Mensa Otabil - When My Enemies Turn Back (10/07/2025)
Well, welcome to the month of February, a brand new month. We ended January yesterday, and today we start a new month. It’s always joyful to welcome a new month and walk through it and live through it. May the Lord watch over each one of us, protect us, and keep us throughout this month. Let all things work together for our good. We go back to our study of the Psalms, and we are in Psalm 9. We looked at the first two verses yesterday; today we look at the third verse, and it says, «When my enemies turn back, they shall fall and perish at Your presence.»
In verses one and two, David, the psalmist, wheels to praise God. He says, «I will praise God; I will tell of His marvelous works.» So, he tells us to rejoice in the Lord and that he will honor the name of the Lord. All of these things he tells us he’s going to do. Why? Why are you praising God, David? That verse three tells us where he is; he’s being pursued; enemies are after him. David is not praising God because life is good for him; he’s praising God in the midst of an attack. There are people pursuing him; there are enemies after him. But he starts with praising God. Isn’t that something? In the midst of a violent attack, he starts with praising God. «I will praise God.»
Now, he tells us what’s happening, and he says, «When my enemies turn back, they shall fall and perish.» That means they are running after me, but I expect that they will turn back. So, look at the phrase «When my enemies turn back.» They haven’t, but they will. They will, and David shows us that God is present with us at all times, and that the presence of our enemy is not the absence of God. The presence of trouble does not denote the absence of God. God is present with us in the midst of our attacks. When we’re running for our lives, when we’re scared, God is still there, and David shows us, «I can still praise God.» Although I’m running, I can still praise God; although life is hard, I can still worship the Lord; although there are people pursuing me.
But I like what he says about his enemy. He says they’re pursuing me, but they will turn back. In other words, they will not catch up to me, and they will not overtake me. And that is a word of declaration you can live with: your enemy may pursue you, but they will never catch up to you, and they will never overtake you. David says they will turn back, and today may that be your portion-that everything that is pursuing you may seem to be running after you, but it will not get to where you are, and it will not overtake you.
So that’s the first thing David says, and then he says they shall fall and perish at Your presence. So he says not only will they not catch up to me, but they shall fall and perish. This is a statement of faith; it hasn’t happened. He’s praising God, but he’s making this declaration: this is how this battle is going to end. These people pursuing me will fall, and they will perish. But watch what he says will make them fall and perish. He’s not saying they’ll fall and perish because I’m a mighty warrior, but he says they will fall and perish at the presence of the Lord.
So David recognizes in the midst of this trouble, the Lord is present with me, and because the Lord is present with me, the enemy or the trouble that is pursuing me will fall and perish. What makes the difference is not the presence of David; what makes the difference is the presence of God. And when God is present with you, the enemy will fall and perish. Whatever form the enemy takes that is pursuing a righteous child of God, the enemy will fall and perish because of the presence of God. So we learn that although we may be running, although we may be going through some difficulty at this time, we can still praise God. And it is praise that brings God onto the scene; God inhabits the praise of His people.
So as David is praising, God is present in his battles, and he says, because the Lord is present, my enemies will fall and perish. That is something we can learn to live with in our lives-that in the midst of our struggle, we choose to praise God. We bring Him present, and our enemy falls and perishes. May the Lord give you victory in every battle in Jesus' name.
Let us pray. Say with me, «Heavenly Father, Your presence turns my enemies away. At Your appearance, darkness disappears. In Jesus' name, amen and amen.» And that’s how we begin February. I’m Pastor Mensa Otabil. Shalom, peace, and life to you.