In 1991, Deanna and I were newly married and eager to help our neighbours encounter Jesus. With us are Ross—Deanna’s brother—and Karin. Two years later, the four of us moved to the Brazilian Amazon.
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The Only Reasonable Question
In 1991, Deanna and I had new neighbours—a young international worker and his wife, who had grown up in East Germany. The Berlin Wall had only recently come down.
One evening, Deanna invited them to watch the Jesus film. We gathered at their house.
As the film played, our neighbour moved in and out of the room, preparing snacks. She saw enough to understand that Jesus had been arrested and crucified.
A little later, she returned.
Jesus was walking around again.
She stopped.
“Wait a minute. I thought that guy was dead. What’s he doing walking around again?”
Her question still makes me smile.
It also reaches close to the heart of Christian hope.
The gospel does not promise that faithful people will never be knocked down. It announces that a man who was betrayed, falsely accused, and killed is walking around again.
When Good Is Repaid with Evil
Psalm 35 comes from the other side of that story—before vindication, while the wounds are still open.
David begins:
“Contend, Lord, with those who contend with me; Fight against those who fight against me.” —Psalm 35:1
This is not a serene prayer.
False witnesses have risen against David. People he once treated like friends and family now rejoice when he stumbles. Good has been repaid with evil.
David asks God to take up weapons, scatter his enemies like chaff, and cause those who hid a trap for him to fall into it themselves.
Israel’s law took malicious witnesses seriously. Deuteronomy 19 required judges to investigate carefully. If an accusation proved false, the accuser faced the harm intended for the innocent person. “Eye for eye” was not an invitation to revenge but a limit upon it.
David now appeals to the highest court.
Yet this fierce prayer also reaches back to Israel’s deepest memories of deliverance.
“Lord, who is like You?” David asks—the language Israel sang after God delivered slaves from Pharaoh’s army.
David calls upon the incomparable God of the Exodus, the divine warrior who rescues those overpowered by the strong.
Before his circumstances change, David asks God to speak within:
“Say to my soul, ‘I am your salvation.’ ”
Psalm 35 does not identify its historical occasion, but it fits David’s years of flight from Saul. David had served Saul faithfully; Saul then mobilized the power of the kingdom to hunt him down and take him out.
Twice David could have killed Saul.
Twice he refused.
If Saul stands behind the psalm, the irony is sobering:
Israel’s king has begun to act like Pharaoh.
Covenant communities can reproduce Egypt. Churches and ministries can use money, position, nationality, reputation, or institutional control to overpower others.
David does not pretend this does not matter. He asks God to judge the case and stop the harm.
But David will not become Pharaoh in order to escape Pharaoh.
A Guilty Man Can Be Innocent
For about three years, I helped lead Bible studies among prisoners convicted of serious crimes. More than once, I heard a man say something like this:
“I didn’t commit the crime they convicted me of. I did many similar crimes, but not that one.”
At first, that can sound almost humorous.
Then you realize how serious it is.
A person may be guilty of many things and still be innocent of the particular charge before the court.
Justice never says, “Close enough.”
David is not claiming that he has never sinned. He is asking God to judge this case.
His enemies say, “Our eyes have seen it.”
David answers, in effect:
“But You have seen.”
Specific innocence is not moral perfection.
And being imperfect does not make a particular accusation true.
That distinction matters in Christian conflict. “We have all made mistakes” may be true, but, depending on the dispute, justice may require us to ask:
What actually happened?
Who broke the agreement?
Who controlled the money?
Who stopped communicating?
Was the accusation true?
Psalm 35 does not merely ask God to judge them.
David prays, “Judge me, LORD my God, according to Your righteousness.”
In the psalm’s immediate setting, this is a plea for vindication. David believes that God’s judgment will expose the false accusation and clear his name.
Yet the wording matters.
David does not ask God to confirm his version according to his certainty. He places the whole case—including his claim of innocence—before God’s righteous and covenant-faithful judgment.
When we pray David’s words, we cannot ask God to weigh others on one scale and ourselves on another. Jesus later says:
“For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you.” Matthew 7:2
This does not dissolve injustice into a vague admission that everyone has faults. It makes us more exact about both the wrong committed against us and the response forming within us.
Another person may be wrong in the central dispute while I am wrong in my reaction.
I may be innocent of the accusation and guilty of contempt.
I may need vindication and correction at the same time.
God’s judgment may vindicate us. It may correct us. It may train us.
It may do all three.
When Being Right Becomes Dangerous
Jesus’ warning is not a command to stop discerning.
In the same passage, He tells us to remove the log from our own eye so that we can see clearly enough to remove the speck from another person’s eye.
The goal is not blindness.
It is vision cleansed of superiority.
