My Enemies (part 1)

I chase My enemies and catch them; I do not turn back until I wipe them out. – Psalm 18:37  (NET)

When a Jesus-believer finds him or herself venturing into the Psalms, such should be done with an ever-present reflection on the primary reason why one ever ventures into the Word of God---our resurrected Lord Jesus.  Upon arriving in the Psalms, and more specifically the eighteenth Psalm, and doing so mindful of the historical narrative of Israel and its covenant and associated promises, one is confronted with words and thoughts that could very well be ascribed to Jesus, and certainly reflected upon and embraced by Him, as He tread the earthly path of ministry that was going to take Him to His cross. 

In the midst of first century expectations concerning Israel’s messiah, and of the kingdom of God on earth that would be established by the messiah’s victory over the enemies of the God of Israel’s people, it is not difficult to imagine Jesus, as a would-be messiah attempting to work out the nature of His vocation, searching the Scriptures as He contemplated what He had come to believe was His role and His task and His method of ushering in that long-expected kingdom. 

Clearly, His searching and reflection would have Him going about that ushering in of the kingdom and all it would portend, in a way that stood contrary to what many of His fellow countrymen were imagining and in some cases pursuing.  The Jesus that is presented on the pages of the Gospels is a Jesus that obviously came to realize that the Creator God’s kingdom would not be established in the way that every other kingdom (including Israel’s kingdom) had been established in this world---that of the violence of sword and spear.  Such was the method of the old age, and Jesus indicates that such means had no place in the new age of Resurrection and new creation. 

At the same time, Jesus knew that there was going to be violence, but that the violence, if it was going to align with what He understood to be the purposes of the Creator God for renewal and restoration, would be that which He would suffer and endure at the hands of the Romans.  Yes, Jesus knew that there was going to be a massive conflict, and that there was an enemy to be defeated, but also realized that the enemy with which He was going to engage in battle, was far more ferocious and powerful than the ones that His countrymen sought to overthrow.  Earthly foes and oppressors such as Rome were merely a shadow---meager representatives and parodies of the true enemy of creation and the divine image-bearers 

Ultimately, Jesus would realize that He was going to do mortal battle with death---that enemy which ruled unchecked and with apparent absolute sovereignty through its power over all men and all things at all times and all places.  Jesus, relying on His understanding of Scripture and the faithfulness of the God of Israel, trusted that His God was going to empower and enable Him to emerge victorious over this enemy, through a Resurrection, thereby stripping death of its power.  In its place, the Creator God, through Jesus, would make an offer of life to all men and all things, in submission to His Messiah. 

It is with such things in mind that Jesus could certainly return, time and again, to this Psalm (as He hears it as an Israelite and therefore according to Israel’s defining narrative as the covenant people of the Creator God), inserting Himself with a growing and eventual full understanding of His vocation, reflecting on the Roman cross to which that vocation was surely leading Him, and read “I chase My enemies and catch them; I do not turn back until I wipe them out.”  To that could be added, “I beat them to death; they fall at My feet” (18:38).  Recognizing the source of such power, Jesus could read, “You give Me strength for battle; You make My foes kneel before Me” (18:39).