How to Be Defiant in Spirit

How to Be Defiant in Spirit
Psalm 138

This morning I received a message from a woman who a year ago was attacked and stabbed by a man while she and a friend were hiking in a forest; her friend was killed but she survived because the man mistakenly thought she was dead. She has recently been in court to testify concerning the events; the man was found guilty of the attacks and was sentenced to life imprisonment. People have expressed to her the hope that this judgment would bring her some closure to the experience, but she doubts whether it will. The events were too savage and meaningless, and they are impossible to undo. Her old life has quite gone, and she is not sure who she now is. She is not unhappy that the murderer will not be executed, but she is glad that “God is a righteous judge; he is angry with the wicked every day” (Psalm 7). She does not intend to try to start some new life somewhere other than her home area where the attack happened. There is thus a kind of defiance about her...