Someone at work has made me a target: the comments, the exclusion, the digs. I am angry all the time and I cannot tell whether to fight back or keep my head down.

“The LORD also will be a refuge for the oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble.”

David wrote out of a life spent being hunted, and the word translated refuge means a high place, a crag out of reach of whoever is chasing you. The psalm insists that God is that for the oppressed, specifically in times of trouble rather than after they are over. This is not a promise that the trouble stops. It is a claim about where you can stand while it is still going on.

“Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord. Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.”

Paul was writing to Christians with no social power in the capital of an empire, so this is not advice from a comfortable chair. Do not avenge yourselves, leave room for God's justice, feed your enemy, overcome evil with good. Notice what he does not say. He never tells you to pretend it is fine or to keep it to yourself. He takes the verdict out of your hands, not the truth out of your mouth.