Psalm 109: Vengeance invoked upon adversaries

Speaker: Thank you for downloading the Wednesday in the Word podcast. I'm Krisan Marotta. Today, David John Marata is speaking on Psalm 109. You can follow along with the lecture notes at wednesdayintheword.com slash Psalm 109. Thanks again for listening. Speaker 1: If you have your Bibles open to Psalm 109, Psalm 109 is, at least for me, the hardest psalm I've studied and looked at to understand. And we're going to look at it today. And we don't have a lot of time, and there's a lot of interpretive questions that need to be answered. So I'm going to try to go over as much of the interpretive questions as possible quickly and then get on so that we can take a look at some of the application of the psalm. Let me read it. Psalm 109. In my Bible, I'm using the Numerican Standard. The subtitle is Vengeance Invoked Upon Adversaries. So this psalm is sometimes called one of the vengeance psalms, and you'll see why as we go. O God of my praise, do not be silent, for they have opened the wicked and deceitful mouth against me. They have spoken against me with a lying tongue. They have also surrounded me with words of hatred, and fought against me without cause. In return for my love they act as my accusers, but I am in prayer. Thus they have repaid me evil for good, and hatred for my love. Appoint a wicked man over him, and let an accuser stand at his right hand. When he is judged, let him come forth guilty, let his prayer become sin, let his days be few, let another his ought take his office, let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow, let his children wander about and beg, let them seek sustenance far from their ruined homes, let the creditor seize all that he has, and let strangers plunder the product of his labor. Let there be none to extend loving kindness to him, nor any to be gracious to his fatherless children, let his posterity be cut off. In a following generation let their name be blotted out. Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered before the Lord, and do not let the sin of his mother be blotted out. Let them be before the Lord continually, that he may cut off their memory from the earth, because he did not remember to show loving kindness, but persecuted the afflicted and needy man, and the despondent in heart to put them to death. Also he loved cursing, so it came to him, and he did not delight in blessing, so it was far from him, but he clothed himself with cursing as as with his garment, and he entered into his b and it entered into his body like water, and like oil into his bones. Let it be to him as a garment with which he covers himself, and for a belt with which he constantly girds himself. Let this be the reward of my accusers from the Lord, and of those who speak evil against my soul. But thou, O God, the Lord, deal kindly with me for thy name's sake, because thy loving kindness is good, deliver me, for I am afflicted and needy, and my heart is wounded within me. I am passing like a shadow when it lengthens, I am shaken off like the locusts, my knees are weak from fasting, and my flesh has grown lean with without fatness. I also have become a repo a reproach to them, when they see me they wag their head. Help me, O Lord my God, save me according to thy loving kindness, and let them know that this is thy hand, that thou Lord hast done it. Let them curse, but thou do bless. When they arise they shall be ashamed, but thy servant shall be glad. Let my accusers be clothed with dishonor, and let them cover themselves with their own shame as with a robe. With my mouth I will give thanks abundantly to the Lord, and in the midst of many I will praise him, for he stands at the right hand of the needy, to save him from those who judge his soul. Okay. Um clearly this has some of the most vicious language in the Bible you could possibly find. I mean, just just taking a look at verses eight and nine, let his days be few, let another take his office, let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow, is pretty graphic cursing, if you will, to find in the Bible. To make it worse, put your finger in Psalm 109 and turn over to Acts 2, because this is uh quoted by Peter in Acts 2. Acts 2, verses 16 through 20. No, I'm sorry, Acts 1. Yeah, I've got my chapter wrong. Acts 1, 16 through 20. Brethren, the scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit foretold by the mouth of David concerning Judas. So Peter says this is uh a psalm written by David prophetically about Judas, who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus, for he was counted among us and received his portion in this ministry. Now this man acquired a field with the price of his wickedness, and falling headlong he burst open in the middle, and his all his bowels gushed out. And it became known to all who were living in Jerusalem, so that in their own language that field was called Hazakaldamah, that is the field of blood. For it is written in the book of Psalms, let his homestead be made desolate, let no man dwell in it, and his office let another man take, which is quoting from our Psalm. So Psalm 6109 is sometimes called Judas' Psalm in the Middle Ages because it's quoted here as being about Judas. So this is sort of a a multiple, multiply difficult Psalm. First of all, you have the vengeance aspect, which seems bizarre. Second, you have Judas as being supposedly the one this psalm is about. And then there are some structural problems with the Psalm. If you look at verses 1 through 5, the enemies are plural. And if you look at verses 6 through 20, the enemies are singular. Then 21 through 