David's Trust In God's Vision: Psalm 140

 

Psalm 140: We Don't Need the Big Picture In Life

Trust leads us forward toward the victory when all else seems lost. It hurts not being able to fight back when your enemy is cheating. David knows this feeling all too well. From court treachery to devious friends, the king is always at war. The Psalms prove this out. It takes practice to rest in God’s plan for our situation.

David lets God know about the evil men. He uses words like “scheme” and “snare” and “trap”. We can assume David knows where to look for the traps, otherwise he wouldn’t be able to sniff them out. But it must be exhausting not knowing who to trust, and assuming everyone is a potential traitor.  We learn one big lesson from David about desperation. God vision is perfect, and we can rest in His goodness; our vision is limited and we shouldn’t try to understand the full picture.

Why can't we have the full picture?

Without faith we can't please God; with faith comes trust. Handing someone a paint by numbers set to design great art, ruins the art. It's not original if someone helps you with every stroke. God designed us a certain way, with attitudes, skills and desires for a purpose. He gives us just enough of a vision of the future to keep us going. Joseph’s dreams about his brothers got him in trouble early in life. Anyone with a mouthy younger brother can relate to their frustration. We know of at least two dreams he shared with his older siblings. The theme in both cases, my station in life is significantly better than yours. Or at least he thought it would be. And for sure, God gave him these dreams as a picture of future events.

But we don’t see all the other times Joseph was insufferable. But he was young and adored by his father, another thorny reminder of his brothers’ lower station. But Joseph learned skills as an overseer at Potiphar’s home. He was in charge of food inventory and figured out what it took to feed large numbers of people. I’m sure he learned to read people as well. God gave him the ability to interpret dreams. Joseph likely didn’t think he'd ever be a high government official. God allowed him to see bits and pieces along the way. Eventually, he got an audience with the Pharoah to interpret the dream of the 7 years of plenty and 7 years of famine.

Why do our enemies keep winning?

David’s plea sounds like an ongoing problem for him. “They continually gather together for war. They sharpen their tongues like a serpent; the poison of asps is under their lips.” (2-3) He’s learned to trust God with the big picture and the small picture. He’s also learned not to try and understand all the ways in which evil men try to trick him. But David does know God’s goodness. “I said to the Lord: “You are my God; Hear the voice of my supplications, O Lord. O God the Lord, the strength of my salvation, You have covered my head in the day of battle…” (6-7)

Like Joseph’s learned skill in managing inventories, David has learned to read situations and people. How many times did he fall into a trap and regret it? Those in power are constantly under assault from all sides. The ones who survive know how to avoid traps and deal ruthlessly with their enemies. King David’s wisdom, and lasting success, comes from letting God handle the treacherous situations.

I’ve been watching the Arizona election drops for the 2022 race. The election was a week ago but, like any corrupt state, they’ve still got a handful of ballots to count. Elections are rife with corruption, that’s what 2020 taught me. I can’t say exactly how Arizona will try to steal this one for the Democrat candidate, but they will. There are too many ways to keep the election from being a straightforward vote and count system.  If there were ever a time to plead with God for a cleaning up of our institutions, this is it.

Conclusion

Arizona is the most egregious, and current, example because it’s essentially still a red state that’s at risk of turning blue. It serves as a model of how quickly, and easily, and state can become corrupted. Sadly, many of our American institutions (religious, cultural) are empty shells, existing like a vacant coastal city after a hurricane warning. Like much of the country, we are on borrowed time. Corruption is eating away at us. It’s time for a rebuild. Will we see a famine first?

 Like Joseph and David, I don’t need to see the full election picture to know that God is bigger and able to expose the fraud. The wicked are on a timetable, no one gets away with sin forever. “Let not a slanderer be established in the earth; let evil hunt the violent man to overthrow him.” (11).