5. A List of Causeless Persecutions! Psalm 35:11-21

Text:  “Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices.

2 Corinthians 2:11. 

Good morning, educated and aware Christian!  Having been blessed with a desire to obey the Lord your God, and to walk in continual obedience to His written revelations in Holy Scriptures – you and I are consistently found in the serious study of His Word.  His Word, in turn, instructs to ‘Study to show (ourselves) approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of truth.”  (2 Timothy 2:15)

Being in this obedient manner instructed/educated, you and I are made very aware of the devices which the Devil and his agents employ in their ruthless intent to mar the work that Christ has wrought in us.  He employs heinous tactics to torment us, and inspires the reprobate (rejected of God) all around us to try to break down our testimonies of imputed righteousness in Christ, and thus spoil our effectiveness to be witnesses for Him.

Is it not wonderful indeed to realize that our Lord God in His Word has shown us the means Satan will use to try to pull us down?  In this mid-section of  Psalm 35, we are given a list of causeless persecutions that will be employed by our enemies, and, educated to know our enemy’s devices – we are, therefore, more able to wage war with him and maintain a credible Christian witness and testimony of Christ’s saving grace.

False Witnesses: (vs11-15)  These false witnesses were not only ruthless but they were also secretive in the manner they employed their slander and ridicule of God’s servant, David.

It is often true that such false accusers are privately so ashamed of what they falsely accuse Christian neighbours, that they speak behind-backs, in secrecy, being, to some small degree, privately ashamed of speaking out in public.

Verse 11.  “False witnesses did rise up.  This is the old device of the ungodly, and we must not wonder if it be used against us as against our Master.  To please Saul, there were always men to be found mean enough to impeach David. 

“They laid to my charge things I knew not.  He had not even a thought of sedition; he was loyal even to excess; yet they accused him of conspiring against the Lord’s anointed.  He was not only innocent but ignorant of the fault alleged.  It is well when our hands are so clean that no trace of dirt is upon them.”  (C.H. Spurgeon, Treasury of David, page 171)

How often the world gladly receives help, comfort, and encouragements from Christians, then, when their master, Satan, stirs up their unregenerate souls to do so, repays us evil for our intended good!  Such betrayals hurt us as Christian believers – but one day soon those who wounded us in this manner will be faced with the guilt of their betrayals.  God is not mocked.

Verse 12.  “They rewarded me evil for good.   For the good David did in killing Goliath, and slaying his ten thousands of Philistines, and thereby saving his king and country, Saul and his courtiers envied him and sought to slay him; so our Lord Jesus Christ, for all the good he did to the Jews, by healing their bodies and diseases and preaching the Gospel to them for the benefit of their souls, was rewarded with reproaches and persecutions, and at last with the shameful death of the Cross; and in like manner are His people used, but this is an evil that shall not go unpunished. (See Proverbs 17:13).  (John Gill 1697-1771)

The strange thing about unsaved enemies is, that they often do not even know WHY they hate the Redeemed of Christ; they often do not even know that they are doing so!  Their master Satan says ‘Go and persecute, slander, falsely accuse!’, and off they go to do his bidding – they are like putty in the Evil One’s hands!

Verse 15.  “But in mine adversity they rejoiced.  In my halting, they were delighted.  My lameness was sport to them.  Danger was near, and they sang songs over my expected defeat.  How glad are the wicked to see a good man limp!”  (C.H. Spurgeon, Treasury of David, page 172)  

Verse 16.  “With hypocritical mockers…they gnashed upon me with their teeth.  Very forcibly might our Lord have used the words of these verses!  Let us not forget to see the Despised and Rejected of men here painted to the life.  Calvary and the ribald crew around the Cross seem brought before our eyes.”  (C.H. Spurgeon, Treasury of David, page 173)

Television programme writers today take a special perverted interest in writing anti-Christian material; soap operas that flaunt homosexual sin and seek to normalize it in the minds of viewers; the constant use of the very Name of the Holy Lord Jesus Christ as a foul expletive!  They disregard the 3rd Commandment to their Eternal peril!

“Some cannot be merry, but it must be with Scripture; if they want a little diversion, the saints must be the subject of their discourse!  They can vent their profane jests upon the Word of God; this is their pastime over their cups upon the ale-bench.  How ready they are with their contumelious reflections; they have learnt their father’s dialect, they are accusers of the brethren, their speech betrays them to be Hellians.”  (Oliver Heywood 1629-1702)  

Fault-Finding: V21: “Aha, aha, our eye hath seen it.  Glad to find out a fault or a misfortune or to swear they had seen evil where there was none.  Malice has but one eye; it is blind to all virtue in its enemy.”  C.H. Spurgeon, Treasury of David, page 173)

Thought:  Satan’s devices are here listed – pray against them, Christian!