This past week, I was talking with another pastor on the phone. We met at a conference last year, and we talk once in a while. In our conversation, I asked him a question, and he paused and said, “I don’t trust you enough yet to answer that.” That caught me off guard, but I get it. What’s happened too often to that pastor? He’s been burned. He’s told people things and had it come back to bite him. He’s trusted people and ended up hurt. He’s been betrayed. I get it. I have too.
Have you? One of the worst feelings in the world is the feeling of betrayal. To look at someone you thought was your friend and say, “You too?” Betrayal crushes you. Not just for a moment. Betrayal in one relationship changes all your relationships. Suddenly, you look at every person differently. You look at every person waiting for them to let you down. You don’t let your guard down. You’re ready for it all to fall apart. What do you do when your heart is betrayed?
There’s a psalm for that! This Lent, we’re looking at a different psalm each week—songs for our hearts. There’s a psalm about betrayal. King David knew what it was like to be betrayed. We heard about King David in our sermons this past summer. Do you remember who betrayed David? His own son Absalom rebelled against him. To make matters worse, David’s own trusted advisor—Ahithophel—sided with Absalom. David was betrayed by a son. David was betrayed by a trusted friend. And his heart hurt. Like yours and mine hurts. So he wrote a song about it:
Listen to my prayer, O God,
do not ignore my plea;
hear me and answer me.
My thoughts trouble me and I am distraught
because of what my enemy is saying,
because of the threats of the wicked;
for they bring down suffering on me
and assail me in their anger.
My heart is in anguish within me;
the terrors of death have fallen on me.
Fear and trembling have beset me;
horror has overwhelmed me.
I said, “Oh, that I had the wings of a dove!
I would fly away and be at rest.
I would flee far away
and stay in the desert;
I would hurry to my place of shelter,
far from the tempest and storm.” (Psalm 55:1-8 NIV)
How bad was it? David spills out his heart to God. His heart was in anguish. Maybe we think that a powerful king wouldn’t be impacted by betrayal. He’d just get over it, right? He wouldn’t let it affect him. That’s what we try to tell ourselves, isn’t it? “I can handle it. I don’t need those guys anyway!” Not David. Listen to the words he uses: Distraught. Suffering. Anguish. Terrors. Fear. Trembling. Horror. I hope you appreciate how honest the Bible is. If ever people say, “Christianity is all happy! All you need is love!”, they haven’t read the Bible. Being a Christian means often finding yourself with an anguished heart asking, “How can this be happening?”
And wanting to escape it all. Verse 6 caught my attention: “Oh, that I had the wings of a dove! I would fly away and be at rest.” In other words, “Get me out of here!” Do you ever feel that way? “I don’t want to face this. I don’t want to deal with this. I just want to get away.” In this Sunday’s sermon, Elijah is going to do exactly that. He is going to flee hundreds of miles into the desert. “Oh, that I had the wings of a dove! I would fly away and be at rest.” Here’s the problem: Does running away make it all go away? Will that calm your heart? No. So David continues:
Lord, confuse the wicked, confound their words,
for I see violence and strife in the city.
Day and night they prowl about on its walls;
malice and abuse are within it.
Destructive forces are at work in the city;
threats and lies never leave its streets.
If an enemy were insulting me,
I could endure it;
if a foe were rising against me,
I could hide.
But it is you, a man like myself,
my companion, my close friend,
with whom I once enjoyed sweet fellowship
at the house of God,
as we walked about
among the worshipers.
Let death take my enemies by surprise;
let them go down alive to the realm of the dead,
for evil finds lodging among them. (Psalm 55:9-15 NIV)
David couldn’t make it all go away. David couldn’t fly away like a dove. So, he prayed: “Lord, confuse them. Confound them. Let death take my enemies by surprise.” Is that surprising? We just heard a sermon a couple weeks ago about loving our enemies. So, you’d expect David to say, “Lord, people are betraying me, but they’re great people. I love them. It’s all cool! If they had to betray somebody, I’m glad they are betraying me!” Said no one ever! See how real the Bible is? What does David pray? “Confuse them. Stop them. Let them die before they kill me.”
Is that okay? Yes! Remember how we let Scripture interpret Scripture? We let God’s Word help us understand God’s Word. To love someone doesn’t mean letting them do whatever they want. To love someone doesn’t mean saying their actions are okay. If you’re betrayed, you don’t have to be happy about it. You don’t have to say, “Lord, it’s really nice that person stabbed me in the back.” But Christian love does mean it’s not my job to get revenge. Whose job is it? God’s. A betrayed heart prays, “God, don’t let their plans work out. God, stop them before they hurt even more people. God, if they are trying to put people to death, let them be put to death first!”
That’s what you pray every time you pray the Lord’s Prayer. Do you realize that? When you pray, “Hallowed be your name,” do you know what you’re saying? “Father, let every false god and every false religion be stopped, so your name alone is praised.” When you pray, “Your kingdom come,” do you know what you’re asking? “Father, let every person who is building up their own kingdom fail. May everyone who opposes you be destroyed.” When you pray, “Your will be done,” do you know what you’re praying? “May every plan that stands against you be squashed.” A betrayed heart cries out to God to make things right. That’s what God wants!