Cain experienced God’s decision as though something had gone terribly wrong. God regarded Abel and his offering, but not Cain and his. Genesis does not tell Cain why.
God asks about Cain’s anger, warns him about what is crouching at the door, and calls him to the next faithful step.
Cain turns his tension with God into a verdict against his brother.
Matthew 5 takes us behind the stone in Cain’s hand to the anger on Cain’s face. Jesus warns that anger can harden into contempt:
“You good-for-nothing.”
“You fool.”
Jesus does not forbid moral discernment. He Himself confronted deception and abusive leadership. But He forbids us to reduce another image-bearer to a dismissive verdict.
The moment I need you to be worthless in order for me to be righteous, sin is already crouching at my door.
Leaders must still name facts, establish boundaries, protect the vulnerable, and sometimes remove people from responsibility. Enemy-love is not gullibility. Servant leadership does not abandon authority; it refuses to turn entrusted authority into retaliation or personal advantage.
Where possible, we work toward collaboration and long-term trust.
Where necessary, we act decisively so that collaboration does not become cover for continuing harm.
The Last Word Belongs to Joy
Psalm 35 does not leave David alone in a private courtroom.
Halfway through the psalm, before anything has visibly changed, David looks beyond the conflict:
“I will give You thanks in the great congregation; I will praise You among a mighty people.”
At the end, those who desire David’s vindication shout for joy. Notice their song.
It is not, “David was right.”
It is:
“The LORD be exalted, Who delights in the prosperity of His servant.”
Then David’s own tongue proclaims God’s righteousness and praise.
A wounded man brings his case to God.
God’s righteousness becomes visible.
A congregation learns to rejoice.
This is not a crowd recruited into David’s grievance. Their defining song is not the humiliation of his enemies. They rejoice because God delights in the shalom, the complete well-being, of His servant.
Imagine such people spreading through families, churches, missions, businesses, communities, and nations.
Some carry public authority. Others serve from the margins. Together they learn to love the powerful, the vulnerable, and everyone in between.
They are courageous enough to name wrongdoing, vulnerable enough to receive correction, resilient enough to remain connected under pressure, and free enough to refuse domination. They keep doing the right thing, in the right way, as best they can discern it before God.
They overcome evil with good.
This vision does not rest on human strength.
Jesus stands at its centre.
He was hated without cause. Malicious witnesses rose against Him. He told the truth, exposed hypocrisy, protected the vulnerable, and loved His enemies.
When He suffered, He entrusted Himself to the Father who judges righteously.
Then He died.
Christian resilience is not positive thinking. Jesus was not merely knocked down.
He was killed.
But death did not receive the final word.
The Father raised Him.
Our neighbour saw Jesus walking around and asked the only reasonable question:
“I thought that guy was dead. What’s he doing walking around again?”
That is the life Jesus now shares with His people.
Our scars may remain visible, and sometimes tender, but our wounds no longer determine our next faithful step.
The final sound of Psalm 35 is not accusation.
It is praise.
And because Jesus lives, joy will have the final word.
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Sunrise over the Amazon River at Gurupá. Christian hope is not that night never comes, but that night never receives the final word.
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Three Prayers to Carry Into the Week
Judge me according to Your righteousness. What actually happened? What are the facts? Where might pain or self-interest be distorting my account? Am I using the same measure for myself that I am using for the other person?
Keep truth from becoming contempt. What conduct needs to be named? Have I turned another person’s actions into a final verdict about their worth, character, or motives?
Show me the next faithful step. Is there a conversation, apology, boundary, decision, protective action, or prayer that belongs to me? What outcome or timetable must I release to God?
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A Personal Update
BNews began twelve years ago as a missionary update. Now, 678 editions later, we remain deeply grateful for the many ways you continue to walk with us through prayer, friendship, encouragement, and financial partnership as together we participate in what God is doing across cultures and nations.
Two weeks ago, Deanna had a bad fall down sixteen stairs. She was badly bruised, but she is recovering well.
The bruises are mostly hidden in this photograph.
The joy is not.
Thank you for praying for her complete recovery.
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A Prayer
Lord Jesus,
When good is repaid with evil, Keep us from returning the same.
When lies are told, Give us courage to speak truth Without adding motives We cannot know.
Judge us according To Your righteousness.
Keep us from using One measure for others And another for ourselves.
When anger becomes contempt, Remind us that the person before us Still bears Your image.
Form us into people Courageous enough to tell the truth, Vulnerable enough to receive correction, And resilient enough to keep loving.
Gather such people Across families, churches, Communities, and nations.
You were dead.
Yet You are walking around again.
Because You live, No faithful surrender Becomes the final loss.
And joy will have The final word.
Amen.
With gratitude,
Rick and Deanna
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Scripture quotations are from the NASB 2020 unless otherwise noted.
