Psalm 56:1-6 (NASB)
56 Be gracious to me, O God, for man has trampled upon me;
Fighting all day long he oppresses me.
2 My foes have trampled upon me all day long,
For they are many who fight proudly against me.
3 When I am afraid,
I will put my trust in You.
4 In God, whose word I praise,
In God I have put my trust;
I shall not be afraid.
What can mere man do to me?
5 All day long they distort my words;
All their thoughts are against me for evil.
6 They attack, they lurk,
They watch my steps,
As they have waited to take my life.
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I am still pondering this, so the following is a “work in progress’
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This sounds like a Messianic Psalm – where at one level David is talking about his own situation, but at a prophetic level God is referring to the Pharisees vs. Jesus. If that’s the case, we saw from
that the Pharisees were filled with insolent pride, were scoffers, and in today’s terminology were narcissists. Here are some key traits and tactics:
Fighting all day long he oppresses me.
The Pharisees (narcissists) made their fight against Jesus almost a full time occupation.
For they are many who fight proudly against me.
The fight was a fight to gain supremacy
5 All day long they distort my words;
All their thoughts are against me for evil.
6 They attack, they lurk,
They watch my steps,
As they have waited to take my life.
This describes pretty clearly how the narcissistic Pharisees approached things in their fight against Jesus – distorting his words, thinking “evilly” on how they could take him on, lurking and watching until they could see an opportunity to destroy him. So, to summarize traits and tactics of a narcissist who has decided to destroy you:
- He will totally obsesse about destroying you
- He will distort most of what you say
- His thoughts toward you will only be evil thoughts on how he can destroy – he will not think any positive thoughts toward you (part of his obsession to destroy you)
- He will attack you when he can, but he will also lurk, watch, and wait for the right opportunity to stick in the proverbial knife
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But, as we will discuss more in the future, ultimately we have to trust Him for protection from this kind of attack
Psalm 56:11 – In God I have put my [a]trust, I shall not be afraid. What can man do to me?
and
Psalm 127:1 (NASB) – Unless the Lord guards the city, the watchman keeps awake in vain.