(* The following is from Doug Giles’ all time bestseller, Psalms of War: Prayers That Literally Kick Ass)
Have you ever looked at clearly wicked impenitent people and leaders and think, “Why the heck are they prospering and their wretched schemes succeeding?”
In the meantime, in between time, folks that are trying to do right, obey God and influence society with the gracious biblical worldview, are getting kicked by culture like a stuck door at Chuck Norris’s house.
Yep, in today’s jacked-up world, evil gets the green light and Christianity gets canceled. It seems whacked and highly “unfair” that the aforementioned appears to be the case.
One would almost think that there is no God, or if there is one He sure doesn’t give one flibbertigibbet about what’s going down on this third rock from the sun, because the spawns of Satan seem to be winning and God’s people are getting the shiitake mushrooms stomped out of them.
One thing for the Christian to consider before they get all gloomy and begin to make Van Gogh look like a rodeo clown is this: just because God isn’t visibly kicking the wicked’s backside, doesn’t mean an ass-whuppin’ is not coming for them.
David dealt with this dilemma in Psalm 10. The wicked during his day plotted against him and Israel. They taunted Jehovah. They defied the people of God. They hunted down the righteous. They scorned God and, seemingly, they were getting away with it. Yep, they were cocksure they would never be held accountable for their hellish actions. But that’s where the malicious were wrong. As in, dead wrong.
Look at what David prayed at these hounds from hell. Pay particular attention to verses fifteen and sixteen.
Remember to pray Psalm 10 the next time you begin to think the wicked will get away with their wickedness and the righteous are doomed to be Satan’s doormat.
10 1-2 God, are you avoiding me?
Where are you when I need you?
Full of hot air, the wicked
are hot on the trail of the poor.
Trip them up, tangle them up
in their fine-tuned plots.
3-4 The wicked are windbags,
the swindlers have foul breath.
The wicked snub God,
their noses stuck high in the air.
Their graffiti are scrawled on the walls:
“Catch us if you can!” “God is dead.”
5-6 They care nothing for what you think;
if you get in their way, they blow you off.
They live (they think) a charmed life:
“We can’t go wrong. This is our lucky year!”
7-8 They carry a mouthful of spells,
their tongues spit venom like adders.
They hide behind ordinary people,
then pounce on their victims.
9 They mark the luckless,
then wait like a hunter in a blind;
When the poor wretch wanders too close,
they stab him in the back.
10-11 The hapless fool is kicked to the ground,
the unlucky victim is brutally axed.
He thinks God has dumped him,
he’s sure that God is indifferent to his plight.
12-13 Time to get up, God—get moving.
The luckless think they’re Godforsaken.
They wonder why the wicked scorn God
and get away with it,
Why the wicked are so cocksure
they’ll never come up for audit.
14 But you know all about it—
the contempt, the abuse.
I dare to believe that the luckless
will get lucky someday in you.
You won’t let them down:
orphans won’t be orphans forever.
15-16 Break the wicked right arms,
break all the evil left arms.
Search and destroy
every sign of crime.
God’s grace and order wins;
godlessness loses.
17-18 The victim’s faint pulse picks up;
the hearts of the hopeless pump red blood
as you put your ear to their lips.
Orphans get parents,
the homeless get homes.
The reign of terror is over,
the rule of the gang lords is ended.
Psalms of War: Prayers That Literally Kick Ass is a collection, from the book of Psalms, regarding how David rolled in prayer. I bet you haven’t heard these read, prayed, or sung in church against our formidable enemies — and therein lies the Church’s problem. We’re not using the spiritual weapons God gave us to waylay the powers of darkness. It might be time to dust them off and offer ‘em up if you’re truly concerned about the state of Christ’s Church and of our nation.
Also included in this book, Psalms of War, are reproductions of the author’s original art from his Biblical Badass Series of oil paintings.
This is a great gift for the prayer warriors. Real. Raw. Relevant.
