"Tracks 9 & 10: Sing for Justice! (Psalm 9 & 10)"
This morning we’re gonna be in Psalms 9 & 10, if you have a Bible and want to begin turning there. If you DON’T have a Bible, we’d love to give you one if you visit the Info Bar…
When I was flying home from Guatemala last week, I struck up a conversation with the guy sitting next to me on the plane and asked what brought him to the States. He told me that he lived in Ohio now, but he was originally from Guatemala and had traveled back for the funeral of his father, who was a roadside construction worker who was killed by a drunk driver last week. Apparently the incident was even caught on tape, but by the time this son arrived back in the country, the evidence had been destroyed, and his father’s murderer, a wealthy local businessman, had paid off the police and was let off scot-free.
Stories like that rightfully ANGER us, make us wanna cry out, “That’s not FAIR!” We parents hear our kids exclaim it all the time: “That’s not FAIR!” They’re playing with a toy and another kid steals it right out of their hands; “That’s not FAIR!” Maybe we TRY to help them navigate this injustice, but we CAN’T always, so what do we throw up our hands and SAY?
“I KNOW it’s not fair, Sweetie, but sometimes…” - WHAT? “LIFE’S not fair.”
But here’s what we ought to ADD, parents: “...but it SHOULD be.” Life’s not fair… but it SHOULD be.
God has hard-wired into each of us a deep LONGING for JUSTICE. It is part of our having been made in God’s very own, very GOOD image, because as Isaiah 30:18 declares: “Yahweh is a God of justice”.
We want JUSTICE; we WANT life to BE fair.
“That is NOT fair” was a common refrain throughout my trip last week. Seeing children growing up in abject poverty, a family of four who all share a twin bed so that none of them has to sleep in the DIRT - “That’s not FAIR.”
I asked, “Aren’t there ANY social welfare programs here? Like, if someone is literally STARVING to death…” They said, “Then they come to US, to COMPASSION, to the local CHURCHES. But the government doesn’t offer any help.”
I asked: “Y’all are a DEMOCRACY, right?! How are there NO Guatemalan politicians advocating for raising taxes even a LITTLE on the wealthy to offer SOME kind of relief…”
They said, “Oh, they advocate for it… during the CAMPAIGN. But the minute they step foot in office they are bribed and BOUGHT by the top 1%. And those who are principled enough, who can’t be bought, can be THREATENED… their families’ LIVES…”
So change never happens. Help never comes, for those who need it most. That’s not FAIR.
-
But wait a minute: before we look down our American noses at them, how about a little historical context. Back in the 1950’s, there was a populist uprising in Guatemala by those decrying the corruption and calling for social reform. But the democratically-elected president who started turning things around was quickly overthrown in a coup d’etat orchestrated by - guess WHO? US!! The U.S.! It turns out we wanted cheap fruit FROM Guatemala more than we wanted progress & justice FOR Guatemala. So we helped prop up another oppressive dictator instead. “That’s not FAIR!”
But let’s bring it even CLOSER to home now; we don’t have to look outside our borders or back into the annals of HISTORY for instances of injustice, do we?
Unless something changes in the next 10 years, I’m gonna have a have a conversation with my son, Elijah, that I WON’T have to have with either of my OTHER two kids - Ellery or Bo - when he starts DRIVING. Because unfortunately “driving while black” is still an unwritten CRIME in certain neighborhoods today. “That’s not FAIR.”
If you pull out your phone right now and ask Google for “pregnancy help”, the top search results that pop up (when I tested it last week) are Planned Parenthood and the National Abortion Federation. Their algorithm is BIASED against pro-LIFE resource centers - “That’s not FAIR!”. Not for organizations like ThriVe, who we partner with, but most tragically, not for UNBORN BABIES. So the Bible calls us - Proverbs 31:8 - to “Speak UP for those who cannot speak for themselves; ensure justice for those being crushed.” (NLT)
And that’s what Psalms 9 & 10 for this morning are all about: JUSTICE. Actually, not so much OUR pursuit of justice, as our confident TRUST in the LORD’S justice.
How do we, as Christians, RESPOND when we encounter these kinds of injustices all around us in this fallen world?