24, they're not really mentioned, but back in 25, the enemies are plural again. Through 25 through the end of the Psalm. So again, you have sort of this problem about what is the occasion for this psalm, what's going on, what you know, if is this about Judas? If so, why is he dropping between singular and plural? And um and the psalm says things like in verse 5, Thus they repaid me evil for good and hatred for my love, it doesn't sound like a loving psalm. So if the psalmist is complaining about the fact that this is uh a loving psalm, or th this is this is uh they they didn't like his love, I wouldn't like his love either if this psalm is is any indication of it. Okay, so just to sort of get you in the spirit of why there are such interpretive problems with the psalm and and why you have to find something which makes sense out of all of this. There's been suggested a number of different occasions for the psalm. I'm just gonna pick one and tell you this is the one I think it is. It could be one of the other ones, I admit, this is the one that makes the most sense to me of the occasion for the psalm, and then we'll take a look at how this helps answer a lot of the different interpretive questions. So, put your finger in Psalm 109 and go to 1 Samuel 25. Um David and Saul are in their sort of heated conflict at this point. Um Saul, David has just spared Saul's life, but Saul really doesn't give up after that. He's sort of still out to. And Israel is, of course, split between David followers and Saul followers, and they're going back and forth. So let me just take Hugh chapter 25. Um we'll start in verse 2. Now there was a man in man whose business was in Carmel, and the man was very rich, and he had three thousand sheep and a thousand goats, and it came about that while he was sharing his sheep in Carmel, now the man's name was Nabal, and his wife's name was Abigail, and the woman was intelligent and beautiful in appearance, but the man was harsh and evil in his dealings, and he was a Calebite. That David heard in the wilderness that Nabal was sharing his sheep. So David sent ten young men, and David said to the young men, Go up to Carmel, visit Nabal, and greet him in my name, and thus you shall say, Have a long life, peace be to you, and peace be to your house, and peace to all that you have. And now I have heard that you have shearers, now your shepherds have been with us, and we have not insulted them, nor have they missed anything all anything all in any they missed anything all the days they were in Carmel. Ask your young men, they will tell you. Therefore, my young men, let my young men find favor in your eyes, for we have come on a festive day. Please give whatever you find at hand to your servants and to your son David. So David's soldiers are sort of protecting the sheep, sheep, the shepherds who are out there, and shepherds were always sort of in danger of all kinds of different dangers, and by having David, some of David's army men there, he's been protecting the shepherds. They haven't taken anything, they've been treating them well. He comes up, he gives them a blessing, and he asks them for some food for a festive day, because David's on the run and he doesn't have any stores and provisions. When David's young men came, they spoke to Nabal according to all these words in David's name, and when they wait and then they waited. But Nabal answered David's servants and said, Who is David, and who is the son of Jesse? There are many servants today who are breaking away from his mas who eat who are each breaking away from his master. Shall I then take my bread and water and my meat that I have slaughtered for my shearers and give it to men whose origin I do not know? Now, you have to understand, this is about as David's sort of notoriety was about as much as, say, Monica Lewinsky during the Clinton scandal. Everyone knew who David was. Everyone knew that David was anointed king, and Saul was king, and there was this riff between him. So this is a great insult. It's like lots of people are breaking away from their masters. Am I supposed to keep track of all the riff-raff that's out there? So this is a a complete insult against who David is. And sort of as mean-spirited as you could get. So David's young men retraced their way and went back, and they came and told him according to all these words. And David said to his men, Each of you gird on his sword. So each man girded on his sword, and David also girded on his sword, and about four hundred men went up behind David, while two hundred stayed with the baggage. But one of the young men told Abigail, Nabel's wife, saying, Behold, David sent messengers from the wilderness to greet our master, and he scorned them. Yet the men were very good to us, and we were not insulted, nor did we miss anything, as long as we went about with them while we were in the fields. They were a wall to us both by night and by day, all the time we were with them tending sheep. Now therefore, know and consider what you should do, for evil is plotted against our master and against his household, and he is such a worthless man that no one can speak to him. By the way, the term Nabal means worthless, so he was actually named worthless. It's absolutely I love names in the Old Testament, worthless. Then Abigail hurried and took two hundred loaves of bread and two jugs of wine and five sheep already prepared, and five measures of roasted grain, and a hundred clusters of raisins, and two hundred cakes of figs, and loaded them on donkeys. And she said to her young man, Go on before me, behold, I am coming after you. But she did not tell