Daily Devotional for Thursday, November 14

Petition for the Godless and Godly

“They have sharpened their tongues like a serpent; adders’ poison is under their lips. Selah,” Psalm 140:3.

“Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me!” We all know that old childhood saying. I bet we all know something else, too. That saying is one of the falsest things ever said. Words do hurt, and words have incredible power. Read about the destructive power of words in James 3 sometime. Words do hurt, and the damage they do can last for years or even a lifetime.

That seems to be what is happening at this point in today’s psalm. The ungodly are coming after the psalmist, and they intended to do him great harm. In our devotional verse, it seemed they specifically plan to spread lies and slander about the psalmist in an effort to destroy him. Things are tough, and the psalmist did what we all should do when the world seems to be closing in on us. We have probably all been there. It may be at work, family or any other place. It may be because of your faith. Sometimes, it seems the entire world is coming after us. What should we do?

First, a self-check might be in order. Are you innocent of the accusations others are making? If not, then you ought to fix it. Christians should be living in such a way that others have no real reason to bring accusations against them. In other words, do not be a hypocrite. The second thing is to do just what the psalmist did: go to the Lord in prayer for protection from his enemies. Did you notice that the psalmist never asked for strength to defeat his enemies? He just asked the Lord to take care of things.

JUST A THOUGHT
If we are going to claim that others are coming after us unjustly, that means we have to live a just lifestyle.

Wally Fry