Psalms for the Persecuted

After I received the news of my indictment by a federal grand jury, I immediately sought comfort from Scripture. I needed to hear the Word of the LORD and found myself just sort of flipping through the pages waiting for something to jump out.

Then I thought of Joseph and Potiphar’s wife because he, like me, was unjustly accused. That was helpful.

About that time my mother suggested I “pray the Psalms” so I started with the green pastures of Psalm 23 and knew I could skip David’s “Bathsheba episode” from Psalm 51.

I then began hunting those Psalms where the writer (who most of the time was David) was being persecuted by his/her enemies. I wished someone, somewhere, would have done the work of at least identifying which of the 150 Psalms were focused on being persecuted but I couldn’t find anything. That began my journey and creating this list.

Here is my list of the Psalms for the Persecuted that are a part of my three-volume set of devotionals. I pray they bring you comfort.

Introduction

“The grand jury met yesterday, and you were indicted on three counts for violating ethics laws.” I got that phone call from my attorney late Wednesday afternoon during a Sunday School leadership meeting.

That was not something I expected.

For the previous three years, I had been in communication via my attorney with federal prosecutors about an ongoing investigation they were conducting against me for perceived ethics violations. The prosecutors thought I committed several infractions after leaving the presidentially appointed position I held. I never did any of the things they thought I had done. (More details below)

There were waves of emotions that ran over me as I stepped back into the meeting with my fellow class members: embarrassment, anger, sickness, and shock were just a few. While I obviously knew I was a “person of interest,” I had surrounded myself with bright legal minds who went over the accusations with a fine-tooth comb and came to the same conclusion: Nick, you didn’t break any laws.

During the years I was being investigated before the issuing of the indictment, I felt surely we would have an opportunity to sit down and explain everything, and it would all go away. But that didn’t happen.

So, that phone call wasn’t something I expected.

The next few hours were hard but started with people from my Sunday School class who held my hands and prayed with me for the strength they knew I would need.

I headed home to tell my wife, Lisa, face to face, but on the way, I called Mama. She could hear it in my voice. Something was wrong when I asked her to meet me at home. And she came loaded for bear.

The next couple of days were spent calling people that loved me. My precious little sister showered me with Scripture and reminded me I was still her big brother hero. Lisa and I hunted down our then-pastor on his day off. He and his law degree were a great comfort.

We told our Sunday School class the following Sunday, and our classmates immediately encircled Lisa and me as they laid hands on us, prayed for us, and lifted us up. I offered to stop teaching the class, and they wouldn’t hear anything of it. We were in the middle of a year-long study on the book of Romans, and that Sunday, we were in the last half of Chapter 8 - which wasn’t luck, in my opinion.

All of that love and support was something I expected. The emotions percolating just under the surface I didn’t see coming.

I’m a 7th-generation Mississippian and will always call Wiggins my home. My great, great-grandfather was the pastor of the nearby Perkinston Baptist Church when he and others started the First Baptist Church of Wiggins in the 1920s.

I was baptized at FBC Wiggins, and it will forever be my home church, no matter where I may have my membership. I attended Baptist-affiliated Mississippi College for undergraduate and graduate degrees in history, taught Sunday School for over decades, and served on the Board of Trustees of Blue Mountain College, a Baptist institution of higher education in North Mississippi.

Why do I tell you all of that? Like Paul in Acts 22:3, I can give all kinds of pedigree and credentials about church attendance and being, as we like to call it, “in church since I was on the cradle roll.” But the opportunity I had to know Him better because of this indictment is something I had not expected.

When Mama and my sweet little sister began showering me with Scripture, there were plenty of David’s Psalms, and Genesis references to Joseph and Potiphar’s wife and maybe even some Mordecai from Esther. The theme was consistent: there are people in the Bible who were unjustly accused.

The more Psalms I read, the more I saw how many David wrote about being persecuted for something he didn’t do. A few years before the indictment, I taught a year and a half study on 1st and 2nd Samuel, covering the bulk of David’s life. During that time, we studied plenty of Psalms David wrote that expressed his feelings at various times, from his mess up with Bathsheba (Psalm 51) to lying down in green pastures (Psalm 23).

The 31st Psalm was the first one I read from my Mama and sister’s list. It detailed exactly what was happening to me. The 11th verse summed it up:

So, I set out to read all 150 Psalms and did just that in a year. As I read, I kept a journal and wrote down those Psalms that spoke of being accused of something you didn’t do. And I found a lot of them.

I also began searching for a book or a website dedicated to those in my predicament. I found plenty of support books if I had cancer, my kids were going nuts, or I had lost my job but nothing for just what I needed. So the seed was planted that maybe writing such a book is why the LORD gave me this thorn in my flesh.

This took place well over a decade ago, and I began by “blogging a book” instead of sequestering myself in an undisclosed location and cranking it out. Along the way, I decided that besides the book that told my whole story, I would write a series of devotional books taken from the blog posts. This book is the first of three.

When I did my year-long journaling of all the Psalms, I chose about 30 that spoke to being persecuted. These three devotional books are about being persecuted, not falling on hard times, or undergoing trials. There are great books that can help in those situations to understand better why the LORD, in His sovereignty, allows things to happen in our lives.

My experience is there is a difference when you are caught in the crosshairs and are being persecuted like David was by Saul and others, and you’ll hopefully see that in these pages.