her husband Nabal. And it came about that while she was riding on her donkey and coming down by the hidden part of the mountain, that behold, David and his men were coming down toward her, so she met them. Now David had said, Surely, in vain I have guarded all of that that man has in this in the wilderness, so that nothing was missed of all that belong to him, and he has returned for me evil for good. Remember that's from our psalm. May God do so to the enemies of David and more also, if by morning I leave as much as one male of any who belong to him. While Abigail saw David, she hurried and dismounted from her donkey and fell on her face before David, and bowed herself to the ground, and she fell at his feet and said, On me alone, my lord, be the blame, and please let your maidservant speak to you and listen to the words of your maidservant. Please do not met my let my lord pay attention to this worthless man Nabal, for as his name is, so he is. Nabal is his name, and folly is with him. But I, your maidservant, did not see the young men of my Lord whom you sent. Now, therefore, my lord, as the Lord lives and as your soul lives, since the Lord has restrained you from shedding blood and from avenging yourself by your own hand, now then let your enemies and those who seek evil against my Lord be as Nabal. And now let this gift which your maidservant has brought to my Lord to be given to the young men who accompany my Lord. Please forgive the transgression of your maidservant, for the Lord will certainly make for my Lord an enduring house, because my Lord is fighting all the battles of the Lord, and evil shall not be found in you all your days. And should anyone rise up to pursue you and seek your life, then the life of my Lord shall be bound in the bundle of the living with the Lord with the Lord your God, but the lives of your enemies he will sling out as from the hollow of a sling. And it shall come about when the Lord shall do for my Lord, according to the all the good that he has spoken concerning you, and shall appoint you ruler over Israel, that this will not cause grief or a troubled heart to my Lord, both by having shed blood without cause, and by my Lord having avenged himself. When the Lord shall deal well with my Lord, then remember your maid servant. Then David said to Abigail, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, who sent you this day to meet me, and blessed be your discernment, and blessed be you who have kept me this day from bloodshed, and from avenging myself by my own hand. Nevertheless, as the Lord of God is God of Israel lives, who has restrained me from harming you, unless you had come quickly to meet me, surely there would not have been left to Nabal until the morning light as much as one male. So David received from her hand what she had brought him, and he said to her, Go up to your house in peace. See, I have listened to you and granted your request. Then Abigail came to Nabal, and behold he was holding a feast in his house, like the feast of a king, and Nab's heart was merry within him, for he was very drunk. So she did not tell him anything at all until the morning light. But when it came about in the morning when the wine had gone out of Nabal that his wife told him these things, his heart died within him, so he became a stone. And about ten days later it happened that the Lord struck Nabal, and he died. When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, Blessed be the Lord who has pleaded the cause of my reproach from the hand of Nabal, and has kept back his servant from evil. The Lord also has returned the evil doing of Nabal on his own head, again, language from our Psalm. Then Nabal sent a proposal to Abigail to take her as his wife. And when the servants of David came to Abigail at Carmel, they spoke to her, saying, David has sent us to you to take you as his wife. And she arose and bowed with a face to the ground and said, Behold, your maidservant is a maid to wash the feet of my lord's servants. And then Abigail quickly arose and rode on a donkey with her five maidens who attended her, and she followed the messengers of David and became his wife. Okay. So I think this is the occasion for the Psalm. Turn back to Psalm 109. Let's see how that sort of plays out within the Psalm. First of all, probably one of the most important pieces is you remember that verses six through twenty were in the singular, and the rest of the psalm is in the plural. This is, I think, not a vengeance psalm. So it's included among the vengeance psalms for its language. But let me tell you how I put it together. Verses 1 through 5 is David speaking. And in verse 5 he says, Thus they have repaid me evil for good and hatred for my love, saying, quote, and the entire quote is 6 through 20. These are Nabal's words against David, which makes a lot better understanding out of the Psalm. This is a singular, it's what Nabal says to David when he deals with his servants harshly, when he's mean-spirited. The account in 1 Samuel is an abbreviated account of what is probably a long and vindictive cursing that Nabal says that probably includes much of this. And if you read this, this is the kind of thing that someone who was against David would have said. In other words, um, let him be completely wiped out because he is a traitor to the true king, Saul. And if you read through that, you'll get a sort of a spirit of what Nabal was like. Again, what it does is it, first of all, it takes the worst part of this psalm out of David's mouth and puts it in Nabal's mouth, and makes a lot more sense out of the psalm that way. And the quote marks make