“Love your enemies.” This is one of those difficult phrases of Jesus that hits right at our hearts. As my parents used to remind me, if you are mad with someone, pray for them; it will help you not be mad at them anymore.
But “love your enemies” is even a bit more difficult than that because sometimes prayer does not solve issues or restore friendships. “Love” these days in our world is all about feelings and all about selfishness. But that is not Christian love. It is not the “love” in the Scriptures. “Love” means to sacrifice for the sake of someone. Who would sacrifice anything for their enemies?
David certainly wrestles with this in Psalm 3. Let’s take a look.
O Lord, how many are my foes!
Many are rising against me;
2 many are saying of my soul,
“There is no salvation for him in God.”
David’s enemies think he should be damned. “There is no salvation for him in God.” What’s more, these foes that are rising against him are led by Absalom his son. David the King vs. Absalom the prince. Talk about a family feud brewing! We love our children, but sometimes our children do not love us. We ask ourselves, “How could David love his son Absalom, the son who is about to kill him?”
3 But you, O Lord, are a shield about me,
my glory, and the lifter of my head.
4 I cried aloud to the Lord,
and he answered me from his holy hill.
David has our answer. The Lord is his shield. David’s army was against him. His own son was against him. But God was not against him. God would defend him. God would protect him. God would never leave him or forsake him.
“Love your enemies” may be one of the most difficult challenges for us, but we know that God loves His enemies, even those who killed Him, even those who sin against him. He loves even us and forgives us. This we know for the Bible tells us so.
With this comfort in mind, David then continues:
5 I lay down and slept;
I woke again, for the Lord sustained me.
6 I will not be afraid of many thousands of people
who have set themselves against me all around.
As someone remarked the other day, these verses are not here so that we know that David was tired, and that he needed a nap. David writes this in the poem to show how God is his shield. Even though his son pursues him, even though the army wishes to kill him, even though he has enemies all around, the Lord grants him sleep. The Lord sustained him that evening and each day.
David will not be afraid, and neither should we be afraid. For just as God was David’s shield, he is our shield too. We can love our enemies as God loved His enemies, and we do not need to be afraid because God will sustain us.
Now the psalm finishes with even more comfort.
7 Arise, O Lord!
Save me, O my God!
For you strike all my enemies on the cheek;
you break the teeth of the wicked.
8 Salvation belongs to the Lord;
your blessing be on your people!
“Save me, O my God!” This is David’s prayer, and we hear it again and again in the Scriptures. So many in the Gospels say this very thing to Jesus. “Save us” is “hosanna” in Hebrew. This points us toward Palm Sunday when the entire crowd is chanting “Hosanna!” And save them He did, five days later when He died on the cross.
On that day, our Lord “loved His enemies” even unto death.
Rev. James Peterson
St. John Curtis, Nebraska
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