Hold not thy peace

The solemn imprecations of the psalms are not antithetical to worship beside the lime pits. They are a genuine and deep part of the response of a people who look to God to vindicate them against evil. And they should fall from the lips of those who, in behalf of God's people oppressed and persecuted, share their prayer. And they move me to tears.

Hold not thy peace, O God of my praise;

For the mouth of the wicked and the mouth of the deceitful are opened against me: they have spoken against me with a lying tongue. They compassed me about also with words of hatred; and fought against me without a cause.

For my love they are my adversaries: but I give myself unto prayer. And they have rewarded me evil for good, and hatred for my love.

Set thou a wicked man over him: and let Satan stand at his right hand. When he shall be judged, let him be condemned: and let his prayer become sin. Let his days be few; and let another take his office.

Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow. Let his children be continually vagabonds, and beg: let them seek their bread also out of their desolate places.

Let the extortioner catch all that he hath; and let the strangers spoil his labour. Let there be none to extend mercy unto him: neither let there be any to favour his fatherless children. Let his posterity be cut off; and in the generation following let their name be blotted out.

Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered with the LORD; and let not the sin of his mother be blotted out. Let them be before the LORD continually, that he may cut off the memory of them from the earth.

Because that he remembered not to shew mercy, but persecuted the poor and needy man, that he might even slay the broken in heart. As he loved cursing, so let it come unto him: as he delighted not in blessing, so let it be far from him. As he clothed himself with cursing like as with his garment, so let it come into his bowels like water, and like oil into his bones.

Let it be unto him as the garment which covereth him, and for a girdle wherewith he is girded continually. Let this be the reward of mine adversaries from the LORD, and of them that speak evil against my soul.

To worship with these words is one of the most fearful, awesome and humbling things we can do. We come to the maker of widows and ask that He vindicate us.

But since only true sons dare claim God's protection, to worship in these terms is to claim the inheritance of His name: and that ought to focus our priorities like nothing else. For, You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.