Psalms for Turbulent Times - Psalm 63: I will praise you as long as I live

Psalm 63[1]

¹  O God, you are my God, I seek you, my soul thirsts for you;
   my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
²  So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary,
   beholding your power and glory.
³  Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you.
⁴  So I will bless you as long as I live;
   I will lift up my hands and call on your name.
⁵  My soul is satisfied as with a rich feast,
   and my mouth praises you with joyful lips
⁶   when I think of you on my bed,
    and meditate on you in the watches of the night;
⁷   for you have been my help,
    and in the shadow of your wings I sing for joy.
⁸   My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me.
⁹   But those who seek to destroy my life
    shall go down into the depths of the earth;
¹⁰  they shall be given over to the power of the sword,
    they shall be prey for jackals.
¹¹  But the king shall rejoice in God; all who swear by him shall exult,
    for the mouths of liars will be stopped.

Psalm 63[2] 
¹ O God of my life, I’m lovesick for you in this weary wilderness. I thirst with the deepest longings to love you more, with cravings in my heart that can’t be described. Such yearning grips my soul for you, my God!

² I’m energized every time I enter your heavenly sanctuary to seek more of your power and drink in more of your glory. ³ For your tender mercies mean more to me than life itself. How I love and praise you, God! ⁴ Daily I will worship you passionately and with all my heart. My arms will wave to you like banners of praise. ⁵ I overflow with praise when I come before you, for the anointing of your presence satisfies me like nothing else. You are such a rich banquet of pleasure to my soul. ^6–7 I lie awake each night thinking of you and reflecting on how you help me like a father. I sing through the night under your splendour-shadow, offering up to you my songs of delight and joy! ⁸ With passion I pursue and cling to you. Because I feel your grip on my life, I keep my soul close to your heart.

⁹ Those who plot to destroy me shall descend into the darkness of hell. ¹⁰ They will be consumed by their own evil and become nothing more than dust under our feet (or food for foxes). ¹¹ These liars will be silenced forever! But with the anointing of a king I will dance and rejoice along with all his lovers who trust in him.

Today is Pentecost Sunday. It is the day the Christian church across the globe remembers her birth. For it is on this Sunday, 10 days after Jesus’ ascension – when he moved from this much-loved planet to carry on his work from home in heaven – that the group of frightened and fearful disciples huddled in isolation in their upper room were transformed into brave, passionate and outspoken witnesses to Christ. All this because of the power and gift of the Holy Spirit. This was God’s initiative, not theirs.

And so it is for us today. In our weakness and need, in our hunger and thirst for justice, in our deepening realisation of dependence upon God in this time of pandemic, we too can open ourselves to God’s generous overflowing initiative. We too can receive this lavish unending gift of a loving companion, an advocate alongside us, a passionate comforter. Psalm 63 is one of these hope-filled prayers of faith that can give us the language to open us up to God’s gift. The psalmist’s heartfelt desire for God is clear. This is a faithful person whose open mouth – full of praise (vs3 & 5), thirsty (vs1) and hungry (vs5) for God – is contrasted with the person of lies and falsehood, whose mouth will be stopped (vs11) by God.

Today is the day we remember how the tongues of fire, signifying the gift of God’s Holy Spirit to the disciples (Acts 2.1-21), also gave those passionate apprentices of Jesus the ability to speak in many tongues to a large multi-national crowd gathered in Jerusalem for the Feast of Pentecost.

You will notice that I am offering up two translations of the psalm today. One is the more familiar New Revised Standard Version. The other is from a relatively new version called The Passion Translation. 

Here is the ethos that lies behind this fresh approach: ‘Since every translation interposes a fallible human interpretation between the reader and an infallible text, a translation can be a problem. However, the problem is solved when we seek to transfer meaning and not merely words from the original text to the receptor language. That’s the governing philosophy behind The Passion Translation: to transfer the essential meaning of God’s original message found in the biblical languages to modern English. We believe that the essential meaning of a passage should take priority over the literal form of the original words, while still ensuring the essence of those words is conveyed, so that every English speaker can clearly and naturally encounter the heart of God through his message of truth and love. The Passion Translation is an essential equivalence translation. TPT maintains the essential form and essential function of the original words. It is a meaning-for-meaning translation, translating the essence of God’s original message and heart into modern English.’[3]

This morning I awoke with the cry on my lips: ‘Help me God.’ I was gripped with a deep yearning for God’s presence. Desolation overwhelmed me as I awoke to this Pentecost Sunday of pent up anger (especially identifying with the profound pain of African Americans, but also BAME brothers and sisters here) and weariness as we enter another week of pandemic life. ‘Help me God’ is all I can utter. And then, turning to this psalm, that deep tap-root of hope which is one of God’s best gifts, began to reconnect me to the drink and food of God. Trust began to rise in my being, like sap pulling the goodness of the roots into the trunk and branches of a tree.

