Lord, hear my prayer for justice.
I am calling loudly to you.
I am being honest in what I say,
so please listen to my prayer.
You will make the right decision,
because you can see the truth.
You were with me all night
and looked deep into my heart.
You questioned me and found that
I did not say or do anything wrong.
Unlike most people, I have obeyed your commands,
so I have never been like those who are cruel and evil.
I have followed your way.
My feet never left your path.
Every time I call to you, God, you answer me.
So listen to me now, and hear what I say.
Show your amazing kindness
and rescue those who depend on you.
Use your great power
and protect them from their enemies.
I have done only what is right, so I will see your face….
And seeing you, I will be fully satisfied. (ERV)
This is one of David’s personal psalms of lament. It is a prayer forged during a time of severe adversity with enemies who sought to snuff-out his life. The psalm is a plea uttered with the hope that God would indeed vindicate him and subdue those who wanted to harm him. It is a lament that wickedness exists and often gets its way; and, it is grief over the constant threats that swirled around David.
It was David’s prayer that with all the heartless and arrogant violence continually in his life that God would keep him as the apple of his eye and hide him in the shadow of his wings. Indeed, perhaps no better prayer could be said in those times when there are people who make untrue accusations and only wish harm to be done to you, that God would be gracious, merciful, and kind through rescuing us from both bodily harm and spiritual abuse. It is in the times when angry simpletons spew their worst that we need to confidently know that God watches over his people with affection and cares for them as a mother hen protects her chicks.
You and I are precious to God. We can and ought to run to him when there is trouble and feel no shame in loudly crying for fairness and justice. The Lord is a benevolent God showing firm commitment to those who seek truth, loving actions, and merciful words. When going through a difficult time in which another or others accuse you of wrongdoing and you know you are innocent, the proper prescription is to pray this very psalm repeatedly at night before bed. For we all know that sleep can be elusive and hard to come by in such circumstances. Perhaps, along with David, you will be able to say: I have done what is right. I will see your face. I will be fully satisfied.
Arise, Lord God Almighty! Deliver my soul from the wicked and subdue them! I seek refuge in you, O Savior; show me your steadfast love as I cry out to you for justice. Incline your ear to hear me, and answer when I call through the name of Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
For today’s Old Testament story set to song, click Wrestle with God from the Church in Ireland; and, Jacob’s Song sung by Gabrielle Ariana.
May the Lord bless you and protect you. May the Lord smile on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord show you his favor and give you his peace. Amen.
Jacob Wrestling the Angel by Karen Laub-Novak (1937-2009)
Confrontation and struggle were a way of life for me in my first solo pastorate. In the first six weeks of being in the church I faced every kind of sin imaginable, to the point that my mentor in the faith recommended I take some time off. I had not even been there for two months! Although that was a difficult time, the greatest struggle was with God himself and feeling like my prayers were doing nothing but bouncing off the ceiling. In fact, I spent several years of my life in an extended wrestling match with God. He touched me and crippled me by his grace, reminding me how much he is in control. Since that time, I walk with a limp that is not visible – an invisible limp which reminds me I am a different person – one who knows Jesus better and is much more at peace with life.
If we do not wrestle with God in the stressful times of our lives, we will have difficulty discovering what genuine humility is, how much we need the Holy Spirit, and the grace that can be ours to face the rest of our lives. Five hundred years ago Thomas à Kempis wrote to new priests entering ministry with this advice:
“We should so firmly establish ourselves in God that we have no need to seek much human encouragement. It is when a man of good will is distressed or tempted, or afflicted with evil thoughts, that he best understands the overwhelming need he has for God, without whom he can do nothing. While enduring these afflictions he takes himself to prayer with sighs and groans; he grows tired of this life and wishes to die so that he could be undone to live with Christ. It is in such times of trial that he realizes that perfect security and full peace are not to be found in this world.”
The Old Testament patriarch, Jacob, was worried and stressed. He knew he had deceived his brother Esau many years earlier to gain their father’s blessing. Now Jacob is about to meet Esau after all these years, and he is downright afraid for himself and his large family. So, he divided them up into two groups, thinking that if Esau were to attack, the other group could escape. The night before the big stressful meeting, Jacob sent his wives and family across a tributary of the Jordan River, the Jabbok, and spent the night alone wrestling with God. (Genesis 32:22-31)
God will put us in life-compromising positions to create divine encounters so that we will walk away changed. Those events usually come in the form of engaging God with all the questions and difficulties of an incredibly stressful situation. The inner change that occurs comes in the form of a new identity, a new limp, and a renewed understanding of God’s grace. A new confidence arises, convinced that through disability and weakness we are strong and able.
