O Lord, Smite My Enemies, But In A Loving Sort Of Way

Many of the Psalms contain imprecations, that is requests for God to bring judgment upon one’s enemies.  There are over a dozen Psalms with this as a major theme; and many others that contain such requests somewhere in the Psalm.

The first occurrence is in Psalm 3, and it is a strong statement.  Notice the certain confidence in the request in verse 7, “Arise, O LORD! Save me, O my God! For you strike all my enemies on the cheek; you break the teeth of the wicked.”

What place do these Psalms have in our lives and ministries today?  We need to resist our urge to be repulsed and reject them as expressions of an outdated Old Testament religion.  Rather, how do we honor the Word of God, and value and use these passages of Scripture?

It is by considering the larger story of redemption that such prayers can become our prayers.

The Progress of the History of Redemption

We need to recognize the historical development in God’s plans which modifies our use of the imprecatory Psalms a bit.  For example, though we might experience similar situations as David, we still are not completely like David.  He was a directly anointed King over God’s people and had the ark of God’s presence in his midst.  We live at a different point in redemptive history.

Our Lord Jesus Christ came and established the New Covenant, inaugurated the Kingdom of God, and has given the Holy Spirit to His Church to preach His Gospel to the world in power.  We have a different task to perform, and different interests to protect, and different methodologies to employ.  The People of God today are a spiritual people united to Christ, and not embodying a political state; not until Christ returns.

We know we are to “love our enemies” and speak the Gospel of Christ to them, and so it doesn’t seem right to pray for opportunity to slaughter them with a sword.

Three Prayer Modulations for Moderation

We have to learn to pray the imprecations in a New Covenant manner, such as “Smite them on the jaw, and shatter their wicked teeth . . . but in a loving way, O Lord.”  This may sound strange, but it is not too poor of a way to express the change of tone required in our prayers.

First, we are not to give up on righteousness being upheld, but to pray and work for it earnestly.  Justice is a good thing.  We certainly must not take our own vengeance, but do pray that God will uphold His glory whatever it takes.  And a good test of our own heart is that we must be willing to see this glory and righteousness displayed even in our suffering and growth.

Second, we should enter humble self-examination before, and every time, we pray imprecations; and yet we can and should rejoice at God’s vindication of His holiness and our righteous cause when it comes.  Ultimately, we should desire our enemies’ salvation and even relational reconciliation as the best outcome.

Third, sometimes it is best that we pray our imprecation in a more general and eschatological sense, and less specifically upon individuals for the here and now.  This lifts our thoughts and sets our minds on the glory of God, and can be a safeguard against thoughts for personal vengeance.

2 Thessalonians 1:6–10 ESV “since indeed God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might, when he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints, and to be marveled at among all who have believed, because our testimony to you was believed.”

These Psalms Address Our Experiences

Undoubtedly there are many times in our lives when concerns for justice and righteousness overwhelm us, whether it is a personal situation of ours, or it is the general condition of a society, or it is the suffering of the weak, or often most painfully when it is someone we know.

And the spectrum of injustice in the world is wide, from daily wrongs we endure all the way to the most infamous crimes of humanity.  These seemingly uncommon type of  Psalms actually address our common concerns in this world.

So, go ahead and use these imprecatory Psalms to pray for glorious victories and blessings from the Lord.  Look to God for more than just refuge, but for full deliverance, in such a way that you wake up each morning with confidence, joy, and song in your heart for the Lord’s new day!

(See related blog:  When Your Enemy Falls.)

Give It Time, Give It Effort

What do we as a church bring to the table?  What can we contribute that will be significant in His Mission?

Give It Time

Such questions about adding value in doing the mission are asked by many church leaders eager to make a focused impact for Christ in a specific part of the world. This might be in reference to a geographical area, people group, or partnering with an ongoing ministry or ministries.

Most likely, none of the potential partners will know the answers for a while.  So don’t be in a hurry.  Begin by focusing on relationships and doing a few small projects together.  Commit some time to encourage and develop leaders among all partners, praying for them and with them.

These value-added questions should be asked at the beginning when considering levels and types of ministry engagement.  But, the answers will not be readily apparent until some level of engagement begins.  

As things start moving forward and more definition is needed, the questions need to be asked again.  Answers to the questions will start emerging at this stage, and it will become much clearer whether God is putting together a partnership.  

Be prayerful, patient and active in trusting the Lord.  Give it time.  And if He keeps building a valuable partnership it becomes even more important to ask these value-added questions often to keep increasing ministry effectiveness together.

Give It Effort

Mission partnerships are not easy to start or sustain, and they rarely follow a straight path.  Finding and developing quality partnerships requires patience and perseverance.  The uncertainties will be demanding, and demanding of much prayer effort.

