Psalm 17:9
9 From [paniym] the wicked [rasha`] that [zuw] oppress [shadad] me, from my deadly [nephesh]
enemies, ['oyeb] who compass me about. [naqaph] KJV-Interlinear
9 From
the wicked who despoil me, My deadly enemies, who surround me. NASB
Oppress, ‘shadad,’
describes a city that has been ravaged and laid to waste, made desolate,
destroyed as when having lost a total
war.
Deadly, ‘nephesh,’ means
against the life, or against my life. Enemies
that are set against the soul.
Compass means to be
surrounded as a city that is under siege, surrounded with no way in or out,
with no access to resources except that which is already within the city.
Therefore from the previous
verse, the cry for protection, for keeping oneself as the apple of Gods eye, is
a prayer for preservation from any and all enemies.
Enemies are all who
promote opposition to God and Gods truth.
This includes all social or work related adversaries, regardless of their
nature. Whether from office politics,
social or professional competitiveness, inordinate ambitions, social gossip,
and so forth. This includes all criminal
activity, all categories of sin, all types of violence, all philosophies, all
religious or irreligious activities, and so forth, such that they are in
opposition to truth.
All opposition to truth
regardless of its type, is evil and nothing more. It seeks to promote itself and destroy truth.
The world is saturated
with evil and therefore, each and every believer is surrounded completely by
evil while living in this world. This is
the devils world.
The objective of evil is
the attack on and the destruction of the soul, both of its host person who
possesses and promotes the evil, and of their target.
Wickedness is the
activity of evil. All people who do not subscribe
to truth, by default promote evil. Their
actions are categorized as wickedness.
They attempt to make a
place in this world, which does not rightfully belong to them, but rightfully
belongs to God and His designated heirs.
Namely mature believers.
Unbelievers and negative
believers are not the recipients of Gods blessings, except through common
grace. They are all allowed to remain here in this life pending their change of
attitude toward truth. But since
arrogance resists truth, then arrogance presumes that it has the same rights
and privileges that everyone else has. Actually
arrogance presumes that it has more rights than anyone else.
And so evil struggles to
hold on, to that to which it has no right.
It will destroy if possible, those who have the rightful place, in order
to get its possessions or rights of its desires. God, however, protects those who belong to
Him. He protects believers in general,
as to their salvation, and He protects mature believers as to their inheritance
and beyond grace rewards.
If you are a spiritually positive
believer, then all the world will oppose you.
If you pursue your life in the activities of evil, then you are an enemy
and oppressor of truth.
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