My God and My Country

Word of God

But he replied and said, "It is written, 'It is not by bread alone that a man lives, except by every word that issues from the mouth of God

The Gospel According to Matthew 4:4

The Book of Psalms 7:3-4

3 O Lord my God, if I have done this thing, if there be any wickedness in mine hands, 4 If I have rewarded evil unto him that had peace with me, (yea I have delivered him that vexed me without cause.)

Brethren:

Consider this morning that it is written that we should not repay evil for good, nor seek vengeance or retribution. (Read Proverbs 17:13; Romans 12:17; 1 Thessalonians 5:15; 1 Peter 3:9-11). Henceforth let us go about our days being humble and peaceful servants of our Creator, for in this we do Him service by being His proxies here on this temporal plane wherein we remain blameless and give no cause for others to speak against us. (Read 1 Peter 2;11-14). Likewise we prove the glory of His merciful providence to all men. - Dr. Riktor Von Zhades

“ He makes a solemn protestation of his innocency as to those things whereof he was accused, and by a dreadful imprecation appeals to God, the searcher of hearts, concerning it. Observe, in general: When we are falsely accused by men it is a great comfort if our own consciences acquit us ‘Hic murus aheneus esto, Nil conscire sibi’. Be this thy brazen bulwark of defense, Still to preserve thy conscious innocence.—and not only they cannot prove their calumnies (Read Acts 24:13), but our hearts can disprove them, to our own satisfaction. God is the patron of wronged innocency. David had no court on earth to appeal to. His prince, who should have righted him, was his sworn enemy. But he had the court of heaven to fly to, and a righteous Judge there, whom he could call his God.

He was charged with a traitorous design against Saul’s crown and life, that he compassed and imagined to depose and murder him, and, in order to that, levied war against him. This he utterly denies. He never did this; there was no iniquity of this kind in his hand. He abhorred the thought of it. He never rewarded evil to Saul when he was at peace with him, nor to any other. Nay, as some think it should be rendered, he never rendered evil for evil, never did those mischief that had injured him. What evidence he produces of his innocency. It is hard to prove a negative, and yet this was a negative which David could produce very good proof of: I have delivered him that without cause is my enemy. By this it appeared, beyond contradiction, that David had no design against Saul’s life—that, once and again, Providence so ordered it that Saul lay at his mercy, and there were those about him that would soon have dispatched him, but David generously and conscientiously prevented it, when he cut off his skirt (Read 1 Sam. 24:4) and afterwards when he took away his spear (Read 1 Sam. 26:12), to attest for him what he could have done. Saul himself owned both these to be undeniable proofs of David’s integrity and good affection to him. If we render good for evil, and deny ourselves the gratifications of our passion, our so doing may turn to us for a testimony, more than we think of, another day.” - Matthew Henry - 17^th Century Theologian