O’ to Have an Apparent Enemy

Christianity has struggled in the last decade. The American church in particular has compromised, rediscovered old heresies, and generally cowered. I submit to you that one of the main reasons is… we have not had an obvious enemy attacking us.

The Psalms are filled with talk about being saved from an enemy. In David’s case that was often literally someone attempting to kill him. But that aside, many are just laments against the injustice perpetrated by an enemy. Praise the Lord, for most of us our culture has benefitted from a Biblically-informed system of law and values that have given sweet shelter for the bulk of us from true injustice.

Perhaps until recently.

So when now confronted with even minor oppression, disdain, judgement, and slights – the church is cowering, compromising, and sobbing like a toddler.

When your enemy doesn’t have a face, a name, or some cohesive group of people it is much more difficult to have the right prostration before the Lord and the right pleadings.

What should our response be?

Examples in the Psalms

Arise, O Lord!
Save me, O my God!
For you strike all my enemies on the cheek;
you break the teeth of the wicked.

Psalms 3:7

All my enemies shall be ashamed and greatly troubled;
they shall turn back and be put to shame in a moment.

Psalms 6:10

What should our orientation be towards an enemy?

Well, it may be to love your enemy as Jesus commands. It also could be the orientation described by David, asking God to destroy his enemies or bring about his judgment on the wicked.

The Psalms are so wonderful in that they contain the full breadth of human emotion and pleadings towards God. They are an anchor against the namby-pamby wimpism that the left-leaning church has been sowing.

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