AUG. 24: GOD’S RIGHTEOUSNESS

Focal Passage: Psalm 5:1-12

My mother awoke to the sound of my cries in the wee hours of Jan. 1. I don’t remember the exact year, but I remember the reason. I had planned on ringing in the New Year, but I did not last. I later awoke and burst into tears over my failure to enjoy the opening minutes of the New Year. I was old enough to get out of bed and find my parents, but I wanted someone to hear my cries and know my pain. 

As I reflect on that occasion, I chuckle to think about such a silly waste of tears. Yet I know that I cried because I was barely old enough to have my own room, and not old enough to understand the relative insignificance of the event I had missed. 

As an adult, I have cried to God many times over people and events that hurt me. The reasons for my pain may have been just as insignificant from God’s perspective as my inability to stay awake until midnight, but I needed God’s perspective to help me understand.

In Psalm 5, David contrasted His intimate walk with God to the duplicity of his enemies. He described his prayers as sighing and crying lifted to God (Psalm 5:1-2), as pleading his case before God and watching expectantly (Psalm 5:3). 

While he did not state specifically what he watched for, his description of God’s hatred of evildoers and the destruction He brings upon them (Psalm 5:4-6) implies that He was waiting for God to bring judgment upon his adversaries. In fact, in verse 10 he specifically asked God to “Punish them … let them fall by their own schemes … Drive them out.”

Some people react with disdain to the imprecatory Psalms. What about, “Hate the sin, but love the sinner”? The better question is how do we separate sinners from the sins that define their lives? The Bible condemns murderers, thieves, liars, and cheaters because they murder, steal, lie, and cheat! While we clearly want to love all sinners, we must tell them that the righteousness judgment of God will send unrepentant sinners, not their sin, to hell. 

But how can someone who knows God pray such a condemnatory prayer? We cannot with consistency quote, “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem” (Psalm 122:6a) and criticize the imprecatory Psalms. Whether we pray for the peace of Jerusalem or the successful spread of the gospel to the ends of the earth, the answer to those prayers will require either the change of enemy hearts or the crushing of their rebellion. Let us not forget that God in His wisdom has often chosen the latter.  

In the closing verses of Psalm 5, David provided a great example of how to leave judgment in the hands of God. Although he prayed for divine condemnation to fall on his enemies, he concluded the Psalm with a call to worship for everyone who took refuge in the God of Israel. 

Though threats remained, it was (and is) comforting to know that God’s protection is more than enough. Let us be like the believers who welcomed Peter and John after their release from prison (Acts 4:24-31) – content that our righteous God knows the threats of our enemies and consumed with our Great Commission task.  B&R