a lot more sense out of why five would say, They've repaid me evil for good and hatred for my love, and then it gives the example saying, again, Hebrew doesn't really have a way of going double quotes, and all that kind of stuff just isn't there in the text, and you have to understand it one way or the other. Speaker 3: And that goes through which verse 20 or 25? Speaker 1: Um I'm sorry, let me let me come back to there. Uh it goes through 15, actually. It goes through 15. The quote would go through 15. Starting at 6. Yeah, starting at 6 and going through 15. Let me go ahead and pass out a handout to sort of help keep us straight on what we're doing. Yeah, it goes through 15, and then in 16, again, I will tell you, commentators flip back and forth on how far the quote goes. It at least goes through 15. Some people take it through 19. I actually take it 16 is starting David again because he did not remember to show loving-kindness, because he persecuted the afflicted and needy man. In other words, because Nabal did these things, because he was persecuting me, David, the needy and afflicted man, and the despondent in heart to put them to death. He also loved cursing, so Nabal's curses came back upon his own head. He did not delight in blessing, so blessing was far away from Nabal. He clothed himself with cursing as with his garment, and it entered into his body like water and oil like his bones. So what David is saying is the man was full of curses, and those curses came back upon his own head. The very thing that Nabal wanted, let another man take David's office, actually came back upon him, and David took his wife, and his office and all of his goods. So you can see this sort of um, yeah, I don't know quite how to put it, Christian karma, if you will, that that that the you know the very the very evil that you're out there doing in life somehow comes back upon your own head to haunt you because we live in a moral universe that God has created, and God is the one, and I don't I don't know whether to say God has created this universe as a moral universe, and therefore righteousness leads to life and sin leads to death, or God Himself has his very hand in the universe making things happen to those who trust him and to those who don't trust him. Either way you look at it, it comes back to the same thing. It comes back to if you're a person of cursing and hatred, then curses and hatred will come back upon you because that's the kind of a world we live in. Okay, so let me just take a step back because we've got limited time and say, okay, so how is this about Judas? So it looks like in the New Testament, David said, or Peter says, David predicted Judas when he wrote this psalm. And let me tell you that there are at least two different ways that the term fulfilled is used in the New Testament. And one is predictive prophecy, and the other is I think what's going on in terms of um Peter's mouth. Peter is saying that this psalm is fulfilled in Judas. And fulfilled can mean there's a principle in the Old Testament which is fulfilled. Fully shown in the New Testament. This is why Jesus can said to have fulfilled a lot of things in the Old Testament that were not predictive prophecy. Because when it says things like, um, you know, the righteous shall have these things and these blessings, well, who more fully fills the ideal of righteousness than Jesus? So much of the Old Testament can be applied to Jesus as a fulfillment because it's general principles about the righteous and what's going to happen to them, and Jesus is the only really true righteous man that that is shown to have happened. So when you're in the New Testament, some of it's predictive prophecy and some of it's not, and some of it looks like it could be both. I mean, it could be either one. So, and I'm not trying to say that all the terms fulfilled are not predictive prophecy. This, however, is not one. So, what is the principle here? The principle here is when someone has been shown love and kindness and in return has done nothing but evil and cursings and hatred, you can leave it to God to fulfill vengeance. So, who was shown incredible love and kindness and devotion as one of Jesus' disciples other than Jesus? I mean, who was shown perfect love other than Judas by the one only man who could really show perfect love? And what does he do? He betrays him. Betraying the Messiah has got to be the most awful thing you could do in terms of repaying good for evil, and Jesus doesn't take vengeance, the disciples don't take vengeance, it happens completely from God's hand. And so what Peter is saying is Judas completely fulfilled the principles in this psalm, and therefore it's appropriate for another person to take his office, because God has removed him, now we're going to put another person into his office, just like it happened in this psalm with David and Nabal. So you see how there's this principle at work in Psalm 109 that you can take away, and Peter can apply it to Judas as the pr the prime example, if you will, the highest example, the fullest fulfillment of this principle. Okay. So a lot of the interpretive questions end up getting answered. Now I want to just take a look a minute at a couple of applications that we can do with this psalm. Let me just sort of give you the overall structure. 1 through 5 is David's situation, the curses against David, and then because he was this way, therefore let this be his reward. In 16 through 18 and 19 and 20. In verse 21, you'll notice David commits his cause to God. But thou, O God, the Lord, deal kindly with me for thy name's sake, because thy loving kindness is good, deliver me. And then you'll notice in 26 through 29, you see that David asks for vindication. In uh in 22 through 25, he describes his weakness. He's on the run, he's got accusers hearing him, and he just feels awful. 