Don’t be cheap by trying to save money or find shortcuts; many churches hurt themselves and their potential partners and their ministries by doing such things.  Be faithful and make the investment of energy, people, and resources that is necessary.  It will be worth it in the end, whether a partnership forms or not.

Enjoy the on-site visits and the process of learning and doing ministry together.  Schedule plenty of down time to get to know one another well, and of course debrief the work, but especially to dream big and pray larger together.  This will help answer the value-added questions and help to better plan for the future.  It really does change all our lives and ministries to think bigger and think cooperation.

Not All Have What It Takes

Ultimately, we have to ask whether can we truly add value to the on-site ministry and do more together than we could separately, or whether it would be best not to partner but simply bless one another.  Regardless of the outcome, all the time and effort will have been valuable in the process for everyone.  And the relationships themselves may still continue. 

Many churches need to give more time and more effort to the process.  I have seen some churches jump in too early only to become discouraged.  I have seen other churches jump out too early only to become disheartened.  

We can’t “bottom-line” it so quickly.  And our congregations need help understanding this, and they need to be given opportunities to get further involved in the process. 

Does your church have what it takes to get to a focused mission partnership?

On To Better Boasting

Do mission reports ever seem too impressive?  

This is because it is hard to understand what is going on in a place one has never been or never lived.  Then it becomes even harder to comprehend what roles various people and ministries play in those Gospel accomplishments.

Boasting and Ministry Overlap

One of our problems is we think too individualistically about our own and each others’ contributions, and the accomplishments of our church’s missionaries.  Maybe if we recognized that teamwork is the way God designed His mission to advance, we could relax about ourselves, others’ claims, the assigning of credit, and more readily glorify God for what He is doing.

Recently I rediscovered this passage of Scripture which speaks to us about this matter.

2 Corinthians 10:13–18 ESV “But we will not boast beyond limits, but will boast only with regard to the area of influence God assigned to us, to reach even to you. For we are not overextending ourselves, as though we did not reach you. For we were the first to come all the way to you with the gospel of Christ. We do not boast beyond limit in the labors of others. But our hope is that as your faith increases, our area of influence among you may be greatly enlarged, so that we may preach the gospel in lands beyond you, without boasting of work already done in another’s area of influence. “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” For it is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends.”

There is plenty of affirmation to go around to all who labor in the forward movement of the Gospel.  God gives us areas of influence as He determines, and would have us rejoice greatly both in our work and in the work of others.  We should speak plainly and clearly about this, and appreciate the synergy of combined efforts that God empowers. 

Boasting about Our Work

Many times missionaries, ministries, and other Gospel workers, wrestle with reporting.  What is honest, and not overstatement?  How can this story of success be told with humility?  On the other hand, will people be able to handle hearing about what is not going well?  

They yearn to tell the larger story of what God is truly doing on a much larger scale, even beyond their own ministries, and yet through their ministries, as they envision and describe the future God might create.

Sometimes there is too much pride, but other times there is too much humility.  Both are unhelpful.  The report and the vision we all need to hear contains reasonable judgment with a strong emphasis upon the power of Christ.

Romans 15:17–18a ESV “In Christ Jesus, then, I have reason to be proud of my work for God. For I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me . . .”

It is good to boast, and to boast well.  This is done by claiming one’s own work and not the work of others as one’s own.  Be honest and clear and give recognition to the significant work of others.  This better boasting exalts the power and glory of Jesus Christ before all the Church.

Reading Well and Rejoicing Well

We should expect impressive reports.  But we should also expect these reports will include stories of many servants of Christ working together.  

There will be overlap because God has called us to partnership in the Gospel.  So don’t think too small or be too skeptical of those impressive reports.  Instead, pay closer attention to them.

May we become better at reading and listening more carefully, reporting more carefully and more exuberantly giving glory to God for His work through all of us individually and together as His team!

The Other Man Who Never Sinned

Who is this man?  He is the 22 year old I met on a community college campus.

Sinlessness is Not Common

I was training a friend in evangelism and we sat down to talk with this guy in the cafeteria.  He was friendly enough, but fairly cool toward religion.  This would be a good tough case most likely.

After the typical college small talk we presented the Gospel and asked him what he thought.  Surprisingly, he said it didn’t really apply to him since he never sinned.  Ok, that was a response I hadn’t heard before.  Was he joking?  Being obnoxious?  Or for real?

Maybe we weren’t clear about our need for a savior from our sins, forgiveness before God, and the rest of it.  Perhaps we should return to the topic of sin and lay out the universal human condition again, and in greater detail.

