Our Reading: Psalm 83 and Hebrews 1:3, 1 Peter 2:13-17

Have you ever felt hemmed in all sides by forces that conspired against you, by people who plotted your demise? This is what Asaph felt as the Israelites found themselves surrounded by people who did not serve God and wanted to wipe the Israelite nation from the face of Earth. Even in the world today, there are many nations and even groups within our own countries who wish to conspire against Christianity and wipe Christians from the face of the Earth. Our fears and anxieties may rise but we should take the example of Asaph and take our concerns to God and ask for His intervention:

“O God, do not keep silence; do not hold your peace or be still, O God! For behold, your enemies make an uproar; those who hate you have raised their heads.” Psalm‬ ‭83‬:‭1‬-‭2‬

Asaph knew what God was capable of. He knew the historical proof that God could defeat and destroy the plans and resources of the enemy. 

“O my God, make them like whirling dust, like chaff before the wind. As fire consumes the forest, as the flame sets the mountains ablaze, so may you pursue them with your tempest and terrify them with your hurricane!” Psalm‬ ‭83‬:‭13‬-‭15‬ ‭

We can relate to wanting those who wish us harm to be defeated but can we relate to the very special request that Asaph makes on behalf of those enemies?

“Fill their faces with shame, that they may seek your name, O Lord.” Psalm‬ ‭83‬:‭16‬ 

He doesn’t just want them annihilated, but he wants them to be humbled and realize their need for God as their Savior. “Shame has often weaned men from their idols, and set them upon seeking the Lord.” (Spurgeon)

This is important for us to understand. God often has to break a man’s proud and self serving spirit before he realizes his need for God and desires to seek God. All hateful, vindictive, manipulative and power seeking behavior as well as self destructive behavior reflects a soul that is yielded to selfish focus. God has to bring a person to the end of themselves before they realize their need for Him and will be willing to repent. This is something God must do in a person’s life and we can interfere with that when we try to take matters into our own hands by attacking, defending, or just enabling. We should seek the counsel of God and what He wants us to do vs not do and we should patiently allow God to intervene. 

This is a hard truth to put into application and we must have God’s help to do so. We must remember:

Evildoers do not understand what is right, but those who seek the LORD understand it fully. Proverbs 28:5 

Even on the cross, Jesus referred to this: Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” Luke 23:34

Perhaps this is why God asks us to have a gracious heart toward our enemies and pray for them.

Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Romans 12:17-21

I am not advocating for someone to be a doormat for abuse or to ignore the wrong behaviors of others. I am just advocating for us to examine our own hearts and attitudes towards others. We should aim to keep the right perspective and to choose carefully our actions and responses so that we would honor God, including taking a stand to uphold his values, but also show Christian love toward our oppressors. 

Even as we seek justice and desire for God to intervene, we must have the same goal as Asaph in wanting God to stir up mighty action and opposition against those who practice evil: “that they may know that you alone, whose name is the Lord, are the Most High over all the earth.” Psalm‬ ‭83‬:‭18‬ ‭

Reflection: 

1. How do you view the difficult people in your life and do you consider your actions and reactions in the context of honoring God?
2. How do you view those who are against your Christian values? Do you pray for them?
3. Do you pray for God to do whatever it takes to bring the unsaved or the prodigal to a place of humility and realization of their need for Him? 

Prayer: Father, may we always seek to honor you, even when we have to deal with difficult people who rise up in opposition against us and against You. May we seek Your wisdom and intervention instead of just recklessly taking matters into our own hands. Help us to see our enemy as You see Him..lost and desperately in need of You. May our hearts long for You to intervene in a way that declares You to be the most high God. 

What an amazing display of love that God chose to connect to humanity by becoming human and living as one of us. He was fully God and fully human all at the same time. He didn’t empty himself of any of his attributes of deity but He did humbly take on the role of a servant who came to ultimately serve. 