26, he asks for vindication. Especially notice verse 27, and let them know that this is thy hand. Thou, Lord, hast done it. In other words, I want everyone to see, I I didn't do it, I didn't have anything to do with the Lord is the one who takes vengeance. He's the one. And then in uh verse uh verse 30 and 31, he thanks the Lord and puts his confidence in the Lord. If you will, it gives us an old testament an old testament picture of what it would look like to turn the other cheek, to not answer, um, to not have to speak and justify ourselves, to let vengeance be in the Lord's hands, to uh to sort of completely completely trust. Now, I don't know about you, but this psalm helps me when I am angry at someone. So, and there's always situations where there's tensions somewhere, and I'm just thinking bad thoughts about someone else because office politics, you know, something's gone on. Office politics is the is the clear one where you just you kind of want to get out the swords and get 20 men behind you and go you know, and go take your revenge on someone. But there's a lot of situations where someone has done you wrong. And in uh in 1 Peter 3.16, um, Peter says, you know, keep a good conscience so that the thing in which you're slandered, you know, they'll see, they'll see your good works, they'll see your kindness. And then Peter also in that passage talks about uh, for this is grace, that if when you're dealt with harshly you show kindness. It's an opportunity for us to show forth what the Lord showed when he was dealt with unkindly, he showed grace in return. And where else are people going to see grace? I mean, quite honestly, when people are mean to you is one of the only opportunities you can show grace. And so if you view it that way, it's just a little bit different. God has put me in this situation so that somebody could be mean to me and I could show grace in return because I can show them what Christ's love is like. I can show them what. And that's the principle here with David, is David learned that lesson. He just learned it with Saul, he just spared Saul's life, and he comes down, and here's another situation, and he's got 400 men behind him with swords, and the Lord sends Abigail out to teach him once more that that's not the right way, David. You just go home, calm down, and I'll take care of it. And that's a hard thing to learn because we're so quick to justify our rights. Whether it's office politics, or whether it's our spouse, or whether it's, you know, it does it doesn't matter. It can even be people you care about, and yet you're so quick to try to justify things. Um, one more thing, and that is, there's another way to look at this psalm, and that is in verses 22 through 25, for I'm afflicted and needy, and my heart is wounded within me. I'm passing like a shadow when it lengthens, I'm shaken off like the locust, my knees are weak from fasting, and my flesh has grown lean without fatness. I have become a reproach to them. When they see me, they wag their head. This is what people feel like when they've got an enemy who's against them. Have you ever had the situation where you know someone is angry at you and you just your pit of your stomach tightens up, or your shoulders, you get a neck ache. You know, it just affects you physically because you know just it's just we hate it when someone does not like what we've done and is angry with us and is upset with us. And a grace is what relieves that on other people. So this is what people are like when we take vengeance upon them. So that vengeance cycle is what ends up causing so much hurt and pain in relationships. So there's another way to take this, and that is um my one of my favorite Stephen Crane poems, uh, one man was afraid he was going to find an assassin, another that he was going to find a victim. One was wiser than the other. So I think uh the wise man is afraid he's going to find a victim and afraid he's going to be the one causing and inflicting this kind of pain. And he's constantly on the guard of his own heart saying, Okay, Lord, you know, I'm getting angry at that person. What can I do to show grace and to not show vengeance? Because this is what vengeance makes people feel like. And I I've found that in a number of situations. It's often good to think about, okay, what is the other person going through? I don't know what they're going through. Maybe their marriage is breaking up, and that's why they're so angry and testy. Maybe their kids are rebellious and horrible. Maybe they hate their jobs and they hate their life, and that's why they're always sour and surly. And what can I do to speak into that situation? So sometimes we're just not empathetic enough in envisioning what other people's lives must be like, and what they really need to hear is uh a reflection of God's love and God's care and God's concern, because that's the only thing that's going to take them through whatever is causing them to be such a sour puss and such a mean-spirited person. So that's a sort of another application. Um just another sort of interesting little piece. Um if you look at verse 6, appoint a wicked man over him and let an accuser stand at his right hand. This is sort of Nabel's opening vindictive, if you will, and he's talking about let an accuser, the word accuser is actually Satan, because Satan means accuser, so it's it's basically let Satan stand at his right