Jacob Wrestling with the Angel by Israel Isaac Lipshitz (1903-1980)
There is a good deal of symbolism happening in the story of Jacob wrestling with the angel of God. First, take note that this Scripture story raises more questions than it answers, such as: Who was the man Jacob wrestled? Was he God, an angel, or someone else? Why have a wrestling match? What in the world is going on here? The unanswered questions are symbolic of the reality that we do not and probably will not get the clarity we are looking for in our struggles with God. Sometimes we might not even know it is God whom we are wrestling with. It is quite possible where we see God estranged from us, he really has us in the grip of grace and will not let go.
Second, Jacob got up during the night, representing his dark night of the soul and struggle with the circumstance he must face. Jacob was left alone with no one to deceive (his typical modus operandi) which is symbolic of his great need – he had no “tricks up his sleeve” and had nowhere to turn but to God. Jacob was asked by his wrestling opponent what his name is. Jacob’s answer is a humble one, confessing who he really is (Jacob means “schemer” or “deceiver”). Jacob asked for a blessing, which in itself is an act of humility because it is an honest profession that he lacks something necessary for life that he cannot provide on his own through any kind of ingenuity on his part.
Third, Jacob asked for God’s name – and got no answer to his question, no clarity, and no satisfaction. This is deeply symbolic of the fact that God is mysterious, and we will not always get the answers to our questions we want. God will not kowtow to our puny attempts at controlling him. Jacob would not let the wrestling match end and held on, just like he grasped the heel of his brother Esau at their birth. This is a symbolic reference to Jacob’s stubbornness which was redeemed and transformed into tenacity, rather than a manipulation of people to get what he wanted.
Fourth, God renamed Jacob, “Israel.” Jacob is now distinguished from the old deceiver with a new identity. Israel literally means “God fights” which is a reference of hope for Jacob’s descendants. That Jacob struggled with God and was able to walk away from it is not really a statement of physical victory so much as a reference to Jacob’s having overcome his constant fear and need for control which prompted his continual trickery.
Jacob Wrestles the Angel by Christina Mattison Ebert
Fifth, Jacob’s limp is a permanent sign of God’s grace to Jacob. God is with him and his descendants. Jacob is a different person having encountered God, and the limp is a continual reminder God changed his life forever – Jacob will never be the same after this. Ironically, the limp made Jacob stronger, not weaker. From this point forward in Jacob’s life, he is mindful of his limitations and that God is the One who will arise to fight, protect, and carry on the covenant promises. There is no longer any need or even desire to scheme to accomplish anything.
It will be difficult to find grace apart from wrestling with God in the painful situations of life. It is in such times we must be crippled by grace. We need to be willing to fight with God. It is necessary to get in the match and struggle with God rather than worry within ourselves or just pretend everything is okay so that we will avoid the hard contest in front of us.
Has God left a permanent mark on you? Do you carry a limp from him? What is your name? How does God identify you? Our great need is not in being clever, smart, or working harder; it is God’s grace that we all need. As a kid, when my parents left the house, my brother and I would rearrange the furniture so that we could have a good-solid-knock-down-drag-out wrestling match. Since my brother was older, it usually ended badly for me with a pile-driver that left me incapacitated. It is seriously a miracle that I am still alive after being dropped on my head so many times.
Whenever Christians approach the Lord’s Table, we are reminded of the Son who wrestled with the Father in prayer in the garden of Gethsemane and came away confident of facing a cruel cross so that we might have life. The Lord Jesus carries with him even now the reminders of his suffering – the marks on his hands and his feet from a crucifixion that accomplished deliverance from sin on our behalf. The elements of bread and cup are deeply symbolic reminders of what Jesus did as the cost for our salvation. And they are further reminders that just as we eat this bread and drink this cup we will drink again with Jesus at the end of the age. It is faith in Jesus alone that creates and secures for us a transformed life so that we can share in a crippling grace from him forever.
