One of the great challenges for a follower of Jesus Christ is living in a place of spiritual tension between seeing individuals or representatives of a government involved, even promoting, lies and evil, and wanting them to come to know the Lord. That place of tension is where we are called by God to stand for truth and yet extend mercy to the guilty even as they are living in compliant partnership with darkness. That tension becomes most intense when we try to hold the line of uncompromising love and not allow our faith to be swept away by our emotions. 

When David wrote Psalm 37 it was as if he was writing forward in time to the moment in which we now live. That is the beauty and power of Scripture, it can be used to bring fresh revelation and confirmation to future generations not yet living when its truth was originally penned.

David wrote, “Be still in the presence of the Lord and wait patiently for him to act. Don’t worry about evil people who prosper or fret about their wicked schemes. Stop being angry! Turn from your rage! Do not lose your temper— it only leads to harm. For the wicked will be destroyed, but those who trust in the Lord will possess the land. Soon the wicked will disappear. Though you look for them, they will be gone” (Psalm 37: 7-10).

We can only live in the stillness of God’s presence when we choose to not see ourselves as victims of those who are doing evil. Being still in His presence is not silence or acquiescing to the presence of evil. It simply means no matter the depth of the evil being expressed, it will eventually be removed by God, not our rage, anger, or shallow expressions of human justice that lack mercy.

“The wicked plot against the godly; they snarl at them in defiance. But the Lord just laughs, for he sees their day of judgment coming” (37:12-13). 

Only God can be a righteous judge. While we can use Scripture to determine if the fruit of certain behaviors or a particular worldview represents evil, that discernment is not ours to use as a weapon to cut the guilty off from the possibility of a Damascus Road-like encounter with Jesus that will upset the darkest plans hell has for an individual or a nation.

 “Put on all of God’s armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil” (Ephesians 6:11). When fully attired in our spiritual armor and living in the stillness of God’s presence, we will be prepared, at His command, to speak the truth in love in the face of evil and courageously love our neighbor as ourselves. That kind of spiritual warfare can only be conducted from a place of stillness in God’s presence. Our stillness of heart in the heat of spiritual battle is the greatest threat to the plans of darkness because it reveals where we have ultimately placed our trust.