Psalm 119:157

We continue working our way through the octave of Psalm 119 entitled Resh.

Psalms 119:157  Many are my persecutors and mine enemies; yet do I not decline from thy testimonies.

In the previous verse the psalmist stated that God’s tender mercies are great.  In today’s verse we see that he needed great and tender mercies from His God because, as he states, many are my persecutors and mine enemies.

Whenever a man sets out on a course of obedience to the commandments of God, he will make enemies.  And these enemies will persecute him precisely because he is doing the right thing.

Psalms 38:19  But mine enemies are lively, and they are strong: and they that hate me wrongfully are multiplied.

20  They also that render evil for good are mine adversaries; because I follow the thing that good is.

2 Timothy 3:12  Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.

This was the reason Cain killed Abel, thus starting the long train of persecution of the godly by the ungodly that will continue unto the end of the world.

1 John 3:11  For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.

12  Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother's righteous.

But not only will a godly person have enemies, but, as the verse above said, those enemies will be multiplied and that to the point that he will be able to say with the psalmist:  Many are my persecutors and mine enemies.

Psalms 3:1  <> LORD, how are they increased that trouble me! many are they that rise up against me.

2  Many there be which say of my soul, There is no help for him in God. Selah.

Psalms 25:19  Consider mine enemies; for they are many; and they hate me with cruel hatred.

Our Lord was certainly persecuted by many enemies.  In fact, so many were His enemies that He spoke in prophecy and said:

Psalms 118:10  All nations compassed me about: but in the name of the LORD will I destroy them.

And just as “all nations” opposed our Lord, so would they oppose and persecute His disciples as He told them in the Olivet Discourse.

Matthew 24:9  Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake.

There is an enmity between Satan and his seed, the wicked of this world, and the seed of the woman, Jesus Christ and His elect.

Genesis 3:15  And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

And when you consider that Satan is “the prince of this world” (John 14:30) and that “the whole world lieth in wickedness” (1John 5:19), it should come as no surprise that the godly have many persecutors and enemies.   

Satan and his cohorts have made it their aim to cause God’s people to decline or deviate from God’s testimonies.  Satan succeeded with our first parents and has continued to pursue his objective since then.  The devil has one of two methods that he employs.  He either tries to lure us from God’s testimonies by temptations to sin or to frighten us from them by persecution.   And many do indeed abandon God’s word when they are persecuted for it. 

Matthew 13:20  But he that received the seed into stony places, the same is he that heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it;

21  Yet hath he not root in himself, but dureth for a while: for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended.

But such was not the case with the psalmist.  Although his persecutors and his enemies were many, he could say:  yet do I not decline from thy testimonies.  If our persecutors and enemies do not succeed in getting us to turn aside from God’s testimonies, then all their stratagems and attacks have failed and we have come off the victors in the conflict.  As Charles Spurgeon wrote:  “Faithfulness to the truth is (emphasis mine) victory over our enemies.”  Ponder those words carefully.  So long as you stay faithful to God’s word, you are on the winning side no matter how many are lined up against you.