Wake up and see for yourself! You’re God,
God-of-Angel-Armies, Israel’s God!
Get on the job and take care of these pagans,
don’t be soft on these hard cases.
Psalm 59:4-5
Observation: There are so many psalms that seek the Lord for protection, redemption, and vengeance. They call out to the Lord, point out that wicked people to making life so very difficult for the faithful believer(s), and directly ask God to fight back. This fighting can take a vague form, like "fight back", but sometimes it is even more aggressive, asking the Lord to destroy the evil people.
Application: I have prayed these kinds of prayers, and if I'm being very honest ... I am unsure of the response I received from the Lord. Yes, I have been protected, even uplifted. Honestly, I should want for nothing more than that. I should celebrate the way the Lord has protected my life, and resolved the hardships brought on by the evil actions and words of others. So maybe it is a sign of evil, weakness, or faithlessness, that I still wonder ... what happened to the part where those people - those pagans, worshiping other gods and defying the Lord to his face, laughing about how they have succeeded against a person who trust in Jesus - get taken care of.
Just because I have forgiven them, doesn't mean I don't understand the nature of these psalms. If we are allowed to pray for retribution and punishment on the evil pagans who harm God's people, why didn't it happen? And yes, I know there is a retribution yet to come that is far, far worse than anything here on earth. Maybe I expected something else.
I need to let go of this feeling, and simply live my life, delighted in the Lord, loving others in the name of Jesus, and demonstrating my faith. If I trust in the Lord, then I have to also trust his mercy ... or at least his timing.
Prayer: Lord, I need your Shalom in my heart. May I be at peace over everything that has been done to me in the past, now and forever more. Amen.
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