Psalm 94 NKJV O Lord God, to whom vengeance belongs— O God, to whom vengeance belongs, shine forth! 2 Rise up, O Judge of the earth; Render punishment to the proud. 3 Lord, how long will the wicked, How long will the wicked triumph? 4 They utter speech, and speak insolent things; All the workers of iniquity boast in themselves. 5 They break in pieces Your people, O Lord, And afflict Your heritage. 6 They slay the widow and the stranger, And murder the fatherless. 7 Yet they say, “The Lord does not see, Nor does the God of Jacob understand.” 8 Understand, you senseless among the people; And you fools, when will you be wise? 9 He who planted the ear, shall He not hear? He who formed the eye, shall He not see? 10 He who instructs the nations, shall He not correct, He who teaches man knowledge? 11 The Lord knows the thoughts of man, That they are futile. 12 Blessed is the man whom You instruct, O Lord, And teach out of Your law, 13 That You may give him rest from the days of adversity, Until the pit is dug for the wicked. 14 For the Lord will not cast off His people, Nor will He forsake His inheritance. 15 But judgment will return to righteousness, And all the upright in heart will follow it. 16 Who will rise up for me against the evildoers? Who will stand up for me against the workers of iniquity? 17 Unless the Lord had been my help, My soul would soon have settled in silence. 18 If I say, “My foot slips,” Your mercy, O Lord, will hold me up. 19 In the multitude of my anxieties within me, Your comforts delight my soul. 20 Shall the throne of iniquity, which devises evil by law, Have fellowship with You? 21 They gather together against the life of the righteous, And condemn innocent blood. 22 But the Lord has been my defense, And my God the rock of my refuge. 23 He has brought on them their own iniquity, And shall cut them off in their own wickedness; The Lord our God shall cut them off. This was a long psalm to post, but it is important for us to read, especially in these days. We espouse and proclaim the love, grace, and mercy of God, and rightly so. But we would have no frame of reference to understand this love, grace, and mercy were it not for a clear understanding of Gods hatred of sin, His perfect justice, and His clear and unswerving intent to wreak vengeance upon those who unrepentantly work evil. In our sinful self-righteousness, we think that we have a right to retribution against those who have sinned. We dont. Any authority or right in these areas is merely delegated from God, if at all. For instance, the civil magistrate has the authority given by God to punish evildoers. Elders in the church have the authority to use spiritual means to enforce church discipline against those who falsely proclaim Christ, yet refuse to repent for their sin. That is why we must pray for those in authority, that they will judge rightly. But vengeance ultimately belongs with God. The scriptures are clear. The sins enumerated in this psalm are widespread today. Not only among the ISIS terrorists in the middle east, who are simply in training now for exporting their twisted ideology around the world. It is widespread in the west, even in our own land, in our own churches, as we slaughter innocent children to cover our sin. Men abandon their family responsibilities out of selfishness and unwillingness to do the hard things. Instead, they drive their wives, girlfriends, and daughters to the clinics to make the problems go away, denying the further pain and guilt that we are saddling them with. We ignore the plaintive cries of the widow, orphan, and stranger, because we like our ministry work to be clean, and not messy. A very wise elder told me years ago that real ministry is messy. A good marriage takes work to clean up the messes that we carry into the marriage, and the new messes that we create. A good friendship requires love to push through the sin. And so it is with us. Our nation and our churches delude themselves as to their cleanliness, while in reality we are stinking with sin. Why the harsh words? Because all of us need to repent. We need to spend some serious time in self-examination for how we have shown ourselves to be sanitized versions of the ISIS terrorists. Then we can honestly and truly repent, and embrace the love, grace, and mercy of God, to whom belongs vengeance. A vengeance which I personally want no part of. And, praise be to God, a vengeance which was poured out on Christ on my behalf. I pray that it is so for you as well.
Posted on: Thu, 04 Sep 2014 12:54:59 +0000
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