The Passion Translation brings to us that sense of the passionate love of God for us: the one who nourishes us, knows our yearnings, energises us in our weariness, takes a grip of us in our ennui and gives us the passion to pursue God. It gives a Spirit-filled language for a Pentecost people. May we find the pent-up fears and worries of this age transformed by the Pentecost experience of all those whose mouths are opened by praise. And may God indeed close the mouths of all those who lie, who terrify, who harm and whose narcistic tendencies in powerful places are causing such danger to this world. May something incredible yet happen to silence a particular presidential person.

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[1] New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)
New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

² The Passion Translation (TPT) The Passion Translation®. Copyright © 2017 by BroadStreet Publishing® Group, LLC.Used by permission. All rights reserved. thePassionTranslation.com
[3] https://www.thepassiontranslation.com/translation-philosophy/

Psalms for Turbulent Times - Psalm 62 - I can't breathe

A mural of George Floyd, a 46-year-old African American man who died while being arrested by a police officer whose knee squeezed down on his neck for more than eight minutes.

Psalm 62[1]

¹    For God alone my soul waits in silence; from him comes my salvation.
²     He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall never be shaken.
³     How long will you assail a person, will you batter your victim, all of you,       
       as you would a leaning wall, a tottering fence?
⁴     Their only plan is to bring down a person of prominence.       
       They take pleasure in falsehood;
       they bless with their mouths, but inwardly they curse.                            Selah
⁵     For God alone my soul waits in silence, for my hope is from him.
⁶      He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be shaken.
⁷      On God rests my deliverance and my honour;
       my mighty rock, my refuge is in God.
⁸     Trust in him at all times, O people;       
       pour out your heart before him; God is a refuge for us.                            Selah
⁹    Those of low estate are but a breath, those of high estate are a delusion;
       in the balances they go up; they are together lighter than a breath.
¹⁰   Put no confidence in extortion, and set no vain hopes on robbery;        
        if riches increase, do not set your heart on them.
¹¹   Once God has spoken; twice have I heard this:
        that power belongs to God,
¹²    and steadfast love belongs to you, O Lord.
        For you repay to all according to their work.

I am finding it hard to concentrate on this psalm.

For all I can think about is a knee on the neck of a dying man in a Minnesotan street.

For 8 minutes and 40 seconds police officer Derek Chauvin had his knee on the neck of George Floyd. We learn that it  was an allowed form of restraint used by the police of that city and state. Even as the arrested African American pleaded ‘I can’t breathe’ to the white police officer; even as phone cameras of disbelieving bystanders recorded the deadly arrest; even as three other officers held him down, pinning his legs and torso; even as he lost consciousness and stopped speaking for a further two minutes; even then he was jammed face down into the tarmac.

And now many American cities are facing a new kind of lockdown – national guards on the streets, huge protests for justice, intemperate tweets from this lying President, rage and tears, 400 years of ‘tiredness’ and frustration. I am in no position to say anything other than I am ashamed, utterly ashamed. Knees are for kneeling in prayer.

This psalm is not a psalm of rage or complaint. It is a psalm of trust which articulates a willingness to wait for God to act. A singular sense of trust is evoked. The prayer suggests ‘resting’ in silence for God (vs1 and vs5) for God alone is the one who saves us and gives hope. My life, my death, my eternal reality does not depend upon riches (vs10) or status (vs9) or on the assaults of enemies (vs3). It depends only on the nature of God. And God is steadfast and just and will ‘repay all according to their work’ (vs12). Power belongs to God (vs11) and not to powerful men.

It is that last verse, about God repaying all according to their work, that I find most helpful today.

God’s justice is merciful – in that it takes in the full sweep of every human life. When we stand before the Almighty, this is the justice we submit to. But it also takes account of every action.

