From Psalms 109:1-5 "Hold not thy peace, O God of my praise; for the mouth of the wicked and the mouth of the deceitful are opened against me. They have spoken against me with a lying tongue. They compassed me about also with words of hatred and fought against me without cause. For my love they are mine adversaries; but I give myself to prayer. And they have rewarded me with evil for good and hatred for my love."
This a psalms by King David expressing his love for God and his fellowman and how he is often met with discontent and hatred for it. If you replaced the nouns with the word christians it would highlight our same predicament as we seek to praise God and reach out to others. The strong yet unwarranted anti- christian atmosphere is prevalent everywhere. It is most pronounce as same-sex marital rights spearheads the charge against us as discriminatory and downright unloving. This is not just a USA issue, it is a world drive for equality which is pressing on many nations in an area of human life unprecedented . Today in the news, Russia itself is grappling with it's momentum and key policy changes in such a stoic nation sits on Putin's desk.
As believers in Christ we really don't have any enemies because we are called to love our enemies and to live in peace sharing the good news of the gospel for salvation sake. It seems we are being targeted without just cause and hated though for many of us our desire is to love others in order to bring others to that marvelous hope in Christ. We work our salvation trembling in the reverence, not the fear of our God and seeking his direction as we give him our praise.
As I read Psalms 109 this morning, it struck me deeply spirit to Spirit, the Church predicament. The Church position has been to love the sinner but hate the sin. In hating the sin what is really being said is that the sin represent poison to the success of salvation and renders nullifies it. The basic principle is our sins of which none are to be excused must be confessed and turned away from. The church should be doing this in love and not in anger or with a condemning attitude but sometimes we do. David says "For my love they are mine adversaries" and that is what it seems we have received which is a stiff rebuke. Christians are being seen as discriminatory and the media and special interest groups come at us without a just cause. Waiting for one mistake in our biblical perspective. It seems we are being rewarded with our good by being called judgmental and without love for our fellow man.
But what did David do as he was frustrated by the negative opinions of others concerning his love for them? He gave himself over to prayer. He did not fight them or force his God on them with a cry for revenge. David felt something for them and knew vengeance was the Lord's not his. And so must we. We must continue to pray for our strength to endure the rejection and yet pray that the adversaries receive the love of God thru Jesus Christ and have so much more than what little they have gained among themselves. Prayer also brought peace to David for in Philipians 4:6-7 "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving and let your requests be made known unto God and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." Let the churches give themselves over to prayer for without we ay take matters in our own hands and in anger sin more.
