Here comes the Judge

DEVOTION

PSALMS

HERE COMES THE JUDGE

Ps 58

58:1 For the director of music. [To the tune of] "Do Not Destroy." Of David. A miktam.

Do you rulers indeed speak justly? Do you judge uprightly among men? 2 No, in your heart you devise injustice, and your hands mete out violence on the earth. 3 Even from birth the wicked go astray; from the womb they are wayward and speak lies. 4 Their venom is like the venom of a snake, like that of a cobra that has stopped its ears, 5 that will not heed the tune of the charmer, however skillful the enchanter may be.

6 Break the teeth in their mouths, O God; tear out, O LORD, the fangs of the lions! 7 Let them vanish like water that flows away; when they draw the bow, let their arrows be blunted. 8 Like a slug melting away as it moves along, like a stillborn child, may they not see the sun.

9 Before your pots can feel [the heat of] the thorns — whether they be green or dry — the wicked will be swept away.   10 The righteous will be glad when they are avenged, when they bathe their feet in the blood of the wicked. 11 Then men will say, "Surely the righteous still are rewarded; surely there is a God who judges the earth."

NIV

This is really a brutal song, first talking how terrible the wicked are and then speaking of the wrath of God being poured out on them. This song starts out with God asking, through David, the questions. Do you rulers indeed speak justly? The answer is, no. Then he asks do you judge uprightly among men? The answer is still, no. He even says it, no, and tells them why. We are then given a picture of how wicked mankind has become. It was like that in the time of Noah and God destroyed them all. Now we are years later with a whole new generation of mankind who are descendants of Noah, although they prefer to call themselves descendants of Abraham. However both Noah and Abraham found favor in the eyes of the Lord because they believed. Noah and his immediate family were the only ones saved while all the rest of mankind perished in the flood. Abraham had faith in God and it was created to him as righteousness. Either of these men would turn over in their grave, to coin a phrase, if they knew how wicked their descendants had become. Once again after seeing all the disarmament of the weapons of the wicked, breaking teeth in their mouths, tearing our fangs, vanishing like water, having their arrows blunted, melting away, even being like a stillborn, we know God will not allow the wicked to stand in the assemble of the righteous. The wicked will be swept away. This has to be in some sense a serendipity moment, much like Noah must have felt. We know we are saved, we are in that ark, although today we call it the cross. We stand safe and secure in Christ, but as we look out on the crowds in this world, we see those who are going to be swept away. We see wicked people all around us. It is not that they do not do some good things in this world, or that they are openly evil doers. But without Christ in a person’s life, God considers them wicked, as we all are from birth. We are born sinners because we are descendants of Adam, we are man and unless we are reborn we remain sinners and will experience the wrath of God, as this song speaks about.  Praise God we have been reborn and we now descendants of Christ, actually brothers and sisters of Jesus, co-heirs with him in the heavenly realms. It sounds rather gruesome that we would be glad because we bathe our feet in the blood of the wicked. That has to be metaphorically speaking. However, the point is we will be glad because we are saved, we are rewarded with eternal life, while the wicked perish because God will judge the earth. The picture is the sheep and the goats, the righteous and the wicked all will stand before Almighty God and be judged. If this judgement were about everything we either did or did not do in this life, we all would perish. But this judgement is about who is in Christ and who is not. Who is in the ark, the cross, and who is standing on the outside, refusing to accept the truth. This sobering thought should cause us to have that same serendipity moment Noah had. We are saved, but we look out among people we know, have contact on a daily basis and they are going to perish because they have not accepted the truth. Should we not speak up, “Here comes the Judge”?