Ps 55-57 How To Handle Hypocrites

King David feels abandoned by someone. This was the person who was one of the king’s closest and most intimate of friends. To show how close they were, King David said: my close friend in whom I confided would share personal thoughts with each other and walk together in the holy temple of God.

We, too, may have been injured in our hearts by someone we considered our most exclusive of friends, who has suddenly, without cause, become an enemy. They are a hypocrite, saying one thing and doing another…behind our backs. We want retribution, for we feel we are the victim. In our humanness, we might turn to tale-bearing to another, and we might become angry, or we might sink into the pity party mode. Is this the biblical model?

Take a lesson from Jesus as he faced Judas’ kiss. He felt bereft, bereaved, and grief-stricken. Yet “When he was maligned, he did not answer back; when he suffered, he threatened no retaliation, but committed himself to God who judges justly.” [1Peter 2:23]