Psalm 35

Of David. 

1 Contend, O LORD, with those who contend with me; fight against those who fight against me!

2 Take hold of shield and buckler and rise for my help!

3 Draw the spear and javelin [and close the way] against my pursuers! Say to my soul, “I am your salvation!”

From the content of this psalm we learn that David has been falsely accused by malicious witnesses who are out to trap and destroy him. His reaction to this is to seek God’s help, asking the LORD to fight on his behalf. He asks God to pick up the defensive weapons of a shield and a buckler in his right and left hands, and come to his defense. Then he prays that the LORD would draw his spear (short distance) and javelin (long distance), offensive weapons as he chases those who are chasing David. In his prayer David envisions the LORD as a mighty soldier on the battlefield, one of his mighty men, a body guard who will protect the king and attack any who would attack him. David can visualize God’s rescue even before it happens, confident that he is in the right and that God is willing and able to save. In a bit of self-talk, David asks the LORD to tell him, “I’m your salvation.” There are many times that I need to hear God’s voice speak to me in the same way, declaring, “I am your salvation.” I look to many other things before I look to the LORD. In fact, I usually exhaust every other option before I think, “I should pray about this,” so confident am I in my ability to deliver myself from any problem. The reality is that I have probably never been in a situation as dire as that of David. First, I try to keep myself out of trouble by taking the least confrontational path. Second, I’m just not living in a time and place where injustice against me is a routine thing. When I think about passages like this, I can’t help but think about how they may have been prayed by my spiritual ancestors -- slaves in the south who bore the brunt of monumental injustice, never seeing freedom for themselves or their children. I think of the countless seasons of persecution throughout church history -- property confiscated, imprisonment, torture, even death for those who would not deny the faith and just go along with the culture. And of course I think of the over 200 million brothers and sisters who today are living as a minority in a culture that persecutes them. They are meeting in homes and in secret, knowing that they could be arrested any day. Truly this prayer is one of the most common prayers they might have -- be my defense, be my offense, be my salvation. May I routinely pray that prayer on behalf of my persecuted brothers and sisters around the world. 

4 Let them be put to shame and dishonor who seek after my life!

Let them be turned back and disappointed who devise evil against me!

5 Let them be like chaff before the wind, with the angel of the LORD driving them away!

6 Let their way be dark and slippery, with the angel of the LORD pursuing them!

David launches into a series of curses upon his enemies. These are not just people he doesn’t like. They are those who are actively trying to kill him, devising evil against him. They are plotting, deceiving, and manipulating others to bring David down in disgrace and ultimately death. That’s an important distinction to make when considering these cursing psalms and applying them today. These extraordinary situations call for extraordinary prayers. Notice also that David is appealing to the LORD to intervene on his behalf. He is not taking up the spear and javelin himself. His prayer is for their shame and dishonor; for their failure and disappointment. In short he wants their plans to fail and for them to be revealed for who they are: shameless and dishonorable. Furthermore , he adds a couple of metaphors to his prayers, asking that they would be driven like chaff before the wind, utterly helpless and insignificant. He asks that their way be dark and slippery. Traveling at night is dangerous to begin with, particularly if there is no moonlight. All kinds of hazards await the night time traveler and if the path takes you through the rocky desert crags, a slippery path could be a deadly one. The psalmist speaks elsewhere of the LORD preventing his foot from slipping, so this has moral implications as well. The path of a person who chooses to harm others is a slippery one, and the moral fall can be deadly. In both the chaff and the path metaphor, the constant is the angel of the LORD driving and pursuing. Whether the wind blowing the chaff or the angel forcing quick passage through a dark and dangerous place, David assumes spiritual forces are at work behind physical actions. In our overly materialistic view in the West, we don’t give much consideration for spiritual forces that are at work, but the Bible places them on the same plane. Last night I watched the movie Harriet, about the life of Harriet Tubman. At one point she prayed for her abusive master: “either change his heart or strike him dead.” He died that very night. There is no doubt that spiritual forces were at work in her life. She believed in God and it filled her with courage. She prayed and miraculous things happened. Angels got involved. When was the last time you prayed for angels to get involved in your life? To act on behalf of what is good and right, to rescue the poor and punish the guilty? LORD, give me the eyes to see the spiritual realities all around me and to call upon you and your angels to get involved. 

7 For without cause they hid their net for me; without cause they dug a pit for my life. [The word pit is transposed from the preceding line; Hebrew For without cause they hid the pit of their net for me; without cause they dug for my life]

8 Let destruction come upon him when he does not know it! And let the net that he hid ensnare him; let him fall into it—to his destruction!

