Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - When Things Aren't Going Well (Relationally) | The Writings | Psalm 7

Episode Date: January 9, 2024

How do you handle being gossiped about? What do you do when your reputation is on the line? In today's episode, Tanya looks to David in Psalm 7 to discover what happens when you give in to evil and what you should do instead. 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 with others, so 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 7

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 Tanya Wilmeth. So here on 10-minute Bible Talks, we're going through the writings, and we're beginning with the Psalms. So you're hearing us every day go through a different psalm for a while. These are great because the Psalms were originally written to be memorized and sung aloud. They were like a hymn book back in the days that they were written. So as we go through the Psalms, we can do the same thing. We can use them. We can recite them. We can even use them as poetry. But another great way for us to use the Psalm is to pray them back to God. Today we're going to look at Psalms 7 and we're going to talk about a way that we can look to this Psalm when things are not going well relationally, specifically for us and for our name, if you will. Have you ever been falsely? Have you ever been falsely? accused? Have you been gossiped about slandered? Have you had your name or your reputation

associated with something that doesn't represent who you are or your true intentions? These are gut-wrenching situations. It's one thing to be in trouble for something you actually did. And at least for that, you can take ownership, you can apologize, you can make it right. But when people are talking about you or ghosting you for something you don't understand, it's hard to know what to do. Maybe you've had someone who works. for you say that you're hard to work for, rather than just taking ownership for their lack of effort. Or maybe you've had a friend become jealous of a new friendship or opportunity and spread gossip about you. There are lots of situations that we find ourselves in. We can get ourselves in

enough trouble on our own. We don't need to add to it with things that we're not actually responsible for. David understood the reality and the consequences of false accusation. He was appointed by God, to be the next king of Israel, replacing Saul and Saul's family on the throne. And no surprise, this made Saul jealous and angry. It made Saul want to destroy David, eliminate David. Saul tried to have David killed in battle, and when that didn't work, he set his army to find and killed David purposefully. David then became a man on the run, hiding in caves and pleading with the Lord for wisdom and protection. David wondered, why do I have to be in the situation? I didn't ask for this. It wasn't my agenda to be the new king. It was gods. Well, one night,

David and his men were hiding from Saul in a cave. When the strangest and most ironic thing happened, Saul, the king himself, came into the same cave where David was hiding to take a bathroom break. I picture David and his men hunched in the back of the cave. And David's men said, Hey, this is your chance. Kill him and let's end this thing. David crept out and cut off a piece of Saul's robe without Saul knowing. It was a power move, but a restrained one. And then something greater than having the upper hand came into David's heart. And the next day, David called out to Saul and he prostrated himself before the king saying, Hey, look, I have spared your life. I could have killed you, but I didn't. From 1st Samuel,

David said, see my father, look at this piece of robe in my hand. I cut off the corner of corner of your robe, it did not kill you. Now understand and recognize that I am not guilty of wrongdoing a rebellion. I have not wronged you, but you are honeying me down to take my life. May the Lord judge between you and me, and may the Lord avenge the wrongs you have done to me, but my hand will not touch you. David doesn't just say that he will find his assurance in the Lord, but he actually does it. And when we read Psalm 7, We have this David showing us how to do the same thing. It's a candid snapshot of how David feels about being pursued by his enemies for things outside

his control, for things he didn't really even do. David, just like us, can be honest about what his heart is capable of doing, while also pleading with God about being treated unjustly. And in Psalm 7, he doesn't just tell those who will read and sing this Psalm to be confident in God in the midst of wrongful accusation, but he actually does it. So we can use Psalm 7 to talk to God about the same things. The Lord is not discouraged, intimidated, or tempted by evil, even though we are. Because we live in a broken world injustice is just part of the fabric of our lives.

And much will go unpunished until the final judgment. But for judgment, we wait on God and we can talk to Him about how we feel. When we do this, God shines light back on the condition of our own hearts so we can grow in patience and even love for our enemies. Now, one of the most important and most challenging parts of relational drama at work or school that hinges on gossip and slander is actually knowing what your own heart is capable of doing. When we understand that we are broken by sin and need the Lord to rescue us, we respond differently when people try to break us. David opened Psalm 7 with this line, Lord my God, I take refuge in you, save and deliver me from all who pursue me. Now, when we pray that line aloud, we're telling God that we find our refuge from our sinful humanity in him. We ask him to help us remember that without his refuge, we would be unable to face the final judgment.

And we're asking him to save us from being discouraged, intimidated, or tempted by the evil, that pursues us. We cannot survive judgment without God's refuge, aka the saving blood of Jesus that covers our sin. But we also need God's refuge to stay away from the temptation to commit evil ourselves. It's tempting to stoop to the level of that which hurts us. Yet David gives a sober reminder in Psalm 7 that God's justice also has a way of working itself out inside the course of humanity. So as we keep pregnant this Psalm, we realize the path we choose when we repay evil with evil. Psalm 7 says, The wicked conceive evil.

They are pregnant with trouble and give birth to lies. They dig a deep pit to trap others, then fall into it themselves. The trouble they make for others backfires on them. The violence they plan falls on their own heads. And then he wraps up, I will thank the Lord because he is just. I will sing praise to the name of the Lord. Lord Most High. David could have entered into the evil cycle by taking soul's life into his own hands. We can admit that we feel resentment to our people that have wronged us. We can admit that

we are envious of their status, their friends, their wealth, whatever it is. We can admit that they seem to get off the hook and be happy. But Psalm 7 helps us see that while these feelings are real, this is actually an illusion. Evil can only grow in one direction. It gives birth to more evil. And in that cycle, the excluders get excluded. The gossipers get gossiped about. The liars get lied to. But we have an opportunity to break the cycle by trusting in the Lord instead of repaying evil

for evil. After David has hashed his heart out with the Lord, that's where he ends. He says, I will thank the Lord because he is just. I will sing praise to the name of the Lord most high. This isn't silly. This isn't immisely. mature. This isn't the path of least resistance. This is faith. This is growing in spiritual maturity. This is the narrow road. This is living for eternity, not living for the moment. This is

possible because of Jesus. Where can you purposefully interrupt a negative cycle instead of continuing it? What do you need to ask the Lord to give you or help you with so that you can do this, so that you can wait on the Lord's justice instead of repaying evil with evil. Is it courage or patience or restraint or humility? You can use Psalm 7 to pray through your feelings in the protective covering of God's truth.