We Have Met The Enemy And He Is Us

May 4, 2017

We Have Met The Enemy And He Is Us

The godly will rejoice in the Lord

    and find shelter in him.

And those who do what is right

    will praise him.

Psalm 64:10

Psalm 64 is a personal lament David wrote in response to verbal abuse and deceitful people. The psalm is helpful to us as we seek the life in Christ because it models the appropriate response to conflict and persecution. David took his complaint to God. He is not seeking to vindicate himself, rather he asked God to vindicate him. The psalm also affirms that God is the only righteous judge.

There is a danger in too quickly identifying with David and seeing ourselves as victims of abuse, slander or other verbal abuse. Perhaps, if we pause long enough to examine ourselves, we may see ourselves as the abusers. As I read Psalm 64, I thought of Jesus’ command from the Sermon on the Mount,

“Do not judge others, and you will not be judged. For you will be treated as you treat others. The standard you use in judging is the standard by which you will be judged. And why worry about a speck in your friend’s eye when you have a log in your own?” (Matthew 7:1-3).

Of all of Jesus’ commands to his followers, this may well be the one that is least obeyed. Listen to the conversations in the public square, in your churches and communities, and you will hear people pronouncing judgment on others. Listen to your own self-talk, and you probably will hear your self-judgment. As Christians we do great harm to the Body of Christ and to the Kingdom of God when we indulge ourselves in the judgment of others and in harsh judgement of ourselves.

It is so sad that Pogo keeps getting it so right, especially within the Body of Christ: “We have met the enemy and he is us.” However, we do not despair. We remember who we are, and we remember the great promises of God:

“But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!) (Ephesians 2:4-5.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to speak to the Master.

“But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.” 1 John 1:9

Sē’lah

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com.

Publications by Alex M. Knight:

·        Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms has been published and is now available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.

·        The second edition of  First Think – Then Pray is available on Amazon Kindle.

·        Meditations on The Story of My Life as told by Jesus Christ has been released as an e-book on Amazon Kindle.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.