Well, we SHOULD speak up… and STAND up, and ACT, and we’ll touch on THAT some this morning as well. But our FIRST response, before we DO anything ourselves, is to take it to the LORD. We entrust justice to the God whose very “throne is FOUNDED upon justice” - Psalm 89:14 says - the One who “LOVES justice” - Ps 33:5 - “ALL his ways ARE justice” - Deuteronomy 32:4 says - the One who has promised that a day is coming when he WILL execute justice for both the righteous AND for the wicked - Ecclesiastes 3:17 assures us.
“For YAHWEH is a God of justice” (Isa 30:18).
So we’re gonna READ Psalms 9 & 10 together. But before we DO, just a quick word of explanation about my decision to PAIR these 2 psalms together. Many scholars agree that Psalms 9 & 10 belong together as just ONE PSALM, for 4 reasons:
First of all, Psalm 10 is the first psalm since chapters 1 & 2 that doesn’t have a TITLE. Psalm 9 does: “To the choirmaster… A Psalm of DAVID,” but not Psalm 10. Perhaps because they belong TOGETHER.
Second, the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures, combines them into just one psalm, as does the Latin Vulgate, from which the Roman Catholic Bible originated.
Third, as you’ll see this morning, they are similar THEMATICALLY. They BOTH focus on God’s justice. Psalm 9 accentuates our PRAISE of God’s justice while Psalm 10 stresses our PRAYER FOR God’s justice, but we see elements of both praise AND petition in BOTH chapters.
And fourth, and most convincingly I think, in the original Hebrew these two psalms actually “follow an acrostic pattern, [in which] each new stanza begins with the successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet.” (BibleGateway.com)
Kind of like our “ABCs of Salvation” song from VBS this week: “ADMIT you’re a sinner / BELIEVE Jesus is Savior / and CONFESS him as Lord.”
This is the HEBREW version of that - the “Aleph, Bet, Gimels” - of God’s JUSTICE, when you put the two chapters together.
So let’s do it and READ them both now. I invite you to STAND with me… Psalms 9-10:
“To the choirmaster: according to Muth-labben. A Psalm of David.
9:1 I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart;
I will recount all of your wonderful deeds.
2 I will be glad and exult in you;
I will sing praise to your name, O Most High.3 When my enemies turn back,
they stumble and perish before your presence.
4 For you have maintained my just cause;
you have sat on the throne, giving righteous judgment.5 You have rebuked the nations; you have made the wicked perish;
you have blotted out their name forever and ever.
6 The enemy came to an end in everlasting ruins;
their cities you rooted out;
the very memory of them has perished.7 But the Lord sits enthroned forever;
he has established his throne for justice,
8 and he judges the world with righteousness;
he judges the peoples with uprightness.9 The Lord is a stronghold for the oppressed,
a stronghold in times of trouble.
10 And those who know your name put their trust in you,
for you, O Lord, have not forsaken those who seek you.11 Sing praises to the Lord, who sits enthroned in Zion!
Tell among the peoples his deeds!
12 For he who avenges blood is mindful of them;
he does not forget the cry of the afflicted.13 Be gracious to me, O Lord!
See my affliction from those who hate me,
O you who lift me up from the gates of death,
14 that I may recount all your praises,
that in the gates of the daughter of Zion
I may rejoice in your salvation.15 The nations have sunk in the pit that they made;
in the net that they hid, their own foot has been caught.
16 The Lord has made himself known; he has executed judgment;
the wicked are snared in the work of their own hands. Higgaion. Selah17 The wicked shall return to Sheol,
all the nations that forget God.18 For the needy shall not always be forgotten,
and the hope of the poor shall not perish forever.19 Arise, O Lord! Let not man prevail;
let the nations be judged before you!
20 Put them in fear, O Lord!
Let the nations know that they are but men! Selah[And now, ch10, v1] Why, O Lord, do you stand far away?
Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?2 In arrogance the wicked hotly pursue the poor;
let them be caught in the schemes that they have devised.
3 For the wicked boasts of the desires of his soul,
and the one greedy for gain curses and renounces the Lord.
4 In the pride of his face the wicked does not seek him;
all his thoughts are, “There is no God.”
5 His ways prosper at all times;
your judgments are on high, out of his sight;
as for all his foes, he puffs at them.
6 He says in his heart, “I shall not be moved;
throughout all generations I shall not meet adversity.”
7 His mouth is filled with cursing and deceit and oppression;
under his tongue are mischief and iniquity.
8 He sits in ambush in the villages;
in hiding places he murders the innocent.
His eyes stealthily watch for the helpless;
9 he lurks in ambush like a lion in his thicket;
he lurks that he may seize the poor;
he seizes the poor when he draws him into his net.
10 The helpless are crushed, sink down,
and fall by his might.
11 He says in his heart, “God has forgotten,
he has hidden his face, he will never see it.”12 Arise, O Lord; O God, lift up your hand;
forget not the afflicted.
13 Why does the wicked renounce God
and say in his heart, “You will not call to account”?
14 But you do see, for you note mischief and vexation,
that you may take it into your hands;
to you the helpless commits himself;
you have been the helper of the fatherless.
15 Break the arm of the wicked and evildoer;
call his wickedness to account till you find none.16 The Lord is king forever and ever;
the nations perish from his land.
17 O Lord, you hear the desire of the afflicted;
you will strengthen their heart; you will incline your ear
18 to do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed,
so that man who is of the earth may strike terror no more.”[This is the word of the Lord… Seated…]
THREE THINGS these psalms invite us to do, whenever we encounter INJUSTICE in the world:
#1 - for starters, We PRAISE God for the justice he has ALREADY worked. Even as we acknowledge and lament the lingering INJUSTICE around us, we need pause, perceive and PRAISE God for any justice we DO find.
Meeting those impoverished children prompted me to praise God FOR the ministry of Compassion, meeting needs, working for justice, even when corrupt governments FAIL to.
Even as I think about having “the conversation” with Elijah one day, I praise God that by his grace, raising an African American boy in this country today is NOT what it was 10… or 50… or a HUNDRED and 50 years ago. We’ve made progress, praise God!
That’s what David DOES here, as Psalm 9 opens. It’s really the first of the psalms to so explicitly sound this note of PRAISE. So MANY of the psalms - especially towards the END of the book, the culmination of the psalter; the last 5 psalms all begin with words: “PRAISE THE LORD!” - but Psalm 9 here is really the first one that speaks so directly of praising God.
And of ALL the wonderful qualities we can praise God FOR - and other psalms WILL, elsewhere, praise God for his POWER, his CREATION, his SALVATION; his GLORY & GRANDEUR, his SPLENDOR & BEAUTY, his MERCY & LOVE - the list goes on and on. But here, the very FIRST thing God is praised for in ALL the psalter, is his JUSTICE. David writes:
“I will give thanks to the Lord…
I will recount all your wonderful deeds.
I will be glad and exult in you;
I will sing praise.”WHY?? Because, David extols: “you - God - have maintained my just cause; you have sat on the throne, giving righteous judgment.”
And specifically, here, there are TWO groups of people David is DELIGHTED to see God’s righteous judgments executed FOR:
FIRST, David praises God for establishing his justice OVER the WICKED. (9:1-8, 15-17)
He uses different words for them - “my enemies”, “the nations”, “the enemy”, singular, “those who HATE me”, “the wicked” - but they all refer to this same category of people: those who HATE GOD. And because He is a God of justice, those who ALSO, therefore, hate JUSTICE.
Now, that may SOUND like really strong language - to call someone a “God-HATER”, a “justice-HATER” - but consider the language David uses here in his description of them, especially later in ch10; he writes:
“In arrogance the wicked hotly pursue the poor;
His mouth is filled with cursing and deceit and oppression… mischief and iniquity.
He sits in ambush… he murders the innocent.
…The wicked boast… [they are] greedy, [they] renounce the Lord.…All his thoughts are, “There is NO God.”
Now, at first read, this psalm might feel kind of FOREIGN to us, pretty UNRELATABLE. We’re TEMPTED to think: “Well I don’t know anyone like THAT. People who go OUT OF THEIR WAY to PREY on the poor? Pastor, I generally don’t make a habit of hanging out with loan sharks and predatory lenders. Or folks who RENOUNCE the Lord; God-HATERS, as you call them.” You may have a few atheist friends who believe “There is no God”, and ALL of us know MANY folks who, practically speaking, LIVE like “there is no God” - they are “functional atheists”, who live their LIVES as though there is NOT a God before whom, the Bible says, we must all one day APPEAR to give an ACCOUNT of “every deed done in the body, whether good or evil” (2 Cor 5:10); MOST people don’t actually LIVE like that’s true.
“But STILL,” you might point out, “Psalm 10:4 seems to refer to people who don’t just THINK there’s no God… who don’t just ACT like there’s no God… but who actually WANT there to be no God, because they WANT to live their life however they please, FREE of any eternal consequences. As atheist Thomas Nagel famously put it: “It isn’t just that I don’t believe in God... It’s that I hope there is no God! I don’t want there to be a God; I don’t want the universe to be like that.” No right, no wrong, no rules for me; I’m FREE!
THAT’s the kind of “God-renouncer” David is invoking God’s JUSTICE upon here. But do we really KNOW anyone like that? LOVERS of wickedness?
It is TELLING that the apostle PAUL, in the NEW Testament, Romans ch3 (v14), QUOTES Psalm 10 here in his explanation of why ALL of us need a Savior, because NONE of us is truly righteous, “no, not one”. We have ALL “turned aside” to wickedness; “there is no fear of God” before our eyes (3:10-18).
Let’s be honest this morning: we ALL love wickedness a LITTLE, don’t we? A little GOSSIP, a little GREED, a little LUST.
You say, “But mine is a victimless crime, a victimless SIN” - I wonder if there is really any such thing. Think of the most MINOR example you can - maybe a “white lie”; “Does this dress make me look FAT?”
Aren’t you ROBBING her of the TRUTH? Hey, we learned that at VBS this week; “speak the truth in LOVE” - “Honey, I LOVE… how FAT you look… some meat on the bone”.
There is no such thing as a victimless crime. And even if we don’t always love wickedness, per se, we sure love its FRUIT, don’t we? Literally, sometimes; we love those cheap Guatemalan bananas. That cheap, delicious coffee - I saw how they GROW it; there’s a REASON they don’t really HAVE a minimum wage in Guatemala. Speaking of coffee, we may hate abortion, but we love our Starbucks, and we’ll turn a blind eye when they start paying for employees to cross state lines to GET abortions.
Anyone still think you’re innocent? NO blood on YOUR hands? The Bible says, “NO ONE is innocent! Good, righteous - no not ONE!” We are ALL complicit in the injustice, and we ALL need a SAVIOR.
And praise GOD, friends: he has SENT one! For though “we have ALL sinned and fallen SHORT of the glory of God, the righteousness of God is now available to us “through FAITH in Jesus Christ for ALL who [simply] BELIEVE” (Rom 3:22-23). You and I can have ALL of our sins - all of OUR injustices - completely and eternally FORGIVEN if we will just FOLLOW the “ABCs” - ADMIT your sin (that you really DO have blood on your hands), BELIEVE that God sent his Son Jesus to die the death that you deserved on the cross to pay the JUST PENALTY of your sin - God executed JUSTICE AGAINST the wicked - namely, YOU… ME… - when he put his own SON to death in our place on that cross, such that now if we will ADMIT our sin, and BELIEVE in Jesus as SAVIOR, and lastly: CONFESS him as our LORD - Jesus said, “Look, I’m not interested in merely being your “Get Out of Hell FREE Card”; I’m not just some BOX you get to check on a doctrine quiz; I WILL be your LORD, your MASTER; I am GOD; I don’t RIDE shotgun; I WILL captain your ship, I WILL call the shots, I WILL be the Lord of your LIFE, or I won’t be in it AT ALL.” Jesus said, “If you’re not willing to DIE to your SELF, to your OLD life, to YOU being in charge, in order to give ME a shot at it instead, then you’re not worthy to follow me.”
But friends, I can assure you and IMPLORE you this morning: life is so much better when you surrender it to JESUS as LORD. When you let HIM be in charge. He alone is able, and he alone is WORTHY. Admit, Believe, and CONFESS.
Because if you REFUSE to, be forewarned: one day, God WILL execute his justice OVER the wicked. David PRAISES God:
“You rebuke the nations; you have made the wicked perish; blotted out their name forever… everlasting ruins… ROOTED out… the wicked are snared in the work of their own hands [and they] shall return to Sheol,” the OT, pre-Jesus equivalent of HELL.
And God is to be PRAISED for it. This is a really HARD but really TRUE biblical reality. Just last week, Ellery was asking me why the Bible tells us to look FORWARD to Christ’s return, and to pray, “Come, Lord Jesus”, if it’s gonna be so BLOODY when he DOES. She said, “It’s gonna be so SAD to watch all those people who REJECTED God get PUNISHED”. And I got to share the GOOD news with her that “On THAT day, Sweety, you will WORSHIP God for his JUSTICE. You will REJOICE as God exacts VENGEANCE over his enemies.”
That might be a hard truth for some of us to swallow this morning. It’s probably not very “strategic” of me to MENTION it, with so many of you VBS visitors here joining us, ALL of whom we would LOVE to have come back and worship with us AGAIN; preaching about HELL and God’s JUDGMENT of those who REJECT Jesus doesn’t pack the pews. “Oh, they’re one of THOSE churches; fire and brimstone” - Jesus talked about Hell more than anyone in the Bible, and we LOVE to talk about JESUS here, so if that is off-putting, then YES, cards on the table: this is probably not the place for you.
But just in case this IS the last time some of you will ever join us, please please PLEASE don’t leave here without hearing the GOOD news of the gospel: that WHILE you and I were yet sinners - wicked, rebels, rejectors, ENEMIES of God - Christ Jesus DIED for us. And you can be FORGIVEN this morning: if you admit, believe, and confess.
But SECOND, not ONLY does David praise God for executing his justice OVER the wicked, he also praises God for establishing his justice FOR the OPPRESSED. (9:9-12, 18)
V9: “YHWH is a stronghold for the oppressed… in times of trouble.”
So David invites us in v11 to “Sing praises to the Lord… For he who avenges blood is mindful of [the oppressed]; he does not forget the cry of the afflicted… [v18:] the needy shall not always be forgotten, and the hope of the poor shall not perish forever.”We see this all OVER the place in God’s word - WAY too many references to mention, much less READ, much less EXPOSIT; I actually started compiling a LIST of Scripture passages where we see God’s concern, His compassion, His special CARE for the POOR, the OPPRESSED, the AFFLICTED, for the VICTIMS of the wicked, the most VULNERABLE in society - for WIDOWS & ORPHANS - the MARGINALIZED, the powerless… but I had to stop at just over FIFTY because the list just kept going; I searched online and discovered there are actually over 2,000 verses in the Bible detailing God’s love for the oppressed, so eventually I just gave up, around FIFTY. (https://sojo.net/list-some-more-2000verses-scripture-poverty-and-justice).
But I DID leave my list in my sermon manuscript that’ll get posted online tomorrow, just in case you wanna fact-check me on it; in case you’re worried I’ve gone “WOKE”. You can take it up with GOD; HE is the one who is OBSESSED with the oppressed.
(Ex 22:21-27; Lev 19:9-10; 23:22; 25:35; Dt 10:18; 15:7-8, 10-11; 24:17-21; 26:12-13; 27:19; 1 Sam 2:8; Job 34:28; Ps 12:5; 35:10; 40:17; 41:1; 68:5; 82:3; 113:7; 140:12; 146:7-10; Prov 14:31; 17:5; 19:17; 21:13; 22:9, 22-23; 28:27; 31:8-9; Isa 1:17, 21-23; 10:1-3; 25:4; 58:6-7, 10; Jer 5:28; 22:3, 16; Ezek 16:49; Am 8:6; Zech 7:10; Matt 5:42; 19:21; 25:31-46; Lk 3:11; 4:18; 6:20-22; 14:14; Jam 1:27; 2:15-16; 5:1-6; 1 Jn 3:17; et al).
So the only question I want to ask is: “Are WE?”
GOD is obsessed with the oppressed… Church: are WE?
As I look at the evangelical church in America today, I can’t help but wonder if in our obsession with doctrinal PURITY… theological orthodoxy - which is of course VITAL - but whether it’s our emphasis on BELIEFS to the EXCLUSION of a corresponding emphasis on ACTIONS - Jesus said “you will KNOW a tree by its FRUIT”; he said, “By THIS all people will KNOW that you belong to me: by your LOVE” (Jn 13:35); not our BELIEFS, but our ACTIONS - or whether it’s our FEAR that a love for JUSTICE today might somehow get confused and conflated with the WORLD’S version of “social justice” and activism for all the WRONG causes… but whatever the reason, I’m just not sure there’s enough EVIDENCE to convict us today of being OBSESSED with the OPPRESSED.
Not while there are STILL millions of children living in poverty all around the world, still in desperate need of sponsorship.
Not while there are still THOUSANDS of kids stuck in the foster care system, right here at HOME.
Not while babies are still murdered in the womb, on our watch.
Not while so many who battle HOMELESSNESS still lack adequate access to addiction and mental health resources.
