After writing that piece on Dafna Meir, a death, a murder that devastated us all, all of us with a human heart, I first turned to Psalm 31.
Insisting as I did that sweeping retribution must be paid, I felt small. I came up short. Said too much. Didn’t say enough. Did I make a difference?
But then, we are all such poor substitutes for our Scriptures, where David writes: “For I have heard the slander of the multitude – terror all around.”
My friend Jeffrey always says: “How did he know?”
King David knew because every word of his is divine brilliance. He’s always up to date. Knows everything that’s coming. From 3,000 years back he remains a step ahead of any event, is first with any late breaking news, and he can be counted on for the golden word or phrase to provide whatever we need at the moment, from comfort to calls for vengeance.
He was no softie, our King David. He was no pushover and he was no Liberal, our King David.
He writes: “Let the wicked ones be shamed, let them be stilled to the grave.”
How did he know to express it so well for the murderer of Dafna Meir and for all the Muslim murderers who come for our people – his people?
Talk like that – and sometimes he is even more direct — would never get him quoted in Haaretz or The New York Times.
He says of Israel’s adversaries: “Destroy them. Destroy them all.” I said that in my column. But not like this.
From Psalm to Psalm, nobody says it like King David.
Listen to this: “The wretched gather against me [and my people]. I know not why…Rescue my soul from their darkness.”
Nor would he be welcome at CNN or the BBC. Maybe Fox. Maybe Rush Limbaugh or maybe Mark Levin.
David was not big on political correctness, nor was he a believer in “loving your enemies.” Personally, I never understood the concept.
Even Christians who are taught to abide by this teaching, like Churchill, must act when it is time to act, even if it means carpet-bombing Dresden.
Yes, love your enemies – until the risk is too great and it is time to stop loving them.
David, this is the Hebrew king who roused himself each midnight to study Torah throughout the night. He was one of the greatest Torah scholars of all time. He united the tribes. He hastened his armies against every foe without regard for “disproportionate response.”
He enlarged Jerusalem and the entire Land without fear of world opinion.
Among his fiercest foes were the Philistines. They were not Palestinians. There were no Palestinians. There was no Palestine. There is no Palestine.
If these newly invented people tested him, he’d know what to do.
He says, “Love the good. Hate evil.” I take that as the 11th Commandment. We are required to hate evil. We are required to exterminate evil.
If we don’t, we plunge ourselves into chaos, which is precisely where we find the world today.
David saw this, too.
“They assemble. They lie in ambush…May they be shamed and humiliated together.”
Did I already say that David was no Liberal?
Have I yet noted that from our greatest king, expect no leniency, no pity toward our destroyers?
But for ourselves do expect comfort for “the orphan and the downtrodden, so that they will no longer be terrified of an earthly mortal. “
I turned to David’s Psalms (as we all do) when I found myself so lacking in my response. David would know what to say. He always does.
I did the old routine we sometimes do, randomly flipping from page to page and wherever I landed, David had the answer, and blissfully so.
Hands clasped behind his back, seemingly lost in thought, my father would walk to shul slowly, reciting. He knew by heart the entire Book of Teillim.
How our fathers did this, I don’t know.
He’d endured his own tormentors as we do now, and from Psalm 35 surely uttered this passage as we do now:
“O Lord, how long will you look on?”
New York-based bestselling American novelist Jack Engelhard writes a regular column for Arutz Sheva. He is the author of the international classic “Indecent Proposal” now followed by the prophetic thriller “The Bathsheba Deadline.” Engelhard is the recipient of the Ben Hecht Award for Literary Excellence. Website: www.jackengelhard.com
Jack EngelhardJack Engelhard’s classic international bestselling novel Indecent Proposal, which later became a worldwide hit movie, has been republished to meet readers’ demands. His other major works include Compulsive: A Novel, his award-winning post-Holocaust Montreal memoir Escape from Mount Moriah, plus Slot Attendant: A Novel About A Novelist. His website: www.jackengelhard.com