HEBREW WORD STUDY – GOD IS FOR ME – ELOHIM  LI

Psalm 56:9:  “When I cry unto thee shall my enemies turn away.  This I know for God is for me.”

“Diplomacy is the art of saying: “Nice doggy,” while looking for a big club.” –  Will Rodgers

“When I cry…”  The word “cry” is qara’ which comes from the Akkadian word qeru which means a plea to join together in a fight or event. Our English Christian lexicons define qara’ as invoking or proclaiming.  It does not mean to shed tears although that is pretty common when you are calling upon God with all your heart.  Rabbi Samson Hirsch relates the word to qarah which is a chance meeting or a spontaneous meeting.  All have the idea of a desperate plea.  In this context, it is calling upon God to join in the battle. The intent of the call is for God to join with us in the fight, but when He does, He pretty well just takes over.  We have just been keeping the enemy at bay saying “nice doggy” while we call on God for the big club.

Note that when God joins the battle, the enemy is not destroyed but are simply turned away.  In the Hebrew, the word is shuv which means to be repulsed.  The picture here is that when we call upon God to help us face an enemy, He not only joins us but takes command and once the enemy gets a look at our commander, it flees.

It is interesting to note this particular enemy that David is referring to. This word used for enemy is aiv.  This is not an enemy out to cause bodily harm but wants to destroy your reputation, your testimony and/or to persecute you. It is closely related to the word ayiv which is a spiritual or demonic force.

So to us as children of God, when an enemy that is being generated by some spiritual force comes against us,  we simply need to invoke the name of God our Commander and the enemy will retreat or shuv.  In fact, shuv is a word used for repentance.  This spiritual force will not only flee, it will regret having even threatened you in the first place. They are not to touch God’s anointed which happens to be us.

The writer uses an interesting expression here.  He knows this to be a fact because God is for me.   The word is ti which is simply a preposition (to or for) connected to a first person singular pronoun (me).    The expression “God is to me” is a Hebrew idiom which is expressing more than just God saying he is for us like a football fan is sitting in the stands cheering on his team because he is for that particular team.  In this idiom the fan is actually jumping out of the stands, suiting up and getting on the playing field and call the shots.  He becomes the team captain, player-coach.

Thus if the enemy gives you a hard time, you simply say: “Take it up with my team captain.”  If the enemy does not retreat they will be confronted with  “our God” who will say: “It might be in your best interest to leave the little guy alone.”   

When confronting a spiritual enemy, we must remember our acts of diplomacy means nothing, it is Jesus, our “big club,”  that will ensure our ultimate victory.

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