H
ow often have you been the victim of slander? False talk that are lies spread abroad about you?
If you closely walk with Christ, this a frequent occurrence that evil people use to derail your walk with God. The devil, his angels, and demons love it and use it on us all the time. It works if you don’t resist the urge to retaliate.
Our brother David in Psalm 31, an individual lament to God, cries out beginning in verse 12:
I am forgotten as a dead man, out of mind; I am like a broken vessel. For I have heard the slander of many, terror is on every side; while they took counsel together against me, they schemed to take away my life.
Then he employs a familiar strategy, invoking imprecatory anger in verses 17-18. That is, asking God to shame, maim, or take out his enemies vs. doing it yourself. Wow. Since we have no clue about mid-eastern thought and culture, we in the west fail to understand that this is loving your enemies. Leaving room for the revenge of God.
The apostle Paul used imprecatory anger when he sarcastically told the Galatians 5.12 he wished those bothering them would ‘castrate themselves.’ Yep, that’s what he said. Check it out. Not nice, but “biblical.” Jesus was not ‘nice.’ (See: FURTHERMORE: NICE IS NOT THE POINT [AT THE BATTLE FRONT 34])
Wikipedia states that imprecatory Psalms are those that invoke judgment, calamity, or curses, upon one’s enemies or those perceived as the enemies of God.
David declares his righteous, holy imprecatory anger, “Let the wicked be put to shame. Let them be silent in Sheol.” Good idea, it seems to him and God. What about us?
“Lord God, help our prayer to be David’s prayer as he muses in this song, ‘But as for me, I trust in You, Lord. I say “You are my God.” My times are in Your hand. Deliver me from the hand of my enemies and from those who persecute me.’”
Your friend and brother in fighting the good fight,
Marc
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Saints, we’re one day closer to Home, and Him! Love Him wholeheartedly!
You may view our Archives here: FRIDAY FIRE – ARCHIVES; Complete Archives; feel free to write and proclaim your leadings in the Spirit in an honorable fashion. May our Father richly bless you with His grace, through Jesus Christ our Lord, in order to walk worthy of His name.
Tom Dooley says
Marc,
Words like these are what people need to hear, not what they want to hear. Keep pulling cotton out of their ears, brother.
Tom
admin says
Thx dear brother – cotton is an effective way of failing to have ears to hear. God help us all.
Marc
Paula says
Just to be clear, slander is not the same as being questioned or challenged or disagreed with strongly. Unfortunately certain popular teachers who get confronted because of their errors immediately resort to “slander” accusations against the one confronting, which actually ends up being the very thing they are accusing the person of.
jesusislord says
Sister Paula,
You’re absolutely correct dear one. The Friday Fire publication is a very short piece as you can see, but you’re exhortation will remind me to include your thought here in the post as I revise it. Thanks again for helping us to be more clear. If you have an example of such, please write it up as a post and send it to us. Feel free to change the names of the parties, or just refer to them as a “brother” or “sister.” We here at Walk Worthy do publish many others works!
Brother Marc
Bart Breen says
Thanks for this reminder Marc. Good words.
Bart
jesusislord says
Brother Bart,
Thanks for very much for the enCOURAGEment dear brother! I’m praying for the Spirit to help me ‘leap for joy’ at all the opposition…:) amen.
Marc
Ken Soderlund says
Marc, I am consistently blessed by your prophetic insights. It is if I’m hearing the voice of the Lord as I read your inspired insights. You are truly a brother calling to us to prepare a way for The Lord. I pray He continue to richly bless you and keep you and make His face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you and turn His face toward you and give you shalom!
jesusislord says
Brother Ken,
What an enCOURAGEment you are to us, dear brother! As you can imagine, we get a fair amount of nasty-grams and even hate mail with our work here. It’s always extremely edifying to know the Lord is changing hearts and growing us all into the image of His Son!
Blessings again, my friend.
Marc