Psalm 5:11
But let all who take refuge in you rejoice; let them ever sing for joy. Spread your protection over them, so that those who love your name may exult in you.
The psalmist contrasts those who take refuge in God with those who rebel against God…and actually pleads for God to cast [these enemies] out because of their many transgressions.
I get it. Why would you want your enemy hanging out in your place of refuge? Why would you want them to experience the forgiveness that you’ve received? Why would you want God to protect and care for them when they’ve done so much harm to you?
I appreciate the psalms so much, because they don’t back away from the realities of life as broken, brutal, beautiful people. We are simply not able to love like God loves. That’s doesn’t make us terrible. That makes us human.
But for just a moment, imagine God hearing this prayer. Imagine God responding to this plea to cast out your enemies , to make them bear their guilt. Can a mother forget her child? Can the Christ who cried from the cross, forgive them, withhold forgiveness? Can the God who knew your enemies in the womb give up on them now?
Imagine God receiving the words of this prayer and responding with boundless grace: I will indeed spread my protection over you, so that all you who love my name may exult in me. And, I will spread my protection over your enemies, so that all those who rebel against me may–in time–exult in me too.
Jesus came to save and to bless the whole world. It’s easy to write. It sounds good in theory. But in the actual living out, we may find ourselves wrestling with God’s penchant for mercy.
Thankfully, the salvation God brings is not dependent on us. As Martin Luther put it in his explanation of the Lord’s Prayer, God’s kingdom comes of itself, without our prayer, yet we pray nevertheless that it may come to us, that is, prevail among us and with us…
We pray that joy would prevail among us–healing, forgiveness, mercy, peace–and that, in time, all the world would exult in the Savior who extends grace even from the cross.
Come, Jesus, come. Be at work in the world and in our hearts. Let us rejoice in your compassionate, unconditional love. Amen.
Today’s accompanying song is A Beautiful Noise by Alicia Keys and Brandi Carlile. It invites the listener to go on and rejoice, ’cause you have a voice that can call out the wrongs and say what needs to be said. I lift up this song to stand alongside what I’ve written above. I do believe, living as disciples of Jesus, that the Holy Spirit can empower us to both demand justice and recognize the ultimate boundlessness of God’s mercy. At the same time, I recognize that I’m writing from a place of great privilege. My thinking is a work in progress. I am too.