Let the proud be ashamed; for they dealt perversely with me without a cause:
But I will meditate in thy precepts (Psa 119.78).
“The test of character is what it takes to stop you” (Bob Jones). Anyone can join the popular consensus, but standing alone for truth is a mark of real faith. Leadership is essentially the inner fortitude to blaze a righteous trail and the compassion to call others to follow. A true leader doesn’t wait to do right until others are ready.
This kind of fearless determination arouses enemies, and then one’s resolve will be severely tested. Will you press on or wither under criticism? The psalmist in this verse sets an example of faith and holiness.
LORD, PLEASE HUMILIATE THEM FOR THEY RICHLY DESERVE IT
The reality of a simple, spiritual division among human beings (the righteous and the wicked) necessarily begets an “us versus them” mentality. You must either identify with the Lord’s people or you are left among his enemies. It was Moses who challenged the Israelites, “Who is on the Lord’s side? Let him come unto me.” After the sons of Levi responded obediently, Moses charged them, “Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Put on every man his sword by his side, and go in and out from gate to gate throughout the camp, and slay every man his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbor” (Exod 32.26-27). The apostate Israelites posed a serious threat to the spiritual welfare of the faithful, besides having brought terrible disgrace upon the Lord’s name before the Gentiles.
The New Testament does not revoke this mentality but much strengthens it. Jesus said, “Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household” (Matt 10.34-36). And what is the dividing line between them? Love for Christ. With this, you are a saint, and without it, you are a condemned sinner. The holy apostle wrote, “If anyone has no love for the Lord, let him be accursed” (1 Cor 16.22 ESV).
The psalmist had suffered at the hands of such spiritual enemies, and he speaks of them as a group. As to their fundamental character, they were “proud” or “insolent” (ESV), arrogant, and self-willed, as the original Hebrew means. These are the people for whose humiliation the righteous man prays. Such an event would not only be just but also useful. He wants them to have that painful feeling and emotional distress, even to the point of despair, of having done something wrong, and knowing the disapproval of those around them.1 Let them “be dismayed” (Tanakh); then they may repent of their sins and be saved. The psalmist also wants them to be defanged, as it were, and their wicked plans to fail. He desires the righteous suffering their barbs to
be relieved of unjust persecution. Of course the psalmist’s desire was completely righteous, in keeping with his renewed soul and the destiny Providence had ordained for them when God’s mercy finally expires. And if this is God’s ultimate plan, then it cannot be wrong to want it and pray for it to come to pass.
This public humiliation is just because of their unrighteous and unreasonable malice. “They dealt perversely with me without a cause,” that is, without a righteous justification. This kind of abuse was especially suffered by the Lord Jesus himself (John 15.25).
Verbal assaults may especially be in view: “they have wronged me with falsehood” (ESV). Sins of the tongue should not be minimized, for they have power to slay their victims (Prov 18.21; cf. Tit 1.10-11; Jas 3.6). We are far too insensitive to the evil of ungodly talk.
Many people cannot imagine a godly person praying against his enemies like this. “Lord, please humiliate them, for they richly deserve it.” To many, this seems to embody a vindictive spirit completely incompatible with the gospel of mercy and forgiveness. Did not Jesus, while on the cross, pray for his enemies, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23.34)?
While this dilemma is not easily resolved, consider that a discerning Christian simultaneously wants justice and mercy toward God’s enemies and consciously leaves it to him which they will ultimately receive. And that, it is in fact this prayerful resignation to the sovereignty of God that liberates the persecuted from an overpowering urge to vigilante impulses and to an enduring commitment to keep on keeping on in a lifestyle of loving righteousness and principled love. Imprecatory (curse) prayers are the antidote to “imprecatory conduct,” viz., taking matters into our own hands as if we were judge, jury, and executioner. Without the resource of secret appeal to God the Just, the persecuted could not continue to suffer meekly as we should.
Brethren, even very godly men, when attacked, have been distracted from a dogged pursuit of righteous ministry by a concern for self-justification before others and feverish efforts to preserve or restore their reputation, unjustly damaged by slanderous tongues and pens. I know an aged servant of the Lord who has steadfastly resisted this temptation to distraction, even though he has been fiercely attacked, as if he were the devil incarnate. His consistent policy has been to keep doing right without elaborately trying to defend himself, and he is currently held in very high esteem by more judicious and discerning men. And I gladly testify to you that he continues to exhibit a loving spirit even toward those who have wickedly slandered him. This is an illustration of the biblical attitude and approach to the problem always faced by great spiritual leaders.
LORD, I WILL DEVOTE MYSELF TO YOU
The psalm verse’s second line begins with a strong contrast, “but I . . .”. He moves from speaking about a group to speaking about himself as an individual. “Lord, they have done that, but I will do this.” Note also that he continues unabated in his determination to be spiritually loyal to the Lord; “as for me” (ESV). “Lord, whatever they do to me, I am not going to give in to the temptation to render evil for evil. I will leave their judgment to you. As much as it depends on me, I will live peaceably with all men, and by your grace, I will overcome evil with good” (cf. Rom 12.17-21).
The particular thing mentioned as evidence of his persevering attachment to the Lord is meditating on his “precepts,” that is, what God has appointed to be done.2 To meditate on them is to read them with a prayerful desire to understand them for the purpose of complete obedience to them, and to ponder them over and over in one’s mind and heart with a submissive desire of total compliance. And of course where this is done, practical application necessarily follows. The saintly student of God’s commandments steadily increases in conformity to them, both in heart and in conduct.
This is one way of describing what true devotion to the Lord is in its substance. Your relationship with God is no closer than your relationship to his Word. To depart from his Word as your standard for living is to depart from him. To meditate in his Word is to draw ever nearer to him in consecrated love. From ancient times God linked keeping his commandments with love to him (Exod 20.6; Deut 11.1), and Jesus reiterated that principle as it applies in our relationship to him (John 14.15, 21). John, the “apostle of love,” also stressed the indispensability of principled obedience to God’s Word (1 John 2.3-5; 5.2-3).
As a professing Christian, will you remain resolved to confess Christ and keep his commandments, even before enemies, and even if those spiritual enemies are members of your own household, like your husband or wife, or children or parents? Will you consecrate yourself to be totally obedient to Christ’s revealed will, no matter how much they impugn your motives and ridicule your fanaticism and expose your inconsistencies—not for meekly helping you grow in grace, but to demoralize you as an earnest Christian?
Listen, my dear friends. This holy course I commend to you is not only in your own best interest; it is in theirs. Countless multitudes of God’s elect, who used to belong to the “them” group, have finally been brought to humble confession of their great sins by the resolute godliness of the very people they formerly persecuted! “They,” by the grace of God, have gloriously become one of “us,” to the praise of the Savior who showed us how to endure their opposition and persevere in faith and love.
Let us, then, imitate the psalmist’s worthy example in prayer and in life. “Lord, you take care of my enemies, and I will take care to keep trusting and obeying you.” Of course this is God’s will for us! Let us remain resolved before our enemies. May God grant us the guts to demonstrate our good character by letting nothing stop us from his holy service, whatever others do. Amen.
Notes:
1. DBLSD #1017.
2. ESV Study Bible, chart: “Terms in Psalm 119 for God’s Covenant Revelation.”