You’ll also notice I like words. I believe all Scripture is inspired by God (“God-breathed,” as 2nd Timothy says) and that the Bible always tells the truth despite what may seem like inconsistencies. I believe the Holy Spirit wrote the Bible and, as a part of the Trinity, inspired the various writers to pen what God wanted written. That is one reason I am focused on the words: He gave us the exact word He wanted for the exact point He wants to make or the lesson He wants us to learn.

The crux of the charges against me was that I “feathered my nest” by setting up a quid pro quo where I would approve a local hospital to get federal money if they would hire me when I left my appointed position at the US Department of Agriculture. I neither approved an application nor did I receive any funds from the hospital, nor did the hospital receive any federal funds.

I emailed the USDA Ethics Officer and sought counsel before I left my appointment and told them that I might be engaged by this local hospital so there would be no misunderstanding. So much for that.

I never went to trial, even though we got very close twice. After the US Attorney’s office added another count to my indictment, the combined prison time I faced for the multiple felony charges was 100 years at minimum. We were set for trial on a Monday and the Thursday before we got an offer from the US Attorney to drop all four felony charges if I would admit to “knowingly communicating” with the hospital. That wasn’t hard to admit because I certainly had communicated with the hospital – just not for a quid pro quo.

We agreed that I would plead to a misdemeanor of communicating with the hospital, pay a $1,000 fine, and serve three years on federal probation. After five years of investigating and going back and forth with federal prosecutors, it was finally over.

Like David, I know what it is like to have the king and his resources after you. Also, like David, I know what it means to have the LORD as my Rock, my Fortress, and my Deliverer. I hope the same happens for you.

Day One

Psalm 18:1–2 – Part 1

What are your Top 10 words to describe God?

Plenty come to mind in particular if we think of Jesus at the same time: Savior. Redeemer. Lord. Master. Alpha and Omega.

But what if your list comes from an Old Testament perspective, as David did? While Psalm 2 is David’s insight into the Trinity (another post for another day), his perspective throughout the Psalms doesn’t include Jesus Christ of Nazareth but focuses on YHWH his LORD.

In the first two verses of Psalm 18, David gives us his Top Ten List of words that describe the LORD. We’re going to look at all ten over the next couple of days because when the arrows are being slung, we need to know all ten.

Before he makes his list, we get this remarkable opening statement that allows us to know what is going on in David’s life at the time as he writes. Look at the first part of verse 1:

Notice this is to the choirmaster, which means David expects everyone to hear what he has to say. He wants it sung by many so all can know how God has delivered him. This may be a good perspective to have after you’ve come out of the pain you’re in, but when you’re in the middle of it, it’s super tough to want the masses to hear your story.

We know David had many enemies and Saul, as the sitting King of Israel, was chief among those enemies. But can you imagine having deliverance from all your enemies in one day? I think I’d sing too.

Verse one starts with how all our songs to God should begin by telling the LORD that we love Him. The word used here for love is not the one we commonly see in the Old Testament. It’s not the word for love that we see in the Shema (Deuteronomy 6:4-9), where it says, “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your might.”

It’s not how to see love with any type of affection. It’s much more profound. The word, racham, is sometimes translated as compassion or mercy.

David gives us a great pattern by pointing out that loving a God Who first loved us is easy. But loving a God who has just taken me through tough times with my enemy at my heels can be challenging. But that love for Him is deeper than the typical love we express.

And Who is this One David loves? Here are the Top 10 from the rest of verse 1 and verse 2:

1. The LORD is his strength. It makes sense to me for strength to be the first word listed because if I have just been rescued from the hands of all my enemies and from the oppression of the king, I don’t have much strength left. I can tell you from personal experience having the strength that comes from the Lord is the only way I can make it on many days. I don’t possess the strength to get through the mess; it has to come from some other place.

And this is not just a “one-time hit” of strength. The impact of my indictment went on for years. In some of my business dealings, well after all the legal issues were solved, people were mailing “anonymous” letters to scare clients away because I was obviously a criminal. It was hard to get through those body punches, and I did NOT have the strength alone to do it.

Interestingly, this is the only place in the Bible where the word strength is used in this way. It’s a noun and not a verb. It means God is strength. It’s not an adjective to describe God or saying God strengthens me. God equals strength.

2. The LORD is his Rock. How many times does David use this analogy for God? (I could count it but I won’t) From David’s perspective, a huge rock was about the most durable thing he could have seen. We know he spent a fair bit of time in caves, so he had plenty of opportunities to be up close and personal with large rocks.

He likely slipped on a rock or two or bumped his head on one. David knows that the LORD is just like that rock: immovable, and you can count on it. It isn’t going anywhere. It doesn’t move all around. It’s why Jesus used it as an example of where the wise man built his house in Matthew 7:24-27.

3. The LORD is his Fortress. David also knows a good deal about fortresses in his role as a fighter and leader in battles. You may recall that God didn’t allow David to build His first temple because David’s hands were too bloody with killing and war. David knows what a fortress is and how hard it is to penetrate, and what comfort it gives to those inside it.

The root word for “fortress” means “to hunt.” The fortress is to hide the hunted. Being the hunted would certainly describe David. And me.

I love the LORD Who is my Strength and my Rock and my Fortress. Hold on to that today. Say it over and over and over: He is my Strength, He is my Rock. He is my Fortress.