“Sing
praises to the Lord, who dwells in
Zion.
Declare
his deeds among the peoples.
For he who
avenges blood is mindful of them;
he does
not forget the cry of the afflicted.”
~Psalm 9:11-12 (NRSV)
Nothing is hidden from an all-seeing
and all-knowing God, and for the psalmist, whilst there’s faith to wait and
bring forth a humble lament, there’s also some expectation that God will
finally act—the Divine nature has to.
This psalm—like so many of the
laments—vacillates between calling the Lord
to the harsh wickedness of the enemy and calling for him to reassure the
forlorn afflicted, including the psalmist, David, himself (for instance, verse
13). Their justice is yet coming.
These psalms are so
important. It’s a constant spiritual reality
for Christians that worldly influence (the “nations”) castigates the things of
God.
We will know indifference,
rejection and arrogance for what we proclaim is important. It seems we can at times wait all our lives
for the Lord to “rise up” (verse
19) to defend us, but also to defend the Divine name.
Trusting in God’s Deeds of Old
The first six verses of the psalm
recount by praise the past deeds of God to judge the nations in their
wickedness, whilst establishing and restoring balance within the realm of
humanity.
The psalmist gives thanks with
their “whole heart” (verse 1) because of the inevitable reliability of God to
manifest justice. This is in the context
of recall made of Israel’s
redemptive history.
As we read the Bible, we too can
note that we serve a redemptive God—a Lord
who’s engaged in redemption as much now, and ever, as then.
When Faith’s Tested
It’s a significant thing to place
our faith in God—sometimes venturing into doubt—only to see what we felt was
possibly not going to happen. Faith is
peculiar this way. We hold to our views,
but sometimes against our rationality.
It’s a faith beyond our understanding, as God’s peace is often beyond
understanding (Philippians 4:6-7).
This faith-held doubt is implied
in verses 13-16. It’s this hesitancy
that builds faith,
for how can faith grow if it’s not tested?
Trusting Divine Nature
One thing implicit in the Psalms
is the vote of confidence in God to deliver people for righteousness’ sake, for
it is the Divine nature. This is spelt out
in verses 7-12.
The Divine nature is to judge
(verses 7-8) and we Christians accept that as a reality here and now, and to
come. The enemy doesn’t give such
importance of cognisance to this, however, and they flail the possibilities of
consequences as if there were no God.
What a folly!
Waiting on Justice
Many of us wait entire lifetimes
for the justice our faith holds out for.
As we trust what the Bible tells
us, we can identify with the faith of the psalmist, for what is certain is not
yet real.
Those people and ‘nations’ against
the Lord of Glory will get their comeuppance; our role is to wait and obey the
Lord in the meantime.
© 2012 S. J. Wickham.
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