Psalm 94

“O Lord, the God of vengeance,

    O God of vengeance, let your glorious justice shine forth!

 Arise, O judge of the earth.

    Give the proud what they deserve.”

How you respond to these opening lines of Psalm 94 depends on your own personal history, as well as your sense of connectedness to all humanity. I believe John Donne said it best when he wrote No Man Is An Island, which includes the lines, 

“No man is an island,

Entire of itself.

Each man's death diminishes me,

For I am involved in mankind.

Therefore, send not to know for whom the bell tolls,

 It tolls for thee.”

For those who have personally experienced oppression, discrimination or persecution, and for those who hurt for the sins against humanity, the psalmist brings good news. God knows, and in God’s time, justice will prevail.

This is not just an Old Testament theme. In Luke 18:7-8, Jesus affirmed the day of God’s justice is coming, “So don’t you think God will surely give justice to his chosen people who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will grant justice to them quickly! But when the Son of Man returns, how many will he find on the earth who have faith?”

This theme has also been carried forward for all Christians to affirm in the Nicene Creed: “He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end.”

Even so, this psalm presents us with a dilemma. If we believe in the coming of God’s justice, what do we do now? Should we be passive and wait, perhaps not so patiently, for the Lord? Should we be seeking to impose justice and vengeance now? No!

As followers of Christ we are called to be co-laborers with Christ, building today for His coming Kingdom. (1 Corinthians 3:9) However, we need always to be sure we are focusing much more attention on our own sins than we are on the sins of others. The more we seek to make the life in Christ our way of life, the more fruit we will produce for our communities.

In the meantime, always remember:

“But the Lord is my fortress;

    my God is the mighty rock where I hide.”

Psalm 94 22

Sē’lah

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What word or phrase in today’s reading of the Psalms

 attracts your attention?

Reflect on that word or phrase.

What insights come to you?

How does this passage touch your life today?

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

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Reading for August 4, 2012       Psalm 95