Rescue me, Lord, from my enemies

 

Photo by Marianna Smiley on Unsplash

Psalm 143, is a psalm of David crying for help in distress. The Church uses this whole psalm in its compline (the official night prayer of the Church) every Tuesday.

The entire psalm is beautiful in itself, and every person who is struggling with something in his/her life can relate to it and pray with it.

Today, in this very short blog post, let us particularly analyze what it means to pray to the Lord to rescue us from our enemies and to cut them off? 

11 For your name’s sake, O Lord, preserve my life.

In your righteousness bring me out of trouble.

12 In your steadfast love cut off my enemies,

and destroy all my adversaries,

 for I am your servant.

Apparently, we no longer go kill others nor make enemies per se like in David's time (please note: I'm not speaking of the gruesome wars that are taking place today but rather on a personal basis).    

Now, if that's the case, when we pray to the Lord asking him to cut off our enemies, whom are we referring to? Are we asking the Peacemaker to send adversity upon the people we dislike for some silly reason? No, I don't think so!

The enemy here is Satan-the evil one. All that he does is summed up in this psalm (verses 3 and 4):

The enemy pursues my soul;

he has crushed my life to the ground;

he has made me dwell in darkness

like the dead, long forgotten.

Therefore my spirit fails;

my heart is numb within me. 

It is also clear that the Church refers to Satan when it means the enemy, for the Scripture Reading right after this psalm on Tuesday's compline is from 1 Peter 5:8-9, where Peter warns us that our opponent the devil is prowling around like a roaring lion.  

The evil one makes our hearts numb. The evil one strives to make us remain in darkness. The evil one CRUSHES our life! The evil one makes us feel useless! The evil one makes us feel forgotten; while this may be true in the case of some people whom we love, the Lord God who knew you and me before he created us in our mother's wombs would never forget us, and he has our names in his palms. (cf. Isaiah 49:15-16). 

What then are we supposed to do? Should we give in to the evil one-which at first sight seems to be the easiest choice-to escape reality? Or should we ask God's help? I would say that no matter how hard it gets, we should turn to the Lord. It's never too late!

The verses from 09 to 12, would help us begin our journey towards God in this battle against the enemy.

Let us pray with the words from the Scripture:

Rescue me, Lord, from my enemies;

I have fled to you for refuge.

Teach me to do your will

for you, O Lord, are my God.

Let your good spirit guide me

in ways that are level and smooth.

For your name's sake, Lord, save my life;

In your justice save my soul from distress.

In your steadfast love cut off my enemies,

and destroy all my adversaries,

for I AM YOUR SERVANT.

 


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