Here and now, justice is required for George Floyd. And not just him; for each and every one of the thousands of black men and women who have died at the hands of brutal policing tactics. And justice is needed in this life as well as the next for those whose tired and exhausted families and friends have been denied truth for decades. Denied because of cover-ups by the law enforcement agencies and judicial systems.

Has racism increased in our day? Are the police more brutal? Or is it just that racism is being filmed more? Just as violent acts need to be seen – unfortunately – so also does justice need to be seen to be done. Not knee-jerk justice. Just and true justice. Steadfast justice that does not turn a blind eye.

God will not be shaken. And nor should we as we seek justice for George Floyd and all those like him who have been cut down before their time.

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[1] New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)  New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Psalms for Turbulent Times - Psalm 61: Listen to my prayer

Fifteen-year-old Jyoti Kumari, who made headlines in India for cycling 745 miles carrying her disabled father home after the pandemic lockdown forced him out of work

Psalm 61[1]
¹   Hear my cry, O God; listen to my prayer.
²    From the end of the earth I call to you, when my heart is faint.
      Lead me to the rock that is higher than I;
³    for you are my refuge, a strong tower against the enemy.
⁴   Let me abide in your tent forever,      
      find refuge under the shelter of your wings.                                           Selah
⁵    For you, O God, have heard my vows;      
      you have given me the heritage of those who fear your name.
⁶   Prolong the life of the king; may his years endure to all generations!
⁷    May he be enthroned forever before God;      
      appoint steadfast love and faithfulness to watch over him!
⁸   So I will always sing praises to your name, as I pay my vows day after day.

‘From the end of the earth I call to you…’ This is a psalm for all people across the nations and from the ends of the earth. 


It is for people in the global south. People uprooted by climate change. Migrant workers on the road with no work because of Covid-19, desperate to get home but with no funds to do so.

Did you hear of the amazing story of 15-year-old Jyoti Kumari who cycled 745 miles carrying her disabled father home from Delhi after his rickshaw work ended because of the pandemic lockdown?[2] ‘It was a difficult journey,’ she said. ‘The weather was too hot, but we had no choice. I had only one aim in my mind, and that was to reach home.’ There is much, of course, that could be said about the desparation of many millions of poverty-stricken day-workers who have no financial support in these pandemic days. And much that could also be said about the 'romantacism' of poverty and determination which her emblematic story has perpetuated. She has been feted even by Ivanka Trump. But there are millions more who will not make the headlines.

Nonetheless, this is psalm for those whose heart is faint – like Jyoti must have been – and who are with God's help focused, in their desperation, on getting to that place of safety, that refuge, that strong tower, that ‘rock that is higher than I!’


Yet again, the theology of the psalms is very egalitarian, inclusive, open to all-comers. It articulates faith for those who know their need and, as in previous psalms, encourages those who have learned that God’s help is supreme. The ‘rock that is higher than I’ is a metaphor for this faithful God who always reaches to raise up no crush, whose desire is life not death, whose draws out of us a song of praise even when everything seems grim.

This psalm again wakes up in us, who are struggling on the path of life and faith, that simple prayer; a prayer which asks God to listen to us, to attend to us, because we have no other help.

Would you begin your prayers today with that simple cry: ‘Listen to my prayer.’ For here is the first simple step in the well-worn, long road of prayer. Jyoti’s 745-mile journey began with the first turn of the pedal. May this be the first turn of the pedal of prayer for you today. Who might you carry in that journey of prayer?

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[1] New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

[2] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/24/fifteen-year-old-in-india-cycles-745-miles-home-with-disabled-father-on-bike

Psalms for Turbulent Times - Psalm 60: Human help is worthless

Many hands... inside an ITU - how many needed to care for one pandemic victim

Psalm 60[1]

