated on this word a little more, I remembered Psalms 73:22 – “Then I was senseless and ignorant; I was like a beast before You.” The psalmist Asaph, who was jealous of the prosperity of the wicked for a moment, confessed that he was like a beast before the Lord when he realized the end of the wicked, and knew how foolish and ignorant he was. He who is beast before the Lord is ignorant of the consequences of the wicked. In other words, he who is like a beast before the Lord is a person who doesn’t see the end of the future wicked and lives envious of the present prosperity of the wicked. Such person is the person who doesn’t think deeply about the works of God (64:9). In other words, the person like a beast before the Lord lives without knowing how God punishes the wicked. Therefore, I would like to meditate on two things under the heading “Let us ponder what God has done” based on Psalms 64, especially verse 9: (1) The first thing I want to think about is to grasp the cunning of David's enemy. (2) Then I want to ponder what God did to David's enemy and how He did it. As we do so, may God pour out His grace to all of us.
First, we must grasp the cunning of our enemy, the Devil.
Look at Psalms 64:6 – “They plot injustice and say, "We have devised a perfect plan!" Surely the mind and heart of man are cunning.” Here “They” refer to either Saul or Absalom and his people, David's enemy (v. 1). As they thought about how do they get rid of David and conceived iniquity, they eventually came up with the trick, a perfect plan. David, who knew about their perfect plan, said that ‘a man's inner will and heart are cunning’ (v. 6). Then, I hope that we can use it as an opportunity to understand the cunning of our enemy, the devil, by grasping four ways how the cunning heart of David's enemy was expressed.
(1) David’s enemies had “the conspiracy” to harm David.
Look at Psalms 64:2 – “Hide me from the conspiracy of the wicked, from that noisy crowd of evildoers.” This means that David's enemies were aiming for David's life (v. 1), and they made a lot of snare to harm David's life. And the wicked, David’s enemies, believed that their plan was “a perfect plan” (v. 6). When we fall into this perfect plan of the wicked, we cannot escape with our own strength. Only Almighty God is the One who can make us to escape from the wicked’s perfect plan (Park). That was why David cried out to God “Hide me from the conspiracy of the wicked, from that noisy crowd of evildoers” (v. 2). In Psalms 2:1-2, the devil opposes God and the Messiah (Jesus Christ), the anointed One of God, by gathering all his servants, ‘the nations and the people’ (v. 1), ‘the kings of the earth and the rulers’ (v. 2) and making them to be in an uproar and to devise a vain thing (v. 1), and to take counsel together (v. 2) against God and His anointed One, Jesus. How much more will the devil not be against us, the children and people of God? The devil always has a "conspiracy". He always has schemes to destroy us. Therefore, we need to be little aware of how to live a life of faith.
(2) David’s enemy encouraged each other “in evil plans”, and talked about “hiding their snares.”
Look at Psalms 64:5 – “They encourage each other in evil plans, they talk about hiding their snares; they say, "Who will see them ?” Here, of course, the evil plans are to hurt David's life. So, to achieve that purpose, David's enemies secretly snares David. Do you know about “snares”? Have you ever seen people put traps or snares to catch rabbits or birds? The true skill of dealing with the traps or snares is, of course, hiding the traps or snares. When placing the snare, it is completely disguised and covered (Jones). When David's enemies were completely disguised, and secretly laid the snares, the snares they put in secret was perfect in their eyes, so that they said, “Who will see them?” (v. 5) How can we see if David couldn't see the snares, the secret snares that only God and the devil know? We must recognize the dangers of the snares that the devil puts secretly in our lives. And we must learn how to avoid those snares. The devil is aiming for our lives. The “life” is thought to be “eternal life” rather than the physical life. This is the evil purpose of the devil. He secretly puts snares in our lives so that we cannot get our eternal life in any way. So we have no choice but to ask God like David: “… O God, … protect my life from the threat of the enemy” (v. 1).
(3) David's enemies were aiming at David with vicious words.
Look at Psalms 64:3 – “They sharpen their tongues like swords and aim their words like deadly arrows.” This refers to the viciousness of the lips. Those vicious words shoots and kills others like arrows. In other words, the vicious words defame others and bury them (Park). David's enemies tried to stab and shoot David with violent words by exploiting their sharp, poisonous tongue like swords and arrows. Truly the tongue can be used so evil way. So Apostle James said about the tongue like this: “But no one can tame the tongue; it is a restless evil and full of deadly poison” (Jam. 3:8). The wicked’s tongue is full of deadly poison. The wicked’s tongue is evil that never ceases. No one can tame it. David's enemies were secretly pointing at David with their vicious tongues like swords and arrows while discussing to put the snares on David.
