Ask God To Fight for You

Psalm 35 seems like David is only in a personal squabble with some unfaithful friends. But the Hebrew language throughout betrays that idea. It's King David imploring the Lord on his behalf against the enemies poised against him. This is a prayer made by a warrior on the eve of the battle.

And David asks God flat out to fight for him...
Psalm 35:1–3 (ESV) 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 against my pursuers! Say to my soul, “I am your salvation!”

David asks God to fight for him. What a great idea.

Sometimes in the middle of our hardest battles we forget to ask God for victory! Now of course, we don't wage war in military campaigns. But we do fight a spiritual enemy with demon hoards around us seeking to devour and destroy and devastate us. But we are not without hope and we are far from helpless. Our God will fight for us and we have every right as His children to ask Him to step in for us!

Do you feel discouraged? Do you hear the voices of the enemy weighing you down? Don't just let him do the talking, ask your Lord to send the enemy packing. 

2 Corinthians 10:4 (NKJV) 4 For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds...

David is confident to ask God to fight for Him. AND David fully believes the Lord will come through for Him.
Psalm 35:9–10 (ESV) 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?”

David tells the Lord this deliverance will give him reason to rejoice. The battle tends to weary us. But we do not have to fight it alone! Our joy can be in the Lord again as we take to heart the reality that God is for us and we are victorious. 

Psalm 35:18 (ESV) I will thank you in the great congregation; in the mighty throng I will praise you.

David is sure to make this a testimony for others. He's not only going to rejoice in the victory the Lord brings. He's going to share the news with all who will listen.

In the midst of the battle...
Pray for God to fight for you.
Expect a victorious end.
And make certain to tell others what God has done.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

God’s View of You

Sometimes I think we imagine that God is mostly disappointed with us. That He puts up with us and bears with us because He has to (after all He is love), but most of the time our glaring weaknesses weary Him and make His day miserable. Of course, this is the devil’s doing in our minds. The truth of scripture bears out that the world has to get staunch-raving evil before God is totally weary of us. And the stories in the Old Testament remind us with each passing character that God is patient, loving and kind to His very flawed inconsistent servants. Saul is a case study of this. His lineage will not hold the kingdom, that has already been stated from the mishap of offering the sacrifice instead of waiting for Samuel to arrive in 1 Samuel 13. His next great gaff will happen in the chapter to come in 1 Samuel 15 where his own kingship will be taken from him and the anointing placed on one soon to come. Yes, God will regret making Saul king and we’ll talk about that next. But for now...
Read more

The Stain of Slavery

One of the greatest pains in my heart over the history of the church is the fact that many "Bible-believing" Christians used the Bible to promote, continue, and enable slavery in America's past. It may have happened elsewhere, but I'm an American, and I know it happened here. Then, some repeatedly make the claim because of a tiny amount of verses where God informs Israel on how to take slaves, it means the Bible is a pro-slavery document. How absurd. The overarching narrative of the Bible is that God sets the slaves free. The second book testifies to this part of God's character.  Getting to Jeremiah's day, one of the reasons Israel's nation was handed over to exile was because they enslaved each other. This attitude was so engrained into the culture of Israel that they had a hard time giving up slavery even in the face of national catastrophe.  In Jeremiah 34, the king is promised that he will die in Babylon, but he will die in peace. Jeremiah 34:3–5 (ESV...
Read more

Leaders Who Later Fail

Remember Johanan from Jeremiah 41? The man who saved many others from the threats of the murderous coup? He seemed like a noble leader. But time reveals a lot.  Jeremiah 42:5–6 (ESV)  Then they said to Jeremiah, “May the LORD be a true and faithful witness against us if we do not act according to all the word with which the LORD your God sends you to us. 6 Whether it is good or bad, we will obey the voice of the LORD our God to whom we are sending you, that it may be well with us when we obey the voice of the LORD our God.” These are the words of the presumptive leaders of Israel in the land while the nation is in exile. The previous chapter saw a hero arise to protect a few remaining survivors. His name was Johanan. On the surface, he seems like a good man, seeking the will of the Lord in his leadership position. Jeremiah returns with directives from the Lord: Jeremiah 42:10 (ESV) If you will remain in this land, then I will build you up and not pull you down; I will plant y...
Read more