¹     O God, you have rejected us, broken our defences;       
       you have been angry; now restore us!
²     You have caused the land to quake; you have torn it open;      
       repair the cracks in it, for it is tottering.
³     You have made your people suffer hard things;       
       you have given us wine to drink that made us reel.
⁴   You have set up a banner for those who fear you,
      to rally to it out of bowshot.^[a]                                                                                                            Selah
⁵    Give victory with your right hand, and answer us,^[b]      
      so that those whom you love may be rescued.
⁶   God has promised in his sanctuary:^[c]
      ‘With exultation I will divide up Shechem,      
      and portion out the Vale of Succoth.
⁷    Gilead is mine, and Manasseh is mine;      
      Ephraim is my helmet; Judah is my sceptre.
⁸    Moab is my wash-basin; on Edom I hurl my shoe;      
      over Philistia I shout in triumph.’
⁹   Who will bring me to the fortified city? Who will lead me to Edom?
¹⁰ Have you not rejected us, O God? You do not go out, O God, with our armies.
¹¹  O grant us help against the foe, for human help is worthless.
¹²  With God we shall do valiantly; it is he who will tread down our foes.

Who is asking God for help here? Is it a nation or people with a sense of privilege who expect God to act for them come what may? Or is it a poor people with no powerful help? This matters. Is it a psalm for an elitist ‘chosen’ nation or a cry of help from a people who have learnt wisdom and humility and put their trust in God rather than ‘human help’?

Elitism is an issue in our day. The kind of elitism I refer to is where ordinary people stick to rules for their safety (with great sacrifice and heart-breaking consequences, such as not being able to be at the bedside of a dying parent or child) but those with political influence or power then apparently ignore or find ways of justifying their actions as somehow reasonable interpretations of those rules.

The dominating story for six days is a strange political scandal to do with Dominic Cummins, the Prime Minister’s principal political adviser who breached the ‘stay at home’ rules during the height of the lockdown when he drove his wife (who had Covid-19 symptoms) and young son 260-miles to his parents’ farm near Durham during the lockdown (as the public were repeatedly been told to ‘stay at home’ – a slogan believed to have been created by Cummins). His subsequent 60-mile round trip to Barnard Castle some two weeks later (apparently, to test his eyesight and capacity to drive back to London) also breached lockdown rules that people should not travel distances to exercise. What has been interesting is how Cummins, in a lengthy attempt to describe the full details and motivations of all his actions, and the Prime Minister, have backed themselves into a corner – defending the indefensible rather than admitting errors of judgement for reasons which the public might have more sympathy for.

It seems that all elites with power lose touch with ordinary people eventually, even those who begin by being anti-elite in their rhetoric, conviction or lifestyle. Cummins, the architect of the anti-elite Brexit referendum victory, has, it seems, lost touch with the currents of public opinion and his hubris could do the government great damage – and more importantly, could harm the health of this country if, when a second wave of Coronavirus strikes, people do not feel so inclined to follow rules because the elite have not done so. This is why this farcical scandal matters. For it is, in the end, about trust. If those who make the rules can’t be trusted to keep the rules, then who do we trust?

I come back to the psalm. The clue to the correct interpretive lens for reading it seems to lie in verse 11: ‘O grant us help against the foe, for human help is worthless.’ Here is a nation which is reeling from great defeats and sufferings. It is as if it has been struck by an earthquake. The familiar structures of state and people are tottering. And there seems to be no defence. Human help is worthless, says the psalmist. It seems the military option does not work anymore. Theologically, the problem is that God does not seem to care anymore either. All the usual signs of God’s blessings – victory against armed assailants, safety in the land, a sense of wellbeing – have gone. God is the problem. Yet God is also the solution. 


The turning point for the psalmist is realising that God has to act to save us against ourselves and the usual levers of power or influence that we may reach for.

‘To put it somewhat differently,’ writes J Clinton McCann, ‘we must take seriously that Psalm 60 is the prayer of suffering and oppressed persons (vs3). Their prayer is not of the powerful, who seek to claim God’s sanction to enforce the status quo. Rather, their prayer is the desperate plea of those who turn to God as the only possible hope in an apparently hopeless situation (vs11).’[2]

Watching an extended news item on BBC TV last night of the reporter Clive Myrie in the Royal London Hospital was a reminder again of the hopeless situations which Covid-19 creates. Yet we also are reminded, as in the prayer of St Theresa of Avila, that God has no hands but ours, no feet, no eyes with which to look with compassion. The medical expertise and compassionate care which surrounds each ITU patient, swirling around each bed like bees around a hive, reminded me of a dance of Trinitarian care.

The truth is, human help is far from worthless when put to work with sacrifice and care, when the patient is privileged by those who attend to them, rather than the powerful. Remember, even the PM, the symbol of elitism, was a patient in ITU. We are all helpless human beings in need of God’s help. The only obstacle to humility and praying God’s help is hubris.