(4) David's enemies were suddenly attacking from ambush.
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Look at Psalms 64:4 – “They shoot from ambush at the innocent man; they shoot at him suddenly, without fear.” David's enemies kept everything secret so they hid themselves. But eventually they suddenly attacked David without fear in order to harm him. David's enemies suddenly attacked innocent David, who had done nothing wrong, from hiding. Watching the news of the Iraq War these days, I come across the news that snipers are shooting and killing American soldiers in hiding. Bombs are also secretly hidden in the streets and detonated, killing American soldiers. We shouldn't put the guard down. The reason is because when we are defenseless, the devil attacks us.
Pastor Lloyd Jones says in his book “The Christian Welfare”, ‘Cunning is a great quality of the devil’ (Ref. Gen. 3:1). In Psalms 64, we have considered the cunning heart of David's enemies in four ways. They made evil plans and talked about hiding their snares, and aimed at him with vicious words, and eventually attacked David suddenly in hiding. Now that we have grasped the devil's cunning heart, what should we do? Like David, we must pray to God. What should we pray to God?
(1) We must lay down our complaint to God.
Look at Psalms 64:1a – “Hear my voice, O God, in my complaint ….” We must lay down our confused heart like a thorn in front of the Lord in prayer (Park).
(2) We must ask God to preserve our lives.
Look at Psalms 64:1b – “… Preserve my life from dread of the enemy.” We cannot overcome the devil's cunning. Without God's help, we cannot overcome. Therefore, like David, we must ask God to preserve our lives. Also, we must ask God to hide us (v. 2). The God who hid David, David's enemies did everything secretly, including “secret counsel” (v. 2) and laid snares secretly (v. 5). Interestingly, in the midst of the evil actions of David's enemies who laid snares secretly like this, David asked the Lord, “Hide me from the secret counsel of evildoers and secret snares (vv. 2, 5).
Second, after we grasp the cunning of our enemy, the devil, what we need to do more and more is to think deeply about the work of God.
Look at Psalms 64:9 – “All mankind will fear; they will proclaim the works of God and ponder what he has done.” God's work that we need to think about is God's work in punishing our enemies. This is what Psalms 64:7-8 say about God’s work: “But God will shoot them with arrows; suddenly they will be struck down. He will turn their own tongues against them and bring them to ruin; all who see them will shake their heads in scorn.” Here, it is stated how God punishes the wicked. It's a way for the wicked to fall into the snare they've hid (Park). For example, even though David's enemies aimed their words like deadly arrows in hiding to hurt David (v. 3), God aimed at David’s enemies. Therefore, suddenly David's enemies were struck down (v. 7) and brought them to ruin (v. 8). Also, while David's enemies aimed at David with their vicious tongue like swords and arrows, God didn’t let them hurt David with their vicious tongue, but rather hurt them.
What was the result of God punishing David's enemies?
(1) The crowd who saw that God punished the wicked became aware of God's existence (Park).
Look at Psalms 64:8b-9: “… ll who see them will shake their heads in scorn. All mankind will fear; they will proclaim the works of God and ponder what he has done.” Everyone will fear God, proclaim God and think deeply about God's work.
(2) The righteous enjoy God even more.
Look at Psalms 64:10 – “Let the righteous rejoice in the LORD and take refuge in him; let all the upright in heart praise him!” This is what Dr. Yoon-sun Park said: ‘Although it was good for the righteous that God had avenged their enemies, but God Himself was better for them than that. Therefore, they accept God closer and rejoice in Him who repay their enemies’ (Park).
The devil is truly cunning and crafty. The devil is still working to harm us by secretly devising a conspiracy, secretly putting a snare, attacking us with a vicious tongue, and suddenly attacking us in hiding. Who can truly escape the devil's snare with his own power? Without the help of Almighty God, we cannot escape from the devil's snare. Therefore, we must ask God. When we do so, God will rescue us by punishing the devil and his servants. Anyone who doesn’t know this is a beast before the Lord. We must never sin against God in senseless and ignorant. We must faithfully endure the spiritual battle that exists within us in faith as we contemplate the fact that God punishes our enemies.
While in spiritual welfare,
James Kim
(While believing that I will be victorious with God’s grace)