It is common to want lots of friends and few, if any, enemies. Will Rogers claimed to have “never met a man he didn’t like.” Many seem to seek this as an ideal. Dale Carnegie made a fortune teaching others “how to win friends and influence people.”
We feel uncomfortable with the idea that we may, in fact have enemies. But if we knew the Bible better, this might surprise us less — and we certainly would be better able to cope with it. Every Psalm from 52 through 64 mentions enemies or persecutors of some kind. With humanity in rebellion against God, the expectation should be that the man of God will have enemies.
The Psalms have a lot to say about coping with enemies, but very little about making them our friends. As God’s people we will naturally become targets for anyone in rebellion against God. We should expect this. We should accept this. But we will still need help in coping with it.
This psalm gives us some help in coping with our enemies, and it does so in an interesting way.
“Hear my voice, O God, in my complaint; preserve my life from dread of the enemy. 2 Hide me from the secret plots of the wicked, from the throng of evildoers, 3 who whet their tongues like swords, who aim bitter words like arrows, 4 shooting from ambush at the blameless, shooting at him suddenly and without fear. 5 They hold fast to their evil purpose; they talk of laying snares secretly, thinking, “Who can see them?” 6 They search out injustice, saying, “We have accomplished a diligent search.” For the inward mind and heart of a man are deep.
7 “But God shoots his arrow at them; they are wounded suddenly. 8 They are brought to ruin, with their own tongues turned against them; all who see them will wag their heads.
9 “Then all mankind fears; they tell what God has brought about and ponder what he has done. 10 Let the righteous one rejoice in the Lord and take refuge in him! Let all the upright in heart exult!”
Structure
There is a lesson in the structure of this psalm.
The structure of this psalm seems simple. It opens with an appeal (1-6). This is followed by a statement of expectation (7-8). That is followed by a description of the proper human response to the expected deliverance (9-10).
Looking at that structure we notice two areas where we tend to fail. Sometimes we fail to appeal to God, attempting to deal with things ourselves far too often. When we do appeal to God, and when he delivers us, or when we see him delivering others, too often we fail to acknowledge his deeds as clearly as we should.
Vocabulary
There is a lesson in the vocabulary of this psalm.
The evil doers attempt to surprise their victim with a sudden attack (4). Their own destruction will come on them suddenly (7), unexpectedly from the God they thought they had fooled (5).
There is also a lesson in the distribution of the vocabulary in this psalm. God is mentioned in verse 1, but then in verses 2-6 it is all about the enemies. In half the psalm the evil doers dominate.
God’s action is confined to one pivotal verse (7). The other mentions of God are either human appeal or human praise directed to God. Space-wise his action is minimal, but it is decisive. The one who mistakes God’s long (seeming) silence will see their own tongues condemning themselves (8). The one who remains aware of God’s limited but decisive action is wise (9-10). Which brings us back to our need to praise him more.
Application
Everyone is likely to have some enemies. Even worldly people have enemies. There is no way to totally escape this problem.
Let us learn to cope by learning the lessons of this psalm.
We should appeal to God and not face enemies on our own.
We should acknowledge his deliverance when it comes.
We should realise that the downfall of the evil will often be delayed, but it may often be sudden, and will always be appropriate, when it occurs.
If we can say that our enemies are against us because we have taken our stand with God, then we should feel blessed to be counted worthy to suffer in this way. Indeed, this is where the gospel comes into this psalm, for none of us deserves to be counted among God’s people.
Yet here we are blessed with the privilege of being opposed by some because of our alignment with him. And we have greater reason than any of the psalmists for trusting that God will stand by us (Rom 8:32).