"The wicked wait for me to destroy me; I shall diligently consider Your testimonies" [Psalm 119.95 NASB]
In all probability, David had met, face to face, in his lifetime most if not all of those who were at one time or another steadfastly arrayed against him.
This pattern was also repeated in the Lord's life. Once the heavenly anointing had been bestowed on Him and manifested among the poor, the possessed and the persecuted, His enemies all came out with one intent, from their various abodes of great darkness, His downfall and destruction.
Without stretching the parallel too far, when the anointed One first came into our lives then the horns and the fangs of the evil one were specifically directed at us. This situation will continue and steadily increase in intensity, as with the Lord, until the time of the end.
We have been taught and trained in our churches to regard "hope" as a Christian term, which in itself is not necessarily wrong. However, the wicked also "hope" - not for good outcomes in our lives - but for their rehearsed, manufactured and diligently executed plans to come against us with satisfactory fulfilment.
How can we combat their program of attack? One of the first marks of a new Christian is stability. Some of us may have been like the demoniac of Gadara, but once we met the Lord, we were delivered, given a sound mind and had also received a stable temperament.
David was of a similar disposition. No matter whom the enemy was or what they were plotting, he did not swerve away in the least from God's word, but like his Lord, he did not give the enemy even a sliver of ground [John 14.30].
David knew that the enemy was plotting to divert him from the way of truth and then destroy him physically and spiritually. So, to frustrate him and maintain his spiritual equilibrium, he consolidated and strengthened himself in the inner man and then when the enemy came to do him harm he would be ready for him.
Young or old in the faith, it is our God-given responsibility to read and feed on the word of God every day and then we also will be mentally and spiritually equipped when the enemy comes against us. [David McArdle]
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