"Constraint"

"For they speak not peace: but they devise deceitful matters against them that are quite in the land." (Psalms 35:20) When it comes to peace, real peace has borders with a layer of protection to surround you from feeling threatened by anything or anyone; real peace is knowing that nothing can harm you, nor take away that which you care about the most. That kind of peace is only available through Jesus Christ; who not only has given us new life, but has promised that no one can pluck us from His hand; and just in case we might doubt His ability in the slightest sense, He has assured us that we are also in His Father's hand, and no one can pluck us from His Father's hand either; for Jesus and the Father are one. (John 10:27-30) To take any action which might poke holes in that layer of protection, is to try and make that assurance of protection to be limited in some way or another; which is to say, Yes, Jesus promised that for His sheep, but His sheep would not do this or that, and they surely would not hang around with them. Interesting how that plays out in so many areas; not just with David, who had gathered together an army of misfits, almost like a 1060 BC form of a Robin Hood; but with Jesus Himself, who was known for hanging around with sinners, and working on the Sabbath, or claiming even to be the Lord of the Sabbath. (Matthew 12:8) Yet, David did not speak out against the king, but was constraint, which is the meaning of the word "quite", as in, "them that are quite in the land"; which also happens to be the charge many times against the church, because those that hold their peace when it comes to matters of social correctness are somehow looked upon as enablers, or to be allowing something to happen by not standing up and fighting for what is right. What we really need to be focused on is fighting for our families, and for those that are within our circle of trust or care; if you want to really change the world, then start with you and work outwards; don't try and change what is out there where you have no control. Those that protest and parade their causes are pretty easy to figure out, but those that are constraint, they do not need to prove what it is that they stand for, except to live it out; much as Joshua said to his fellow countrymen in Joshua 24:15, as he said, "And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD."