Oh, that salvation for Israel would come out of Zion! When the Lord restores his people, let Jacob rejoice and Israel be glad! (Psalm 14:7 NIV)
Modern culture has waged a war on the negative. We are told not to entertain negative thoughts because it smuggles a lot of bad things in our lives. Too much brain neurons wasted for a useless endeavor, we hear. New Age guru Shirley Maclain cashes in on this in one of her books, "“Dwelling on the negative simply contributes to its power."
However different people have presented different responses to negativity. One of those responses would be found here and it talks about engaging the negative with the excellencies of God through prayer and other actions of faith.
In arguably the most beloved section of the Bible, the Psalms, contain beautiful verses that uplift the spirit of man. Yet you may be surprised that a good part of how the books Psalms started would dwell in the negative situation of the Psalmist.
Psalm 3 to Psalm 14 is actually a literary unit that dwells on the topic of utmost concern to the Psalmist as the threat of evil men continually hounded him and his kingdom. He talks about this anxiety in vivid details, numerous times. He talks to God about them, asks God to look into them and even demands from God to destroy them. Too negative of an environment for modern man. Too stressful, we'd say. The Psalmist was threatened and he likes to talk about it. Too negative not to put him in silent mode. The focus on the enemy or evil men against the covenant people of God has been the target of this unit. This consumed him. Bothered him. Put him on his knees.
Why?
They wanted him dead. His kingdom destroyed. His properties plundered. His family mocked. His God scorned.
A good number of us these days don't have the exact type of threat and harassment that the Psalmist experienced BUT we have our share (read: a huge portion) of threats and harassments that have similar effect with that of the Psalmist. It could be from relationship, finances, lust, wrong decisions etc. They put us on survival mode and worse, state of paralysis.
The Psalmist fights this off by a faith perspective as exemplified by how this unit closes:
Oh, that salvation for Israel would come out of Zion! When the Lord restores his people, let Jacob rejoice and Israel be glad! (Psalm 14:7 NIV)
This verse and numerous reminders within the unit gives us the vivid hope in times of these bone-crushing negative events. No longer must we pretend that these negatives can affect us but that, yes, they do but they can be overcome. We are to face them BUT face them with the Face of God. Your God is the Redeemer God, not an apathetic idiot. Some say that Redemption is the theme of all themes in Scipture. The "Grand Narrative" if you may. In this Psalms unit, it just may look like it exemplified.
Recall the constant "contrasts" in Psalms 3-14. The Redeemer God contrasts with the oppression of this world. That's practically how we begin to see this unit teach us how to respond to all these negativity: in prayer, contrasting them against your God. This is to be the active affair of the worshiper. The battle begins there. From there you can make actions of faith removing its sin influences in your life like anger, resentment, revenge, etc.
As a prayer example applying the point of this article, here: "Lord, these struggles are STRONG but this suffering does not end in futility but for the greater purpose of glorifying You as my Redeemer, because You are STRONGER. Heap upon my heart the excellencies of Your Being so that my mind will dwell on You and not the assault of these negative things."
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