David’s 911 Call For Help (1 Of 2)

In it David appeals to a righteous God to send judgment upon the enemies of God, and the persecutors of His righteous people.

WHY DID DAVID PRAY SUCH A PRAYER? It is believed that since Old Testament characters did not have the benefit of the New Testament, they did not have a complete revelation of the judgment seat of Christ. Therefore they believe the wicked had to be judged and to be rewarded in this life for their evil.

Illus: That is, they did not have the benefit of being able to open the New Testament and turning to Romans 14:12 which assures us, “So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.”

We find many imprecatory prayers throughout Psalms, but as we examine them, we have to understand what an imprecatory prayer IS and what it IS NOT. It IS NOT a prayer by which someone can use God to carry out a punishment because of a person’s anger toward another person.

God is not going to allow any of us to use Him as an instrument of vengeance just because we do not like someone.

Illus: Let’s all get real for a few minutes and take our spiritual halo’s off. We all, at times, have been confronted with people who were so rude we would love to have been able to backslide for only a few minutes and give them a knuckle sandwich they would never forget. Then, once we would have that done, we could place our halo’s back over our heads and forget it ever happened and we could go sing, “Oh, how I love Jesus!” Or sing, “Trust and Obey for there’s no other way...”

Oh how often we want to take things out of God’s hands and take them into our own hands!

Illus:: We all have heard tales of how, in the days of the “Old West,” lynch mobs would take the law into their own hands.

Supposedly things have changed since then. Most citizens of the great land of America realize that they cannot take the law into their own hands. If people did that this would be a land of anarchy.

In spiritual matters, often Christians forget that they cannot take matters into their own hands. We all need to learn that we must leave certain matters in God’s hands. We need to consider this: WHEN WE FACE THE WRATH OF MAN FOR LIVING A GODLY LIFE, THEY ARE NOT OPPOSING US, THEY ARE OPPOSING GOD!

This is exactly the way God sees it. Look at Romans 12:19 again. We read, “...Vengeance is mine; I WILL REPAY, SAITH THE LORD.” Why does God say, “...Vengeance is mine...”? Because, any time someone opposes someone who is serving God, that person is opposing God. Now, if you are in trouble because you have brought it upon yourself, you have no right to pray to God to take care of your enemies. David was convinced his opposition had come as a result of his living a godly life. Look at verse 7. We read, “For without cause have they hid for me their net in a pit, which WITHOUT CAUSE they have digged for my soul.” Look at the words, “without cause.” David was saying, “If I deserve this kind of abuse, I would not have the right to open my mouth, but they attack me WITHOUT CAUSE.” When evil men oppose us as a result of our living a godly life, we have every right to call upon God to take care of us. Why? God told us to live a holy life. If we obey Him we know we will experience tribulations, but God has promised that HE WILL STAND WITH US!

Illus: Suppose a foreman on your job told you to do something. Suppose you did that job to the best of your ability exactly the way he told you to do it. Then suppose the boss, over the foreman, came along, saw that you were doing what your foreman requested, but jumped all over you and told you how dumb he thought you were for doing that thing. In the meantime, your foreman was standing nearby, listening as the boss was hurling every insult he could hurl at you, and he never opened his mouth to defend you. WHEN ALL OF THAT WAS OVER, WHAT WOULD YOU THINK OF YOUR FOREMAN?

I suspect you would think that foreman was the biggest jerk in town because he knew you were only doing what he requested. You got into trouble because you were doing what he told you to do, but he would not stand behind you.

Listen, God is not going to tell us to live a righteous life and just stand back and watch when someone comes along and attacks us. Those who would attack us are actually attacking God’s plans. God will come to the rescue of those who are living a holy life. We also need to consider that, although you and I may not think so, God can do a better job of taking care of our enemies than we can. In fact, when God gets through with them, you will feel sorry for them.