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I call on the Lord in my distress, and He answers me.
Save me, O Lord, from lying lips and from deceitful tongues.
What will He do to you, and what more besides, o deceitful tongue?
He will punish you with a warrior's sharp arrows, with burning coals of the broom tree.
Woe to me, that I dwell in Meshech, that I live among the tents of Kedar.
Too long have I lived among those who hate peace.
I am a man of peace; but when I speak, they are for war.
Psalm 120 is a beautiful reminder that not all our prayers find immediate resolution. Sometimes, the point of prayer is just to be heard by God.
To grasp the depth of the psalmist's cry, let's look at the full context of this Psalm. The Psalmist was embroiled in some sort of situation where he longed for peace but others wanted war. In the midst of a conflict we never wanted, Paul's command to live peaceably "as much as it depends on you" can feel insufficient. When we desperately want peace, our hearts wish that Paul had given us a promise instead of a command. Like a child, we just want God to fix it.
The first of our Psalms brings to mind occurrences in all of our lives when we found ourselves desperately wanting peace, but embroiled instead in conflict. Maybe it was a relationship, or a work situation, or even a church setting where we discovered that everyone else wasn't as eager for peace as we were. I've been there, and so have you. I've cried out to God to just make the conflict go away, to make things right again. As I worked on this Psalm, I could identify with the depth of the psalmist's cry in verse 1.
The word used for "distress" in verse 1 is very interesting. It means "anxiety, trouble" as you might imagine, but it is the exact word used in 1 Samuel 1:6 to identify Hannah's husband's second wife, translated in some cases as "rival wife". Imagine the pain of a rival wife. Imagine the distress Hannah felt as this other women kept provoking her over her childlessness. Hannah wanted a peaceful life, but someone in her life kept stirring up conflict ... someone close enough to make it hurt very badly. That's the type of distress the psalmist experienced. And it drove him to God.
Verse 1 recounts that the psalmist called on the Lord and God answered him. We don't see an immediate resolution in the psalm, but we do see an assurance of judgment. The psalmist cried out for God to save him and God's answer wasn't necessarily immediate. Instead, he received the assurance he needed to write that God would definitely punish the deceiver. In our own trials and pain, delayed justice can be hard to swallow. Yet it was just this type of delayed justice that Paul wrote about to the church at Thessalonica:
God will fix it alright - when Jesus comes. Don't get me wrong - this doesn't excuse us from the responsibility to do all we can to seek justice now, to bring glimpses of His kingdom to earth, for His will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. We can and should fight injustice and work for righteousness to prevail ... as much as it depends on us. The psalmist testified in verse 7 that he spoke up. He tried. But at the end of the day, when we've done our best and "they" are still for war - when the conflicts in our family and church remain, when the wrong law is upheld in court, when the nice guy finishes last ... we have an assurance of a perfect justice yet to come.
We won't always live in Meshech and dwell in Kedar. As long as we do, we have a lot of work ahead of us. But we can throw our hearts into that work knowing how things turn out in the end!
Save me, O Lord, from lying lips and from deceitful tongues.
What will He do to you, and what more besides, o deceitful tongue?
He will punish you with a warrior's sharp arrows, with burning coals of the broom tree.
Woe to me, that I dwell in Meshech, that I live among the tents of Kedar.
Too long have I lived among those who hate peace.
I am a man of peace; but when I speak, they are for war.
Psalm 120 is a beautiful reminder that not all our prayers find immediate resolution. Sometimes, the point of prayer is just to be heard by God.
To grasp the depth of the psalmist's cry, let's look at the full context of this Psalm. The Psalmist was embroiled in some sort of situation where he longed for peace but others wanted war. In the midst of a conflict we never wanted, Paul's command to live peaceably "as much as it depends on you" can feel insufficient. When we desperately want peace, our hearts wish that Paul had given us a promise instead of a command. Like a child, we just want God to fix it.
The first of our Psalms brings to mind occurrences in all of our lives when we found ourselves desperately wanting peace, but embroiled instead in conflict. Maybe it was a relationship, or a work situation, or even a church setting where we discovered that everyone else wasn't as eager for peace as we were. I've been there, and so have you. I've cried out to God to just make the conflict go away, to make things right again. As I worked on this Psalm, I could identify with the depth of the psalmist's cry in verse 1.
The word used for "distress" in verse 1 is very interesting. It means "anxiety, trouble" as you might imagine, but it is the exact word used in 1 Samuel 1:6 to identify Hannah's husband's second wife, translated in some cases as "rival wife". Imagine the pain of a rival wife. Imagine the distress Hannah felt as this other women kept provoking her over her childlessness. Hannah wanted a peaceful life, but someone in her life kept stirring up conflict ... someone close enough to make it hurt very badly. That's the type of distress the psalmist experienced. And it drove him to God.
Verse 1 recounts that the psalmist called on the Lord and God answered him. We don't see an immediate resolution in the psalm, but we do see an assurance of judgment. The psalmist cried out for God to save him and God's answer wasn't necessarily immediate. Instead, he received the assurance he needed to write that God would definitely punish the deceiver. In our own trials and pain, delayed justice can be hard to swallow. Yet it was just this type of delayed justice that Paul wrote about to the church at Thessalonica:
"God is just. He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you, and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with His powerful angels." (2 Thess. 1:6-7)
God will fix it alright - when Jesus comes. Don't get me wrong - this doesn't excuse us from the responsibility to do all we can to seek justice now, to bring glimpses of His kingdom to earth, for His will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. We can and should fight injustice and work for righteousness to prevail ... as much as it depends on us. The psalmist testified in verse 7 that he spoke up. He tried. But at the end of the day, when we've done our best and "they" are still for war - when the conflicts in our family and church remain, when the wrong law is upheld in court, when the nice guy finishes last ... we have an assurance of a perfect justice yet to come.
We won't always live in Meshech and dwell in Kedar. As long as we do, we have a lot of work ahead of us. But we can throw our hearts into that work knowing how things turn out in the end!
1 comment:
Very good. Doubt few have escaped the "I want peace" while others seem intent on "bring on the fight" scenario. While distressing
at best, it perhaps tests the purity of our profession and God can be gloried in our response or
lack thereof. Keeping in mind that
God knows our circumstance, our heart and will ultimately bring the
appropriate response is the key as you stated. Appreciate your thoughts.
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