Psalm 35 17My Lord, how long will You look on? Rescue me from their destruction, my precious life from the lions. 18I will thank You in the great congregation and praise You in a large gathering of people.
It always seems like forever when we are waiting on the LORD to act. But the LORD is arranging things as He knows will work the best for us. David here voices our complaint, “how long will you look on?” He repeats his request to be rescued from his enemies’ plans for him. His pleas are not those of doubt. As he expects help from the LORD, he tells the LORD how he will give him thanks in the congregation of all the saints. Hopefully, when we pray, we also have plans to tell our fellows how God has delivered us and to give Him thanks and praise.
19Don’t let those who are my enemies without a reason gloat over me, nor let those who hate me without a reason give me an evil look. 20They don’t talk of peace but plot to betray people living quietly in the land. 21They open their mouths wide at me, saying, “Aha! Aha! We saw it ourselves.”
Whatever David is experiencing here, Jesus experienced all the more. Those who should have supported him sought His life, hated Him, and plotted to kill Him. They looked for ways to trip Jesus up in order to bring charges against Him. Peace with the King of Peace was not on their minds. Jealousy spurred them on. They opened their mouths wide at Him with false and misleading accusations in order to have Him put to death.
While we may be often the cause for some people not to like us, many times we too are innocent. As we put our faith in Jesus for our salvation, our enemy the devil looks for ways to cause us trouble and to end our lives. He wants to cause us to lose faith in Christ so we may suffer with him. He will stir up opposition to us in those who still belong to him. We will face people spurred on by the father of lies who will lie about us and be deceitful to us and others trying to cause us great trouble. When this happens, pick up these words from this psalm and pray it earnestly and with faith your heavenly Father will hear you and deliver you.
22O LORD, You have seen it — don’t be silent. O Lord, don’t be far away from me. 23Rouse Yourself and give me justice; O my God and Lord, awake and defend my cause.
David and the LORD Jesus Christ, and call upon God our Father as their witness. We should join them in this if we truly believe we are innocent in our dealings with those who cause us great grief. We know our heavenly Father has seen everything. We ask Him not to be silent or far away from us. (Yes, God is omnipresent, but we want Him to be near us with His grace and favor.) Call upon the Judge of heaven and earth to give you justice. David does not depend on himself, but calls the LORD his God and Lord (Adonai). He seeks the LORD as his intercessor and his advocate. Jesus Christ the LORD is our intercessor and advocate at the Father’s right hand. Jesus is our God and Adonai. In our desperation, we may think He is sleeping but He is not. He is not even waiting for us to pray for help. But we should open our mouths and request it from Him so we may know from whence our help comes from. It comes from the LORD.
Heavenly Father, when we are sore oppressed by our enemies, open our mouths so we may request your help and have Christ Jesus our LORD be our advocate at Your right hand to plead our cause. Give us patient endurance as we await from You our salvation in time and in the world to come. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.