One of the most difficult times in life is when you have to wait to find out the results. When the results could make major changes in your life, the wait can seem as if you are in a slow motion world. I imagine those innocent people charged with murder as they wait for the jury to return must barely be able to take a breath. Each moment the jury deliberates must tick on the large hands on the clock in the waiting area. Tick, wait, wait, wait, tick, wait, wait, wait, tick.
When we feel like we are on the receiving end of injustice, time can also pass slowly. We can’t wait for the tables to be turned and relief to come our direction. In those moments we want the LORD to execute justice. We want Him to show up and make things right.
This is how David felt as he wrote our Psalm. David has made his case before the LORD. He wants a verdict. He uses a metaphor of sleep to express his perception of the slowness of the LORD’s response. He wants the LORD to wake up.
The scene David paints is of the final judgment of humanity. The LORD is sitting on His judgment throne and all the people have gathered for the verdict. The one word that strikes me in this middle section of the Psalm is the word secure. David does not feel secure. The violence of the wicked takes away the feeling of security. And safety and security are two of our most basic needs. This is why war-torn areas of the world are so straining of the civilian populations. They never feel safe. The learn to live always looking over their shoulder for the next danger.
But this sense of security can also be taken away when parents are arguing and fighting in a home. Home is supposed to be a place where kids can retreat from the world and settle down, be calm, and rest. But when it isn’t, kids learn that the world isn’t a safe place, that they don’t matter enough for their parents to stop fighting, that they must take care of themselves since no one else will.
David stands in a paradox. He knows the LORD is his protection, his shield, but he still feels unsafe because of the onslaught of his enemies. He knows the capabilities of the LORD. He has enough strength to take care of any foe. David wants to see that power at work against those who oppose him.
But I love the picture of his enemies. They are pregnant with evil. They conceive trouble and give birth to disillusionment. Evil doesn’t happen instantaneously. It happens over time. One choice follows another. They must dig the hole. They see the danger, but they keep at it. So David wants the natural consequences of their evil actions to come falling on their heads. The LORD holds back consequences because He wants all to come to repentance. He is patient. David isn’t.
The Arnold Journey 