Main Thought:
This psalm engages the particular pain we feel when a friend turns against us. That hurts deeply and we find that we need God’s comforting presence most at that time.
Psalm 55:9-16
Destroy, O Lord, divide their tongues;
for I see violence and strife in the city.
Day and night they go around it
on its walls,
and iniquity and trouble are within it;
ruin is in its midst;
oppression and fraud
do not depart from its marketplace.
For it is not an enemy who taunts me—
then I could bear it;
it is not an adversary who deals insolently with me—
then I could hide from him.
But it is you, a man, my equal,
my companion, my familiar friend.
We used to take sweet counsel together;
within God’s house we walked in the throng.
Let death steal over them;
let them go down to Sheol alive;
for evil is in their dwelling place and in their heart.
But I call to God,
and the Lord will save me.
Prayer
Lord Jesus, who taught us to forgive those who trespass against us, break and hinder in us the will of the flesh in its vindictiveness and pride. Instead, by Your love for us enable us to do Your will, to truly love our enemies, and to freely forgive our offending brother as often as he asks us. Amen.