Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray with Me”. 

In Psalm 59, the poet describes his enemies this way:
  They return at evening
      snarling like dogs,
      and prowl about the city,
  they wander around looking for food
      and howl if not satisfied (v. 15). 

In contrast the poet says of himself,
    I will sing of God’s strength,
      in the morning I will sing of his love (v. 16). 

The word pictures of howling dogs and a singing poet highlight the story of Psalm 59. It begins with the poet’s enemies roaming the city like vicious dogs, snarling and howling over the garbage, threatening anyone who gets in their way. The poet says he has done nothing to deserve their violence. He describes himself as honorable and righteous, saying:
      Fierce men conspire against me
      for no offence or sin of mine, Lord.
    I have done no wrong, yet they are ready to attack me (vv. 3-4).  

The poet urges God to act on the basis of the covenant he made with Israel. Listen to his outspoken appeal to get God’s attention. 
    Get off your couch, God,
        Look at my plight.
    Rouse yourself from your lethargy,
        Punish the nations (v. 4-5). 

The relationship between God and his people is like the traditional marriage covenant: “for better or worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health, till death do us part.” The poet feels he is keeping his side of the bargain, but God is sleeping on the job. The poet reminds God that things are getting bad down here. He is sick with worry and poor in resources. If God is truly committed to a “better or worse” relationship, now would be a good time for him to act. 

If God does this, the poet’s “worse” will turn to “better”, his dog-like enemies will stop howling, and he will sing his praise to God. 

Let’s pray. 

    Deliver us from our enemies, O God;
        be our fortress against those who attack us.
    Rescue us from evildoers
        and save us from those who are after our blood (vv. 1-2).

O God, as the Coronavirus ravages the world, we turn to you. Do you see what’s happening down here? Do you care? 

We remember other pandemics. In the 12th century, the Bubonic plague killed a third of the people in Europe.  In 1918 the Spanish flu killed 50 million people. And now the Coronavirus is pandemic, fueling the media with news and the people with fear and the economy with uncertainty. Lord, look upon your world as we fight this enemy of disease. 

With the poet, we shift our focus from our strong enemies to you.
  We will sing of your strength,
      in the morning we will sing of your love,
  for you are our fortress,
      our refuge in times of trouble (v. 16).
 
Amen.

I’m Daniel on the channel “Pray with Me”.

Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray with Me”. 

As the Coronavirus pandemic escalates in Europe and North America, I turn to Psalm 91.  Here’s what it offers me. 

As a psalm of trust in God, it opens with powerful images:
  The one who lives in the shelter of the Most High,
      will rest at night under his shadow (v. 1). *
   Say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress,
      my God in whom I trust.”
  Surely he will save you from the hunter’s snare
      and from the deadly pandemic (vv. 2-3). 

The psalm continues with these pictures of God’s protection:
    He will cover you with his feathers,
      and under his wings you will find refuge;
      His faithfulness will be your shield (v. 4).

In World War II, when my father was a medic in the Philippines, a wasting disease ran through the troops. My father took these verses from Psalm 91 for his comfort and protection:
    I will not fear the terror of night,
      nor the arrow that flies by day,
    nor the disease that stalks in the darkness
      nor the epidemic that destroys at noon.
    A thousand may die at your side,
      ten thousand at your right hand,
      but it will not come near you (vv. 5-7). 

God kept my father from the disease and protected his life in the war. Twenty years later, mid-way through his fifties, he got cancer and turned to Psalm 91 again, this time to God’s promise:
    You will call on me and I will answer;
        I will be with you in trouble,
        I will deliver you and honor you.
    With long life will I satisfy you
        and show you my salvation (vv. 15-16). 

After a cancer operation and radiation my father lived the rest of his life cancer-free. When he died at age 78, with tears in my eyes I read Psalm 91 at his funeral from his worn King James Bible.

Today, in the Coronavirus pandemic, I turn to Psalm 91 because it brings me home to my father’s faith and to my own. God was with my father in his times of trouble–the Great Depression in the 1930’s, World War in the 1940’s, and cancer in the 1960’s. God is my refuge too. He will see me through the plunging stock market, the raging pandemic, the social distancing, and the changed world that emerges. 

