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ENEMIES, FEARS AND FAITH (Psalm 64)

Certain psalms are known as imprecatory psalms. These are psalms in which David talked to God about his enemies.

He certainly had his share of those — Saul, Absalom, and the Philistines, just to name a few. He also had his flesh to deal with, which is the worst enemy for any of us.

We all have our enemies. I hear people refer to “our” enemies as the world, the flesh, and the devil. That is true of any Christian. In certain parts of the world, Christians experience real persecution. These people of God have real enemies.

The psalmist understood that every believer has to deal with enemies, and he wrote about it in Psalm 64.

Verse 1: “Hear my voice, O God, in my prayer: preserve my life from fear of the enemy.”

David was afraid - the warrior king of Israel was afraid. We all have fears. People who say they are not afraid of anything are simply lying. Everyone is afraid of something. What we do with those fears is what matters most.

Remember, the Psalms remind us to bring every event, emotion, and experience in life into the presence of God. That is what David did in this case.

When you bring your fear into the presence of a big God, suddenly, it looks very different. David’s perspective was certainly different from verse 9: “And all men shall fear, and shall declare the work of God; for they shall wisely consider of his doing.”

David referred here to everyone fearing the Lord. The fear of God casts out all other fears. If you bring your fears to Him and also have the right kind of fear of Him — a sense of awe and worship — the largeness of God makes your fears smaller and smaller. In fact, everything is small when compared to our great God - even your enemies!

Psalm 64 is divided into two parts. Verses 1-6 talk about the enemy.

Verse 2: “Hide me from the secret counsel of the wicked; from the insurrection of the workers of iniquity.” This shows us something of their attitude. The enemy always wants to stir things up and create division, strife, and problems.

Verse 3: “Who whet their tongue like a sword, and bend their bows to shoot their arrows, even bitter words.” Here, we see the wickedness of their words. You may be dealing with someone now who is shooting bitter words at you. They are painful, but God can deal with it.

Verse 4: “That they may shoot in secret at the perfect: suddenly do they shoot at him, and fear not.” David was afraid of them, but they had no fear of God.

Verse 5: “They encourage themselves in an evil matter: they commune of laying snares privily; they say, Who shall see them?” Here is more evidence of the attitude of wicked people - those who think they will get by with their evil. They think no one sees and no one cares. But there is One who sees everything and understands exactly what is going on. That is our God.

Verse 6: “They search out iniquities; they accomplish a diligent search: both the inward thought of every one of them, and the heart, is deep.” David connected their words with the condition of their heart. As Matthew 12:34 says, “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.”

A person’s mouth tells on his heart. The real problem with the wicked is not what they do or say but what they are. The heart is vile. The fountain inside is spewing out evil things, which is why it comes out of the mouth. Do not be surprised or shocked when wicked men do wicked things or when people who do not know God act like lost people.

Even a Christian will do that from time to time because all of us who are born again still battle our sin nature. It all begins in the heart.

If Psalm 64 ended with verse 6, it would be depressing. Everything to this point has been all about the enemy. But not anymore.

Verse 7: “But God shall shoot at them with an arrow; suddenly shall they be wounded.” Those two words, “But God,” change everything. Notice that in verse 4, the enemy was shooting arrows, but in this verse, God is the one shooting arrows.

Verse 8: “So they shall make their own tongue to fall upon themselves: all that see them shall flee away.” The boomerang of sin always comes back. It is the principle of sowing and reaping. Wicked men may say and do terrible things, but God will judge them in the end. Let Him take care of the enemies.

Martin Luther said, “Always remember that even the devil is God’s devil.” The Lord is the One who keeps the enemies in check and will take care of them in the end. Jesus told His disciples in John 15:18, “If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.”

Why does the devil hate believers and the church? Because he hates our God. It is not that we are important at all, except that we are important to the God who loves us. That is why he strikes at us.

Why does the world hate a righteous man who tries to speak the truth? Because he represents the God of truth and righteousness that the world does not know.

Verse 9: “And all men shall fear, and shall declare the work of God; for they shall wisely consider of his doing.” This is another way of saying, “That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:10-11).

Here is how Psalm 64 ends, with verse 10: “The righteous shall be glad in the Lord, and shall trust in him; and all the upright in heart shall glory.”

What a shift in tone. It ends not with fear but with gladness, trust, and glory.

No matter what you are facing right now, regardless of your adversary and how wounded you may feel, that is not the end. In the end, you will have gladness as you realize that God was with you all along.

Do exactly what David did. Bring your enemies into the presence of a holy God and commit them to Him.

Keep your eyes on the Lord. Fear Him. Trust Him.

God always takes care of the enemies.