Fighting and wars, defense and strategy, ambition and supremacy, violence and conflict have always been a part of the history of mankind since Adam and Eve started their family. Mankind continues to suffer not only because of selfishness, greed, and jealousy but because there is a great need for both individuals and nations to defend their own ideologies and their cultural identity and values. Both on a national level and personally, this means that the reality of having external, visible enemies has been a common thread throughout the centuries.
There is, however, a very different kind of enemy that we read about in the Bible, isn’t there? Paul tells us in Ephesians 6: 12 that believers “are not contending simply against flesh and blood, but the principles of evil, the philosophies of the world and the attitudes of our own flesh.” Ray Stedman (a well known pastor) in his sermon that summarizes the contents of the Book of Psalms suggests that “if you read the psalms with this understanding, whenever you read ‘enemy’, you will think also of those temptations toward covetousness, jealousy, pride and ambition within yourself as the enemy that is spoken of and you will see that the seemingly severe language of these prayers makes sense. These songs, he continues, are simply a picture of the way we must deal with the real enemies of our heart, asking God to defeat them with His great power.”
Will you join with David as he says to the LORD, “I will call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised; so shall I be saved from my enemies”? (Psalm 18: 3) It’s in His strength alone that we can have victory and sing praises to His glory.
