Time to Act

Psalm 119:121-128 

Ayin

 ¹²¹ I have done what is righteous and just;
       do not leave me to my oppressors. 
 ¹²² Ensure your servant's well-being;
       let not the arrogant oppress me.
 ¹²³ My eyes fail, looking for your salvation,
       looking for your righteous promise.
 ¹²⁴ Deal with your servant according to your love
       and teach me your decrees.
 ¹²⁵ I am your servant; give me discernment
       that I may understand your statutes.
 ¹²⁶ It is time for you to act, O LORD;
       your law is being broken.
 ¹²⁷ Because I love your commands
       more than gold, more than pure gold,
 ¹²⁸ and because I consider all your precepts right,
       I hate every wrong path.

We must know when to act and when we should leave the actions to God.

Even though I quoted the entire ayin section above, I will focus mainly on verse 126. The psalmist, as we can ascertain from reading the rest of the psalm, was a person who had a close relationship with God, and had very high esteem for His law. Even though much of Psalm 119 is devoted to talking about the psalmist's actions in regards to the law, such is not the case in verse 126. Here the psalmist states that it is time for God to act, not himself. That is an attitude that we all should spend more time developing.

Too many people have the mentality that they should be defenders of the faith. I did a simple word search for the word "defend" and found only one reference that talked about a human being defending the gospel. The rest were either God defending us or us defending other people.

What I get out of this is that we should spend less time thinking about how to defend God and His law from attackers, and spend more time thinking about how to proclaim His message to a dying world. God and His Word have stood the test of time well before we came on the scene. He is much better at defending such attacks than we could ever be. So with this in mind, let us remember that there are times when we should act and there are times when we should leave the actions to God.

Defenders of the Weak

Psalm 82:1-4  God presides in the great assembly; he gives judgment among the "gods": "How long will you defend the unjust and show partiality to the wicked? Selah Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless; maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed. Rescue the weak and needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked.

Defending the weak is not a task that belongs solely to God.

Earlier I wrote about how God is our Ultimate Defender of the weak, but this psalm indicates that human beings have a part in that as well. According to the marginal reference in my Bible the "you" in verse two is plural. Most likely Asaph is referring to those "in the great assembly" the "gods", which as I found out in verses six and seven are actually men who hold high positions. In this psalm, Asaph is calling upon these leaders to stop showing favoritism towards the wicked and champion the cause of the weak.

Now how can we apply this verse to our everyday lives? Does this apply only to those in leadership positions, or is their a broader application? How far do we go in our defense of the weak? Who are the weak around us, and, for that matter, who are the wicked? Do we sometimes show favoritism to the wicked, if so, how do we do that? 

Because there are so many variables here, I will not give my answers to those questions. I will leave everyone to come to their own conclusions. However, I will say this, we do have a role to play in defending the weak, and we all need to discover exactly what that role is.

Ultimate Defender

Psalm 64:6-8  They plot injustice and say, "We have devised a perfect plan!" Surely the mind and heart of man are cunning. God will shoot them with arrows; suddenly they will be struck down. He will turn their own tongues against them and bring them to ruin; all who see them will shake their heads in scorn.

God is the ultimate defender of the weak.

Again I find David venting his complaints to God.  This time he is talking about how evil people conspire against him.  I find it interesting the metaphors that he uses.  In verse three he talks about how the evildoers "sharpen their tongues like swords".  He understood the power for destruction that our tongues can have. He continues by saying how they plot evil against innocent people and encourage others to join them.  They begin to think rather highly of themselves, thinking that they devise perfect plans. However, when God comes into the picture, things change.  God shoots arrows at them, and their sharpened tongues become weapons of their own destruction.

I look around at all the man-made destruction of body and soul out there and it saddens me.  I can be encouraged by the fact that sooner or later, these evildoers will bear the results of their crimes against humanity.  I also can be warned by the fact that if, God forbid, I become like those mentioned in this psalm, that sooner or later God will be coming after me. Either way, the truth remains that if I find myself being attacked, I can turn to God, because He is my Ultimate Defender.