But here was the worst part for David. His betrayer wasn’t his enemy. It was friend. Listen again to verses 12-14. “If an enemy were insulting me, I could endure it; if a foe were rising against me, I could hide. But it is you, a man like myself, my companion, my close friend, with whom I once enjoyed sweet fellowship at the house of God, as we walked about among the worshipers.” If our enemies insult us, that’s to be expected. When our friends do, when our companions do, when our spouse does, the pain is so much worse. “One day, we’re worshipping together at church, and the next day you’re turning against me!” How do you recover from that?
You look to Jesus. When you hear this psalm, does it make you think of Jesus? It should. Jesus knows what it’s like to be betrayed. Not just by his enemies. Remember who betrayed him? His close friend. His companion. His disciple Judas. They had eaten together. They had walked all over Israel together. They had worshipped God together at the temple many times. If your heart knows what it’s like to be betrayed, think how painful it must have been for Jesus. Three years of miracles and teaching and infinite grace, and what did he get? Sold for thirty pieces of silver.
But not just by Judas. By you. By me. How often have we worshiped Jesus at church on Sunday, but then been ashamed of him the rest of the week? How often have we traded Jesus for money—like Judas—or popularity or convenience or pleasure? If your heart knows what it’s like to be betrayed, then recognize what we’ve done to Jesus. As much as other people’s betrayals have broken our hearts, we’ve broken Jesus’ heart again and again. Jesus should pray to God the Father to confuse us and confound us and put us to death. That’s what betrayers deserve!
Instead, Jesus said to his Father, “I’ll go.” Jesus let himself be betrayed by Judas, by you and me, so that you will never be betrayed by the One who matters most. Whom? God. Jesus let his heart be pierced for our sins, so that there is forgiveness for our hearts. Jesus didn’t put his enemies to death. Jesus died for his enemies. Jesus was betrayed, so that God will never betray you. Jesus was abandoned, so that God will never abandon you. David never saw the cross—he lived 1000 years before Jesus—but he knew what to do with his betrayed heart: Take it to the Lord!
As for me, I call to God,
and the Lord saves me.
Evening, morning and noon
I cry out in distress,
and he hears my voice.
He rescues me unharmed
from the battle waged against me,
even though many oppose me.
God, who is enthroned from of old,
who does not change—
he will hear them and humble them,
because they have no fear of God.
My companion attacks his friends;
he violates his covenant.
His talk is smooth as butter,
yet war is in his heart;
his words are more soothing than oil,
yet they are drawn swords.
Cast your cares on the Lord
and he will sustain you;
he will never let
the righteous be shaken.
But you, God, will bring down the wicked
into the pit of decay;
the bloodthirsty and deceitful
will not live out half their days.
But as for me, I trust in you. (Psalm 55:16-23 NIV)
When it seems like everyone else has let you down, when even your close friend turns against you, when you wonder whom you can trust, what can you do? Call on God. The LORD saves you. The LORD hears your voice. David prayed, “evening, morning and noon.” All day long! And God heard him. Every word. Every prayer. Our gracious God sustains betrayed hearts.
That doesn’t mean all the pain will go away. That doesn’t mean the betrayal will stop. “My companion attacks his friends; he violates his covenant. His talk is smooth as butter, yet war is in his heart; his words are more soothing than oil, yet they are drawn swords.” Ahhh! Doesn’t that make you mad? People whose words are as “smooth as butter,” yet they hide a sword to stab you in the gut. Faith in Jesus doesn’t mean the betrayal will stop. It might keep right on coming. It might even get worse! But every betrayal makes us lean all the more on the One who sustains us. Every betrayal makes us trust all the more in the One who saves us. The LORD. The LORD.
“Cast your cares on the LORD and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous be shaken.” “Cast your cares on the LORD.” That sounds a lot like fishing, doesn’t it? Just like you cast out that hook and bobber, cast your cares on the LORD. Throw them on God! When you’re fishing, you don’t just cast one time, right? The hook and bobber come back to you, and what do you need to do? Cast them out again. Over and over and over again. Isn’t this a Christian’s life? Oh, betrayed heart, “cast your cares on the LORD.” Then, tomorrow, “cast your cares on the LORD.” Then, the next day, “cast your cares on the LORD.” “He will sustain you!”
“As for me, I trust in you.” Even though his son and his close friend were against him, the Lord gave David the confidence to say, “Though my father and mother forsake me, the LORD will receive me” (Psalm 27:10). “As for me, I trust in you.” Jesus didn’t let betrayal slow him down on his way to the cross. Now he promises, “Surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matthew 28:20). Jesus’ death on the cross proved God’s unfailing love for you and me. So, betrayed heart and all, learn to lean on your Savior and say, “As for me, I trust in you.”
Comments