Psalm 119:69 Goodness Wins

Though the arrogant have smeared me with lies, I keep your precepts with all my heart.

Psalm 119:69

It's personal

The Psalms are a textbook for prayer, but they're not a dry, theoretical treatment of the topic. It's the personal journal of one man's conversations with God on the the road of life.

Each traveler experiences their own troubles along the way.

For David, trouble frequently came in the form of personal attacks. His enemies, in their arrogance, have manufactured every sot of fake news they can piece together to slander him. They've invented creative ways of making their lies appear like truth, and even more clever ways of making their libel stick. David's reputation is in as much peril as his life.

As a shepherd who rose to be become king, David's reputation was precious to him. The temptation to fight liars with lies is great. Or with gossip, ridicule, and political spin.

I find it all too easy to be dispassionate when I read the many Psalms about David's struggles to be a king after God's own heart in the face of attacks and attempted coups. I've never experienced anything like that. I'm not a king. I'm not even a particularly ambitious man, not a career climber.

But while many of David's personal experiences don't match up to my own experiences, his response to those struggles do speak to my life.

When David is being hounded and hunted by Saul and his army (I Samuel 24), David refuses to to take advantage of an opportunity to kill the king, because God had anointed Saul as king.

When David is dealing with his rebellious son Absalom, who wants to take his father's crown (II Samuel 13-18), David repeatedly restrains himself and his soldiers from taking his son's life. Instead, as a man after God's own heart, he bends over backward to be a restorer and reconciler.

When Shimei, a man from Saul's clan, pelts David and his soldiers with stones and curses the king as a murderer (II Samuel 16), David refuses to let one of the guards kill the man. Instead, he takes it as an opportunity to learn a lesson in humility, to accept that he is indeed in need of God's mercy.


When I find myself being mistreated, do I make the choice to seek revenge? Or do I honor God by treating my enemies like I would want to be treated?

When I'm betrayed or abandoned by someone close to me, do I turn the cold shoulder to them? or do I nurture a heart of patience and reconciliation?

When someone dares point out my shortcomings, do I take offense? Or do I take note and seek guidance from God?

It's so easy to take everything too personally, to lash out at the people who dare trample on my dignity. It's much more difficult to turn the situation into an opportunity for God's goodness to change the situation.

Goodness is always the good choice.