Many are my persecutors and my adversaries, but I do not swerve from your testimonies.
– Psalm 119:157
This is a refrain we hear in the Psalms over and over and over again. Just as Jesus promised everyone who follows him, who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus. 2 Timothy 3:12 says about this: “Will be persecuted, will experience attacks from the adversary and they will come in all kinds of different forms.”
Psalm 119:157 reminds us of our persecuted brothers and sisters.
That’s why verse 157 says, “Many are my persecutors and my adversaries.” He feels surrounded by people who are coming at him, accusing him, working against him. And yet He says, but I do not swerve from your testimonies. He’s holding fast to God’s Word, even in the middle of an onslaught in this world. And I read this, my mind goes in many different directions, but particularly to places in the world where persecution of Christians is fiercest.
We’re actually coming up on International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church. And it’s a reminder to us, not just that we would pray once a year, but that we need to pray continually for our brothers and sisters, our family around the world. I just had a conversation with a brother in northeastern Nigeria who has experienced horrible, horrific, unimaginable persecution. Who has seen and shown me things that were, yeah, I don’t know another word to describe it, it’s horrifying that’s happening to our brothers and sisters in Christ who are being kidnapped, raped, killed.
This is happening to our family, and we have a responsibility. Hebrews 13:3 tells us to remember them like we are with them, like we’re being mistreated or imprisoned or kidnapped or killed alongside them. That’s the picture in Hebrews 13:3. So I want to lead us to pray specifically for our brothers and sisters in Christ where persecution is the fiercest, knowing that as we all follow Jesus, there will be persecutors and adversaries.
Psalm 119:157 encourages us to pray for the persecuted church.
Jesus promised us this, but let’s pray for them they would hold fast to God’s Word. This Nigerian brother, that’s what he kept saying over and over and over again. I love God’s Word. I trust God’s Word. It was Psalm 119:157, “I do not sway from your testimonies, even if it may cost me my life.” And as we pray that for them, let’s pray that for our own lives. That no matter what tactics from the adversary any of us may face, that we would hold fast to God’s Word and not swerve from his testimonies.
Oh God, may it be so. We pray this verse specifically right now over our brothers and sisters in Christ, in Nigeria, North Korea, Somalia, Libya, Eritrea, and Yemen. I think about a story I heard just recently from Yemen, God, we pray for your help for brothers and sisters who are experiencing persecution there, in Pakistan, in Sudan, in Iran, in Afghanistan.
God, we pray uphold them with your righteous right hand. Help them to hold fast to your Word, to not swerve from your testimonies. And in Acts 4 kind of way, speak your Word boldly amidst persecution and adversaries all around God. We pray the book of Acts over them that you would sustain them and strengthen their faith through persecution. And God, we pray that the gospel would spread despite persecution and adversaries.
This verse also reminds us to pray for the persecutors.
Even as we pray this over our own lives, God, to any extent that any of us face persecution or adversaries. People working against us on your account, God, we pray you would help us to hold fast to your Word, to not swerve from your testimonies, to trust in your Word and to keep proclaiming it. Oh God, we pray all of us knowing, especially when we pray for those countries, that there are so many people there who’ve never heard the gospel and the adversary is working to keep them from hearing the gospel. God, we pray that you would bring persecutors to know you, bring adversaries to turn and trust in you. God, we pray for that all across all those countries.
And we pray that you would do what you did in Saul’s life and turn persecutors into proclaimers of the gospel. God, we pray all of this according to your Word in Psalm 119:157, in Jesus’ name, in the name of the one who died on a cross for our sins and rose from the grave in victory over death. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
David Platt serves as a Lead Pastor for McLean Bible Church. He is also the Founder and Chairman of Radical, an organization that helps people follow Jesus and make him known in their neighborhood and all nations.
David received his B.A. from the University of Georgia and M.Div., Th.M., and Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Some of his published works include Radical, Radical Together, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, and Don’t Hold Back.
He lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area with his wife and children.
