WORD STUDY – THE LORD IS ON OUR SIDE

Psalms 118:6: “The Lord is on my side, I will not fear what can man do unto me?”

“I am not at all concerned about that…but it is my constant anxiety and prayer that I and this nation be on the Lord’s side.” Abraham Lincoln’s response to a pious minister when he told President Lincoln that he hoped the Lord was on our side.

Abraham Lincoln, if he did indeed say the above words (I believe enough historical evidence exist to say he did), pointed out a very real problem with the KJV rendering of Psalms 118:6. Can we be so bold as to say that the Almighty is on our side?

Actually, the literal rendering is The Lord is for me. The word for me is spelled: Lamed Yod and is a combination of a preposition Lamed and a pronoun Yod. Some translations will render this as “The Lord is with me.” However, the preposition Lamed is normally rendered as to or for. It can be rendered as with but that is not it’s normal use. I would want to rule out to and for before I settle on with. I believe the preposition for is the most accurate. To say the Lord is with me or on my side is not necessarily saying the Lord is for me.

The Republican health care bill was being debated today. People were saying: “I am for the bill.” I did not hear anyone say: “I am with the bill.” That would suggest they had the bill in their hands but you could not tell if they were for or against it. In Abraham Lincoln’s case or say in the case of the Civil War. The Confederate General Robert E. Lee was a truly born again Christian who often joined his men, regardless of rank in prayer. He prayed before every battle, he sought God’s guidance before each battle. On the other side Lee’s counter part, General Grant, was a drunken foul mouth man who laid no claims to any relationship with God. Yet we all know who won the war. So does that mean the Lord was on the side of the North but He was with General Lee?

David is not just saying the Lord is on his side or with Him, he is saying the Lord is for him. The Lord can be with you but not necessarily for you. We tend to get that a little mixed up. Just because we worship God, pray and study His word we think we are such spiritual hot shots that anything we do we know the Lord is for it and for us. Like any good friend, the Lord is the first to point out that not everything we do is in His will. You want to build a new church building, surely the Lord is for that, but maybe not. Maybe the building you have is adequet and He wants you to use the money elsewhere.

In David’s case he is saying that when opposing influences come into play, the Lord is the only one that is for him. All other influences have a personal agenda. God is the only one who has no ulterior motive. David was not only a king, he was a king maker. Everyone wanted the ear of the king so maybe he would grant them a royal job or special favors. To David he felt that everyone who was for him had a personal agenda, except God. God was one person who he could be sure would not try to brown nose him.

I believe the rest of this verse will bear this out. The remaining part of this verse says: “I will not fear, what can man do unto me.” The word do is ashah which means to perform a work. In our culture, if someone performs a work for us they usually expect something in return, some form of payment. The word fear or yara’ in Hebrew is a complicated word. It does not have the idea of fear for one’s safety, but fear for the wellbeing of another. We sometimes say the word means to respect or show reverence. Why do you show respect and reverence to someone, because you fear you may say or do something to offend them. You love and respect them so much you do not want to hurt them or wound their heart.

I believe that is the underlying message of Psalms 118:6. When David is saying that he does not fear any work that man can do for him, he is saying that with when man does any work for him, he is under obligation to these people, but if the Lord does any work for us, we have no obligation to Him in return. We don’t even have to say thank you, but we do if we fear, yara’ Him. We want to show Him respect and one way to do that is to say thank you. But that thank you is not a requirement for the gift.

After all, he is the creator of all things, the Almighty, all Powerful what do we have that He could possibly want that He cannot get for himself unless we give it to Him. Outside of a love relationship, if anyone does anything for us, there is usually a greasy palm extended. If our relationship with God is not a love relationship, then we are continually serving Him either out of a sense of repayment for a debt or to obtain something like eternal life. However, if we truly love Him we will freely accept whatever work He does for us without a feeling of debt knowing that He is doing it for us out of love and expects no repayment. Any repayment we give is to show our yara’ respect and love for Him. Our response to Him will be out of love and not out of obligation. This, I believe, is the true context of Matthew 10:8 “Freely have you received, freely give.” You have received from God without any obligation to Him, thus we are to freely give out of love not obligation.