These verses are the cry of one who is a victim of injustice. “Without cause”, (lit. “for nothing”) is the first word of each line, highlighting the senselessness of it all, the needlessness of the entrapment. The two types of traps highlighted were common in those days -- a net for birds and a pit for animals on the ground. Each required a certain amount of preparation and care in order to be successful. Gathering the materials, weaving the thread, setting and baiting the trap and then carefully watching -- this was what it took to capture a small bird. Digging a hole several feet deep, finding materials to cover it that wouldn’t set off an alarm, arranging those materials and then again watching for an animal to come and hopefully fall it, then killing and eating it. In this case, David is the hunted, the small bird, the small animal on the ground, unsuspecting and innocent. At any moment he could be caught up in their net or fall into their pit, destroying his life. This metaphor demonstrates the intentionality of David’s enemies. They are not just hoping that David screws up and does himself in, they are plotting to bring him down themselves. David’s fifth curse in this psalm is that their entrapment would turn against them and they would get caught up in their own schemes. He prays that what they had intended for him would in fact happen to them. This is the kind of justice that we love to see. It is what makes the ending of stories so satisfying. When what the villain has planned for the hero backfires and the trap springs on the villain, we cheer. This is because we are wired for justice. This was true 3,000 years ago, and it’s still true today. Justice will be done, and you don’t want to be on the wrong side. 

9 Then my soul will rejoice in the LORD, exulting in his salvation.

10 All my bones shall say, “O LORD, who is like you, delivering the poor from him who is too strong for him, the poor and needy from him who robs him?”

When justice is done, the innocent will rejoice in the LORD’s salvation. Every single one of their 206 bones will celebrate and say, “O Lord, who is like you, delivering the poor from him who is too strong for him, from the one who robs him?” These verses reveal that very important aspect of prayer that involves visualizing the future outcome of the actions that are being requested. Having made five requests for justice, David immediately describes what he will do when his prayers are answered and they don’t involve gloating over his defeated enemies but bragging on the God of justice who turned everything around. David places himself in the category of “the poor and needy” even though he is quite wealthy. He identifies with the poor in his experience of injustice, using the metaphor of being robbed by a strong man. He may seem to have it all from the perspective of the poor, but his wealth and power have only placed a target on his back. The fact is wealth and power do not protect you from injustice -- in fact they make you a target of hatred. How many people will rail on social media about the wealthy and powerful in our culture, longing to see them fall from their high position and suffer. What is it in the human condition that wishes the worst for those who seem to have things better than us? Envy. We forget that every human being was made in the image of God, from the wealthiest to the weakest. And the LORD is a God who is concerned for every one of them, rescuing them from those who would assault and rob them. How unique the LORD is among the gods of the world then and now. He shows special concern for the poor and the victims of injustice. They have nowhere else to turn but to the God of justice, and all of our bones cry out when we see justice done. There is something richly satisfying when good triumphs over evil, when those who want to tear others down are prevented from doing so. 

11 Malicious [violent] witnesses rise up; they ask me of things that I do not know.

12 They repay me evil for good; my soul is bereft. [Hebrew it is bereavement to my soul]

David’s situation is quite dire. First, he has malicious and violent witnesses who stand to make false accusations against him. He is interrogated regarding things that he knows nothing about. This may have been in an official court or merely an informal inquiry -- in either case it is badly motivated. They are out to get him for a crime, but they are searching for evidence first. This is the epitome of a corrupt justice system -- guilty until proven innocent, false witnesses, questioning whose goal is entrapment. The worst of it is that David feels that he has been good to these men. He shared in their grief and now they are the cause of his grief. Verse 12 has a play on the words repay and bereavement, they are similar sounding in Hebrew, completing the verse with a similar sound. The word for bereavement is that used for the loss of children, perhaps one of the worst kinds of grief, a grief that never leaves you and is ultimately inconsolable. I don’t think David is exaggerating here as he confesses his utter aloneness. Falsely accused without any legal way out, grieving the loss of his life and reputation, his soul is grappling with the relational wound that he is being dealt. Betrayal is one of the worst types of pain because it is chosen. Accidents, sickness, and death all have natural causes, but betrayal is 100% human caused. Many are living wounded today because of adultery and divorce. Others were betrayed by parents who prioritized themselves over their children. Some feel betrayed by an employer that they had served faithfully for decades. Many black Americans today feel betrayed by the police and justice system. People are always going to let us down, and sometimes maliciously. This is the human condition. The role of the church is to bind up these wounds and direct people to the One who is faithful and will never betray, to the One who was betrayed maliciously and yet through his suffering forgave and redeemed those who betrayed him. That would include you and me. We have not been faithful witnesses of Jesus. We have repaid him evil for good, and trampled on his grace. Surely he grieves our betrayal and these words of David could rightly be His. Jesus is a friend to the betrayed and the betrayer. 

