David took off running. Fellow Israelis revealed his hiding place to King Saul and David barely escaped. Saul tightened the noose, but at the last minute a crisis called him away. A close call brought on by the treachery of David’s once trusted neighbors.

David never forgot his betrayers. Even though they were of his own tribe, he called them strangers, ruthless, people without regard for God. David prayed, Let evil recoil on those who slander me; in your faithfulness destroy them.

There’s a boomerang effect to sin. What goes around comes around. David prayed for such action on those who double-crossed him and his men.

It’s an appropriate prayer today. Let the corruption of people who promote evil bubble up and burn them, may their wickedness blow back into their faces. I think of the vicious and profane King Herod who because he did not give praise to God, an angel of the Lord struck him down, and he was eaten by worms and died.

What goes around comes around. We should pray for our enemies, that those who commit evil would find Jesus and repent. But following the example of David, we can also pray that they would reap the results of their dishonorable acts and experience the recoil of their evil.

Psalm 54 & Acts 12 in Through the Bible in 2024

Photo by Dmitry Bukhantsov