Read: Psalm 5

But let all who take refuge in you be glad; let them ever sing for joy. Spread your protection over them, that those who love your name may rejoice in you.
-Psalm 5:11

Years ago, a manager to whom I reported in my Silicon Valley job told me something that seemed odd at the time. “Your problem is that you don’t have any enemies,” he said. While I’ll certainly cop to the charge that my insecurities have tended to make me a “people pleaser,” I also have to confess that never in my life have I held the conviction that anyone ever woke up in the morning with the sole intent of making my life miserable. As a consequence, I have a difficult time relating to the psalmist’s frequent diatribes against their perceived foes. Still, just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they ain’t out to get you — I’ve just never believed that anyone who thought ill of me was a greater risk to my spiritual well-being than my own desire for retribution.

Lord, in knowing that “you are not a God who is pleased with wickedness,” and that “the arrogant cannot stand in your presence,” help me be ever mindful of the enemy that lurks within, and that my best protection remains, as the psalmist sings, “the shield of your righteousness.” Amen.
-Michael Boss