In this reflection, we continue looking at the difficult and often uncomfortable imprecatory Psalms with Psalm 140. David cries out to God for protection from those who have hurt him and asks God to bring judgment upon his enemies. How do we reconcile these words with Jesus’ command to love our enemies? As we wrestle with that question, we explore the difference between karma and grace. Christianity isn’t about getting what we deserve; it’s about receiving the grace and mercy of God. At the same time, our choices have consequences, and what we sow can shape the harvest of our lives. Psalm 140 gives us permission to be honest about our anger and pain while reminding us to choose what we want to plant in our lives: mercy, goodness, peace, forgiveness, and grace.
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Good morning! It’s good to see you on this Friday morning.
I hope you’re well. I hope your week has been good, and I hope you’ve got a good plan for the weekend.
I’m excited about this weekend here in Starkville. We’ve got a big Sunday planned for worship. We’re starting a new series talking about why church matters.
Why does this whole thing matter?
Why is it worthwhile to wake up early on Sunday morning, get dressed, drive down the street, and come to church?
Why does any of this matter?
We’ve got our college lunch this Sunday, too. We’re going to feed lunch to all of our college kids here at State who want to come over. We’re hoping to have a good crowd and feed a bunch of college students a free meal.
And we’re going to talk about why we think this whole church thing matters and why it’s worthwhile.
And I think that’s a good message for us as adults to think about, too.
Why does this matter?
Why are we doing this?
Why does church matter?
We’ll spend some time talking about that on Sunday.
But today we’re going to do Psalm 140.
And then starting Monday, we’re going to begin Daniel.
That’ll be fun.
And interesting.
And probably a little challenging.
But today we’re looking at another one of what are called the imprecatory Psalms—these Psalms of vengeance and judgment. These are Psalms that are difficult for us to understand and sometimes hard for us to wrap our minds around.
We did Psalm 109 yesterday, and it was challenging.
Today we’re going to look at Psalm 140, and it’s equally challenging.
Another one of David’s Psalms.
Let’s read it.
“Deliver me, O Lord, from evildoers; protect me from those who are violent, who plan evil things in their minds and stir up wars continually. They make their tongue sharp as a snake’s, and under their lips is the venom of vipers.”
David continues to talk about people who are trying to hurt him.
“Guard me, O Lord, from the hands of the wicked; protect me from the violent who have planned my downfall. The arrogant have hidden a trap for me, and with cords they have spread a net along the road; they have set snares for me.”
And then David says:
“I say to the Lord, ‘You are my God; give ear, O Lord, to the voice of my supplications.’”
He calls God his strong deliverer.
And then we get to the hard part.
“Do not grant, O Lord, the desires of the wicked; do not further their evil plot.”
And then:
“Let the mischief of their lips overwhelm them.”
“Let burning coals fall on them.”
“Let them be flung into pits, no more to rise.”
“Do not let the slanderer be established in the land.”
“Let evil speedily hunt down the violent.”
And then David ends with:
“I know that the Lord maintains the cause of the needy and executes judgment for the poor. Surely the righteous shall give thanks to your name; the upright shall live in your presence.”
Another Psalm where, for me, verses 10 and 11 really hit at it.
“Let burning coals fall on them.”
“Let them be flung into pits, no more to rise.”
“Let evil speedily hunt down the violent.”
These are not easy words to hear.
And they’re difficult because, again, they’re hard to reconcile with Jesus.
Jesus tells us to love our enemies.
Jesus tells us to pray for those who persecute us.
And here David is saying, “Let evil hunt them down.”
That’s not exactly Good Samaritan language.
That’s hard language.
And I think, as we said yesterday, in some ways these Psalms show us the very real language of how we sometimes feel when things are hard and painful and challenging.
There are times when we feel this way.
There are times when we are angry.
There are times when we feel betrayed.
There are times when we’re hurt.
And I think the Psalm gives voice to that anger.
It gives voice to that betrayal.
It gives us language—maybe language we shouldn’t aspire to—but language that names how we sometimes feel.
Because the reality is, we’re going to feel that way sometimes.
And I think there’s a line from one of the Batman movies—Batman Begins, which is one of my favorite superhero movies—that I think is interesting here.
