Arise, Lord!
Deliver me, my God!
Strike all my enemies on the jaw;
break the teeth of the wicked. Psalm 3:7

This is one of those texts you rarely hear preached from the pulpit but it was as real as David got! His enemies had been hounding him day and night and he wanted some relief – any relief! These emotions are as raw as they get. Not only did David want deliverance but he wanted to tell God just how to do it.

Have you ever prayed these kinds of prayers? Forgetting for a moment the theological aspects of the prayer (us telling the Lord Almighty how to judge), think of the therapeutic aspects. If you’ve been hurt by someone, a normal reaction is to want to take action against the person. You know what Scripture says in Romans 12:19,

“”Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: ‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay,’ says the Lord””,

but you also would love to deal with it yourself. In the Batman TV series it went like this: Bam! Zoom! Pow! Zing!! So, you do the next best thing: asking the Lord of the Universe to handle it. (In reality it’s the absolute best thing because He’s commanded it.). Expressing this anger and hatred to God towards people who have wronged us is both biblical and therapeutic.

Let me pause a second. I know people will have a hard time with this word ‘therapeutic’ in reference to praying to God, but I only mean it in the generic sense: it just feels good to get it off your chest in front of someone who is totally and completely safe. I’m not at all suggesting that God is a mere counselor. Far far from it.

The Supreme Judge knows exactly how to deal with the offender, and I believe it’s an invitation for us to let Him know how we feel about it. It’s certainly not wrong to express the heartfelt emotion. In the end and as a result, He will help you deal with your anger and bitterness at the situation. If you need to come a dozen times about the same enemy, His door is always open.