I cry out loud for help from the Lord.
I beg out loud for mercy from the Lord.
I pour out my concerns before God;
I announce my distress to him.
When my spirit is weak inside me, you still know my way.
But they’ve hidden a trap for me in the path I’m taking.
Look right beside me: See?
No one pays attention to me.
There’s no escape for me.
No one cares about my life.
I cry to you, Lord, for help.
“You are my refuge,” I say.
“You are all I have in the land of the living.”
Pay close attention to my shouting,
because I’ve been brought down so low!
Deliver me from my oppressors
because they’re stronger than me.
Get me out of this prison
so I can give thanks to your name.
Then the righteous will gather all around me
because of your good deeds to me. (CEB)
One of the reasons I love the psalms so dearly is that they are raw and real. There is no pretense with the psalmist. He opens his mind and heart and lets the genuine feelings of his life pour out in an offering to the God who bends his ear and pays attention to the humble and contrite. The proud and arrogant will forever be flummoxed by the psalms, not understanding why they are even in the canon of Scripture.
Yet, here they are, in Holy Scripture for all to experience. Whereas the piously insincere are continually putting up a false front of godliness and keeping up appearances of superior spirituality, here we have authentic religion right here in front of our faces. To me, the psalms liberate me from the shackles of trying to be someone I am not and enable me to connect with a God who encourages me in my wondering, my pain, my situations – and who is perfectly at home with crying aloud and shouting prayers to heaven.
Those who oppress others, I believe, are easy to spot: the only questions they ask are rhetorical to just make a point and are not really asking a question; they make faulty assumptions, and, so, think nothing of leveling false accusations; and, they have no curiosity to listen or learn – just a desire to make their own message known.
If such oppressors are the ones in power, then, it feels like being in prison with no ability to leverage a release. However, there is One who is always on the lookout for the oppressed and the needy who are raising their voices to heaven.
When no one else will listen because they are too smug in their delusions of rightness and strength, God hears and will advocate on behalf of those experiencing injustice and maltreatment.
Since God takes a posture of listening to those in need of mercy, this is precisely the disposition we are to adopt as people created in God’s image. The proud, convinced of their superiority, either cannot or will not see those languishing underneath power structures. For there is no space in the hearts of the proud to accommodate those who cry out on behalf of justice. The only recourse for the oppressed is God – and God will act with equity and with integrity.
It is not the oppressed who need our pity; it is the ungodly. The poor and the needy would like to show empathy – but that would take knowing another, which the oppressor has no stomach for. Systems of oppression keep people at a distance and turn a blind eye to the genuine screams of those under their boot.
The weak, the distressed, and the spiritually tired people on this fallen planet of ours very much have an appeal to the God who knows them and their situations. Although cries for deliverance may not happen immediately, we can be assured that divine help is forthcoming.
This psalm was crafted by David in a cave before he was king. David was on the run from King Saul, who was trying to take his life. David was hiding and just trying to stay alive. There was nothing in David’s life in which he deserved such treatment. It was sheer jealousy on Saul’s end of things that caused him to give his soul over to oppressive pride. And David was the brunt of that oppression.
We know the end of the story. Saul is eventually killed in battle and David is exalted as the new king. Yet, here, in today’s psalm, we have the genuine cry of a desperate man who longed for the justice of God. One of the reasons David was a person after God’s own heart is that he exhibited humility and remained connected to God without succumbing to the bitterness of his situation. I would suggest strongly that David was able to keep his life free from pride because he regularly liberated his spirit through real and raw expressions of his emotions and experiences to God.
Spiritual confidence cannot be ginned-up through pretending that all is well, and everything is okay. Rather, spiritual courage is forged in the most awful of circumstances through real expressions of need and loud cries of emotional pain to the God who truly hears it all. Anyone who tells you different is flimsily trying to maintain their puny sense of delusional power. God sees you in the dark place and he hears your cry for mercy.
Lord Jesus Christ, by your patience in suffering you made my earthly pain sacred and gave me the example of humility. Be near to me in my time of weakness and pain; sustain me by your grace so that my strength and courage may not fail. Heal me according to your will. Loving Jesus, as you cried out on the cross, I cry out to you in my desperation. Do not forsake me. Grant me relief and preserve me in your perfect peace. Amen.
