The common thread in these psalms is vindication. How can we reconcile David’s frequent longing for vindication with Jesus’ teaching to love your enemies, pray for those who despitefully use you, and if someone slaps your cheek, offer the other cheek? God is a God of justice, and being made in His image, man values justice. Like David, when we are injured, we want the wrongs made right. But God is also a God of love. Out of love Jesus gave up His rights in order to come to earth and be tortured and hung on the cross. The salvation He won for us is so wonderful and abundant that we now have the power to get over ourselves enough to love others as He loved us, as He commanded us to do. The Old Testament offered justice; the New Testament offers love. So while we may long for justice with David, we have been given a better way. As we have seen from previous lessons from the psalms, one way we can follow the better way is to learn from David to take our complaints and our longing for justice to God with the expectation of leaving our burdens with Him, and ask for His help with the loving.
David certainly had reason to want vindication, but he knew that it was God who should vindicate him, and not he himself. How did he discipline himself so that he didn’t do what was in his power to do? In Psalm 17, note what David said he did and what he sought from God in the way of help. One startling thing he asked is, “Keep me as the apple of your eye.” If he can ask that, couldn’t we? Imagine yourself as the apple of God’s eye. Are you willing to hide in the shadow of His wings and take refuge in Him from your foes? With the privilege comes responsibility.
In Psalm 35 David asked God to contend with those who contend with him. Not contending for ourselves is difficult, but God’s plan is that we yield to Him to contend, and we rest from contention. God can contend for us in wonderful fashion, in ways beyond our imagining, and we get to rest in Him and let Him do His lovely work in us. Are there contentions in your life that you should yield to God?
When we choose to obey God, we are transformed ever more into His image, and our love for Him grows, as we have seen in previous days’ reading. Look at David’s love for God: can you say that your whole being longs for God, as one longs for water in a dry land where there is none? Do you value God’s love better than life? Does He satisfy you fully? Why not ask Him to grow that love in you?