Psalm 55:12-13 (NIV)
If an enemy were insulting me, I could endure it; if a foe were rising against me, I could hide. But it is you, a man like myself, my companion, my close friend…
It’s one thing to encounter opposition or betrayal from an “enemy,” but quite another when it comes from somebody close to you. An external enemy’s attacks are relatively easy to ignore or distance yourself from. Their lack of relational proximity blunts the power of their attacks…but what if the “enemy” is someone close to you? Have you ever experienced that particularly difficult sting from a friend…or a parent…or your child…or your spouse? The husband who leaves for another woman. The wife who gossips about her husband’s weaknesses. The son who walks away from the faith. The daughter who keeps making destructive decisions. The father who belittles and demeans his family. The mother who relentlessly demands and condemns. The friend who disappears when you need them the most.
David understands. Jesus does, too.
King David had enemies on all sides and by the thousands…but the worst ones were the closest ones. His beloved King Saul wanted him dead. His brothers wanted him to stay home. His most trusted advisor helped his son, Absalom, plot and carry out a plan to remove him from the throne. David certainly knew the unique sting of a loved one’s betrayal…but so did Jesus. After his public ministry started, Jesus wasn’t welcomed in his own hometown (Lk. 4:24). His own brothers didn’t believe in him (Jn. 7:5). His own religious leaders openly mocked and scorned him (Mt. 27:41). His most out-spoken disciple openly denied even knowing him (Lk. 22:56-60). One of the twelve betrayed him to the authorities for the price of a cow (Mt. 26:14-15) and all but one refused to show up at his public execution (Jn. 19:26). If you have been betrayed by someone close to you, your Lord and Savior understands better than anyone else what you are going through.
You may feel alone…but you aren’t.
The “But” in verse 16 of today’s psalm calls you out of pain and despair and into hope and a future: “But I will call on God, and the Lord will rescue me.” Do you know anyone who has experienced the kind of betrayal that Jesus went through? Most likely not. David knew much of that sting, but nothing like his true Lord and Master. Through experience and by faith, David chose to “call on God” and to “cry out” to him because he knew that God would “take care of him” and not allow him “to slip and fall” (v. 16, 17, 22). Additionally, David chose to leave vengeance in the hands of his Father, which allowed him to shift that burden to the only shoulders that could truly bear it…and resolve it. “If I cast my burden upon the Lord, what business have I to carry it myself? How can I truthfully say that I have cast it upon him if still I am burdened with it?” (Spurgeon)
A Puritan writer once said, “The seed of every sin exists in every human heart”, so it should not really shock any of us when we suffer at the hands of a loved one or a friend…but that pragmatism doesn’t serve to blunt the pain. The deepest wounds require the most powerful remedies, applied by the greatest physicians. The God who has been – and continues to be – betrayed time and time again by his own creation certainly understands our pain. He weeps when we weep and mourns when we mourn. Christ himself intercedes for us as does the Holy Spirit. In the depth of betrayal, we may feel abandoned, but we never really are. The one who has been betrayed the most is in the pit with you…and He is the only one who can bring you back out.