13 But I, when they were sick— I wore sackcloth; I afflicted myself with fasting; I prayed with head bowed [Or my prayer shall turn back] 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.

David was a good friend, a good human being, commiserating with others who were suffering. He refers to his enemies as those for whom he prayed in the past when they were sick. He changed his clothing to sackcloth, the garment of mourning. He refused to eat so that he could focus on interceding on behalf of his friend. It wasn’t easy. He turned his head down toward his chest in prayer, maintaining this posture of prayer while his friend was afflicted. He was grieving as though he had lost a friend or a brother, even a mother. He prostrated himself in mourning. This is very strong language for describing David’s grief. The death of a friend or family member is devastating, and yet this is how he describes his feelings at the sickness of these friends of his. They must have been very, very close. Proverbs says that there is a friend that sticks closer than a brother. Perhaps these were fellow soldiers who had experienced the trials of war with him. Perhaps they were among the men who had risked their lives with him while he was on the run from Saul. One gets the feeling that David would lay his life down for them in the moment of their need. This text reminds us of the importance of grieving with and praying for those who are afflicted. There is a tremendous amount of pain in the world. Think of someone today for whom you can pray and with whom you can express God’s presence, and then be a serious intercessor for them. This is a powerful picture of intercession (although that is not the primary purpose of the text), and it should compel us to care for the sick as if they were family. The primary message of the text is to express the depth of the betrayal that David is experiencing. One gets the sense that he didn’t see it coming. He was blindsided by these former friends for whom he had done so much. I think of the wife who has sacrificed and served her husband for years only to discover that he has been unfaithful. I think of the parents who have given everything for their children only to have them walk away from faith and family. I think of fellow believers in my life with whom I’ve shared sweet moments of worship, but now they are no longer walking with Jesus. The depth of the love that we have for others is proportionate to the amount of pain that their abandonment can cause us. Pray for those who are experiencing this kind of pain today.

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, [The meaning of the Hebrew phrase is uncertain] they gnash at me with their teeth.

David describes his emotional pain in a series of metaphors. Those he thought were his friends are laughing at him while he’s on the ground. He’s fallen and instead of helping him up they are pointing and laughing. They are joined by wretches he doesn’t even know who are tearing at him unceasingly. The Hebrew word for “wretch” is also translated “crippled” in other places. Those who were crippled were likely beggars and very low on the social scale. Perhaps David is referring to this lowest social group here in stating that he is made to feel even lower than them by their taunts? He compares them to godless mockers at a feast. Having had too much to drink they have lost all inhibition and say things that just aren’t true as they pile on insults. The central message of these verses is that David is utterly abandoned by friend and foe. It’s not just that he has stumbled and fallen, but everyone is piling on and it’s not helpful. It’s bad enough to have a moral failing (to be fair, David is not confessing such a failing here, other than saying that he “stumbled”, which could simply have been a misstep in his leadership). But assuming it is a moral failing, having everyone shame you is not helpful. If David has failed, he has enough shame on his own without the help of society. But that’s what we do. Earlier this week there was an incident in Central Park where a black man and a white woman had an exchange with racial overtones. The man filmed it all and posted it on Facebook in an attempt to shame her (for her good he presumed). She’s lost her job, her reputation, and her future as this conversation between two people was broadcast to 10’s of millions of people. I think she could probably identify with two verses as anyone who has been publicly shamed. In the age of social media such public shaming can happen at lighting speed (google Justine Sacco). One tweet can destroy your life. Wretches and godless mockers -- sounds like a lot of the Twitter posts I read. We shouldn’t be surprised. This is human nature and it’s always been with us, technology only amplifies it, this need to pile on when someone is down, to be with the “in” crowd at the expense of the fallen. Be the voice for the fallen. Pick them up when they stumble and be a true friend. 

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.

