Day 2790 Wisdom Nuggets – Psalm 109:6-25 – Daily Wisdom

Welcome to Day 2790 of Wisdom-Trek. Thank you for joining me. This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom. Day 2790 – Wisdom Nuggets – Psalm 109:6-25 – Daily Wisdom Wisdom-Trek Podcast Script - Day 2790 Welcome to Wisdom-Trek with Gramps! I am Guthrie Chamberlain, and we are on Day 2790 of our Trek. The Purpose of Wisdom-Trek is to create a legacy of wisdom, to seek out discernment and insights, and to boldly grow where few have chosen to grow before. The title for today’s Wisdom-Trek is: The Boomerang of Justice – Wearing Curses Like a Cloak. Today, we are walking into the storm. We are continuing our journey through Psalm One Hundred Nine, and we are covering the most difficult and controversial section of the entire book: verses six through twenty-five, in the New Living Translation. In our previous trek, we stood with David in the opening five verses. We saw him as a man betrayed. He said, "I love them, but they try to destroy me." He told us that in return for his friendship, they acted as his "accusers"—literally, they acted as "satans" or adversaries against him. They repaid evil for good and hatred for love. David’s response in that first section was to become "prayer"—to retreat entirely into God. But today, we see what he prayed. And frankly, it is terrifying. Verses six through twenty are often called the "Imprecatory Psalms"—the cursing psalms. David unleashes a torrent of judgment upon his enemy that leaves no stone unturned. He prays for his enemy’s death, the destruction of his family, the loss of his job, and the erasure of his name from history. Many people struggle with these verses. They ask, "How can a man after God’s own heart pray this way? Isn't this un-Christian?" To understand this, we must put on our Ancient Israelite worldview lenses. This is not personal revenge; this is an appeal to Retributive Justice. This is the law of the boomerang. David is asking God to let the punishment fit the crime exactly. The enemy wanted to destroy David’s life and legacy without cause; David is asking the Divine Judge to let that destruction fall back on the enemy’s own head. It is a passionate plea for the moral order of the universe to be upheld. So, brace yourselves. We are about to witness the severity of God’s justice. The first Segment is: The Appointment of the Accuser. Psalm One Hundred Nine: verses six through seven. They say, "Get an evil person to turn against him. Send an accuser to bring him to trial. When his case comes up for judgment, let him be pronounced guilty. Count his prayers as sins." Now, there is a debate among scholars here. Some translations, and the NLT implies this with "They say," suggest that these verses are actually the enemies' curses against David. However, the Hebrew text is ambiguous, and historically, most interpreters view this as David speaking against his enemy, asking God to subject the enemy to the very legal warfare he used against David. We will proceed with that understanding, as it fits the flow of the rest of the psalm. David prays: "Get an evil person to turn against him. Send an accuser to bring him to trial."...