“What can a mere mortal do to us?”

Sept. 17 – Psalm 56

To the leader: according to The Dove on Far-off Terebinths. Of David. A Miktam, when the Philistines seized him in Gath.   

1 Be gracious to me, O God, for people trample on me;
    all day long foes oppress me;
2 my enemies trample on me all day long, for many fight against me.
O Most High, 3 when I am afraid, I put my trust in you.
4 In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I am not afraid;
    what can flesh do to me?

5 All day long they seek to injure my cause; 

all their thoughts are against me for evil.
6 They stir up strife, they lurk, they watch my steps.
As they hoped to have my life,
7     so repay them for their crime; in wrath cast down the peoples, O God!

8 You have kept count of my tossings; put my tears in your bottle.
    Are they not in your record?
9 Then my enemies will retreat in the day when I call. 

This I know, that God is for me.
10 In God, whose word I praise, in the Lord, whose word I praise,
11 in God I trust; I am not afraid. What can a mere mortal do to me?

12 My vows to you I must perform, O God; I will render thank offerings to you.
13 For you have delivered my soul from death, and my feet from falling,
so that I may walk before God in the light of life.

Again, the backstory is important. David was on the run from Saul and there was nowhere in Israel that was safe, Saul was able to convince people to reveal where David and his band were hiding (See Psalm 54) So David fled to Philistine country, because there was no way the Philistines would turn an enemy of Saul over to Saul. The Philistines and the Israelites were enemies and the Philistines protecting David would have been a major irritant to Saul. 

But there was more, David had killed the Philistine military champion Goliath, and Gath was Goliath’s hometown. So maybe Saul would not kill David, maybe it would be the Philistines who would kill David in revenge for Goliath’s death. 

David was between a rock and a hard place, in the hands of the Philistines he was safe from Saul, but the people of Gath wanted revenge. There was no safety and peace to be found, with two militaries after him. (For the Biblical account see 1 Samuel 21:10-12.)

In the midst of these threats on his life, David in faith declares in both vs. 4 and vs. 11 – “In God I trust; I am not afraid; what can flesh do to me?”…”What can a mere mortal do to me?” Jesus said, “Do not fear those who can kill the body but cannot kill the soul.” (Matt 10:28) 

The forces seeking to destroy David, the forces arrayed to destroy us, can not touch the promise of the resurrection. Death, evil’s ultimate weapon and therefore the thing that causes us fear, can only kill once – it cannot touch the resurrected Jesus, nor will it touch all those who are given new life in Jesus Christ. In this profound hope David can say that he will walk before God in the light of life. A life given to those who follow Jesus in this life into the life on the other side of the grave. In that hope we live. 

PRAYER:

Almighty God, we confess that frequently we are afraid, worried about what people might say or do. We confess that we are impacted by those threats far more than we want to be. Give us the faith and courage of David, that we might say – “In God I trust; I am not afraid.” In Jesus’ name. Amen. 

Trusting God alone who will never betray us

Sept. 15 – Psalm 55

To the leader: with stringed instruments. A Maskil of David.

1 Give ear to my prayer, O God; do not hide yourself from my supplication.
2 Attend to me, and answer me; I am troubled in my complaint.
I am distraught 3 by the noise of the enemy, because of the clamor of the wicked.
For they bring trouble upon me, and in anger they cherish enmity against me….

9 Confuse, O Lord, confound their speech; for I see violence and strife in the city.
10 Day and night they go around it on its walls,
and iniquity and trouble are within it; 11 ruin is in its midst;
oppression and fraud do not depart from its marketplace.

12 It is not enemies who taunt me—I could bear that;
it is not adversaries who deal insolently with me—I could hide from them.
13 But it is you, my equal, my companion, my familiar friend,
14 with whom I kept pleasant company; 

we walked in the house of God with the throng….

16 But I call upon God, and the Lord will save me.
17 Evening and morning and at noon I utter my complaint and moan,
    and he will hear my voice.
18 He will redeem me unharmed from the battle that I wage,
 for many are arrayed against me. 19 God, who is enthroned from of old, Selah
 will hear, and will humble them – because they do not change, 

  and do not fear God.

20 My companion laid hands on a friend and violated a covenant with me
21 with speech smoother than butter, but with a heart set on war;
with words that were softer than oil, but in fact were drawn swords.

22 Cast your burden [or: Cast what he has given you] on the Lord, and he will sustain you;
he will never permit the righteous to be moved.

23 But you, O God, will cast them down into the lowest pit;
the bloodthirsty and treacherous shall not live out half their days.
But I will trust in you.

The psalm is long so these are selected verses. While we are not given the backstory for this psalm, it is evident that David is under pressure and threat. He has a complaint that he wants God to hear. 

The end of vs. 2 and the start of 3: “I am distraught by the noise…because of the clamor of the wicked.” Those words feel like they could have been written in the present time as there is so much angry noise, so much clamor and trouble making through speech and actions. David is further upset because those who taunt him and deal insolently with him (vs. 12) are “my companion, my familiar friend, with whom I kept pleasant company”. David and his opponent even went to worship together. And the psalm feels even more like the moment we are living in, as discord rules the day, and people we thought to be our friends have become our harshest critics. Vs. 20 and 21 have the same theme, words of friendship hide the real intent of doing harm.

Such betrayal by people we thought to be our friends is deeply painful, and is profoundly unnerving for we begin to distrust everyone. Nowhere is safe. All relationships are suspect, we become guarded in everything we say and do. All of this wears away at us, filling us with anxiety. Yet the psalm affirms there is one who can be trusted. 

Vs. 22 offers us two readings – to cast this burden of anxiety on God so that he would bear the burden. Or the second reading takes that deeper: God has put us in this moment (given this to us (vs. 22)). God is the one who is in control and we are his people in this time and in this place, we can give him this moment knowing that God will sustain us as faithful witnesses to God who alone is worthy of our trust.

PRAYER:
You, O Lord, when others betray our trust, You do not. We will trust you. You have put us in this moment and in this place, Your gift to us. We place ourselves in your hands, knowing that you will sustain us. In Jesus’ name. Amen.