Vengeance Is His
Arise O Lord!
Deliver me O my God!
Strike all my enemies on the jaw, break the teeth of the wicked. Psalm 3:7
Many years ago I was in a terrible position in life. All around me things were falling apart. I did not have the luxury of joining them as I was the mother of four young children. Many of my problems, most of them, actually, were centered on the behaviors of one other person. That person had caused enormous damage to almost every area of my life. Even then I knew my best weapon against his attacks was prayer. With no love and a whole lot of bitterness and anger in my heart I approached the throne of grace with no real confidence but a heart full of obedience. I prayed for him, quite honestly, to be kept well but far away from me.
As I said, life was a mess. It was hard for me to see God’s hand and impossible to understand why He was allowing certain things to transpire. Through it all I continued reading a devotional Bible. Many days the message from the Word was the only I had to hang onto but one day in particular the message was loud and clear. God’s hand of protection was on me and nothing could shake it off.
While at work one afternoon I got a phone call informing me that my nemesis had been injured at his job. My immediate reaction was to feel vindicated and a bit amused as the injury was due to his stupidity. As soon as those feelings ran through me they were chased by guilt. Regardless of how awful he may have been to me this was a serious situation. I prayed to God to forgive me for my feelings toward this man and his mishap and I moved on. Later that day I would be called upon to react to the event and each time it was equally hard not to enjoy his discomfort, at least a little. Each time I prayed for forgiveness and I prayed for his recovery. The latter of which was all to honor God because I couldn’t have cared less if he recovered or not.
The worst damage turned out to be to his mouth, where several of his teeth were broken and a few were knocked out completely. Imagine my reaction when the next morning my devotional reading plan took me to Psalm 3 and the words, “Strike all my enemies on the jaw; break the teeth of the wicked.” I promise you, I read it three times before I believed that those were the actual words. If God is for us indeed! (Romans 8:31)
I was filled with the overwhelming knowledge that no matter who or what might come against me, God most certainly had me covered. I’d been fighting the urge to sink into bitterness and hatred for months, turning everything back to God, praying, hang onto Scripture with both hands and there it was in beautiful letters, God heard my prayers more clearly than I even knew.
Please don’t think that I think God literally struck that man on his mouth. I don’t. I do think he allowed the man’s own arrogance and lack of good sense to get the better of him and used that to give me a bright light at the end of a tunnel in which I was still trapped. God released me from that tunnel many years ago and has blessed me in ways I never could have imagined. To this day when the tunnels of life get too dark and begin to seem endless I remember that little bit of justice. I know that God is for me and vengeance truly is His.
Deliver me O my God!
Strike all my enemies on the jaw, break the teeth of the wicked. Psalm 3:7
Many years ago I was in a terrible position in life. All around me things were falling apart. I did not have the luxury of joining them as I was the mother of four young children. Many of my problems, most of them, actually, were centered on the behaviors of one other person. That person had caused enormous damage to almost every area of my life. Even then I knew my best weapon against his attacks was prayer. With no love and a whole lot of bitterness and anger in my heart I approached the throne of grace with no real confidence but a heart full of obedience. I prayed for him, quite honestly, to be kept well but far away from me.
As I said, life was a mess. It was hard for me to see God’s hand and impossible to understand why He was allowing certain things to transpire. Through it all I continued reading a devotional Bible. Many days the message from the Word was the only I had to hang onto but one day in particular the message was loud and clear. God’s hand of protection was on me and nothing could shake it off.
While at work one afternoon I got a phone call informing me that my nemesis had been injured at his job. My immediate reaction was to feel vindicated and a bit amused as the injury was due to his stupidity. As soon as those feelings ran through me they were chased by guilt. Regardless of how awful he may have been to me this was a serious situation. I prayed to God to forgive me for my feelings toward this man and his mishap and I moved on. Later that day I would be called upon to react to the event and each time it was equally hard not to enjoy his discomfort, at least a little. Each time I prayed for forgiveness and I prayed for his recovery. The latter of which was all to honor God because I couldn’t have cared less if he recovered or not.
The worst damage turned out to be to his mouth, where several of his teeth were broken and a few were knocked out completely. Imagine my reaction when the next morning my devotional reading plan took me to Psalm 3 and the words, “Strike all my enemies on the jaw; break the teeth of the wicked.” I promise you, I read it three times before I believed that those were the actual words. If God is for us indeed! (Romans 8:31)
I was filled with the overwhelming knowledge that no matter who or what might come against me, God most certainly had me covered. I’d been fighting the urge to sink into bitterness and hatred for months, turning everything back to God, praying, hang onto Scripture with both hands and there it was in beautiful letters, God heard my prayers more clearly than I even knew.
Please don’t think that I think God literally struck that man on his mouth. I don’t. I do think he allowed the man’s own arrogance and lack of good sense to get the better of him and used that to give me a bright light at the end of a tunnel in which I was still trapped. God released me from that tunnel many years ago and has blessed me in ways I never could have imagined. To this day when the tunnels of life get too dark and begin to seem endless I remember that little bit of justice. I know that God is for me and vengeance truly is His.
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