“Destroy, O Lord, divide their tongues, for I see violence and strife in the city.
Day and night they go around it on its walls, and iniquity and trouble are within it; ruin is in its midst; oppression and fraud do not depart from its marketplace.
For it is not an enemy who taunts me- then I could bear it,
It is not an adversary who deals insolently with me- then I could hide from him,
But it is you, a man, my equal, my companion, my familiar friend.
We used to take sweet counsel together; within God’s house we walked in the throng. Let death steal over them; let them go down to Sheol alive, for evil is in their dwelling place and in their heart.
But I call to God, and the Lord will save me. Evening and morning and at noon I utter my complaint and moan, and he hears my voice. He redeems my soul in safety from the battle that I wage, for many are arrayed against me.
God will give ear and humble them, he who is enthroned from of old, because they do not change and do not fear God.”
Psalm 55:9-25
As I looked at a verse to discuss, this Psalm was not the first, nor the last I picked up. But as I read and re-read it, it held so much insight into what we are looking at today.
Our cities are being destroyed, there is violence and trouble, oppression and fraud. King David wrote this Psalm when his own son, Absalom, took over Jerusalem and David fled with the rest of his family for their lives.
As he studied his beloved city being over-run with hate, sin and oppression, his heart broke. Those that know David, know he wasn’t perfect, a far cry from it. But he did love God and he did seek God’s will, most of the time. And to see his beloved people, the people God Himself anointed David to rule, in destruction and pain, well, he couldn’t bear it.
It wasn’t just the betrayal of his own son that rocked him. David wasn’t what you would call a hands on father. In my personal opinion, he couldn’t have been that surprised it happened given the character of his son.
But, Absalom was able to turn his close, personal friends away as well. The men he fought with for God’s glory, the men he cared for deeply. These men went with him when he ran from King Saul, they protected David and his family and David remembered them as he came to rule.
An adversary over-throwing him would’ve been easier to accept.
But to see his loved ones turn away, defile what they all once held dear, it poured out the emotions of this Psalm for us to read today.
Violence, betrayal, hate, oppression, these are not new concepts to humanity.
(And just so everyone is aware, Psalms is in the Old Testament of the Bible- that section so many people think is outdated and unrelatable to anything that is happening today!)
The best part about these verses is the call to prayer at the end. Prayer, it can heal our nation and our land. Heal the many different people that make up our country and stop the violence that has spread like a wildfire.
Imagine the light if it were prayers ascending instead of words of hate.
So, start praying. Morning, noon and night. Pray for healing, for safety, for love to come back to this country that so many of us hold so dear.