No, he understood perfectly what we were stating about humanity and about Jesus Christ, the Lord.  He was serious in his protest that he was not a sinner, and not just not a heinous sinner like Hitler and his kind, but not a sinner in the least--wild!

I am thinking this guy is an idiot, so I congratulated him, “Wow, sinlessness is just not that common.  The only other guy I know who is sinless is Jesus Christ.”  He smiled in self-satisfaction.

Sometimes it Takes a Mother

It wasn’t Mother Theresa that did it, but his own mother.  He likely would have thought he was as good as Mother Theresa since he was so close to being as good as Jesus, so we skipped over her example.  

We asked him the obvious questions about the Ten Commandments and such, including Jesus’ incisive application of them in His Sermon on the Mount and other places in the Gospel accounts.  

The guy was good, and didn’t flinch but maintained his position of angelic purity, though surely he knew he was lying to us, and guilty and ashamed, perhaps that he was even enslaved to sin.

Time to go for it.  How would we break him?  His mother!  We didn’t know his family situation in the least, but bringing in one’s mother almost never fails.  

So, we asked him, “What would your mother say?  Would she testify that you never ever lied, cheated, stole, or committed anything deserving of punishment?  This time, tell us the truth.”

Cracked and Wandering

The short version is that he cracked without too much mental torture.  But, that was as far as we got with him that day.  God is gracious with us all, often bringing us to Himself in stages.  Truly, we enjoyed our 30 minute conversation with this young man.

Maybe it was a good day for him, with some new realizations about himself and what we told him about God’s righteousness and His graciousness.  It was certainly a challenging day for me and my friend trying to share the good news of eternal hope!

We spent a lot of time that afternoon discussing Romans 5:1–2 ESV “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.”  

But such things only finally make sense when sin recognition takes place first.  So take all the time necessary to thoroughly discuss this with people, and then make them own it!

The Lawyer Who Converted Himself

Tired from a good day of ministry, I was ready to return to my hotel room. “But we have one more meeting,” my national partner protested.  It was past midnight and I was wondering why this couldn’t wait until tomorrow when everyone would be more alert for the conversation.

Coffee at 1:00 AM, Really!?

She informed me that this man just finished his work and had been anticipating a meeting with someone that night who might know the answers to his questions about Christianity.  He had already asked many people many questions in his quest and was close to believing she said.

My friend prevailed upon me and I went to this coffee shop in Asia about 1:00 a.m. to meet with David, a lawyer.  There ended up being four of us--two women (national partners) and two men (a lawyer friend of theirs and me).

Keep the Coffee Coming

He spoke no English, and I didn’t speak his language.  Translation in the middle of the night is no easy task for anyone involved, especially translators.  Coffee helps everyone.  This translation barrier seemed to disappear quickly as he was so excited to meet and talk, and he was used to translation in his line of work.  

It wasn’t long before I found myself enjoying this new friendship.  We had a lot in common being about the same age, having children similar ages and both challenged by our life-stage issues, though from different cultural perspectives.

Well into the second pot of coffee, David shared some of his marriage problems with me and how they had led him to ask questions regarding the ultimate meaning of life.  We talked some about the practicalities of marriage and family.  But it was obvious he wanted to talk more about God, the universal human condition and the value of religion and philosophy.

Coffee as a Gospel Partner 

It was time for a third pot of the strong black coffee.  God was working on his mind and pushing him to consider the claims of Jesus Christ.  He had been in a few conversations earlier with my national ministry partner and her newly believing friend, who was the one who had originally shared with this man and set up this meeting.

David and I also found out we shared similar academic interests.  We talked about a few classical philosophical questions from Plato and the Western tradition.  We talked about Nietzsche’s theories and some from other atheists.  

Don’t be impressed, in reality, we talked about what each of us could remember from our college days, nothing too deep and academic; but it was no less real and practical for our lives.  And I shared my story of coming to Christ out of atheism and self-righteousness, how I used to believe Christianity was for the weak and how I was that “superman” of Nietzsche’s. 

Then, I introduced him to a few of my favorite quotations from Augustine and the Bible.  These seemed to hold special meaning to him, though I was honestly getting very tired and sharing only what came to mind, mostly by the Holy Spirit I believe.  

Coffee and Prayer to the End 

During the quotation and question exchanges I realized my role was to ask good questions and throw out good ideas.  I couldn’t do too much more because of the language barrier.  My Christian partners knew what to do and eagerly used everything I gave them, and probably took the conversation much deeper than I could.  Honestly, I felt like all I did was drink coffee and pray a lot.

