Today's meditation
Enemies and adversaries
Psalm 3: Lord, how many adversaries I have! How many there are who rise up against me! How many there are who say, “There is no help for him in God.” But you, O Lord, are a shield about me…the one who lifts up my head.
Sometimes when I play golf, a player apologizes for doing something distracting. I reassure them that all of my distractions are internal due to the mental dimension of the game. It’s the beauty and burden of golf: that the game is played as much in the mind as on the course.
I feel the same way when I read in Psalm 3 about “adversaries.” Certainly I see other people—particularly in political power—as obstacles to happiness, but they are not personal ‘adversaries.’ I don’t think of other human beings as “enemies,” either, but that view doesn’t mean I’m without struggle. I battle with regrets over things done and left undone. I debate internally about the best decision in a difficult situation. I wonder how the world—created and governed by God—has gone so severely off the rails.
How can God help us when our ‘enemies’ and ‘adversaries’ are not all around us, but within us? God can give us peace within our hearts when we know that the things and people troubling us are mortal, while God is eternal. God can reassure us in our souls that we are protected in a way which cannot be stolen from us by other human beings.
God can quiet our adversaries: those around us and those within us.
Psalms 1, 2; Micah 7:1-7; Acts 26:1-23; Luke 8:26-39
Copyright 2026 by Carol Mead. For noncommercial use and sharing only. For more information on this ministry, and on a free subscription to these meditations, please contact the author by email (thenewmead@yahoo.com).
Sometimes when I play golf, a player apologizes for doing something distracting. I reassure them that all of my distractions are internal due to the mental dimension of the game. It’s the beauty and burden of golf: that the game is played as much in the mind as on the course.
I feel the same way when I read in Psalm 3 about “adversaries.” Certainly I see other people—particularly in political power—as obstacles to happiness, but they are not personal ‘adversaries.’ I don’t think of other human beings as “enemies,” either, but that view doesn’t mean I’m without struggle. I battle with regrets over things done and left undone. I debate internally about the best decision in a difficult situation. I wonder how the world—created and governed by God—has gone so severely off the rails.
How can God help us when our ‘enemies’ and ‘adversaries’ are not all around us, but within us? God can give us peace within our hearts when we know that the things and people troubling us are mortal, while God is eternal. God can reassure us in our souls that we are protected in a way which cannot be stolen from us by other human beings.
God can quiet our adversaries: those around us and those within us.
Psalms 1, 2; Micah 7:1-7; Acts 26:1-23; Luke 8:26-39
Copyright 2026 by Carol Mead. For noncommercial use and sharing only. For more information on this ministry, and on a free subscription to these meditations, please contact the author by email (thenewmead@yahoo.com).