JUNE 2
Psalm 109:4-5, “In return for my love they accuse me, but I give myself to prayer. So they reward me evil for good, and hatred for my love.”
To love freely and give generously without receiving love in return is difficult. But when sincere goodness is repaid with evil, it can feel especially painful and disheartening. This kind of sorrow is not unfamiliar to God’s people. While we don’t know the exact circumstances surrounding Psalm 109, there are many moments in David’s life when his love met with hostility or betrayal. In this psalm, David directed his heartache to God in prayer. He pours out his pain, in honest, vulnerable conversation with the One who judges justly.
Nowhere is this pattern more clearly seen than at the cross. Jesus, who only and always loved—healed, forgave, and spoke truth—was met not with gratitude, but with betrayal, arrest, false accusation, and ultimately crucifixion. Yet He responded not with vengeance but with forgiveness: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34).
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a pastor and theologian during Nazi Germany, is a modern witness to this same truth. His stand against injustice and his efforts to protect others were met with imprisonment and, eventually, execution. Yet he did not allow evil to define his response. From his prison cell, he wrote about grace, forgiveness, and even joy. He understood what it meant to overcome evil with good—not by passivity, but by a courageous love that refused to mirror hate. Like David, Bonhoeffer turned to God with his lament and his trust.
The challenge for us is the same: when our good is met with evil, the natural temptation is to retaliate. But as followers of Christ, we are called to a higher path. “Repay no one evil for evil,” writes the Apostle Paul (Romans 12:17). And again, “Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God” (Romans 12:19). In choosing this path, we do not allow evil to overcome us. Instead, we overcome evil with good (Romans 12:21).
May we, like David, Bonhoeffer, and ultimately Christ, bring our hurt and our hope to God in prayer—and respond not with bitterness, but with the power of overcoming love.
“The more deeply we grow into the psalms and the more often we pray them as our own, the more simple and rich will our prayer become.” — Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Psalms: The Prayer Book of the Bible
Application Questions: When have you experienced good being repaid with evil, and how did you respond? What would it look like to bring that pain to God in honest prayer, like David in Psalm 109?
LookingtoJesus 