Deliver me from evil
The self-serving make their evils enticing, reasonable, even “necessary.” Meanwhile, fellow believers can often be a royal pain. But neither of these facts comes close to making David consider changing sides.
A David psalm.
1 YHWH, I’m calling on you—
come quickly to me!
Hear my voice crying out to you.
2 Receive my prayer as incense
my outstretched hands as the evening sacrifice.
3 Post a guard beside my mouth, YHWH
a watch at the gate of my lips.
4 Keep my mind from being pulled toward evil
lest I join in the evil of the self-serving.
Don’t let me feast on their delicacies.
5 Let a God-seeker strike me—
I’ll count it a kindness.
When they correct me
it’s oil for my head—
let me never refuse it.
But I constantly pray
against the evil deeds of wrongdoers.
6 When their leaders are thrown onto the rocks
let the people hear my words
which are sweet.
7 Like clods of dirt plowed and broken up
our bones lie strewn at the very mouth of Sheol.
8 But my eyes are fixed on you
YHWH, my Lord.
In you I take refuge—
don’t leave me here naked, exposed.
9 Keep me from the trap they’ve set for me
from all the snares of the self-serving.
10 Let the wicked fall right into their own net
while I pass by unscathed.
With the self-serving out to trap him, David sees how vulnerable he is. Figuratively, he and other God-seekers lie beaten up at death’s door. But David’s desperation makes him fix his eyes intently on the only one who can deliver him from evil and take down his enemies. Likely restricted in his movements, David offers God his prayers and his outstretched hands in lieu of incense and sacrifices offered in God’s sanctuary.
Interestingly, the snares David hopes to avoid aren’t literal, physical traps. Rather, he’s tempted by the self-centered person’s “delicacies,” the kind of perks that often come to people when they put themselves ahead of God. Knowing how tempted he is by such benefits, he asks God to guard his mouth. He’s drawn to think thoughts that pull him away from God. Sensible, practical thoughts, like the many ways we can justify mistreating the little guy to get a bigger share of the pie. David knows how very easily he can be sucked into seeing such evils as normal, justifiable, even unavoidable.
Convinced of evil’s eventual doom, David resolutely opposes this selfishness and prays against it. In fact, so opposed is he to it that he’d rather endure indignity or correction from fellow God-seekers and even considers such injuries a treat compared to the delicacies of the self-serving. He knows it’s better to suffer wrong than to do wrong. Still, knowing how prone he is to wander, David urgently asks God to help him resist the evil around him.
Resisting all the evil you faced, Jesus, you did your Father’s will, even at the cost of your life. I would follow you. But without your help, Lord, I’m a sitting duck, adept at rationalizing my self-serving ways and so easily offended by Christian smallness. Deliver me from evil, I pray. Amen.
In your free moments today, pray these words:
Receive my prayer as incense
my outstretched hands as the evening sacrifice.
