Slices
Prepare
On this day of reorientation (‘the Lord’s day’, the day of resurrection), take some moments to review the past week and ask God to reset your compass as you spend time with him.
Bible passage
For the director of music. To the tune of ‘Do Not Destroy’. Of David. A miktam.
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 skilful 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.’
Explore
When we look at our broken world, it’s easy for us to lose hope, or for our hearts to become embittered (Psalm 73:2,3). This may particularly be so if you live in a country where the rule of law has broken down, and corruption is rife.
The psalmist describes a society like that (vs 1–5), but he does not fall into despair. Injustice is the fuel he needs for fervent prayer, crying out to God to intervene (vs 6–8). This psalm does express anger, but the prevailing tone is one of confidence in God’s justice: evil will be punished, people guilty of abusing power will be held accountable, righteousness will be rewarded (vs 9–11).
The great Christian leader John Stott used to talk about ‘double listening’, with the Bible in one hand and today’s newspaper in the other. Some of us listen only to our broken world and we are left with anxiety; some of us tend to listen to the Bible but ignore the world and become irrelevant to it. The psalmist’s double listening enables him to address unjust rulers with prophetic courage (vs 1,2), God with honesty and faith (vs 6–8) and the faithful with hope (v 11).
Respond
Talk to God about how things are, how they should be, and how they will be because he judges the earth.
Deeper Bible study
Pray frequently and fervently ‘for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness.’1
Today’s psalm has three sections: denouncement of injustice (vs 1–5); disarming the unjust (vs 6–9); delighting in God’s justice (vs 10,11). David denounces injustice in high places. The problem isn’t weak leaders who are flawed and subject to human frailties, but evil leaders who wilfully misuse their position. These rulers don’t just fail to prevent and punish violence but are themselves perpetrators of violence (vs 1,2). The sequence of ‘heart’ and ‘hands’ portrays premeditated evil: ‘calculated ruthlessness, thought out and meted out … with businesslike efficiency.’2 Lord Acton famously observed that ‘Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely’.3 The snake metaphor signifies that abuse of power, their ‘venom’ (v 4), is deadly; and it is doubly dangerous when rulers silence the voice of their own dulled conscience and grow deaf to reason, ignoring even their own counsellors (vs 4,5).
Cold-blooded evil demands a hot-blooded response! Although David’s plea (vs 6–9) grates on modern sensibilities, it is not a bloodthirsty call for revenge but a passionate plea for disarmament that renders evil rulers impotent: let ‘teeth’ or ‘fangs’ (v 6) be removed to prevent deadly bites, let ill-intentioned ‘arrows’ miss their mark (v 7), let evil plans be ‘stillborn’ (v 8), never coming to fruition. As the unjust are disarmed, the righteous delight in justice restored (vs 10,11). On the battlefield, even soldiers on the right side cannot escape being stained by blood. So, although verse 10 doesn’t advocate vindictive gloating, it does imply that God’s people must fight against all that is unholy. The modern Christian’s call to battle seldom involves physical attack – unlike the case of Phinehas or the Midianite war4 – but it does involve fighting unjust structures and systems and the forces of evil.5
Pray for courage and strength for defenders of justice in your neighbourhood, workplace, or nation.
1 1 Tim 2:2 2 Derek Kidner, TOTC: Psalms 1–72, IVP, 1973, p208 3 Lord Acton (1834-1902) in a letter to Archbishop Mandell Creighton, 5 April 1887 4 See notes for August 18 and 25 5 Eph 6:10–18
Bible in a year
Read the Bible in a year: Proverbs 13,14; Colossians 4
Pray for Scripture Union
SU Honduras hope to restart classes; please pray that they will be granted the necessary authority to give Bible classes to the students in the schools.
