Why do you boast of evil, O mighty man?
The steadfast love of the Lord endures all day long.
Your tongue plots destruction like a sharp razor, you worker of deceit.
You love evil more than good, and lying more than speaking what is right.
You love all words that devour, O deceitful tongue. (Vs. 1-4)
The king was in Gibeah when he heard the news. David had made a covenant with Jonathan, King Saul's son. They loved each other as brothers. In fact, Saul told David to leave his extended family and serve the king. Primogeniture called for Jonathan to inherit the throne and a double portion of the family fortune. Jonathan would eventually give up any claim to the throne for David's sake. Perhaps understanding what Saul did not. David was God's choice. The thing is, King Saul had not heard about the deep love between the two men. It made him furious because by that time David had killed his ten thousands and the king was running scared. Just knew David was out to kill him.
So Saul climbs up to a high point on a hill and sits down, spear in hand, under a spreading tamarisk tree. Portable throne in place, he purveys the land from the height. Mad as....he can be. His servants stand about him as he says: "Listen to me, you people of Benjamin!" Yelling it. "Will the son of Jesse give everyone of you fields and vineyards? Will he make you all commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds, that all of you have conspired against me? No one discloses to me when my son makes a covenant with the son of Jesse? None of you is sorry for me or discloses to me that my son has stirred up my servant against me, to lie in wait, as at this day?"
Doeg, the big Edomite, then tattles on David. Says he saw the son of Jesse in Nob where he inquired of the Lord and received provisions from Ahimelech. Show bread, even. Allowed only to the priests. Doeg was a foreigner. Not a Jew. No real connection to the Law of Moses. No understanding of the God they worshipped.
Ahimelech is fetched. Accused. Sentenced to death. Along with the other eighty-four other priests of Nob. The crime. No one told Saul about David. Ahimelech didn't tattle. And, the priest heard from God for David and gave the son of Jesse God's word to him. That was too threatening to Saul because he already knew his days were numbered as king. In his head. Still thought he could rearrange the outcome to his own advantage. The Israelites under Saul's command would not touch the priests. They feared God more than the king.
"Doeg! You turn and strike the priests!" This guy would do it. So figured the king.
And...he did. Killed all eighty-five priests at Nob. But he didn't stop there. The old Doeg got a bit carried away with the smell of blood and revenge. Slaughtered women and infants, men and beasts, ox, donkeys and sheep. A blood bath because the king's feelings were hurt.
Thus this psalm. There is evil. And men and women are driven by it to do the most heinous things. Wars are being waged all over the earth for little more than the king's feelings of rejection. Power and the smell of blood drives entire nations into battle. They are also the catalyst for the destruction of marriages, friendships and our very lives.
The constant? The steadfast love of our God endures all day long. For David and his calling. For us in ours. The sword King Saul held high in his hands that day on the hill in Gibeah he would soon fall upon to take his own life rather than be slaughtered by the enemy. His enemy was not David. It was his own hubris. The origination of the most primal evil. God will win in the end and His purposes completed. Though we are plotted against and lied to and lied about by the enemy, all day long we are kept by the constant love and watchcare of our Father. The father of lies is no match for the Way, the Truth and the Life.
The steadfast love of the Lord endures all day long.
Your tongue plots destruction like a sharp razor, you worker of deceit.
You love evil more than good, and lying more than speaking what is right.
You love all words that devour, O deceitful tongue. (Vs. 1-4)
The king was in Gibeah when he heard the news. David had made a covenant with Jonathan, King Saul's son. They loved each other as brothers. In fact, Saul told David to leave his extended family and serve the king. Primogeniture called for Jonathan to inherit the throne and a double portion of the family fortune. Jonathan would eventually give up any claim to the throne for David's sake. Perhaps understanding what Saul did not. David was God's choice. The thing is, King Saul had not heard about the deep love between the two men. It made him furious because by that time David had killed his ten thousands and the king was running scared. Just knew David was out to kill him.
So Saul climbs up to a high point on a hill and sits down, spear in hand, under a spreading tamarisk tree. Portable throne in place, he purveys the land from the height. Mad as....he can be. His servants stand about him as he says: "Listen to me, you people of Benjamin!" Yelling it. "Will the son of Jesse give everyone of you fields and vineyards? Will he make you all commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds, that all of you have conspired against me? No one discloses to me when my son makes a covenant with the son of Jesse? None of you is sorry for me or discloses to me that my son has stirred up my servant against me, to lie in wait, as at this day?"
Doeg, the big Edomite, then tattles on David. Says he saw the son of Jesse in Nob where he inquired of the Lord and received provisions from Ahimelech. Show bread, even. Allowed only to the priests. Doeg was a foreigner. Not a Jew. No real connection to the Law of Moses. No understanding of the God they worshipped.
Ahimelech is fetched. Accused. Sentenced to death. Along with the other eighty-four other priests of Nob. The crime. No one told Saul about David. Ahimelech didn't tattle. And, the priest heard from God for David and gave the son of Jesse God's word to him. That was too threatening to Saul because he already knew his days were numbered as king. In his head. Still thought he could rearrange the outcome to his own advantage. The Israelites under Saul's command would not touch the priests. They feared God more than the king.
"Doeg! You turn and strike the priests!" This guy would do it. So figured the king.
And...he did. Killed all eighty-five priests at Nob. But he didn't stop there. The old Doeg got a bit carried away with the smell of blood and revenge. Slaughtered women and infants, men and beasts, ox, donkeys and sheep. A blood bath because the king's feelings were hurt.
Thus this psalm. There is evil. And men and women are driven by it to do the most heinous things. Wars are being waged all over the earth for little more than the king's feelings of rejection. Power and the smell of blood drives entire nations into battle. They are also the catalyst for the destruction of marriages, friendships and our very lives.
The constant? The steadfast love of our God endures all day long. For David and his calling. For us in ours. The sword King Saul held high in his hands that day on the hill in Gibeah he would soon fall upon to take his own life rather than be slaughtered by the enemy. His enemy was not David. It was his own hubris. The origination of the most primal evil. God will win in the end and His purposes completed. Though we are plotted against and lied to and lied about by the enemy, all day long we are kept by the constant love and watchcare of our Father. The father of lies is no match for the Way, the Truth and the Life.
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