Princes have persecuted me without a cause:
But my heart standeth in awe of thy word (Psa 119.161).
Godly courage is the universal mark of true believers. Once a cowardly sinner has experienced a grace-wrought inner transformation so that he is fundamentally turned from the fear of idols to love of the true and living God, then you may behold a man of radically changed loyalties. “The people that do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits;” though no less a terrifying ruler than Antiochus Epiphanes1 opposes them, yet they are prepared to die for their faith (Dan 11.32).
It often pleases God to test his people by persecutions, and these are worst when carried out by state officials with great power, sometimes in unholy union with apostate ecclesiastics. Church history has seen vestment-clad clerics accusing innocents of heresy, and magistrates carrying out physical punishments for it, sometimes even snuffing out their lives. Thomas Paine’s stirring challenge applies here:
These are the times that try men’s souls. the summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it NOW, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.2
A man’s response to persecution discovers to himself and others his most basic loves and fears and loyalties—with the God who is sovereign over all, or with those who can merely kill the body.
David himself, before acceding to Israel’s throne, was persecuted by King Saul. For quite a long time David had to sleep with one eye open, for there was but a step between him and death (1 Sam 20.3). While he was not altogether without moral stumbling in this difficult period of his life, David was never willing to sin for the pacification of Saul’s wrath against him.
Well may we ask, “From whence this courage? How can a shepherd boy be transformed into a valiant warrior who stands without compromise against pagan giants and even his own wicked king?” Our text from
Psalm 119 today gives the answer.
THE NEED FOR COURAGE
The psalmist was suffering a demoralizing and dangerous trial. A company of men opposed him strongly, even unto death. Were these but ordinary men, it would have been perilous, but they were men of great power—“princes” or “rulers”—that is, those with authority to command armies against him. “Princes have persecuted me.”
Persecution is a broad concept that begins with a literal sense of the pursuit or chase (here, the Hebrew word is radaph), so that the persecuted one finds himself in the role of a fugitive, one who flees. The image is of a hunter and the hunted, a hound and the hounded, with the latter being more miserable, since it is especially associated with danger and fear. Then the idea of persecution broadens to encompass affliction, oppression, and torment on account of another’s religious commitment. All kinds of mistreatments have been adopted by persecutors—ostracisms, public humiliations, slanders, impositions of taxes under threat, confiscations of goods, banishments from one’s homeland, beatings, tortures, and finally, executions.
As God invests princes with great power for the public good, to the suppression of evil-doing and the reward of those who do good (Rom 13.1-6), this stewardship may be abused to further exactly the opposite ends. Except rulers fear God, a persecuting administration is inevitable.
The psalmist complains to God of having been persecuted “without a cause,” that is, for no good and justifiable reason. The original word has the sense of “in vain, for nothing.” Civil rulers are responsible to punish evildoers, but wielding the sword unjustly is a betrayal of the divine trust.
Until the kingdom of God fully arrives with all its power and glory, and all unjust rulers are overthrown once and for all, saints must expect some measure of suffering because of our faith at the hands of governing authorities.
Indeed, even our Jesus Christ, King of kings and Lord of lords, though he appointed all the powers that be, and was in his own person and life the very epitome of prophetic truth, praiseworthy virtue, and selfless service to mankind, suffered at the hands of Gentile princes in a grand conspiracy with Jewish religious leaders. It is no surprise, then, that to one degree or another, in one circumstance or another, we Christians are all called to “follow his steps” (1 Pet 2.21), particularly in this matter of suffering persecution (2 Tim 3.12). David was but the type and shadow of his Son and Lord who, centuries later, was to cite this text as a description of his own experience of earthly misery (John 15.25), and provide an example for his disciples ever afterward.
THE MEANS OF COURAGE
Despite all the intimidation, David could solemnly testify in prayer to God, “But my heart standeth in awe of thy word,” that is, God’s Word, the Holy Scriptures. The “heart” in common OT fashion refers to a man’s soul, the invisible and spiritual part of his constitution as God’s creature, as opposed to the body, visible and physical. That translated “standeth in awe” is a verb which means “to tremble.”
The form of this poetic couplet sets up a very suggestive comparison and contrast. The human princes had spoken evil of David, perhaps commanding him and threatening him, but these left his heart unmoved, at least to the point of motivation. None of their mistreatments secured David’s abject submission and compliance. Yet when Yahweh speaks, David is profoundly moved within, for he deeply regards God’s right and authority over him, infinitely superior to that of any earthly rulers. This is evidence that David had come to recognize and worship the Lord his God as the supreme authority in his life, and that David had thereby been delivered from an idolatrous fear of the State.
Because David testifies that his heart trembled at God’s word, we might at first be tempted to describe Scripture as the source of his courage, but that would be inaccurate. Now please hear me very carefully. Apart from the gracious working of God’s Spirit, Scripture by itself is powerless to impart courage. The Lord himself is the Author of every virtue, including courage. David trembled at the words of the Bible because his heart had been awakened by God himself to recognize the divine voice in Scripture.
Still, because there God reveals his own thoughts and directions, Scripture becomes a means whereby the elect sinner comes to fear God in the first place, and the saint’s godly fear is more particularly directed and increased, and his courage against God’s enemies grows. The Bible with the divine blessing becomes a means of edifying communion with God, and a potent therapy in which naturally weak souls are strengthened for spiritual battle.
Scripture often connects courage with God’s Word. Zechariah 8.9 says, “Let your hands be strong, ye that hear in these days these words by the mouth of the prophets.” On this Calvin wrote,
He exhorts them to perseverance: but as men become weak, and many things occur which enfeeble or break down their courage, he uses the word, strengthen; for it is often necessary to gather new strength, and to confirm a pious resolution. Let us now then learn to apply this doctrine to our own benefit, and let us understand what experience sufficiently teaches us, even this—that our hands, though at first well prepared, are yet soon relaxed, and as it were loosed, and even entirely fail, unless new strength be now and then attained; and that this is effected when we are animated by God’s Word, and rise superior to the trials which enfeeble us. . . . There can be no courage in men, unless God supports them by his word, so that they may recover their lost strength.
Since with God’s blessing we may become courageous through Scripture, let us hear it with all earnest prayers for our encouragement. Amen.
Notes:
1 The fourth of the name; he seized the Syrian throne in 175 B.C., on the murder of his elder brother Seleucus IV; he died in 164 B.C. (cf. 1 Macc 6.1-16; 2 Macc 1.10-17). The title ‘Epiphanes’ (the ‘Illustrious’) which he assumed on coming to the throne, was in mockery changed to ‘Epimanes’ (the ‘Madman’) on account of the outrageous acts of which he was guilty. On his coins are found the epithets Θεός (“God”) and Νικηφόρος (“bringing victory”); the former title is applied to him by the Samaritans in their letter to him asking him to permit their temple to be called ‘The Temple of Hellenius’ (Josephus, Antiq. xii.5.5) (R. H. Charles, Commentary on the Apocrypha of the OT, I.68).
2 From Paine’s Common Sense.
3 Lexham H-EIB.