Mensa Otabil - God Rejects Rebellion
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Welcome, and I trust that the Lord is giving you strength every day as you feed on His word. We are in Psalm 5 and we’re looking at verses 9 and 10, and it reads: «For there is no faithfulness in their mouth; their inward part is destruction; their throat is an open tomb; they flatter with their tongue. Pronounce them guilty, O God; let them fall by their own counsels; cast them out in the multitude of their transgressions, for they have rebelled against You.»
It’s apparent that David wrote Psalm 5 at a time when his enemies were all around him, maliciously attacking him with false accusations. David sees these people as disloyal, unfaithful individuals- people who are close to him but are trying very hard to destroy him. If you look at the passage, he describes them as destructive. He says their inward part is destruction; that means that within them, in their motives and intentions, there is hostility. Then he says they are deadly people; their throat is an open tomb. This means that these people come up with words or spew out all kinds of accusations to slander and ruin David. So he says their throat is an open tomb; they are deadly.
Then he describes them as deceptive people; they flatter with their tongue. This means they are hypocritical and cunning. These are the kinds of people who have surrounded David and are giving him a hard time. He has not mentioned the sins of these people before God. Now, he petitions God to do something about it. He says that God should pronounce them guilty, and from that pronouncement of guilt, He should drive them away from His presence.
David sees what the people are doing as a rebellion not only against him but against God. This is true because God’s future plan of salvation deeply involves David; it started from Abraham, but now it is on David, and the line is through David. So anybody who is fighting David and opposing him might be fighting against the purposes of God because of this grand agenda of salvation coming through the line of David. David does not see this as a personal attack. There are times people attack you personally because you’ve done something bad, and you retaliate. But there are also times when people frustrate or attempt to frustrate the purposes of God. That is what is happening here. These people, as David says, «for they have rebelled against You.» This is not just something against David but against the Lord.
So David petitions the Lord to drive them away from His presence. He can go into God’s presence, but he says, «God, don’t let these people come into Your presence.» Now, that leads us to the prayer of David — prayers that sometimes petition God against our enemies — the imprecatory prayers, or prayers of curses. In our part of the world, people call them dangerous prayers. People release all these kinds of prayers because they read some of David’s words, and anytime they feel something unfavorable, they release a prayer against him.
But that is not what is happening here. David sees himself as preserving the line of God and the heritage of salvation, and these people are frustrating that heritage. He says they are rebelling against God, not against David, not because David did something wrong, but because they are rebelling against God. He says, «God, drive them out from Your presence.»
However, the big question is: should we be praying such prayers? In the New Testament, in light of what Christ taught us, should we pray against our enemies? Clearly, Jesus said we should pray for our enemies, and He demonstrated it on the cross when He said, «Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing» to His enemies. So from a Christian point of view, a New Testament perspective, we do not pray against our enemies; we pray for God’s grace, God’s mercy, and God’s forgiveness for those who do not like us.
So that is the big lesson to learn: David surrenders his enemies to God, but it is left to God to determine what He wants to do with those who oppose you-whether He wants to show grace to them or judgment to them. That is up to God.
Let us pray. Say with me: Heavenly Father, You are the great Deliverer. Deliver me from every trap of wickedness that has been set for me in Jesus' name. Amen and amen.