Contend, Lord, with those who contend with me;
fight against those who fight against me. Awake, and rise to my defense!
Contend for me, my God and Lord. Psalm 35:1 & 23
Today’s Scripture is taken from what is called an Imprecatory Psalm by David. Simply that means he is imploring God to defeat and destroy the enemies of His people. David prays many of these types of prayers during his life, especially when dealing with Saul and those with him. I encourage you to read this entire Psalm. In these prayers you can easily see David knows he needs God to fight for him, otherwise there will be no way to gain the victory. The Hebrew word for contend is multifaceted and in this context is referenced in 3 ways, physical, verbal and legal combat. God covers us in all ways from physical attack, to the courtroom. David experienced God’s intervention in all these ways repeatedly throughout his life. By the time he faced Goliath in the Valley of Elah, he already knew Who was really doing the fighting when he said to Goliath, “this is the Lord’s battle, He will give you to u!” 1Samuel 17:47
We too need to learn to live like this, on the offense instead of the defense. Prayer and the Word are our offensive weapons, and know that we have a triple team defense, our Father, His Son and Holy Spirit. David had this powerful relationship with God before the New Covenant of Grace and yet experienced God powerfully and accomplished great things. Tomorrow we will focus on how much more we should walk in the power of the Lord.
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