Many times during the evening my ministry partners themselves were amazed at what God was doing upon this man’s mind and soul.  We would talk on the side, smile and pray silently with delight.  David was basically answering all his own questions, reasoning from the Scripture and apologetics we gave him, to convert himself!

We all turned down the fourth pot of coffee.  At this time David announced to us that he believed in Jesus Christ.  It was that simple for him.  He got his questions answered and it all made sense to him, that this was the true revelation from heaven, salvation for him and the hope of the whole human race.  He looked satisfied and at soul-rest.

Two Lives Changed

My friend David grew in his faith and became active in his house-church community.  Last I heard, about four years ago, his wife is yet to believe and he is doing his best to love and serve her as a Christian husband.  He wants her to experience the same forgiveness of sins and hope of eternal life.  

It is hard to convey the impact of that evening on all four of us.  For me personally, I have never seen the Holy Spirit so powerfully do His work on a person with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  

I am convinced that I was there to just watch, wonder and delight at God’s power actively saving a person.  What was obviously true that early morning is true every time we share the Gospel, even when we are given a more instrumental role in brining people to salvation in Christ.  

1 Corinthians 3:5–9 ESV “What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building.”

Bless Your Predecessor, Bless Your Successor

A colleague of mine has a saying:  “it is all about who you follow.” This is very true; because comparisons are inevitable.

My Predecessor

When I arrived as the new pastor it wasn’t too long before I heard the comparisons.  To some I was all the previous pastor was not, and all they ever hoped I would be.  To others I was greatly lacking compared to the skills of my predecessor. 

It didn’t take long to hear contradictory testimony, however.  To some I was more personable than the last pastor.  While to others I was less personable than the last pastor.  I am still trying to figure that one out.  

I guess it is a little like making a call as a soccer referee, to one sideline you made a great call and to the other sideline you are an idiot.  And of course, the parents may change their minds when you make the next call; and most likely they will change their minds many times throughout the match.  

None of the pastoral comparisons were mean or unkind in anyway, at least the ones I heard.  I enjoyed listening because the comments revealed far more about the people making them and their desires than the pastors under scrutiny.  And it is good and helpful to get to know such things about the people you want to serve.

Besides, it is only natural for people to make such comparisons, and to base them on their own experiences.  People have different perspectives and commitments.  And most people don’t mean any harm.  

A Strategy for Comparisons 

I knew this would happen so my approach going into the position was to only make positive comments about my predecessor.  After all, we pastors need to stick together.  I am so glad I made this commitment as it kept me thinking clearly and honoring God in my thoughts of him.  And whenever he and I spoke I was able to bless him. 

Whenever I heard a negative comment I would defend him, offer an alternative view, and redirect the conversation.  Whenever I heard a positive comment I would reinforce it and share in the goodness that person felt.  Regardless, I would pray for these dear people in the pastoral transition, as it is a challenge for everyone.  

Even pastors have to admit that we do the same comparing quite often.  Truth be told, we might even be less charitable toward others, while at the same time harsher on ourselves, failing to see the grace and gifts of God given uniquely to each servant of the Lord.  Let us remember Ephesians 4:7 ESV “But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift.”

My Successor

This past week my successor arrived, and I am now his predecessor.  He will likely have to find his own approach to dealing with the pastoral comparisons sure to come his way. 

A few months ago after he accepted the call I was thinking how I might bless him before he even arrived.  So I wrote him a short email, “I can hardly wait to see what God does through you at the church!  You are the right man chosen for the right time.  You have all my support and prayers in advance for whatever you set out to accomplish.”  I will be praying for him and the people we both love and serve.  

The installation service a few days ago filled everyone’s hearts with joy and hope.  My predecessor, my successor and myself were all present and we all spoke to encourage the dear people of God.  We all viewed this as one grand partnership in God carrying out His purposes in and through this particular church of His.

Transitions are Blessings

Transitions are exciting, promising, and unsettling times.  Many people think that success can be seen in a church maintaining the vision of its previous pastor.  I disagree.  I believe that it is more often God’s design to give new direction through a new leader.

By recognizing this we can more thoroughly rejoice in the past, and in the new present, and be ready for a different future.  It has been my experience that when a pastor blesses his predecessor and his successor, he blesses the congregation more than he can imagine.  And I believe God is blessed.

It is unwise to compare pastors to pastors, for too long or too closely.  Even we as the pastors need to guard our minds and not get sucked in, for we are often even more vulnerable than the congregations we serve.  Consider 2 Corinthians 10:12b ESV “But when they measure themselves by one another and compare themselves with one another, they are without understanding.”

Pastors Daniel, Tim and Bob

Vicki Burris, Lisa Etherington, Linda Holmquist