And now we get to the heart of David’s complaint -- “How long, O LORD, will you look on?” You can find it in almost every psalm of lament as the psalmist reaches the conclusion that either God must not care or he must not be able to do anything about the situation. It’s a reasonable point given that God is all powerful and absolutely sovereign. He’s also known for his faithfulness and lovingkindness. Why he seems to do nothing is beyond me. Exactly. It is beyond me. We don’t know what God is doing because He’s beyond us. Who are we to say that He is simply looking on and doing nothing? He could very well be orchestrating things behind the scenes in ways that are ultimately better in ways that we cannot know, limited as we are by time and our singular perspective. I don’t know if David realizes all of that at this point, but he turns immediately to prayer for rescue in words that are very similar to Psalm 22. His enemies are like lions, predators who are motivated only by their appetites, without conscience. He needs a miracle to escape their jaws. The fact that the next verse is a vow of public worship (also echoes Psalm 22) tells us that he believes his prayer will be answered, even as it is prayed. In these two short verses we are challenged to respond to the inaction of God with the action of prayer and faith. David believes he will be publicly vindicated and so he will declare his praise publicly as well. He will acknowledge the source of his vindication and salvation, and it is not himself. The acts of prayer and worship guard us against the temptation to pride. If God seems to be indifferent to our crisis, you can be confident that he is working and that ultimately he will be worshiped. 

19 Let not those rejoice over me who are wrongfully my foes, and let not those wink the eye who hate me without cause.

20 For they do not speak peace, but against those who are quiet in the land they devise words of deceit.

After praying for rescue from his lion enemies, he prays for rescue from his lyin’ enemies. They hate him without reason. There is no rational reason to oppose him and yet they are gleeful when it seems that David is going down. The winking of the eye suggests a conspiracy, a secret plan to target David that requires lying. Of course Jesus applies this very verse to himself in the Upper Room with Judas sitting on his left. Judas had already arranged a secret communication with Jesus’ enemies -- a kiss. The opposition that Jesus faced was not without reason -- he was upsetting the whole power structure -- at least those in power thought that was what he was doing. Jesus had made claims to divinity and that was blasphemy in their eyes, and no doubt they had convinced themselves that he was deserving of death -- mobs can do that to themselves. If they weren’t blinded by their pride and fear they would have seen that Jesus was here for their good and so there was no reason to kill him. For that reason Jesus stated that they hated him without cause, that is, without good reason. The Jewish leaders could come up with several reasons to kill Jesus, they just weren’t good ones. David then gets at the motive of his enemies -- they are not seeking peace. They want to upset things so that presumably they can put themselves in power. There are people today who believe in the same principles of revolution -- they use any means necessary to accomplish their purpose, including deceiving the masses who don’t want revolution. The peaceful masses, the quiet in the land -- they are the target of the revolutionaries, and they justify their deceit by declaring that history is on their side. Today there are riots in our country instigated by those who do not want peace. They will use deceit to create a narrative to further their cause, and often their willing accomplices in the media and on social media will go along uncritically. As a believer, I pray for truth and peace to rule the day. 

21 They open wide their mouths against me; they say, “Aha, Aha! Our eyes have seen it!”

22 You have seen, O LORD; be not silent! O Lord, be not far from me!

David describes the actions of the false witnesses, opening wide their mouths against him, claiming that they’ve seen things that just didn’t happen. The phrase “open wide their mouths” is a reflection of their animal-like appetite for killing and eating. They’ve already been referred to in this psalm as lions and this is a further extension of that. These enemies of David destroy with their lying words. The next line plays on the word “seen” in recalling that the LORD sees everything as well. David’s enemies see things that aren’t there, but the LORD sees the truth. As a result, David calls the LORD as his witness, urging Him to testify and come near to his defense. These verses indicate that truth has always been a very slippery thing. The idea of truth being relative is classically stated by Pilate in his cynical question, “What is truth?” Our memories and our eyes can play tricks on us. Sometimes false witnesses don’t know they are being false, sincerely believing they’ve seen something that just isn’t real. However, David seems to think that these false witnesses are doing so maliciously. (We always assume maliciousness even when it may just be incompetence). Regardless of their motive, the impact of lies are the same. They shape the narrative that becomes the story that everyone believes and assumes to be true. In the broader culture this happens all the time as various forces try to frame everything based on their view of the world. They will knowingly stretch and bend the truth just a little to push the perception of others their way. We must be discerning in the midst of this and not allow ourselves to be manipulated. David’s prayer is doubly important for us today in the midst of the ubiquitous use of social media that is constantly pushing individual narratives of reality, some of which may be far from the truth. People may be so certain of what they have seen, that they can see it no other way. In that context, it’s great to be reminded that the LORD sees all, knows all, and will not be silent. We can trust that truth and justice will ultimately win in the end. In the meantime, we appeal for the LORD’s presence. 

