David Perdue is a U.S. senator from Georgia.
I don’t know much about him, other than he’s a Republican and — perhaps because he’s a Southern Republican — he’s probably quite conservative and devout in his faith.
He spoke today to the Faith and FreedomĀ Coalition conference in which he was talking about how we should pray for those in leadership. He mentioned the president, Barack Obama.
“We should pray for the president,” Sen. Perdue said.
Then he mentioned an Old Testament passage to illustrate his point.
“May his days be few,” Perdue said in quoting Psalms 109:8, drawing some cheers and applause from the GOP-friendly audience. It’s a nice passage and, taken by itself, has a light-hearted political twinge to it, which is one of the more fascinating elements of the Bible; one can put many passages into whatever secular context you want.
But wait! This particular Psalm says much more. Here’s what verses 9 through 12 tell us:
“May his children be fatherless and his wife a widow.
“May his children wander about and beg, seeking food far from the ruins they inhabit!
“May the creditor seize all that he has; may strangers plunder the fruits of his toil.
“Let there be none to extend kindness to him, nor any to pity his fatherless children.”
Hmmm. It kind of loses its light-heartedness. Yes?