Pastor Fredo Ramos: Psalm one zero nine. O God, whom I praise, don't stand silent and aloof while the wicked slander me and tell lies about me. For they surround me with hateful words and fight against me for no reason. I love them, but they try to destroy me with accusations, even as I am praying for them. They repay evil for good and hatred for my love.
They say, get an evil person to turn against him. Send an accuser to bring him to trial. When his case comes up for judgment, let him be pronounced guilty and count his prayers as sins. Let his years be few. Let someone else take his position.
This is now David responding to his accusers in prayer. May his children become fatherless and his wife a widow. May his children wander as beggars and be driven from their ruined homes. May creditors seize his entire estate and strangers take all his earned. Let no one be kind to him.
Let no one pity his fatherless children. May all his offspring die. May his family name be blotted out in the next generation and may the Lord never forget the sins of his fathers. May the Lord always remember these sins and may his name disappear from human memory for he refused all kindness to others. He persecuted the poor and needy and he hounded the brokenhearted to death.
He loved to curse others. Now you curse him. He never blessed others. Now you don't bless him. Cursing is as natural to him as his clothing or the waters he drinks or the rich food that he eats.
Now may his curses return and cling to him like clothing. May they be tied around him like a belt. May those curses become the Lord's punishment for my accusers who speak evil of me, but deal with me, oh, sovereign Lord, for the sake of your own reputation. Rescue me because you are so faithful and good, for I am poor and needy, and my heart is full of pain. Down in verse 26, help me oh Lord my God, save me because of your unfailing love.
Let them see that this is your doing. Let you yourself, that you yourself have done it Lord. Then let them curse me if they like, but you will bless me. Verse 29, may my accusers be clothed with disgrace, may their humiliation cover them like a cloak, but I will give repeated thanks to the Lord praising him to everyone for he stands beside the needy ready to save them from those who condemn them. By way of reflection, Psalm one zero nine is, not for the faint of heart.
This is a prayer in which David is feeling angry and he's directing that feeling of anger towards God in prayer. And his anger really is rooted in the way that people are treating him. Namely those who he would call his friends. He even identifies he's prayed for, yet despite him praying for them, they continue to falsely accuse him. And we see David's frustration with injustice.
He says, man, may his children become fatherless. May they be forgotten. May their sins never be wiped away. And you might think to yourself, like, who prays to God like this? But again, this kind of prayer is preserved in scripture for us because it's a reminder that God honors honest prayers.
He honors honest prayers and he invites us to pray honestly the things that we are feeling even towards other people. However, here's the key difference. This is a prayer in which David is not just venting his anger or he's wanting to take vengeance into his own hands. He is handing this to God through the practice of prayer. This becomes such a healthy, spiritual and emotional discipline for you and I to consider.
Seeing prayer as a place for us to number one locate how we're feeling and then to hand it to God in prayer. Even if it's with even if it's, with anger towards things that are just unjust, in the world or what people are doing to us. And I love that he can so quickly turn from how he's feeling with anger to just saying, God help me, I'm poor and needy. I think our prayer lives honestly bounced back and forth like that and so I just I appreciate the honesty here. But they're down in verse 31, he gives this phrase, he stands beside the needy.
Your translation might say, he is at the right hand of the needy. Now historically, to be at someone's right hand meant that you were standing on their side as their advocate. And so what the hope is today is that as you and I face things in our life or in the world in general that just are not right, it's natural for us to become angry. But again, hand that anger to God through the practice of prayer. And then lastly, remember, he stands as your advocate.
It's so freeing for you and I to not walk burdened by what people might say about us or even burdened by the thought of what they're thinking about us. Why? Because we know we have an advocate in Jesus Christ. We have an advocate who will defend us even to the end. And we have confidence in that because he was willing to die for us.
And Jesus died for his betrayers. He died for his enemies. And he embodied what it looked like to actually bless those who curse you and to forgive those who are even taking your own life. And so, David's prayer becomes a model prayer for us, but ultimately a picture of what Jesus came to do both for those who are victims and the oppressors. And so you and I can learn to yes, pray our emotions, but ultimately see that we have an advocate and we can trust that he will do what is right both for our name and for the rest of the world.
And so Jesus, we hear you now inviting us to surrender our need to defend our own name and to protect our reputation because you're our advocate. And so when we find refuge in you knowing that we can hand you our anger, we can hand you our pain as it relates to what's unfair and the accusations maybe we're experiencing today. And I pray God that we would be able to walk in freedom even as we walk into a work or into a relationship that feels unfair despite our care for that individual. And would you lead us to a place where we can still offer them hope and love. In Jesus name, amen.