Psalm 35:17: “LORD, how long will You look on? / Rescue me from their destructions, / My precious life from the lions.”

February 10th, 2024 by Pastor Ed in devotional

When we find ourselves in the midst of struggles, it often feels as though help is far away, that our enemies are winning, and that our prayers are going unheard and unanswered. And it is this seeming silence of God that feels the most confusing. It is normal for believers in times like this to go through a period of self-examination, to see if the silence is a result of anything on their part. It is never a bad thing to reflect and wait on the Holy Spirit to show us if there is anything standing between God and us. Repentance and confession are the sure antidotes for silence caused by our personal sins.

However, there are also times when God is not silent because of our sins, but because He has simply pulled quietly back. This means we are experiencing God’s silence while He is still very much WITH us. When His voice seems far off, how will we respond? Will we continue to pray, fellowship, read the Word, and witness? The silence of God is not the same as the absence of God; we must remember that He has already promised to never leave us or forsake us. Perhaps through His silence He is calling us to sit patiently before Him, quietly waiting on Him. This is of course the beauty of silence BEFORE God. How often do we allow ourselves to simply be silent before Him and listen? Leonardo Da Vinci said it this way:

Patience serves as a protection against wrongs as clothes do against cold. For if you put on more clothes as the cold increases it will have no power to hurt you. So in like manner you must grow in patience when you meet with great wrongs, and they will then be powerless to vex your mind.

“LORD, we wait on You to speak through the things we see and do, while doing our best to serve You this day.”

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Psalms 35 KJV

¹ Plead my cause , O LORD, with them that strive with me: fight against them that fight against me.

² Take hold of shield and buckler, and stand up for mine help.

³ Draw out also the spear, and stop the way against them that persecute me: say unto my soul, I am thy salvation.

⁴ Let them be confounded and put to shame that seek after my soul: let them be turned back and brought to confusion that devise my hurt.

⁵ Let them be as chaff before the wind: and let the angel of the LORD chase them .

⁶ Let their way be dark and slippery: and let the angel of the LORD persecute them. 

⁷ For without cause have they hid for me their net ina pit, which without cause they have digged for my soul.

⁸ Let destruction come upon him at unawares; and let his net that he hath hid catch himself: into that very destruction let him fall. 

⁹ And my soul shall be joyful in the LORD: it shall rejoice in his salvation.

¹⁰ All my bones shall say, LORD, who is like unto thee, which deliverest the poor from him that is too strong for him, yea, the poor and the needy from him that spoileth him?

¹¹ False witnesses did rise up; they laid to my charge things that I knew not.  

¹² They rewarded me evil for good to the spoiling of my soul. 

¹³ But as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth: I humbled my soul with fasting; and my prayer returned into mine own bosom. 

¹⁴ I behaved myself as though he had been my friend or brother: I bowed down heavily, as one that mourneth for his mother.  

¹⁵ But in mine adversity they rejoiced, and gathered themselves together: yea , the abjects gathered themselves together against me, and I knew it not; they did tear me , and ceased not: 

¹⁶ With hypocritical mockers in feasts, they gnashed upon me with their teeth.

¹⁷ Lord, how long wilt thou look on? rescue my soul from their destructions, my darling from the lions.

¹⁸ I will give thee thanks in the great congregation: I will praise thee among much people. 

¹⁹ Let not them that are mine enemies wrongfully rejoice over me: neither let them wink with the eye that hate me without a cause. 

²⁰ For they speak not peace: but they devise deceitful matters against them that are quiet in the land.

²¹ Yea, they opened their mouth wide against me, and said, Aha, aha, our eye hath seen it .

²² This thou hast seen, O LORD: keep not silence: O Lord, be not far from me.

²³ Stir up thyself, and awake to my judgment, evenunto my cause, my God and my Lord.

²⁴ Judge me, O LORD my God, according to thy righteousness; and let them not rejoice over me.

²⁵ Let them not say in their hearts, Ah, so would we have it: let them not say, We have swallowed him up. 

²⁶ Let them be ashamed and brought to confusion together that rejoice at mine hurt: let them be clothed with shame and dishonour that magnify themselves against me.

²⁷ Let them shout for joy, and be glad, that favour my righteous cause: yea, let them say continually, Let the LORD be magnified, which hath pleasure in the prosperity of his servant. 

²⁸ And my tongue shall speak of thy righteousness and of thy praise all the day long.