hand, or let an accuser stand at his right hand. I think it means accuser, but I just want you to know what kind of an accuser that sort of means. If you go to verse 31, he's talking about the Lord, for the Lord stands at the right hand of the needy to save him from those who judge his soul. It's the difference of having God standing at your right hand or having Satan stand at your right hand. I've often said that the uh the Holy Spirit convicts us to drive us back toward God. Satan convicts us to drive us away from God. And that's sort of the difference between the two approaches. If you're just there as an accuser, you're saying things like, yeah, until you get your act together, you can't go to the Lord. You can't be with God. You better get your act together before I'm going to accept you, before you're acceptable within the family of God, within the kingdom, within anything else. As opposed to you're acceptable the way you are, I love you so much, I want you the best for you, and I'm trying to help you get to the best. And again, that's the same difference in attitudes that we can have within our marriages, and really within any relationship, is the other person's sin is an opportunity either for helping them to draw closer to God or from standing there as an accuser and driving them away from God. So it's uh another little piece. Okay, we've we've been through a lot, but and it's getting late. I just want to see if there's any questions or anything or observations. Yeah. Speaker 3: Just a comment. Um, in the in the uh 1 Samuel, David was determined to get vengeance. And uh, you know, he didn't exactly respond in a cool, calm, loving, graceful manner. But he was uh uh the Lord used uh Abigail. Speaker 1: Yeah. Speaker 3: And uh I mean it'd be nice if that would happen in our life. Speaker 1: Yeah, it would. And and s and sometimes you may not be able to be the person like Jesus who takes it all. Sometimes you're just the third party who's the Abigail there, and you can just sort of get in someone's way and say, hold it, before you go do that, you know, let's just think about what God would have you do, and let's take a look at something like this. Yeah. Speaker 2: Is there would you say there's a difference between an accuser and an oppressor? Speaker 1: Um, I wasn't making a distinction. Do you think there is one? Speaker 2: Uh no, I guess I'm asking that question because uh one could almost take this message and say, you know, anyone who is oppressing or um violating some manner, you know, we should just pray for and respond in this capacity. Speaker 3: Yep. Speaker 2: Um I guess that's what I'm asking. Do you make a difference between that? Speaker 1: No, I I I don't. I think I think you can do the same thing for somebody who's oppressing you, somebody who's persecuting you, someone who just doesn't like Christians, somebody who may be giving you a hard time for all the right reasons even, you can still take this approach. Because what because what this says is when you feel hurt, how do you respond? Do you give that over to the Lord? Do you trust the Lord? Do you show kindness in response? It really is almost any time you're hurt. It doesn't have to be an accuser. Yeah. Speaker 2: So would you say that David and his responses, I mean he he was a warrior. Yeah. What were some of his responses and the manner in which he became king? Legitimate, you know? Speaker 1: Yeah. Um it's certainly true, it's certainly true. The biblical account doesn't have David overthrowing Saul. And I think that's the biggest, that's the biggest thing he got right. He was tempted to, certainly. I think in the cave was probably his biggest temptation. Because it was means, opportunity, wise counsel telling him, do it, do it, do it, do it. You know, everything that we would go through for decision making, he would say, Yeah, stab that guy, all my troubles will be over, and he doesn't. So but then he turns right around and he goes, wants to kill Nabel. So you know, so I I think it I think it's hard. It's certainly a hard road. And certainly Jesus would have wanted to justify himself uh over and over again and doesn't. And you you know you see you see sort of the perfect uh the perfect response in Jesus. Which is why when I'm upset and angry, I go and I read Proverbs, nine times out of nine, the answer I get is bite your tongue. Just be quiet. Let it go. You don't you don't have to, God knows. That's the the biggest thing that helps me, God knows. If I feel like it's all been wrong and it's completely unjustified and everything else, if it's true, God knows. And if it's not true, I really should bite my tongue. You know, if it's just my own self-justification. So either way, the correct answer is bite your tongue and have a good laugh between you and God about how ironic it is. The very thing they're wailing on you for is they're twice as guilty of themselves. You know. Other questions or comments? Okay, good. Let me pray. God, we confess to you that um we're very much like David at the beginning of the story, uh, wanting to marshal the 400 soldiers and go kill those who um who cause us uh pain and suffering. But we know that you're in charge of all of life. So we pray that the next time that we are uh confronted by someone who is angry with us or wishes us ill, you would bring this to mind and allow us to see it as an opportunity to show your grace and your love and your concern, knowing that you are a God who's woven the very fabric of the universe with your moral structure and will stand at our right hand and vindicate us. We thank you for these things in Jesus' name. Amen.