PREVIEW: Like Israel of old, you have enemies, too. However, your enemies are usually not physical, flesh and blood adversaries; they are spiritual forces that attack you from within—your moral character, your emotional stability, and your spiritual vitality. They seek to weaken your resolve to trust in God’s sufficiency and obey his commands. They seek to enslave you to a life that is far less than God’s best. Maybe even now they have the upper hand in your life. The psalmist would say to you, “Maintain your hope, don’t surrender your trust, strive to overcome every temptation, and get back up when you stumble. Whatever you do, don’t quit if you’ve failed. It may seem that you are down for the count, but you are not because God will give you the victory over your enemies.”

A Journey of Worship // Psalm 129:1-2

Some people don’t like being reminded of their troubles. They think we ought to talk only of the positive things in life and leave out all the pessimistic stuff. They’d rather hear only of the sunshine of God’s grace and not the storm clouds of life’s difficulty. Even considering the reality and nature of Satanic opposition sends them posthaste into the fetal position.

I understand that. I prefer to move past, if not bury, all the difficult and distasteful things life brings my way. But isn’t that to ignore the fact that this thing called the Christian life is all about spiritual warfare—that we do have an Enemy who constantly seeks to destroy our very soul and that we are called to overcome by the blood of the Lamb and our testimony of faithfulness in the fight?

The psalmist understood quite well from the history of Israel’s enemies—literal foreign enemies who sought to defeat and enslave God’s people. These enemies were there from the beginning (“from my youth”) and never went away—Egypt, Edom, Moab, Philistia, Assyria, and Babylonia. These foreign, godless enemies oppressed Israel early and often, but each time, God gave his people victory over them.

You have enemies, too. That’s not being pessimistic; that’s just being real. Unlike Israel, however, your enemies are usually not physical, flesh and blood adversaries; they are spiritual forces that attack you from within—your moral character, your emotional stability, and your spiritual vitality. They seek to weaken your resolve to trust in God’s sufficiency and obey his commands. They seek to enslave you to a life that is far less than God’s best. And perhaps, like Israel, these enemies have “oppressed you from your youth,” or as the Message puts it, “They’ve kicked me around ever since you were young.” In other words, the same doubts, fears, temptations, and weaknesses you had as a young person or as a young Christian are still doing a number on you. Maybe they have had or even now have the upper hand in your life.

The psalmist would say to you, “Maintain your hope, don’t surrender your trust, strive to overcome every temptation, and get back up when you stumble. Whatever you do, don’t quit if you’ve failed. It may seem that you are down for the count, but you are not because God will give you the victory over your enemies.”

Israel had enemies—and God gave victory over each one. You’ve got enemies, too, but God has already given you victory over each one through Christ’s victory over sin. Think about that: All your adversaries have already been defeated—even if they don’t act like it. So go ahead and remind those enemies—depression, lust, anger, sickness, scarcity—that they are nothing but losers.

And you are anything but!

As the Apostle Paul declared in Romans 8:37, “In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.”

Yes, they may have you down for now, but you are not out! Christians never are.

“ Very often what God first helps us towards is not the virtue itself but just this power of always trying again. — C.S. LEWIS