Good Morning Yamon Ki Yesepar and Nevim Arith Hayomin:
Psalm 56:9: “When I cry unto thee shall my enemies turn away. This I know for God is
for me.”
“Diplomacy is the art of saying: “Nice doggy,” while looking for a big club.” – Will Rodgers
“When I cry…” The word “cry” is “qara’” which has the idea of invoking or proclaiming. It is interesting that the verse does not say that God will come a running, but rather just the mere calling upon God invoking His name will cause his enemies to run away. The word used is “shuv” which expresses the idea of being repulsed,
No doubt God is our protector from any enemy, but it is interesting to note this particular enemy that David is referring to . This enemy is “aiv.” This represents an enemy who is persecuting you. It is closely related to “ayiv” which is a spiritual or demonic enemy.
Many years ago I was working in building construction. I worked for a General Contractor name Jim Reid. Jim Reid employed only seven people. There were three carpenters, two laborers, one secretary and myself, a little lower than a laborer. Jim Reid was building custom design town houses, units by today’s prices would be around $1.5 million dollars each. Jim Reid sub contracted to the best craftsmen he could find to build these houses. He had many subcontractors, mason, drywall, roofing, plumbing, electrical etc. All worked for Jim Reid under contract. However, only seven individuals were direct employees of Jim Reid. I was one of them.
I was given a certain amount of authority by Jim Reid and even though I was the lowest paid, least skilled person on the job site, whenever I walked by any of the subcontractors, the would do everything but salute me. More than once I heard a skilled, highly paid craftsman mutter to an associate, “Jim Reid’s man” and they would then make every effort to appear is if they were working very hard. You see I was the eyes and ears of Jim Reid and if I reported anything amiss among the subcontractors to Jim Reid the subcontractors stood a good chance of losing their contract. Even if Jim Reid were out of town all I would have to do is invoke his name, and these skilled craftsman would turn away from any task that was not related to building Jim Reid’s houses.
So to as children of God. When an enemy that is being generated by some spiritual force comes against us, we simply need to invoke the name of God and that enemy will mutter “That’s Jesus’ person” and the enemy will immediately be repulsed.
The writer uses an interesting expression here. He knows this to be a fact because God is “for me.” The word is “ti” which is simply a preposition (to or for) connected to a first person singular pronoun (me). The express “God is to me” is a Hebrew idiom which is expressing more than just God saying he is “for” us like a football fan is sitting in the stands cheering on his team because he is for that particular team. In this idiom the fan is actually jumping out of the stands, suiting up and getting on the playing field and call the shots. He is the team captain, player coach.
Thus if the enemy gives you a hard time, you simply say: “Take it up with my team captain.” If the enemy does not retreat they will be confronted with “our God” who will say: “It might be in your best interest to leave the little guy alone.”
When confronting the enemy, we must remember our acts of diplomacy means nothing, it is Jesus, our big club,” that will insured our ultimate victory.
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