Convo with Pastor - Psalm 7:3, 5, 6

O Lord my God ... if there is wrong in my hands ... 

then let the enemy pursue and overtake me

Psalm 7:3,5

 

Awake, O my God

lift yourself up against the fury of my enemies

Psalm 7:6

 

David is being chased again.

 

And even though these two petitions are right next to each other in the Psalm, I separated them for a reason.

 

Whenever we're being chased, pressed, stressed, challenged ... whenever we worry and fear ... whenever perceived circumstances or real people seem aligned against us ... we're quite willing and ready to cry -- verse 6 -- "Wake up, God! Aren't you paying attention. I'm suffering down here. Lift your finger and bind the fury that's causing me worry" (my translation from personal experience). 

 

But how many of us -- when the storm is pounding us with thunder, hail, and lightning -- stop and pray David's first words first?!

 

David's first words are not "rescue me," but "search me." He admits that he's right to be oppressed if he is sinful in any way. A sin of lust, for example, might not justify a king chasing him because of jealousy. Nevertheless, David is admitting that sometimes we need to be chased for something, and our trials ought to cause us to stop and evaluate every corner of our life, come clean, and only then ask for help with trials related or unrelated.

 

In other words, our lives are interconnected. We can't sin in one area and expect blessing in all other areas. Sin is sin and it's effects ripple in ways we don't want to imagine.

 

In Christ's Love,

a guy who's canoe has been shaken

by ripples in another area of the pond

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I understand asking God to search us for hidden sin.  But agreeing to let the enemy pursue and overtake us? I don't know if I could honestly ask for that.  I would much rather have God point out the sin and show me how to heal and stop sinning.

But I guess our stubbornness won't let us get off so easy. Us humans typically don't learn things the easy way.