It takes a lot of restraint to not just fire back at someone, to refrain from unleashing a volley of words, a cascade of retaliation, when we are wronged. Our pride is wounded, our heart hurts, and all we want to see is them writhing and realizing how is feels to be where we are in that moment, maybe even more so…

But to simply take out to God, confessing our hurts and our trust in Him? There are times where that seems almost impossible. To give Him that hurt, leaving it with Him, and then just continuing on with life? Our ego says, ‘No Way.’ And our heart cries out for vindication. We want to be delivered from our pain, and we want to see our oppressor feeling what we felt. But only one of those attitudes is right. We cannot wish pain for others, that attitude does not reflect the heart of God. But we can come to Him and trust him to handle it all, as David does here. David pours out his heart to God, he confesses his hurts, but then he leaves it in God’s hands. He doesn’t seek out any other revenge. And in doing that, he finds deliverance from the situation. He is able to walk away from the need to squash his oppressors because David trusts that God is going to do what is right. Psalms like this one are prayers that he would be delivered, not only from physical harm, but from the need to vindicate himself. He leaves that work to God. Because, even as he is being chased all over the countryside by Saul and his men, David never attacks back, he never lashes out. He trusts God to handle the situation, and to see justice done. He even says that he will make a sacrifice and praise God in the midst of his pain.

As we GoLove others in the Name of Christ, we will find these times come upon us, times where we have done nothing wrong, but we are being wronged. In those moments, we need to maintain our witness, praying that God would strengthen us to the task and that He would be the One to see right prevail. Otherwise it is just evil being met with evil, and no one wins in that struggle. Our response to hardship says a lot about where our heart is and where our trust lies. We need to trust that God will do what He says He will do for His children, rather than taking matters into our own hands.

Prayer for Deliverance
For the choir director: with stringed instruments. A Davidic Maskil.
When the Ziphites went and said to Saul, ‘Is David not hiding among us?’

“1 God, save me by Your name,
and vindicate me by Your might!
2 God, hear my prayer;
listen to the words of my mouth.
3 For strangers rise up against me,
and violent men seek my life.
They have no regard for God. Selah

4 God is my helper;
the Lord is the sustainer of my life.
5 He will repay my adversaries for their evil.
Because of Your faithfulness, annihilate them.

6 I will sacrifice a freewill offering to You.
I will praise Your name, Yahweh,
because it is good.
7 For He has delivered me from every trouble,
and my eye has looked down on my enemies.”