Not while there are still an estimated 40.3 MILLION people trapped in slavery today; did you know there are more SLAVES today than at ANY time in the history of the WORLD. (https://theexodusroad.com/)
The list, once again, goes on and on - of all the INJUSTICES out there, the categories of “the oppressed” God is calling US to help, to speak up, and STEP up, and ACT. The question is: WILL we?
We may not be able to help them all, but we can ALL do our part to help. How is God calling YOU individually, calling US collectively, as a CHURCH, to ACTION?
#2 - We not only PRAISE God for his justice; we also PRAY FOR God’s justice. (9:13-14; 9:19-10:15)
See, you don’t have to roll up your sleeves and join the fight for justice for very long before you realize that ALL of those causes I just mentioned - poverty, abortion, widows & orphans, homelessness, slavery… and the DOZENS of others we could add to the list: they’re all just WAY out of our PAY-grade! You and I are completely out of our DEPTH. Without GOD’s help, we might as well be spitting in the ocean. Therefore we PRAY for God’s help!
Like DAVID here, whose prayer was PERSONAL: “Be gracious to ME, O Lord! See my affliction… lift me up from the gates of death”.But then David WIDENS the scope of his prayer in v19: “Arise, O Lord! …Let the nations be judged before you!”
Similarly in ch10, David pleads: “Arise, O Lord… lift up your hand; forget not the afflicted… Break the arm of the wicked and evildoer”.
There is SO much more that could be SAID here, and - God willing - we’ll get to examine LOTS of other “psalms of justice” together, especially many of the LATER psalms, when we pick this series back up in the years to come, but for now, since we’re short on time, I’ll just challenge us again, but also hopefully ENCOURAGE us, EXHORT us, with the same question we just ended point #1 with: “If God is calling us not only to pursue justice ourselves, but to PRAY FOR it, that HE - GOD - would act, that GOD would “judge righteously”, that GOD would COMFORT the afflicted but AFFLICT the comfortable… if we’re supposed to PRAY for that… ARE we? Are we PRAYING? How often do we pray for the oppressed? Or pray for God’s judgment on their oppress-ORS?
West Hills: may we be a PRAYING people. Cuz here’s the thing, part of the BEAUTY in God’s design for our prayers, is you can only PRAY for GOD to do something for so long before you start to wonder if maybe He’s actually calling YOU to do it, as the hands and feet of Jesus, empowered by His SPIRIT, to CARRY OUT God’s will here on earth as it is in heaven. It’s like that great quote: “Sometimes I’d like to ask God why he allows injustice when he could just DO something about it. But I’m afraid he would ask ME the same question” (Brandon Hatmaker). That’s part of why God has LEFT us here, by the way, even after we’re SAVED; God doesn’t just rapture us up to heaven the minute we admit, believe and confess. He leaves us here to BE his hands and feet. To work His justice THROUGH us. And by the way: we can’t conclude a sermon on justice without mentioning the single GREATEST injustice in our world today: the inequality of access to the GOSPEL. 43% of the world’s population today will be born, live their entire lives, and DIE, without ever even hearing the good news about how they can be forgiven of their sins, without EVER hearing about JESUS! Church: “That’s not FAIR”! It’s not fair that 43% of the world doesn’t know Jesus simply because of where they were BORN. And if we spent even HALF as much on global missions to the unreached as we do on our STARBUCKS, we could all but finish the Great Commission within a GENERATION.
May we be BOTH a praying AND a PRACTICING church; let’s practice what we preach and pray.
Lastly, #3 - We PRAISE God for the justice he has ALREADY worked, we PRAY for God to work justice where he HASN’T yet, but thirdly, We PATIENTLY AWAIT God’s justice until it comes. (10:16-18)
David is still living very much in the MIDST of injustice here at the end of ch10; he has just PRAYED for God to “Arise, REMEMBER the afflicted, PUNISH the wicked…”
And yet listen to how CONFIDENT David is that God WILL bring his justice to bear - maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow - but in His OWN good and sovereign timing, David still trusts that God WILL act:
“The Lord IS king forever… the nations perish from his land.
17 O Lord, you hear… the afflicted; you will strengthen their heart; you will incline your ear to do justice.”And friends, we too can PRAISE God where we see his justice already at work, we PRAY for God’s justice to be established where we DON’T yet see it at work, and until he ANSWERS that prayer, we PATIENTLY AWAIT God’s justice, trusting that one day he WILL right EVERY wrong, and wipe every tear…