Psalm 149
Yesterday’s Psalm 148 was all about praise. I didn’t see that I could add much to what the psalmist had already said. I expected today to be more of the same, since we were now at the penultimate psalm in the five closing “Hallelujah” psalms. And sure enough, the psalmist does not disappoint – it’s all of Israel praising the Lord, highlighted by verse 6a: Let the high praises of God be in their throats… Then, surprisingly to me, the psalmist calls forth revenge, retribution, punishment on Israel’s neighbors, beginning with the very next half-verse: …and two-edged swords in their hands, to execute vengeance on the nations and punishments on the peoples, to bind their kings with chains and their nobles with fetters of iron, to execute on them the judgment written! (vv. 6b-10a) What a shock to go from Israel’s praise to God to her vengeance on her enemies!! Put half-verses 6a and 6b together and capture the full flavor of the change in tone: Let the high praises of God be in their throats and two-edged swords in their hands, (v. 6) Quite a change, eh?!!
Might this describe you or me in any way, large or small? In the midst of some success in our lives, do we look back on those who had earlier stood in the way of a raise or a promotion or some other “victory”? Do we then gloat over our success and cast aspersions back to those “enemies”. I’ve had two major occasions for that, major “defeats” in my life where a small number of people stood in the way of “success” in my future. And yes, there were a few people to blame and I was certainly bitter for a time. Even today a tiny edge of that bitterness remains for a few of those people. Thankfully, however, as God has redeemed those “defeats” and I’ve been able to move forward, I’ve looked back and felt sorry for those people who (I feel) were unjustified in creating those hardships in my life. It’s their problem, not mine. My call is to praise God, not to seek evil on what happened years before. And that’s how the psalmist ends today’s reading: Praise the LORD! (v. 10b) We (I) would do well to echo that call.
I think it is important to distinguish between personal grievances — with the associated desire for revenge that can grow into full-blown vendettas — and a general desire for justice. I think the distinction is necessary because we evangelicals seem to be afraid to seek “general justice” because we confuse ourselves with personal scenarios. For instance, someone — perhaps a coworker or family member — may offend me personally, may perhaps even do me real harm. In such a case, as Fred says, I must do my best to forgive that person and pray for them. But other situations do not involve me personally, and in those situations I am (and we are) called to seek justice. I am not called to just stand by and watch as one party is victimized by another. One prime example of that for the year is Putin and his “special military operation” against Ukraine. To my knowledge, I have never once been personally injured by Putin, and I bear him no grudge whatsoever. But I certainly hope — along with the psalmist here — that Putin and his cronies are held accountable for their evil deeds and that they “get theirs” in the end. Justice needs to be done, and only God can bring it about (possibly through military action on the part of Ukraine or other nations). I should not apply my own need to forgive personal offences to “general justice” cases. Instead, I should do everything in my power to see that justice prevails — not revenge for myself, but justice for the downtrodden — trusting that the Lord will ultimately set all things right. And in that trust, knowing that our God is truly a God of justice Who is sovereign over all, I have an opportunity to praise the Lord.
In seeking justice we must indeed be careful to get ourselves out of the way so that we seek true justice, not just revenge for our own satisfaction. And when we do get out of the way, there is no contradiction between praising God and seeking justice. That, I think, is what the psalmist is expressing here.