Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Reacting to Wrong Doing | The Writings | Psalm 52

Episode Date: May 9, 2024

In Psalm 52, you see a picture of David reacting to his enemies. How should you respond to your enemies? Do wrong in return? Take justice into our own hands? Do nothing? In today's episode, Patrick shares an important lesson about wrongdoing. Read the Bible with us in 2024! This year, we’re tackling a group of Old Testament books traditionally known as “The Writings”— Psalms, Chronicles, Proverbs, Daniel, Ruth and more! Download your reading plan now. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it so that others can find it, too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Psalm 52

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Patrick Miller. In the book of Ecclesiastes, the author calls himself the preacher. And he describes everything that he's learned by carefully observing the human condition. There's one thing that he observes that he calls a kind of chaos. He actually calls it evil. And evil can mean both moral evil or this chaotic thing, you can't control it.

It's not good. It's not bad. It's just chaotic. And he says that that chaotic thing, is that the same fate often meets both the wise and the foolish, both the good and the evil. He says this in Ecclesiastes 2.14, The wise have their eyes and their heads, while the fools walk in darkness. But I came to realize that the same fate overtakes them both. And later he says this, Ecclesiastes 9-3, this is the evil, the chaos, in everything that happens under the sun. The same destiny overtakes us all.

That's not to say that wisdom is no better than foolishness or that righteousness is no better than wickedness. Again and again, the preacher says that wisdom and goodness are the better path, but he's not deluded about reality. Both the wise and the fool end up in the grave. Worse yet, sometimes the evil one is given great treasure and the righteous one is stripped of everything that he has. The preacher says in Ecclesiastes 10-7, I have seen slaves on horses and princes walking on the ground like slaves. Some people want to treat Ecclesiastes like it's the work of sinning and that everything he describes is only true if God doesn't exist. And so the whole point is to get you to the end of the

book and side with relief. Ah, yes, he would be right, but God does exist. And so in the end, the preacher was wrong. But the simple truth is that he actually isn't wrong. I mean, factually, he's not. Yes, perhaps he doesn't have the whole truth. He might not talk about what happens in the afterlife. life, but nonetheless, if you think that the path to a rich, comfortable life where everyone appreciates you and holds you in high esteem, if you think that the path to that is wisdom and righteousness, well, you're going to be disappointed because plenty of people have those things without wisdom and without righteousness. And sometimes those who have wisdom and righteousness get a poor life or they're discarded and treated with little respect. In a broken world, it's often the foolish

and the wrongdoers who reap the rewards, who live in comfort, who receive all the accolades. In fact, it's often the righteous who were persecuted, denied, and treat it poorly. The preacher is right. The question for us is what do we do with our enemies when they harm us? Because you can't avoid it by being a good person. King David, who wrote many of the Psalms, had to face this question countless times. In Psalm 52, we read his response after Doeag the Edomite sold him out to King Saul for no good reason. Here's how he responds to Doeg, his betrayer. Psalm 52. Why do you boast of evil, oh mighty man? The steadfast love of God enduers all the day. 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, oh deceitful tongue. temptation when something like this happens to us, when someone does us harm, even though we've been wise and righteous. Either we're tempted to become like the wrongdoers because their wrongdoing worked out for them. We think maybe if I just start doing the wrong thing, I can share in their great fate. But David's words show us that he rejected that temptation. He doesn't mince words about how wrong and foolish Doeag's actions were. And I suspect that this is in part so that he wouldn't be tempted to do what Doeg did. But that's the first temptation to become like the wrongdoer. The second temptation is when we're attempted to attack wrongdoers. We want to take a pound of

flesh for what they took from us. And yet, Jesus taught us to love our enemies. He commanded us to pray for those who persecute us. But the question is, how do we do that? I mean, it's obviously not an easy thing to do. And perhaps you think that the key is thinking happy thoughts about everybody who's harming us. But the Apostle Paul makes it clear that God wants something very different. In his letter to the Romans, he says that we are able to love our enemies by not taking vengeance into our own hands. But that doesn't mean that we don't care about vengeance. Instead, we trust God to take vengeance on our behalf. Our part is to show love. God's part is to do justice. And again, that's what David does here. He doesn't gather his warriors and go after Doeag. Instead,

He trusts God to deliver him. He trusts God to deliver his vengeance. Psalm 52-5, But God, not me, but God will break you down forever. He will snatch and tear you from your tent. He will upright you from the land of the living. The righteous shall see in fear and shall laugh at him, saying, see the man who would not make God his refuge, but trusted in the abundance of his riches and sought refuge in his own destruction. You'd think that trusting God to carry out vengeance would make us hate our enemies, but it actually has the opposite effect on us. It's only because we believe that God is just and that he will in the end execute justice, that we are freed from the temptation to try to take justice into our own hands.

This has always been a central part of Christian nonviolent resistance. We don't attack because we know the end of the story. We know that in the end, God will make sure that things are justly and rightly sorted out. So we don't have to worry. This is why David can conclude in Psalm 52-8, but I am like a green olive tree in the house of God. He's on the run from Saul and Doe. He's had his life handed it into someone else's hands. And he says, I'm like a ripe tree in God's house. I trust in the steadfast love of God forever and ever. I will thank you forever because you, God, have done it. I will wait for your name for it is good in the presence of the God. godly. That's the ultimate destination for all who trust God to act on their behalf. We become like trees rooted in his presence. We produce fruit. We're freed from worry over the situation to just join God instead and say, God, I know you got this. Where have you been wronged? Where have you been

hurt? Where are you tempted to become like the wrongdoer for personal gain? Hey, what they did was wrong and it worked out for them. Maybe I'll do the same. Or where are you tempted to take vengeance into your own hands. Trust that God can sort things out. If not in this life and the life to come, your part is to love your enemies just as Jesus loved you when you stood against him. Perhaps in God's providence, even those who've heard us might come to know his love more deeply and be transformed.