“Evil shall hunt the violent man to overthrow him,” Psalm 140:11
Two incidents amidst the many horrific occurrences that marked the many years of IRA terrorism in Ulster, stay in my mind and brought before me the words of this verse.
* Not far away from Kilskeery, in Drumquin, in 1989, 20 year-old Joseph Connelly was killed when a bomb he was seeking to attach to a police reservist’s car blew up. He was a workmate of the policeman and had helped to build his house. He had even shared his lunchbox.
* Back on 18th Feb 1996, a 22 year-old IRA bomber, Edward O’Brien, blew himself up in a London bus, killed by the premature detonation of his own bomb. He was reaping what he sowed since, it is likely, that he had been involved in another London bombing, ten days previously, when two innocent men were killed. He was what even his own family did not know him to be. His neighbours in Lewisham, in London, where he had come from Wexford to live, did not suspect that he was storing explosives and manufacturing and planting bombs.
* As a boy, I was often warned against the treachery found amongst Irish Republicans. I was told of a raid upon a Protestant farmhouse and the occupants returning fire through the door of their house in their defence.
The next morning, a Roman Catholic neighbour was found lying on their doorstep after being shot the night before. The neighbour was a man with whom the farmer had what he considered cordial relations, the two frequently and freely lending each other various items of farm equipment.
* There are those who would consider the telling to me this story to be but an example of the bigotry in which Ulster Protestantism is steeped. That is not so. There are adequate grounds for such warnings as is demonstrated in the death of Joseph Connelly and Edward O’Brien and many others.
These are but modern versions of the story I heard as a lad. It is a story that has been reenacted many times in Ulster. The death of these two young IRA terrorists at their own hands serves to illustrate the truth of our text. They were hunted and overthrown by the evil that possessed them just as God’s word says.
BUT it is not just terrorists that are being hunted by evil.
I. NOTE THE ASSURANCE WITH WHICH DAVID SPEAKS
“Evil SHALL hunt the violent man.” David was certain that such would be the case.
1. There are matters about which the child of God is sure. “Forasmuch as many have taken in hand to set forth in order a declaration of those things which are most surely believed among us,” Luke 1:1.
“Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ,” Acts 2:36.
2. This certainty is because these things have been divinely revealed in the Bible. God has revealed His will on many matters in His word. “The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law,” Deuteronomy 29:29.
“And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven,” Matthew 16:17. That revealed was the truth that Jesus is “the Christ, the Son of the living God,” verse 16.
3. Furthermore, the certainty stems from David having prayed about the matter. Verse 9-11. Few realise that the prayers of God’s people determine the course of many events. “And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them?” Luke 18:7. “And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held: And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellowservants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled,” Revelation 6:9-11.
II. NOTE OF WHOM IT IS DAVID SPEAKS WITH ASSURANCE
It is the violent. This violence is much more widespread than many imagine. It affects many who would consider themselves the opponents of terrorism. The Hebrew word that is used here is chamac {khaw-mawce’}. How it is employed in God’s word will give us an understanding of its meaning and just who it is that is guilty of the violence referred to in our text.
1. This violence was seen in days of apostasy. “The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. . . . And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth,” Genesis 6:11, 13.
It was a day of wholesale rebellion against God. “And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually,” Genesis 6:5. The same link is seen in Ezekiel 8:17. “Then he said unto me, Hast thou seen this, O son of man? Is it a light thing to the house of Judah that they commit the abominations which they commit here? for they have filled the land with violence, and have returned to provoke me to anger: and, lo, they put the branch to their nose.”
This is a violence closely associated with man’s wicked rejection of the rule and command of God. It is increasingly so today!
2. This violence may be committed in our hearts. Gen 16:5. The despising of Sarai by Hagar, verse 4, was an act of violence. The ‘wrong’ Sarai suffered = violent.
The rejecter of the gospel is guilty of despising Christ. This is what God calls violence. It is showing at least a measure of approval of the crucifying of Christ! “He shall be delivered unto the Gentiles, and shall be mocked, and spitefully entreated, and spitted on,” Luke 18:32 . How rejectors treat Him - “trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?” Hebrews 10:29.
3. This violence may be committed by our lips. “Thou shalt not raise a false report: put not thine hand with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness,” Exodus 23:1 (unrighteous = violence),
“If a false witness rise up against any man to testify against him that which is wrong,” Deut 19:16 (false = violence).
Little is thought of lying today. Yet God considers it a crime of violence. Much violence has been done against Ulster, the Protestant majority and, above all, the gospel, by the lying lips of men. “Deliver me not over unto the will of mine enemies: for false witnesses are risen up against me, and such as breathe out cruelty,” Psalm 27:12. “False witnesses did rise up; they laid to my charge things that I knew not,” Psalm 35:11.
III. NOTE WHAT IT IS OF WHICH DAVID SPEAKS SO ASSUREDLY
“Evil shall hunt the violent man to overthrow him.” The word evil can be translated by a number of words such as hurt, trouble, adversity, affliction and quite a few others. If you would know what follows those who are violent, consider this word.
1. That which will sadden. Gen 40:7. Sorrow will follow the heels of the violent. Hell is a place where there is “weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
2. That which is ill-favoured. Gen 41:3. Leanness is here referred to. Eternal ‘leanness’ of soul and heart is the misery facing the lost sinner - an everlasting hunger and unsatisfied longing!
3. That which will displease. “The LORD heard it; and his anger was kindled; and the fire of the LORD burnt among them, and consumed them that were in the uttermost parts of the camp,” Numbers 11:1.
God was displeased by Israel’s complaining. Misery of mind and heart will ‘hunt’ the sinner who ‘complains’ of the gospel provisions!
4. That which will hurt. Deut 6:22 ‘sore’. Such is the portion of the rejecter of God’s truth and it will end with the sinner being overthrown. “And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal,”Matt 25:46.
Heed the voice of Christ calling you to in mercy to safety and salvation and deliverance from the dread hunter on your heels!