By taking on human flesh, He could truly empathize with all of the experiences of being human and yet do so without sin. He knew hunger and also the satisfaction of being fed. He knew warmth and cold, pleasure and pain. He experienced friendship and rejection. He was loved and admired and he was persecuted and brutally slain. He knew firsthand what it was like to be human and to deal with temptation. “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.”  Hebrews‬ ‭4:15‬  

When Jesus came to Earth, he could have come in a great display of powerful Lordship, He could have chosen to be born into a circumstance of wealth, prestige, and honor. He could have made himself handsome and of great stature parading around with a perfect physique. He could have had a grand palace or temple with large armies and servants waiting on him hand and foot. He certainly would have been deserving of such a pampered lifestyle of prestige and ease but that was not his goal. His goal was to come as the most humble servant and to be the sacrificial lamb who would reconcile sin stained humanity back to a righteous, holy God. It was not about Him being glorified as man but being glorified to God on behalf of man.  “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."”  Mark‬ ‭10:45‬ 

How blessed we are to have the words of Jesus and the acts of his life so accessible through the Bible. Jesus showed us what God the Father was like. He created the only path to God that would atone for our sin and He showed us what it truly looked like to have the heart of a devoted servant and obedient Son. This was how He emptied himself….by becoming deity clothed in humanity. No greater act of love exists. 

“When Jesus Christ did something about your sin and mine, He didn’t give us the leftovers. He poured all that made Him God into man so that man would have all of God. There is nothing that belonged to God that man didn’t have when Jesus emptied Himself into man”.  - Tony Evans

For some reason, when I think about the woman described in Proverbs 31, I think about my grandmother. Now, she differs greatly from this woman who was described as a wife, attending to her household full of people. By the time I came into my grandmother’s life, her husband had passed away and her children were grown and she lived alone with a very meager income. And yet, to me she embodied a passion for life, for people and for God that enriched my heart and established a deep sense of awe and wonder. She was always busy and yet she balanced that with engaging time spent with her grandchildren and the many children she taught in kindergarten and Sunday School. Her love and passion for God was known by all who met her. Even as her body wasted away from cancer in her early 60s,she flourished in His love, peace, and wisdom. Even at her weakest, she was strong. 

In Proverbs 31, King Lemuel is passing on words of wisdom from his mother. She desired for him to be careful about choosing the right woman to marry because she knew that he needed a woman who would be a home builder and not a home breaker. Yes, the woman is described by her feats and accomplishments but that is not the emphasis. The emphasis is the source of her strength and accomplishments. As we look through the Scriptures we can catch glimpses of this type of woman who draws her strength from God and flourishes like a tree.

“But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God. I trust in the steadfast love of God forever and ever.”  Psalm‬ ‭52:8‬ ‭

Just like the Proverbs 31 woman, women like my grandmother are a blessing to their husbands and those they graciously serve. “An excellent wife who can find? She is far more precious than jewels. The heart of her husband trusts in her, and he will have no lack of gain. She does him good, and not harm, all the days of her life.”  Proverbs‬ ‭31:10-12‬ . 

These women nourish the souls entrusted to them and their spiritual growth is like a living, breathing pulse that energizes and encourages those around them. “Blessed is everyone who fears the Lord, who walks in his ways! You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands; you shall be blessed, and it shall be well with you. Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house; your children will be like olive shoots around your table. Behold, thus shall the man be blessed who fears the Lord.”  Psalm‬ ‭128:1-4 

Even as they age, there is a distinctive strength of character and steadfastness because they are rooted in Christ.  “The righteous flourish like the palm tree and grow like a cedar in Lebanon. They are planted in the house of the Lord; they flourish in the courts of our God. They still bear fruit in old age; they are ever full of sap and green, to declare that the Lord is upright; he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him.”  Psalm‬ ‭92:12-15

‭‭My grandmother was a woman I admired and I longed to emulate her as I established my own family, but when she passed away, I was 18 and I foolishly abandoned my trust in God. I busied myself with trying to be successful in my own efforts. It was no wonder that my household began to fall apart. I was trying to build it on my own efforts. But, God reminded me that my grandmother’s life was rich and  purposeful in spite of her circumstances because she was rooted in Him. When I sincerely surrendered to letting God be the source of my strength, knowledge, and love, He began to build and establish my household. I had to learn that all of my busyness and people pleasing pursuits of perfection were in vain. The Proverbs 31 woman trusted in the promises of God and let Him establish the success of her home and the security of her household. “Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives to his beloved sleep.”  Psalm‬ ‭127:1-2‬ ‭

None of us can be like the woman described in Proverbs 31 by our own efforts. It’s not what we do or don’t do but who we are rooted in that makes the difference. God promises to help us, teach us, mold and shape us. He promises to be the source of our strength no matter our circumstances.