At the right hand

DEVOTION

PSALMS

AT THE RIGHT HAND

Ps 109

109:1 For the director of music. Of David. A psalm.

O God, whom I praise, do not remain silent, 2 for wicked and deceitful men have opened their mouths against me; they have spoken against me with lying tongues. 3 With words of hatred they surround me; they attack me without cause. 4 In return for my friendship they accuse me, but I am a man of prayer. 5 They repay me evil for good, and hatred for my friendship.

6 Appoint an evil man to oppose him; let an accuser stand at his right hand. 7 When he is tried, let him be found guilty, and may his prayers condemn him. 8 May his days be few; may another take his place of leadership. 9 May his children be fatherless and his wife a widow. 10 May his children be wandering beggars; may they be driven from their ruined homes. 11 May a creditor seize all he has; may strangers plunder the fruits of his labor. 12 May no one extend kindness to him or take pity on his fatherless children. 13 May his descendants be cut off, their names blotted out from the next generation. 14 May the iniquity of his fathers be remembered before the LORD; may the sin of his mother never be blotted out. 15 May their sins always remain before the LORD, that he may cut off the memory of them from the earth.

16 For he never thought of doing a kindness, but hounded to death the poor and the needy and the brokenhearted. 17 He loved to pronounce a curse — may it come on him; he found no pleasure in blessing — may it be far from him. 18 He wore cursing as his garment; it entered into his body like water, into his bones like oil. 19 May it be like a cloak wrapped about him, like a belt tied forever around him. 20 May this be the LORD's payment to my accusers, to those who speak evil of me.

21 But you, O Sovereign LORD, deal well with me for your name's sake; out of the goodness of your love, deliver me. 22 For I am poor and needy, and my heart is wounded within me. 23 I fade away like an evening shadow; I am shaken off like a locust. 24 My knees give way from fasting; my body is thin and gaunt. 25 I am an object of scorn to my accusers; when they see me, they shake their heads.

26 Help me, O LORD my God; save me in accordance with your love. 27 Let them know that it is your hand, that you, O LORD, have done it. 28 They may curse, but you will bless; when they attack they will be put to shame, but your servant will rejoice. 29 My accusers will be clothed with disgrace and wrapped in shame as in a cloak.

30 With my mouth I will greatly extol the LORD; in the great throng I will praise him. 31 For he stands at the right hand of the needy one, to save his life from those who condemn him.

NIV

There is a lot of pain within the soul of David as he writes this psalm. It would seem this is in the period of which Saul is seeking to kill him and he is on the run, hiding from Saul. But there is something interesting in that David says he is a man of prayer, yet, he prays for the Lord to brings all sorts of evil upon those who would do harm to David. That is somewhat strange to pray for the worst sort of things to happen to those who would accuse him. Yet it would seem there is a reason showing the difference between how the Lord deals with the righteous and the wicked.  The Lord deals harshly with those who refuse him, who oppress the righteous. There is now and has been great movements against the Lord throughout the ages. Today we have those who would what anything to do with the Lord removed from the public square. Men have replaced him with images of themselves, statues erected to honor men instead of God. The deeds of men are exalted instead the deeds of God. Although we have not seen as great a persecution of believers in this country as it is in other countries, there is still a national outcry against the things of God. The evil hearts of men will be dealt with in judgement from God. There is nothing we can do, but pray for them. Jesus changed this. David may have prayed harm upon his adversary, but Jesus has told us to pray for our enemies. Still, we also see how God deals with the righteous. Now being righteous has nothing to do with being good, for as man, we simply can never be good enough, we will always fall short of perfection, in fact, we fall way short. In our human condition sin still lingers within our flesh. This makes us anything but righteous within ourselves. But, praise to the Lord for his righteousness. Jesus is our righteousness, he stands in gap for us. He stands before the Father interceding for us, showing the Father his hands and feet and telling him the he took all our sin upon himself, he freed us from the penalty of death. It does not seem that whatever happens in our life, we should always rejoice because God deals with us not in accordance with what we deserve, but in accordance with his love. He saves our life from anything this world can throw at us, for we are in Christ. Jesus not only stands before God, but at our right hand, that is a place of honor. We honor him by his standing at our right hand and he saves our life from anyone who would condemn us. The devil would condemn us for every infraction of the law of God. He would condemn us for not being good enough. He would condemn us for our continued sin. He would condemn us for not doing enough good works, but he lies, he is the father of lies, he cannot speak the truth. But he makes every effort to find something to condemn us for. However, Jesus stands at our right hand, and before God on our behalf. We are saved and that is that. Because Jesus is at the right hand of the Father, so are we, a place of honor, because we are in Christ. Let us live with that knowledge, live as a person dwelling in a place of honor before the Father.