Spoiler alert for a movie that’s almost 20 years old now.
Batman has an opportunity to kill his enemy, and he doesn’t.
But he says, “I’m not going to kill you. But I don’t have to save you.”
And then he leaves him as the train crashes.
And I think in some ways that’s what David is saying here.
He’s saying, “Lord, they have done these things. They’ve planned my downfall. They’ve set traps for me. They’ve tried to destroy me.”
And David is essentially saying:
“Lord, let them have what they’ve dished out.”
And that’s where I think we have to be careful.
Because one thing I believe strongly is that we Christians do not believe in karma.
Karma is essentially the idea that you get what you deserve.
You’ve done A, so you’re going to get B.
You’ve done something bad, so the universe is going to give something bad back to you.
You get what’s coming to you.
You get what you deserve.
But that’s not Christianity.
We don’t believe in karma.
We believe in grace.
We don’t believe in a God who’s out to get us.
We believe in a God who is always for us.
A God who loves us.
A God who cares for us.
A God who encourages us.
A God who restores us.
A God who saves us.
We don’t believe in karma.
Karma is works-based.
You do A, you get B.
You do good, you get good.
You do bad, you get bad.
And you read the Gospels, and that’s not how it works.
People get grace who don’t deserve it.
The thief on the cross didn’t do anything to deserve grace.
The workers in Jesus’ parable who came at the end of the day received the same wages as the people who had worked all day.
Why?
Because the landowner was able to be generous.
That’s grace.
We don’t believe in karma because, quite honestly, we don’t want what we deserve.
We want grace.
We want mercy.
We want God to give us what we need, not simply what we’ve earned.
But—and this is where I think this Psalm is helpful—I do believe that sometimes we reap what we sow.
That’s different from karma.
I saw a little Internet picture one day that looked like a gas station sign, and it said:
“Everything happens for a reason.”
And underneath it said:
“Sometimes the reason is we’re dumb and we make bad decisions.”
And there’s some truth in that.
Because our choices have consequences.
If I live my life by the sword, eventually I may die by the sword.
If I live my life by slander, I’m probably going to find myself surrounded by slander.
If I live my life by gossip, I’m going to discover what it feels like to be gossiped about.
If I live my life by hatred, I’m going to find myself surrounded by hatred.
If I live my life by vengeance, I’m going to discover what vengeance does to me and to the people around me.
And that’s different from karma.
I don’t believe God is sitting up there saying, “You did this, so I’m going to make sure you get this.”
That’s not the God we see in Jesus.
But I do believe that the choices we make matter.
The attitude we cultivate matters.
The relationships we cultivate matter.
The people we surround ourselves with matter.
The way we live our lives matters.
And what we sow eventually has a way of becoming part of the harvest of our lives.
David is saying here, these people have lived lives of vengeance.
They’ve lived lives of harm.
They’ve lived lives of pain.
They’ve planned my downfall.
They’ve hidden traps.
They’ve spread nets.
They’ve set snares.
And David says, “Lord, let them experience the consequences of what they’ve done.”
And I think there’s something for us to learn from that.
Not karma.
Grace.
But also consequences.
So when we look at this Psalm, I think once again we’re seeing David give language to anger.
We’re seeing him give voice to the hurt that we all feel at times.
But we’re also reminded that we don’t have to live there.
We don’t have to live lives of vengeance.
We don’t have to live lives of hatred.
We don’t have to live lives of anger.
We don’t have to live lives of unrighteousness.
Because if we sow those things, we shouldn’t be surprised when those things begin to show up in the harvest of our lives.
So let’s be careful what we sow.
Let’s sow mercy.
Let’s sow goodness.
Let’s sow peace.
Let’s sow grace.
Let’s sow forgiveness.
Because those are the things we want to see grow in our lives.
We don’t want karma.
We want grace.
And thank God that what God gives us is not simply what we deserve.
God gives us grace.
So let’s be careful what we sow.
And let’s be careful with what we reap.
So, hey, thanks for being with us today.
I hope you’ve learned a little something from these Psalms.
We’ll pick up Monday with Daniel.
Have a great weekend.
And we’ll see you Monday.
Thanks.