Tag Archives: anger

God can deal with our enemy—Psalm 31

David often talks about God being a place to hide from enemies—as in this Psalm (vv. 1-4).

The reason David has enemies is that God has given Israel a land to enjoy, look after and protect. Surrounding peoples don’t like this and harass them. And David is commander in chief.

In this contest, David knows he is weak. He’s still effectively the boy walking out to confront a Goliath. He’s become a brave and resourceful leader, but when his enemies are also God’s enemies, he needs a safe space—God, as his refuge.

In simple terms, David trusts God to act. He expects Israel’s covenant Lord to reveal his righteousness and faithfulness by protecting him (v. 1, 5).

The world doesn’t need to see our human strength. Seeking power is the world’s problem. Rather, it needs to see us strong in the Lord.

The church that Jesus now builds—unlike Israel—is not a nation state with territory to defend. But we are Christ’s kingdom. That is, we have a ruler, a law, a message to announce, and an expectation that this kingdom will finally be visibly established.

This puts us in conflict with the world and its ruler. Satan doesn’t like competition. And the world doesn’t accept that it must answer to its Creator.

If we’re Christians, we’re involved. The battle is on, and it’s nasty. Many times, we need a hiding place. We need to go to God with our distress (vv.6-8).

Deep down, we all fear being shamed. It’s a potent weapon in our present world. And when this happens, simply trying to be strong won’t get us anywhere.

This is especially so because we have sins of our own that complicate every situation (vv. 9-10). We know we don’t deserve to be looked after. What we need is redemption—from our sins and from Satan’s accusations.

So, we need to tell the Lord what evils our enemies are perpetrating, and the distress this is giving us (vv. 9-13).

But then, we need to affirm who our God is, and what he has promised to do for us (vv. 14-18). This is vital. People without God are without hope (Eph. 2:2:12). But our days are all in God’s hands, and our flourishing, and our reputation. We can ask for help.

David shows us the hope we are right to have (vv. 19-22). God is good. And his goodness is a storehouse full of good things. Any alarm we may have is invalid!

So, we have much with which to encourage one another—to love God, and to be strong (vv. 23-24)!

Jesus quotes this Psalm as he dies (v. 5; in Luke 23:46). There is nothing of the world’s violence and Satan’s malice that he is spared. But he entrusts his whole being (spirit) to the Father. And God hears his prayer by raising him from the dead (1 Tim. 3:16).

If you like, he validates this experience of trust when faced with hostility. And because he has died for our sins, our hope can be as sure as his (Heb. 12:3).

Interestingly, Jesus doesn’t quote the line ‘you have redeemed me’. This can simply mean ‘saved me’, but redeeming is done by paying a price. No-one needs to pay anything to save Jesus (the meaning of redeem). He is paying the price himself—to redeem us. That’s our hiding place.

So, let’s pray.

Our Father in heaven, trusting in your Son has exposed us to the hatred of this world and to the malice of its prince. We feel the heat and the injustice of this. We feel the temptation to fight fire with fire.

Save us from these false battles. Hide us in your Son from the accusations of Satan and the culture he controls. Save us from fearing the loss of our reputation or safety. Open up ways of living joyfully and confidently and usefully in this present world.

Put a song in our mouths, like the song David sings. You are a God we can trust. Jesus is our hiding place, our Saviour and Lord. Father, you have wonderfully showed your love to us.

Deal with our enemies. They don’t know what they are doing. They need to know Jesus as Saviour. But do not let the battle leave us embattled. Rather, gentle our hearts with love for you, and strengthen them with the certainty that you act. In Jesus name. Amen.

5—Made ready by Christ’s peace

We’re exploring how to live in what God calls the real world. It’s all about whether we will relate to God or not. But there’s opposition to this everywhere.

So now, if we are in this battle, how can an announcement of peace help us? It not only helps but is effective because Christ has won a great victory. He has won the right to announce the peace. And Paul says having this peace and this message gets us ready to fight our real enemy.

The letter of Ephesians tells us how this is so. Here’s three things that are clear.

