You don't really want THAT, do you?

Give him a short life,
and give his job to somebody else.
Make orphans of his children,
dress his wife in widow's weeds;
Turn his children into begging street urchins,
evicted from their homes- homeless.
May the bank foreclose and wipe him out,
no one willing to give his orphans a break.
Chop down his family tree
so that nobody even remembers his name.
But erect a memorial to the sin of his father,
and make sure his mother's name is there, too-
Their sins recorded forever before God,
but they themselves sunk in oblivion. - Psalm 109:8-15 (The Message)

This is the prayer of David about his enemy. He can't be serious, can he. Can anyone really hate anyone that much. Wait a minute... don't answer that.

Turn his children into begging street urchins? Chop down his family tree? Make sure his sins are recorded forever before God? I certainly wouldn't want this... would you? And from David- "A man after God's own heart" Should we really wish this on anyone? Would David have wanted his sin forever memorialized? Remember the Bathsheba Incident? Uh, hello, Kettle? This is the pot. You're black.

When I read this, I think about the thief on the cross, poking fun at Jesus because he allows himself to be crucified. "Ummm, I don't see you getting down either."

My business law professor in college said most people say they want justice, when what they really want is mercy. In David's eyes, the price for what his enemy had done should be high. Probably higher than it really should have been. But, we're all like that, aren't we? The hurts we lay on people matter very little, and the hurts we endure matter a whole lot. The people who wrong us must be punished, but those we wrong need to suck it up. We claim to just want justice for what others do to us, but we really want God to have mercy on us and punish that rascal!

Jesus said we are to do to others as we would have them do to us. I think this means not wishing harm on those who wish us harm. I certainly could be better at loving my neighbor.

Peace.