Sometimes You Need a Javelin

Today’s reflection on the Psalms, for the seventh of October, comes from Psalm 35: “Contend, O LORD, with those who contend with me; fight against those who fight against me! Take hold of shield and buckler and rise for my help! Draw the spear and javelin against my pursuers! Say to my soul, ‘I am your salvation!’” When you read this psalm, you might think of Jesus teaching in the Sermon on the Mount that we are to love our enemies. How does this fit with loving our enemies? C. S. Lewis struggled with this in his Reflections on the Psalms. He called them the “vindictive Psalms” and discussed them in his chapter on the cursings. You can understand the difficulty. Here is David asking God to fight against people. How do we hear that as Christians? “Contend” is an imperative. Contend, O Lord. David is being attacked, and he calls upon God to intervene. “Fight” is another imperative. Fight against those who are fighting against me. Then, in verse two, he says, “Take hold of shield and buckler.” Those are defensive weapons. Defend me. Shield me. Protect me from those who are trying to hurt me. But in verse three, we get the spear and the javelin. Now we have weapons that can strike the pursuer. You are no longer simply standing behind a shield. You are taking active measures against the attack. How does that fit with the overall rhyme of Scripture? Well, does God oppose wickedness? There is the beginning of our answer. He shields his people from evil, but sometimes protecting them requires stopping those who are doing the harm. We cannot simply love the good. We have to protect the good. When people are set on evil, we still have to protect those they are attacking. Loving an enemy does not mean allowing him to destroy his neighbor. It isn’t that we delight in using the javelin. Sometimes it is required. But as we read this psalm, I think we begin to hear David’s greater Son. Jesus himself takes up its language about being hated without cause in John 15:25. Here is the righteous sufferer, surrounded by people who oppose him. And how does he conquer? He bears their hostility. He suffers at their hands. He dies on a cross so that his enemies may live. David’s greater Son wins his greatest victory without a javelin. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 10:4 that the weapons of our warfare are not worldly weapons. Their power comes from God, and they can tear down strongholds. They work in a different way from the weapons of this world. (esv.org⁠) Then you come to Ephesians six, with its picture of the Christian wearing armor. There is a breastplate. There is the shield of faith. There is the helmet of salvation. But there is also a sword. There isn’t a javelin, but there is a sword: “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” The Christian is protected, but he is also given something with which to advance against evil. That weapon is the Word of God. I think of the war in Ukraine and the very name of the weapon: the Javelin. We hear that name and think of the power needed to stop an invading army. Yet we often fail to recognize the power of the Word itself. Through his Word, God can bring peace between people who are locked in mortal combat. He can make the lion lie down with the lamb. He can turn opponents who are fighting to the death into friends. He can make them sons of the Most High. We must never forget that. A javelin may stop an attacker. The Word of God can change his heart. In the civil realm, protecting people may require the use of real swords. But the weapon Christ gives his church is his Word. We must not underestimate it simply because its power works differently. So when we return to Psalm 35, we can ask God to shield us and to stop those who would harm us. We can also pray that he will conquer our enemies as he conquered us: by bringing us to repentance and making us his own. “Say to my soul, ‘I am your salvation!’” That is what David needs to hear. And that is what we need to hear. Sometimes you need a javelin. Most of the time, you don’t. And David’s greater Son has shown us a victory that no javelin could ever win. That’s the reflection for this morning. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit william945.substack.com