23 Awake and rouse yourself for my vindication, for my cause, my God and my Lord!

24 Vindicate me, O LORD, my God, according to your righteousness, and let them not rejoice over me!

David takes his appeal directly to the LORD. Using courtroom language, he asks God to vindicate David and his cause according to his righteousness. David believes that his cause is just, and he is convinced that God is just. The math is pretty simple -- the God of justice will see that justice is done. The appeal is an acknowledgment of David’s own inability to rescue himself from this situation. He needs a higher power because he is outnumbered and out-truthed. Multiple false witnesses are using the court system to spin a narrative that is simply not true and David knows it. This is not one of those psalms where David acknowledges his guilt and asks for forgiveness. He is not backing down. He is innocent and he wants justice. While metaphoric, the language is an expression of David’s frustration as well. God seems to be sleeping while all of this is going on. This is a thread that runs throughout the psalms -- disappointment in the inactivity of God. It seems that God is asleep, that He is not watching (even though in verse 22 David declares that the LORD has seen). This is typical of how we pray in crisis. We may go from moments of great clarity and certainty to seasons of doubt and frustration. David’s lament has both elements and here he’s that child in the bedroom trying to wake a sleeping parent into action. It’s critical to David that something be done now. It is a crisis. But God seems to be sleeping. It reminds me of the disciples waking Jesus on the boat in Galilee, “Don’t you care that we drown?” Silly disciples. Silly me, when I doubt that God is aware of injustice. He is just and I have to believe that justice wins in the end, that the false witnesses are the ones that will be put to shame rather than the ones rejoicing. 

25 Let them not say in their hearts, “Aha, our heart's desire!” Let them not say, “We have swallowed him up.”

26 Let them be put to shame and disappointed altogether who rejoice at my calamity! Let them be clothed with shame and dishonor who magnify themselves against me!

David returns to pray for his enemies, four short prayers that he hopes are predictive of the future of his enemies. This is not the type of prayer that Jesus had in mind when he commanded us to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. Nevertheless, there is nothing wrong with praying this type of prayer if it results in justice. Justice is a good thing, and David is removing his hand from the act of executing justice -- also a good thing. David prays that his enemies would not get what they want “their heart’s desire”. He prays that they would fail in their efforts to destroy him by swallowing him alive. He prays that the shame they intend for him would fall on them instead, that the disappointment they desire to see on his face will be on their faces instead. Finally, he prays that they would wear this shame and dishonor like a garment, that it would be known by everyone that they had tried to destroy another human being in order to magnify themselves. David gets to their motive in the final line -- “they magnify themselves against me”. It is selfishness and pride that animate these enemies. If that sounds familiar, it is because it is the default condition of human nature. Of course we want what’s best for ourselves, and sometimes we will pursue that beyond the bounds of what is true and right. Yes, we want to look good before everyone, not just good, but better than others. But it is God who humbles and exalts, and our attempts to exalt ourselves often wind up with us stepping on others along the way. David models for us here the importance of trusting in God to do the exalting and the humbling. David doesn’t take matters into his own hands in relation to his enemies, he appeals to God to humble and to exalt. As should we. 

27 Let those who delight in my righteousness shout for joy and be glad and say evermore, “Great is the LORD, who delights in the welfare of his servant!”

28 Then my tongue shall tell of your righteousness and of your praise all the day long.

David now turns his prayer toward those who have stood by him through this crisis. He’s had plenty of false friends that took the opportunity to keep him down when he stumbled. But he recognizes that he also has some defenders, those who delight in David’s “rightness” in this situation and rejoice at the way God has rescued him. They do this because they know that at some point they may need God’s justice to work on their behalf. If he did it for David, he’ll do it for you. There is a play on the word “delight” in verse 27 where David’s allies delight in his righteousness as the LORD delights in the welfare of his servant. David concludes this appeal for God to act on his behalf by vowing to worship. When all is said and done, David promises to tell of the LORD’s righteousness, to become His witness. He vows to declare the praises of God all day long. This is one of the hallmarks of a song of lament: it concludes with worship. There is always a note of hope even as David has poured out his grief and anger toward his enemies and his frustration toward God. That hope is not rooted in man. Neither David nor any human authority can fix this because it is rooted in human nature and the capacity of human beings to do evil things. People who do not believe in God will always hold on to the hope that smart people can fix everything by passing laws and enacting policies. This is where their trust lies -- in mankind. The lament acknowledges a higher power that intervenes on our behalf to keep the world on course, to save us from ourselves by transforming us into his image, calling us to do what is right, to love justice and to show mercy. The lament ends with worship, and so shall our lives continue into eternity if we humbly seek God’s justice and mercy for our world.