Psalms 3:7 Arise, O Jehovah; / Save me, O my God! / Oh that You would *strike all my enemies on the cheek; / And break the teeth of the wicked.
David’s prayer for vengeance against his enemies is contrary to the New Testament, which teaches us to love our enemies and to bless those who persecute us and pray for them.
Matthew But I say to you, Love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you
Luke 6:35 But love your enemies, and do good and blend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He is kind to the unthankful and evil.
In the Psalms the words concerning the psalmists’ hating their enemies, their asking God to avenge them, and their cursing others are not the words of God but are words that issued from the psalmists’ natural sentiment while they were praising God. They are recorded by the Spirit of God in the Holy Scripture to serve God’s purpose of exposing the psalmists’ spiritual condition, i.e., that although the psalmists loved God and sought Him, they were natural, not spiritual, in their sentiment
The old testament had some violent verses, indeed. Especially those pertaining to God, we must recognize which words were spoken by Him and which words came from the natural human conditions. We must try not to take such words in the scriptures to heart and see only what is written. We must consider the instances and conditions in what is written, spoken in. Let us not disregard the context of the words in the Bible, for if taken out of context could cause much more harm to our lives than good.
Romans 12:14 Bless those who persecute you; Bless and do not curse.
Romans 12:20 But “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him a drink; for in doing this you will heap coals of fire upon his head."
No comments:
Post a Comment