First, we were far from God. But then, we are brought near to him, by Christ’s blood (2:13-18). An offering has been made for our sins. We have peace with God.

The world assumes God is an enemy to be hated, or a delusion to destroy. But if God reveals himself and tells us he has no more quarrel with us, that our sins are forgiven, our whole being can operate properly. We can think. We can sing. We can love.

It has been noted that atheists often have a personal rather than a logical reason for their belief. Something has happened, or not happened, and they blame God for it. But what if we see that God is not against us but for us? What if we discover we are loved? This is peace with God.

When Jesus rises from the dead, his first words are, ‘Peace be with you’. This was a common greeting at the time, but coming from Jesus, and after what has just happened, it is an announcement of peace between Jesus and his followers. And this means, an announcement of peace with God.

So, Jesus comes announcing peace and declaring good news of happiness (Isaiah 52:7; Romans 10:15). He does this through the preaching of his gospel.

Second, there’s one way of reconciliation for everyone.

This is important to Paul because he has thought you have to be a Jew to know God. Then, he hears the church announcing peace with God without the trappings of Judaism. Jesus has entered his space and says there is room for people of all nations to live before him in peace.

This makes Paul desperately angry. He begins to fight against the enemy he can see—the church. But then, Jesus speaks to him as a friend. ‘You’re having a hard time Saul. Why are you fighting me?’ Paul has come to God with war in his heart. Jesus comes to Paul with an announcement of peace. (Acts 26:14; James 3).

Paul now knows the way to have peace with God. And he knows this is the way of peace for the world—Jews and Gentiles (2:13-14).

Jesus has not only resolved the conflict between us and God. He has resolved the reason for our conflicts with one another. He spells this out in some detail (2:15-22).

Jewish worship had pointed to Christ. But now that Christ has come, its purpose is completed and everyone must embrace the reality—Jesus is our peace with God.

So, Jews and Gentiles can come to God in the same way. The reason for Paul to defend his ‘territory’ is gone. Jews and Gentiles can be in the same family. God himself comes to live with his people.

Christ’s peace has removed the need to defend our cultural space. For Paul, it has been religion. But now, he can relate freely—travelling with Christ into all the places God takes him.

The same principle applies to all the other ‘territories’ we create for ourselves. Paul speaks about it in numbers of his letters. With Christ as our peace, we don’t need to make a warring party out of our social status, or our race or our gender (Romans 10:12; 1 Corinthians 12:13; Galatians 3:28; 5:6; Colossians 3:10-11). If we belong to Christ, we belong together.

Perhaps you can see how urgently we need this peace of Christ—bringing us to God—in the midst of what we call issues today. He puts to rest the seeds of our discontent. He frees us to love without necessarily agreeing, and discuss without being spiteful. We learn this, even if with some difficulty, as we relate to our fellow Christians. But then, this gives us ways to relate to others as we move out into the world.

Third, this announcement of peace is the preparation we all need if we are to engage in the battle ahead.

Paul is astonished that he has been entrusted with such good news for the world. He is ready to go anywhere and do anything that will enable others to know it is true. He is ready to live!

This new way of peace—peace with God—confronts the unseen powers we are fighting against (3:8-10). It names and shames this whole hostility thing and says, ‘You don’t need to be angry!’ That is, not selfishly angry.

If you can’t see the real battle, you have to maintain the rage. And we do! And we are! Even in countries that have no political oppressor, we find one thing after another to fight about.

But what if we can announce Jesus Christ as God’s way of peace! Many will scorn it of course. But then, some will find that the wars they are conducting are not the main game. They will discover that the currents of God’s loving are more powerful and persuasive than all the puff of the world and its Prince.

Paul is telling us to wear this announcement of peace like shoes! We shouldn’t go anywhere without God’s peace in our hearts. We shouldn’t say anything that merely defends our territory. And we should never be ashamed of the blood of Jesus by which this precious peace has been announced to us. This is the peace we have needed. And it is the peace that is needed in the world.

With Jesus, we may say to those who persecute us, ‘It is hard for you to kick against the peace Christ has established!’