Vindicate Me, Oh Lord!

“Extend your loyal love to your faithful followers, and vindicate the morally upright.” Psalm 36:10 NET

My heart goes out to David. He must have been on a downward spiral of emotions, having to be on constant alert all the time against his biggest threat, King Saul. Anger, fear, being wrongly accused and unjustified. With the king pursuing him for roughly 10-15 years, no wonder David wrote a litany of Psalms that included prayers for vindication. David was wronged, point blank. In fact, all of us have suffered some kind of unrighteousness against us. Maybe you were accused of something you didn’t do; or blamed for destroying a relationship; or maybe you’re the victim of someone’s envy. Some of us have people that want to kill any good thing in our lives. But thankfully, it is God who determines what happens to us. “Make a just decision on my behalf. Decide what is right“, David pleads in Psalm 17:2.

God’s promise to us is that the wrongs done against us WILL be dealt with. “Vengeance is mine, I will repay” says the Lord in Romans 12:19. And “do not be overcome by evil but overcome evil with good” later in the same chapter. I know it’s easy to become disheartened when we see injustice running rampant all around us, and especially when it’s done to us personally. And on top of that, God usually works over a period of time; not so “immediate” as we would want. So, the promise for vindication may not be realized for years. That’s a hard pill to swallow! BUT….it is a promise. And oftentimes we are called to persevere and trust God through continual wickedness and injustice as part of the process of growing our character and faith in Him. It’s not fun, for sure. But it sure is producing good things in us, if we choose to bear up under it and allow God to use His best judgement.

Prayer: Lord Almighty, the greatest injustice ever done was done to Your son. Yet it was Your will, producing good for us and glory for You. Let the same be true for us. Let the injustices done to us be used for Your glory. We trust You in the timing of our vindication. In the blessed name of Your son, Jesus, Amen.

Action: Remember, when you’re wronged, it’s Satan attacking and using people to do it. Ephesians 6:12 says we are not battling against people but against the demonic world. When you’re under attack by a person, run to the Lord for help and protection. Speak scripture to the situation, and TRUST that God has His hand in the mix. He uses everything (even attacks) for our good and His glory.