July 6, 2017
Have You Ever Been Falsely Accused?
O God, whom I praise,
don’t stand silent and aloof
while the wicked slander me
and tell lies about me.
Psalm 109:1-2
You may have wanted to stop
before you finished reading Psalm 109. It certainly seems to fly in the face of
all that Jesus teaches His followers. However, we don’t want to dismiss it too
quickly.
Have you ever been falsely
accused? When accusations are made, everything changes. Even when the false
accusations are revealed as such, relationships between everybody associated
with the accusations, friend or foe, are changed. Why? It is the nature of our
humanity to connect our sense of self-worth with our environment. Basically,
what we do, how we perform in our world and what we perceive other people think
of us affects our self-esteem. We can develop coping skills and thick skin to
defend ourselves against the appraisal of others, but these self-defense skills
also serve to diminish the intimacy of our relationships. Vulnerability and
intimacy go hand and hand; one does not exist without the other.
In Psalm 109, the psalmist is
deeply wounded by the accusations of others. In his world, the good will of others
and a good reputation are essential to a sense of well-being. While he desires
to live in a state of well-being grounded in love, his reality is the opposite
of love: fear. Anger is the core attribute of fear, and the psalmist’s cup is
running over with his anger. He prays for vindication and vengeance in a
desperate attempt to restore his sense of self-worth.
First, let’s resist the
temptation to harshly judge David. Remember, he lived hundreds of years before
the Apostle Paul taught the New Testament church about new life in Christ.
David was doing his best to live within the religious and cultural norms of his
era. However, we can learn a great deal from David’s emotional outpouring in
Psalm 109. It was to God that David appealed, for both his vindication, and
vengeance in his behalf.
As the followers of Christ, we
know that we died to this life, and our real life is hidden with Christ in God.
Even so, our sense of well-being is assaulted at times. We do experience fear
and anger. Our efforts to stifle these emotions only serve to diminish our
relationships with God and with other people. There are times when all of us
would do well to follow David’s lead and ventilate our fears and anger.
Ventilate to God and then rest in His presence until you can pray Psalm 23 with
affection and love for the One who can set you free from your fear and
anger.
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.
Copyright ©
2017 by Alex M. Knight
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.
