My wife and I are reading through the Psalms in our evening reading and occasionally a nugget of the Psalms jumps out of the page. Don’t you love it when, after years of reading the “Old Book” passages become alive, reinforcing old teachings or simply warming your heart.
This is the book of Psalms, and it is rich.
I pray I can communicate a portion of the blessing we receive from this wonderful book.
Psalm 35
7 For without cause they hid their net for me; without cause they dug a pit 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!
This short passage is a continuation of the imprecatory prayer of David, of his desire and request that the Lord deal with his enemies.
Verse 7 is providing David’s blamelessness in front of his enemies. And it speaks of the greater David’s righteousness in front of His enemies.
David’s enemies hid a net and dug a pit (poetically speaking) for him to be entrapped in, but David boldly declared that the enemies were motivated by something other than David’s actions. He claims the actions were not cause of the enemies hatred! In other words, H actions were not the reason causing this hatred. How bold! How proud of David to claim this!
But wait a minute. Is this not to be the condition of each believer? Is not the believer to walk in such a way as to be blameless?
Consider David’s situation. He acquires enemies seemingly “out of nowhere”. And these enemies are hunting him down. Without reason. Is it not somewhat confusing for us when we acquire an enemy out of nowhere?
Our lives are to be of a blameless character. Notice that I am not associating blamelessness with perfection or sinlessness. I remind you that Paul’s prayer was seeking believers to
10…. be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, – Philippians 1:10 ESV
Now we need to understand that to be blameless is to be without blame. (Duh – that is obvious Carl.) Ok, in other words, to be blameless is to be without any cause of stumbling another.
If we commit a sin against a brother, we are to ask for forgiveness, and thereby enter into blamelessness. If a believer offends a non-believer, they are to seek seek reconciliation and forgiveness from the non-believer. Blamelessness must be maintained by avoiding or removing any instance of blameworthiness. (Dang – I am using big words today, no?)
Nevertheless, you see the reason I did not assign blamelessness to the Son of God, since it may imply the requirement of forgiveness due to an unjust offense. Blamelessness is never used in relation the the Master in the New Testament Psalm 35:7 may be rightly understood as prophetic of the Son, describing His righteous actions towards those who rose up as enemies against Him.
In verse 8, David returns to the idea of “letting” destruction come upon his enemies, and it may be of benefit to remember the principle of how the devices of the wicked boomerang on them. A bit fuller explanation may be found in the previous post Psalms for Psome – Ps 35 – B.
Both David and Jesus had powerful enemies arrayed against them in their tribulations, and both were rescued.
But how marvelous was the rescue of the Savior. How incredible the deliverance, even from the grave! How utterly fantastic the reclaiming of His life. He who did no harm, who was hated without cause, and who suffered such horrible treatment from His subjects, patiently enduring the shame and agony of the cruel crucifixion, how magnificent the Savior is in his resurrection!
He is righteous. We are not. (I speak of experience, not in standing!) Our focus, at least out of this passage, is a call to blamelessness. A desire to keep “short accounts” with those we hobnob with.
And to understand, that as we maintain (or work to become blameless) we will acquire enemies without cause. David did. Jesus did. The prophets did. The apostles did.
Ok then, so do you got some enemies? By being blameless I mean. By doing good and not evil?
For a believer to accumulate enemies by being offensive, rude, hateful proud or self righteous is not the calling we have brothers. Acquiring adversaries through doing good, (and not evil) is the way of the Master.
For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. – 1Peter 2:15 ESV
By the way, where are you in relation to being blameless with your spouse, your children, your employer or even that cantankerous church member that rubs you the wrong way? Accept a position of humility in your life, and reach out to those you may suffer insult from. They may even cause you offence or hurt. Seek forgiveness and relationship with your enemy. Do good.
For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. – 1Peter 2:20 ESV
Remember, by doing good we may acquire enemies, but in the acquiring of these enemies, we are to remain blameless even with those who seek our harm.
But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, – Mat 5:44 ESV
Leave your thoughts and comments below. As always I look forward to hearing from you.
Thanks again for coming to visit. I hope you found something of interest in this post and would appreciate a comment, to begin a discussion.
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