Groundless Accusations

“How long will you people ruin my reputation? How long will you make groundless accusations? How long will you continue your lies?”
Psalm 4:2 NLT

How do we rate our personal reputations? Important or not? We live in a world where what people think of us matters. Our reputation is coupled with character traits such as integrity and honesty. So if someone trashes our reputations it can do us a lot of harm. Sadly, today in the UK, if someone goes up to a policeman and makes an accusation against another person, whether it is true or not, then the accused person will often be investigated. Such accusations can be trivial, like the recent real-life situation where a person of one type of skin colour accused another of a different colour, of racism, purely because the second person picked up the last bunch of daffodils in the supermarket. Really? But this actually happened and was recorded as a NCHI (Non Crime Hate Incident) by the police. Today, teachers and social workers, foster carers and many others in professions that interface with children and the public in general have to be very careful to avoid “groundless accusations” and “lies” levelled against them. 

But it was no different in David’s day. As David wrote Psalms 3 and 4 he was dealing with his son Absalom’s rebellion, and false stories fuelled by lies abounded against him, purely to bolster his son’s position. But we shouldn’t be surprised by such events. Jesus Himself was convicted and executed through an illegal court believing lies. The Son of God, sinless and innocent of any crime, suffered the ultimate penalty because of “groundless accusations” and “lies”.

In the end, what really matters to us pilgrims is what God thinks of us, and if we become the focus of false allegations, or lies spread about us, we can of course enter God’s presence and claim that we are innocent (if we are of course!) through God’s grace and mercy. Sadly, many Christians have become the focus of “groundless accusations” because of a lack of wisdom. They have managed to put themselves in situations where they were vulnerable to all sorts of abuse from unscrupulous individuals out to cause trouble to God’s people. But wisdom is ours for the asking (James 1:5) and the Holy Spirit will lead and guide us in the right paths. However, should the unthinkable happen, we can pray as the Psalmist did in Psalm 43:1, “Vindicate me, O God, And plead my cause against an ungodly nation; Oh, deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man!” Deliverance will come, as surely as night follows day.

Dear Father God. You know what is within us, and You will deliver us from evil people. Please help us live lives of honesty and integrity and grant us the wisdom we need every day of our lives. In Jesus’ name. Amen.