Heavenly Devotion: Psalm 58 – “We Want Justice!”

Psalm 58 – We want justice!

(Written by Phillips Koh)

This meditation is on Psalm 58 and the title is “We want justice!”

Tragically, Jewish survivor Kitty Hart and her mother, lost all their extended family members to the gas chambers during World War 2. After the American troops liberated her Auschwitz concentration camp, Kitty was consumed by an inordinate desire for justice and vengeance toward the Germans. But then she realised that doing so would put her at par with the murderous Nazis.

Aghast that King Saul is trying to exterminate him, David, the author of Psalm 58, cries out for justice too (vv. 1-2). He also invokes God to reduce the power of the wicked to harm others (vv. 6-7). Do you and I pray that injustice and unfairness would be minimised in our own country as well?

Next, David employs grotesque language in how evil people should be treated: “the righteous bathe their feet in the blood of the wicked.” (v. 10). So, should we gloat over the fate of the wicked like David? Not really. Here David is just expressing his honest, raw emotion for vengeance to God, rather than a literal wish.

Finally, David finds the resolution to his justice cry by remembering the inexorable law of divine retribution (v. 11). This brings much comfort to David, after being hunted like an animal by King Saul. Likewise do we rest peacefully on this truth that God will execute immediate, delayed, or ultimate justice on all wrongdoings one day?

 

Let’s Read Psalm 58

1 Do you rulers indeed speak justly?
    Do you judge people with equity?
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, spreading 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;
    Lord, tear out the fangs of those lions!
7 Let them vanish like water that flows away;
    when they draw the bow, let their arrows fall short.
8 May they be like a slug that melts away as it moves along,
    like a stillborn child that never sees 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 dip their feet in the blood of the wicked.
11 Then people will say,
    “Surely the righteous still are rewarded;
    surely there is a God who judges the earth.”

 

Let’s Pray,

God, help us to remember that you will set everything right one day. Therefore grant us the patience to wait for the execution of your perfect justice upon all wrong doers. In the Name of Jesus your Son. Amen.

 

 

About the Heavenly Devotion channel

The Heavenly Devotion channel is dedicated to encouraging you to listen to Bible Scriptures and pray with the Scriptures. They are inspired by the call of service as expressed and exemplified by Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 9:12-15. 

 

“For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” (Hebrew 4:12 NKJV)

 

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