As tensions rise and Christians wonder about what the future may hold regarding our participation in society, we are compelled to consider our response. We might pray in our homes and go to churches, but we also engage in the community and face dilemmas in our businesses and organizations that come as direct challenges to our convictions as legislators tell us to respect a definition of marriage that God does not permit. We have heard our leaders proclaim that “love is love” in contradiction to the ultimate truth that God is love. God alone defines love and the reflection of his love in marriage. In the face of the yet unrealized repercussions of this legislation, we are not without biblical guidance as we live in a world that has always sought to tighten its grip around the neck of the church.

The Scriptures give so much wisdom on how we might rightly respond to the feeling of being hemmed in by opposition. The Psalms are so often our point of contact for considering the despairing feelings of opposition. In Psalm 17, David does not give us the exact situation of oppression against him, but he stands before the Lord declaring that it is not of his doing. He, at least in the situation before him, is innocent before God as enemies enclose upon him. Psalm 17:1-4 A Prayer of David. Hear a just cause, O LORD; attend to my cry! Give ear to my prayer from lips free of deceit! 2 From your presence let my vindication come! Let your eyes behold the right! 3 You have tried my heart, you have visited me by night, you have tested me, and you will find nothing; I have purposed that my mouth will not transgress. 4 With regard to the works of man, by the word of your lips I have avoided the ways of the violent. David’s desire is to honor the Lord in the face of opposition. He prays that he might hold fast and not slip away from honoring God.

In the middle of David’s Psalm is the most stunning statement that should give every believer the greatest comfort of all. Psalm 17:6-7 I call upon you, for you will answer me, O God; incline your ear to me; hear my words. 7 Wondrously show your steadfast love, O Savior of those who seek refuge from their adversaries at your right hand. David’s request of God is that he might show his steadfast love for David in a wondrous way. David wants to be reminded of who God is as a God of love. When David talks of God’s steadfast love, he knows what he means. This is the love of God that is eternal and covenantal. It is the love of God that has chosen his elect from before the foundation of the world. It is the love of God that holds his elect for all eternity in his hands. It is the most secure love that any child of God can remember. Whatever is happening and changing around us and whatever threat this brings upon us now or in the future, the child of God is secure in the steadfast love of God proven in God’s faithfulness to his covenant with his people.

For us as New Covenant believers, we have the privilege of looking back at God’s steadfast love in faithfulness to his covenant. We have the historical truth that Jesus has kept a covenant we could never keep and now God’s eternal covenant with his people is kept and secure in His Son. Even if the entire array of legislative change goes against God’s people in this world, God’s steadfast love is not less secure for us. Even if we face the greatest of earthly consequences for our inability to agree with worldly demands, the grasp of God’s steadfast love on us will never let us go and keep us to the final day. Even more, God’s steadfast love for us who believe in the Lord Jesus will keep us secure in the sacrifice of Christ when we stand before his holiness on judgment day.

David does go on in this Psalm to say that God will be the bringer of justice and he can rely on God doing all that is right and good with every enemy before him. As David acknowledges this truth, he also finishes the Psalm with the greatest of encouragement. Psalm 17:15 As for me, I shall behold your face in righteousness; when I awake, I shall be satisfied with your likeness. David will one day rise from the sleep of death and be completely transformed to the likeness of his Saving God. We should sit up and notice this. What is most important to David is not his enemies being defeated, but himself being transformed. This should say something to us. The highest concern and priority for every believer is our delight in God and our ultimate transformation to his perfection. We don’t want that just for us, but we want that for every individual that might be presently against us. That should leave us comforted in the face of legislative tension.

Surely, we see the false idea of respect for a false definition of love from our legislators. David would tell us that when the world says, “love is love,” our steadfast security is in the fact that God is love. God’s steadfast love means that we have no need to fight against and win against the world. God has already done that for us in the cross and he is the great judge who will bring full justice to all who reject His Son. We are compelled to hold on to his love and proclaim its greatest evidence in the cross even to those who oppose us most.