"SURELY GOD IS MY HELPER"

As I have wandered around in the Psalms of David, there are several themes that seem common to most of them, love for God, praise of His name and power, faith that at some point God would step in and save Israel, etc. But, not all of his songs were filled with praise and faith. He repeatedly calls on God to destroy his enemies, break their teeth, come down on their heads with holy retribution. I simply cannot sing those songs or pray those prayers.
We still live in a violent world where power reigns and fear and anger retaliate which produces a never ending cycle of more violence. For several thousand years the Jewish people have repeated these songs in their worship to Yahweh, to no avail. The nation of Israel is still fighting to survive in the midst of the same ongoing battle David and his nation had to fight. But the same is true of many nations, factions within nations, governing bodies, churches, schools, families, neighborhoods, and on and on the cycle goes.
Jesus said, "You have heard it said, love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven." Matthew 5:43-45 Jesus doesn't promise you peace with your enemies, only that the love of God in you will make you His child.
Would Jesus' way of dealing with one's enemies have worked for David?
The fact is, David's violent way didn't work very well either. He constantly had to come back to God with the same request over and over and over. Some of that I truly understand. There are times when a show of superior strength and determination is required in a violent world. However, history has shown repeatedly that war begets more war, violence begets more violence.
Jesus is our peace. Only in Him can the human family find any hope of true peace. The early disciples of Jesus proved the possibility of a shared love of other races, nationalities and customs. I feel strongly confident that the Apostles wrestled with the same misgivings about love for one's enemies when they first heard the teaching of Jesus.
I appreciate this statement from David: "Surely God is my helper, the Lord is the upholder of my life." Psalm 54:4 Through the worst of times he had enough faith to sing this song and cast himself and his nation in the care of Yahweh. David wasn't really a bad man, just a man who struggled most days to survive in a violent world. I cant say I have any enemies, except maybe those who are bent on destroying my country and our way of life. I served in the military and would again if the leaders of my country called on me and would have an old guy like me. I am very thankful that I never had to look into the eyes of a stranger and shoot him. Thousands of my countrymen have and I appreciate their sacrifice.
Sometimes you have to get on the other side of a situation to see the hand of God, but He's always there to hold me up. That I HAVE experienced. HALLELUJAH!

"THERE IS NO GOD!" REALLY!?

I have found it curiously interesting that Psalms 53 and 14 are virtually verbatim. As I have studied the seventy plus Psalms that David authored I have seen many of his characteristic phrases repeated, but as far as I have seen so far, these two are the only instance where he reproduced the same song. Maybe he felt the worshipers didn't get the message the first time and was compelled to make the point again. Or, possibly something was happening at the time that he felt a strong motivation to call attention to the message of this song. He makes his point at the beginning, "The fool says in his heart 'There is no God'". Psalm 53:1 ESV
Being a careful student of Jewish history, the Apostle Paul quotes this Psalm at Romans 3:10, stitching it together with about seven others to make the same point to his own generation, "None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one." All of that seems to be the result of an assumption that 'There is no God', so there are no rules, life is to be lived as you wish!
I wonder if this is how God sees his human family, ignorant, obstinate, self serving and totally oblivious to who He is. David's original assessment covers a lot of ground all the way down to Paul and the church at Rome, and even to the present day. When we compare the Biblical record with the archeological record, humans seem to have always worshiped some kind of god of their own making. Yahweh warned his own people repeatedly that creating their own gods or worshiping the gods created by other nations would only lead to their destruction. They failed to listen and now the nation of Israel still fights for its survival in the midst of constant war with one neighbor or another.
Have we really learned nothing in all the centuries between David and Paul? The brother did not mince his words when he quoted David's strong assessment of the human family that ignores God. It's still true, only "the fool says in his heart, there is no God!" But Paul uses David's words to make an even stronger point.
He follows up the Psalms quotes with an affirmation that "the law" was incapable of producing justification even for the Jews who believed in it. In spite of the rules God had given them to live by, the huge truth remained that, "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God", both Jew and Gentile.
Now get this, regardless of the law and its requirements, all are now "justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus." Romans 3:24
THAT is how God sees the human family, at least that is His intent for all of us, but the choice is still up to me. I can go on living like a fool, or I can move into God's house, be adopted into His forever family and have a life that every breathing member of the human race should want more than their next breath.
David also wrote: "Behold, God is my helper; the Lord is the upholder of my life!" Psalm 54:4 HALLELUJAH!