“Be not silent, O God of my praise! For wicked and deceitful mouths are opened against me, speaking against me with lying tongues. They encircle me with words of hate, and attack me without cause. In return for my love they accuse me, but I give myself to prayer.” Psalm 109:1-4 ESV.
Reflection: how do we defend ourselves against people who spread slander and lies about us?
There is an old children’s rhyme that goes “Sticks and stones may break my bones. But words shall never hurt me.” In reality, although not physically hurt like sticks and stones, words can be very damaging as most of us know even from a young age. The earliest known use of the this rhyme is from around 1850s. And interestingly, the initial versions of the rhyme says “Sticks and stones may break my bones. But names (name calling) shall never hurt me.”, as it was dealing with bullying.
As adults, we know that It is perhaps one of the most difficult things to defend against is someone who is hellbent on spreading slander and lies about you. Such people can ruin someone’s career aspirations, good reputation, damage relationships, and more. And the crazy thing is that they can do this by just words. And unless they get called out, they can continue their destructive behavior. In my career, I did run into a couple such people. And since they typically spread their poisonous words in private, you don’t know about it until a lot of damage has already been done. They will smile to your face, even say kind words to you and about you when you are there. But in private, they are full of hate, and use words to attack. It comes from a destructive spirit, causing others to question you in their minds. In one case, the damage was so great that I had to literally leave the group I managed due to all the poison that a person had been spreading, which was all slander, falsehoods and lies. But it clearly was very effective, in a worldly sense. But, what was intended to hurt me, Father God turned to a great blessing for me as He protected me through a downsizing, and led me to find even a better position. He deserves all praise and glory.
The Bible talks extensively about the use of words, about the “tongue”, which means the words we speak, what comes out of our mouths. And Jesus said that good or bad words originate from the heart. “But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.” Matthew 15:18-19 ESV. In our focus verses today, we see that David also ran into people who tried to hurt him; possibly even destroy him, using words. We see his frustration about these cowardice attacks, as he brings them to the Lord “For wicked and deceitful mouths are opened against me, speaking against me with lying tongues. They encircle me with words of hate, and attack me without cause. In return for my love they accuse me, but I give myself to prayer.” Psalm 109:1-4 ESV. Perhaps what is the most frustrating for David is that he has shown love towards these wicked people. But now notice how he starts out his prayer, his pleading with God;
“Be not silent, O God of my praise!” Psalm 109:1 ESV.
There are several points here we can learn from. First, he devotes himself to prayer, to spending time with Father God, “I give myself to prayer.” Psalm 109:4b ESV. Second, we see that David always starts by praising God, regardless of his situation and circumstance. He might be frustrated, hurt or even angry with all the wickedness around him, but he still chooses to praise God. I think this is such a key lesson for us to learn from David. God is always to be praised, because He is good, righteous and just, full of mercy and grace. He deserves all praise and glory forever, Amen. And, with that said, the third point is that David brings his burden to Father God, and asking Him to take action. And the majority of this psalm, v6-21, is David just pouring out his heart to God, full of frustration and anger, holding nothing back. He is tired of fighting, and defending himself, saying to God
“But you, O God my Lord, deal on my behalf for your name’s sake; because your steadfast love is good, deliver me! For I am poor and needy, and my heart is stricken within me.” Psalm 109:21-22 ESV
Have you been unjustly accused or attacked by someone? Are they trying to hurt you, full of hate, spreading slander and lies about you? Let’s do like David, and always commit “ourselves to prayer.”, starting with a praise of God first. Then don’t hold back, but pour out your heart to Him, and let Him deal with the wicked, the deceitful in His way and His time. And finally, always end as David did, in praise and worship of our Lord God, “With my mouth I will give great thanks to the Lord; I will praise him in the midst of the throng. For he stands at the right hand of the needy one, to save him from those who condemn his soul to death.” Psalm 109:30-31 ESV.
