Psalm 109:20. "May this be the reward of my accusers from the Lord, of those who speak evil against my life." This petition of David's follows a lengthy and very harsh list of the things David hopes happen to his accusers. He asks "May his days be few ... May his children wander about and beg ... Let there be none to extend kindness to him ... He clothed himself with cursing as his cloak, may it soak into his body like water. " (Psalm 109:8-18). These accusers of David's are, he says, "wicked and deceitful" and have been speaking lies of him and besetting him with words of hate. "In return for my love, they accuse me, even as I make prayer for them", he says. (Psalm 109:4)

I have written before, such as in Pray for Conversion, Not Judgment and From An Eye for an Eye to Turn the Other Cheek, about how one major difference between the Old Testament and the New is the law of love Jesus taught us. We are not supposed to wish for harsh punishments such as David describes, not even for our worst enemies. Jesus told us to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. The people David describes as his accusers apparently were people he loved - former friends or family members who have returned his love and prayers with "evil for good and hatred for [his] love." (Psalm 109:5). So David once loved these people, and prayed for them as his friends. The radical change that Jesus made was to tell us to continue loving and praying for people, even after they turn on us and repay our love for them with words of hate and our prayers with curses.

This is so incredibly difficult! So much of us wants to call down God's anger and retribution on people when they hurt us so terribly, and no one can hurt us more than those we love. But Jesus showed us how to do this - He continued constantly praying for those who beat, tortured, and crucified Him, even praying from the Cross for the Father to forgive them, because they knew not what they were doing. And people who act this way usually really don't know what they are doing, not fully, not with a true understanding of the effects and consequences of their actions, or they would not be acting this way.

Notice that David calls these former friends his "accusers." Satan is the accuser, so that label for these people shows that they are under the devil's influence. One of the effects of being under the influence of evil is spiritual blindness, and the only things we can do to wake people up from that are love and prayer. So we must continue to pray and hope for our enemies' conversion and repentance before they die, not wish death upon them while they are still in their sinful state. The reward that we must wish for our accusers is their eternal salvation, because that is what Jesus died to accomplish.