Psalm 35 is one of those many Psalms that I have often struggled with because it is one of those Psalms where I have often read the Psalm to be one of great whining before God. I read words like “May those who seek my life be disgraced and put to shame; may those who plot my ruin be turned back in dismay,” as “Woe is me, God, there are so many meanies out there and I just wish you would blow them into the orbit of Jupiter!” I honestly have always struggled to get anything out of such psalms.
For whatever reason, the words came to life for me today and what I read and heard was this:
God, may I be so close to you and so in tune with your ways and desires that my fight becomes Your fight, my enemies are Your enemies, and my ways are nothing like the ways of those who contend with You.
When I read “They do not speak peaceably, but devise false accusations against those who live quietly in the land,” I also read “although Your enemies do not speak peaceably and are filled with deceitful plans, I am a man of peace of integrity.” And, of course, if I am not a man of peace and integrity then I am an enemy of God!
And, as the psalmist sings “may the angel of the Lord pursue them,” I hear a cry for the salvation of those who are enemies of God. May the angel of the Lord pursue them and may they see Him for Who He Is – their Savior and deliverer!
Oh praise be to God Who Is the answer to our every need!