Psalm 35 | Part 2
Transcript
This is Holly with Presence Point and welcome to our Psalms for Shepherds series. Today we’re in part 2 of Psalm 35, verses 11-18 where David is pouring out his heart to the Father, saying, “Rescue me, Lord, please rescue me from people who are coming at me without cause.” And so as I said in part 1, if you are that shepherd leader, if you are the shepherd where it feels the enemy himself is coming after you or others in your life are coming after you when there has been no cause, these verses today are for you, verses 11-16 and then verses 17-18, where David praises (and actually sings) a song of praise. Remember, psalms are songs. So David actually sings this before the Lord.
Psalm 35:11-18
11 Malicious witnesses rise up;
they ask me of things that I do not know.
12 They repay me evil for good;
my soul is bereft.
13 But I, when they were sick—
I wore sackcloth;
I afflicted myself with fasting;
I prayed with head bowed on my chest.
14 I went about as though I grieved for my friend or my brother;
as one who laments his mother,
I bowed down in mourning.15 But at my stumbling they rejoiced and gathered;
they gathered together against me;
wretches whom I did not know
tore at me without ceasing;
16 like profane mockers at a feast,
they gnash at me with their teeth.17 How long, O Lord, will you look on?
Rescue me from their destruction,
my precious life from the lions!
18 I will thank you in the great congregation;
in the mighty throng I will praise you.
What a lament. What a passionate expression of grief and sorrow that David was feeling. Malicious witnesses rising up against him. As I said in Psalm 35, Part 1, I’ve been here. I feel like I’ve lived Psalm 35 with David. God, in fact, was my court of appeals. God is, in fact, your court of appeals. And this psalm reiterates. Sometimes there are malicious witnesses rising up against us that pay us evil for good. And I even just completely felt the verses where it says, “I did this for them. When they were sick I wore sackcloth, I afflicted myself with fasting, I prayed and I bowed my head into my chest, I went around grieving like a friend for my brother, or lamenting my mother, I bowed down in mourning.” I even experienced that. Maybe you had a friend that you went out on a limb for, that you cried for, begged God for, you stood with, you cried with, you served, you loved, and for some reason they have abandoned you, or rejected you, or turned on you.
Shepherd leader, I want to say there is encouragement in this day! I want to remind us that a theologian from Croatia once said, “Hope is the ability to hear the music of the future. Faith is having the courage to dance to it today.” And what we need to remember is this psalm is a song that David most likely danced, maybe in great lament for the first few verses, but then verses 17-18 at the end of the portion we read today, he danced. He was singing and he danced that “I trust you. Lord, I thank you in the great congregation, right there among everybody he was with in the mighty throng, I will praise You.” Because for him, faith was having the courage to dance to it in that moment.
Dear shepherd leader, I pray that you have the courage to dance to whatever’s happening in your life, with faith and what the Father has ahead for you, with hope when this moment is over of poor or mis-accusation, when the moment is over of being hunted down without cause, or being defamed without cause that you know God is your rock and shield, your fortress, your deliverer, your refuge.
In my five years of hellacious torment like this, I kept looking forward to that day, and I can tell you now looking back on it many years later, it took me to a place with the Father that I needed to be. He knew He needed to put me through that refinement to get me where He wanted to be as a shepherd and as a lover of Him and a seeker of His will. And really, truly, a lover of who Jesus is. I pray that you see that somehow for yourself from your difficult situation. And if you’re not in that spot this morning today as a shepherd leader, pray for those who are. Bring them before the Father. And I will commit to bring you before the Father as well. Thank you for joining us. May you remember that God is our hope and our rock, He is our court of appeals.
DIGGING DEEPER QUESTIONS:
- Can you relate to Holly in your shepherding experience? In what ways?
- What does it look like for you to have the courage to dance to whatever’s happening in your life?
- Are there any sheep in your life that need you to come alongside them if they’re the ones experiencing a situation like Holly describes?