Let’s pray. 

Our father, we pray parts of Psalm 91.
    We live in your shelter
      and spend our nights in your shadow.
    In times of trouble we run to you for refuge,
      we trust you with our lives. 

    Save us from the hunter’s snare,
      from the deadly pandemic.
    Cover us with your feathers,
      Protect us under your wings, so that
    we will not fear the terrors of night,
      nor the arrow that flies by day,
    nor the disease that stalks in the darkness
      nor the plague that strikes at noon. 

Thank you for your promise to us:
      Because we love you, you will rescue us.
          You will protect us because we acknowledge your name.

You say to us:
      Call on me and I will answer you
          I will be with you in trouble,
          I will deliver you and honor you.
      With long life will I satisfy you
          and show you my salvation. 

Amen.

I’m Daniel on the channel “Pray with Me”.

• See Alter, Robert. The Book of Psalms: A Translation with Commentary. (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2007. 91:1) for translating verse 1b as a night image.

Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray with Me”. 

There’s a striking and disturbing image in Psalm 58. It says,
    The righteous will be glad when they are avenged,
      when they bathe their feet in the blood of the wicked (v. 10). 

Imagine for a moment a foot bath where you soothe your weary feet in the warm blood of your enemies. Disturbing, eh? But this bloody image in Psalm 58 is as current as today’s news. 

Consider Syria’s nine-year civil war: half a million dead, 5 million refugees, and 7 million internally displaced people. Bashar al-Assad has waged a brutal war, using chemical weapons and targeting hospitals, schools, and other civilian areas. The Economist magazine (KAL, “KAL’s Cartoon.” The Economist.com. Web. 5 Mar. 2020.) published a cartoon with al-Assad and Vladmir Putin in a bathtub filled with blood. Al-Assad says , “Should we be afraid of the corona-virus?” Dismissively waving a bloody hand, Putin replies, “We wash our hands regularly.” 

Psalm 58 responds to news like this with a prayer that those who create needless wars and bloodbaths should themselves be bloodily defeated. 

In reflecting on psalms of vengeance like this, I offer three observations. 

First, the psalms are not about the conflicts of everyday life. They are not about the rude sales clerk or the annoying neighbour or the unreasonable manager. No, they are written and prayed as a response to extreme instances of injustice and bloodshed. 

My second observation is that these psalms paint very real pictures of war, injustice, violence, and evil. We North Americans often turn blind eyes to the tragedy in Syria, the brutal war in Yemen, the imprisonment of Uighurs in China, to ruthless African dictators, and to political corruption and poverty in Haiti. The psalms however paint vivid pictures of violence, and they respond with appropriately violent emotions, and with calls for justice.

My third observation is that the psalms of vengeance are prayers to God, not a call for the oppressed to rise up violently against their oppressors. In the psalms, it is God who executes justice, not us. We pray to him, as does the poet, “Your kingdom come”. We look with Paul for the time when the Lord Jesus will come from heaven with blazing fire to relieve those who suffer and to punish with everlasting destruction the workers of violence (2 Thess. 1:7-9).

Let’s pray. 

Our father, we are less enthusiastic than the poet about bathing our feet in the blood of the wicked. But we share his deep desire that you show yourself powerful on behalf of all the oppressed. We share his conviction that these bloody-minded leaders are like venomous cobras that have stopped their ears to the flute of the snake charmer. Will nothing, will no one convince them to stop the killing? 

With the poet we urge you to destroy the perpetrators of violence. Let your justice hunt them down. Let their actions boomerang on themselves. Let the chemicals they spray on others blow back on them. We agree with the poet, that you should:
– Break their teeth (v. 6)
– Make them disappear like evaporating water (v. 7)
– Make them melt into slime like slugs (v. 8)

And Lord, if you have a better solution for relieving oppression and fighting injustice, we are ready to hear it. With the poet, we express our confidence in you, our God:
    Surely you reward the righteous,
        surely there is a God who judges the earth (v. 11). 

Amen.

I’m Daniel on the channel “Pray with Me”.

KAL Cartoon, The Economist, 5 March 2020. https://www.economist.com/the-world-this-week/2020/03/05/kals-cartoon