Devotional Thought for this Day

⁷  Our LORD, punish the Edomites! Because the day Jerusalem fell, they shouted, “Completely destroy the city! Tear down every building!” ⁸  Babylon, you are doomed! I pray the Lord’s blessings on anyone who punishes you for what you did to us. ⁹  May the Lord bless everyone who beats your children against the rocks! Psalm 137:7-9 (CEV)

896      At this time—and always!—when the Lord wants his seed to spread in a divine diffusion among the different surroundings, he also wants the extension not to lessen in intensity. And you have the clear and supernatural mission of helping to ensure that this intensity is not lost.

The passage in Psalm 139 bothered me for decades. To an extent, it still does. The retribution, the revenge the psalmist proposes seems over the top, it seems beyond belief. How could a follower of God write such a horrid peace, how could they wish that kind of pain on someone else.?

How is this loving their enemies and praying for someone who persecutes them?

The intensity of the faith is some good, the way it ovices itself, perhaps not so much?

Then I see the power of addiction, the brokenness of those who have been abused, the heartache of those betrayed by a close friend, and I want to use that passage to justify praying for revenge, asking God to crush those who cause such damage.

And am I wrong?

Yes, if the enemy is another human.

No, if the enemies are the demonic forces that tempt, that kill, that try to blot out the image of God created in mankind.

I need to be praying for those who seem to be the cause of such, praying for God to reach their heart, to circumcise their hearts, even as I need mine to be. To free them from the enslavement to sin that creates the havoc in their lives, which spreads like a virus, affecting all around them.

This is the intensity we need in our faith, that dear Josemaria speaks of, that focuses our battle where it should be, crushing the gates of hell which tries to stop the power of the gospel.

This is the seed which must be sowed, in more and more places, but not with any less intensity.

May we increase in our intensity, may we realize the damage the powers of hell try to create in life, and may our hearts be set on seeing God’s love free and heal those who have been so damaged.

Lord, Lead us into this battle, and protect us, we pray. AMEN!

Escriva, Josemaria. The Forge . Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.