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[1] New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised (NRSVA) New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition, copyright © 1989, 1995 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Footnotes:
Psalm 60:4 Gk Syr Jerome: Heb because of the truth
Psalm 60:5 Another reading is me
Psalm 60:6 Or by his holiness
[2] New Interpreters’ Bible, Abingdon Press ©1996, pg917-8

Psalms for a Turbulent Time - Psalm 59: But I will sing of your might

Private Eye No.1522 22nd May - 4th June pg30

Psalm 59[1]

¹   Deliver me from my enemies, O my God;     
     protect me from those who rise up against me.
²   Deliver me from those who work evil; from the bloodthirsty save me.
³   Even now they lie in wait for my life; the mighty stir up strife against me.
      For no transgression or sin of mine, O Lord,
⁴    for no fault of mine, they run and make ready.
      Rouse yourself, come to my help and see!
⁵    You, Lord God of hosts, are God of Israel.
      Awake to punish all the nations;      
      spare none of those who treacherously plot evil.                                     Selah
⁶    Each evening they come back,       
       howling like dogs and prowling about the city.

⁷    There they are, bellowing with their mouths,
       with sharp words on their lips— for 'Who', they think, 'will hear us?'
⁸    But you laugh at them, O Lord; you hold all the nations in derision.

⁹     O my strength, I will watch for you; for you, O God, are my fortress.
¹⁰   My God in his steadfast love will meet me;
       my God will let me look in triumph on my enemies.
¹¹  Do not kill them, or my people may forget;

       make them totter by your power, and bring them down, O Lord, our shield.
¹²   For the sin of their mouths, the words of their lips,
       let them be trapped in their pride.

       For the cursing and lies that they utter,

¹³  consume them in wrath; consume them until they are no more.
       Then it will be known to the ends of the earth 
       that God rules over Jacob.                                                                                           Selah
¹⁴  Each evening they come back, howling like dogs and prowling about the city.

¹⁵  They roam about for food, and growl if they do not get their fill.

¹⁶  But I will sing of your might;

       I will sing aloud of your steadfast love in the morning.
       For you have been a fortress for me and a refuge on the day of my distress.

¹⁷  O my strength, I will sing praises to you, for you, O God, are my fortress,
       the God who shows me steadfast love.

Laughter and song. These are the responses promoted by the psalm-singer when besieged night after night by apparently powerful and destructive forces. Twice, in verses 6 and 14, the writer complains about being surrounded by a pack of howling dogs who return again and again in the dark. So the psalmist asks God to ‘wake up’ (vs4) because of this victimisation and take action on behalf of they who are innocent. Laughter is God’s weapon, says the psalm in verse 8. And a morning song in praise of God’s fortress-like refuge and might is the surrounded person’s inspired daily response (vs16).

This sense of being surrounded by harmful night forces and finding release in laughter and song, particularly in the morning, is a powerful motif for us in these pandemic days. Once again, the straight-forward theology of the psalm propels us towards a faithful trust in God's justice. Even when it seems we are surrounded by malign forces, God will not stand by inactive. God's reign is supreme, even in the face of realities which seem to say otherwise. The greatest challenge to the person of faith is keeping a sense of perspective and seeing beyond the horizon to God's peaceful reign - where all wrongs will be righted. This is what we sing for, so often. That yearning and longing is powerful deep. Suborn songs of hope maybe our only response.  Maybe laughter is reserved for God.

In these days, of course, one of the things we might all miss is being able to sing with others. But listening to music and being able to respond musically is something of a balm, nonetheless. And laughter is especially beneficial – maybe sparked silly things shared in a household or through tuning into to comedies on the television or radio or by buying Private Eye once in a while.

I went through a phase of not wanting to watch any news at all and preferring, instead, re-runs of sitcoms and satirical programmes. Sometimes laughing at the foolishness of politicians can somehow put things in perspective. At the same time, this laughter seems to also motivate prayers for something better as well as sympathy for those in power.

That sympathy may be in danger of draining away through the Dominic Cummins affair as yet again the hubris of those occupying positions of power is magnified by the press pack. Coincidentally, might it be for those in the eye of the storm (his family, for example) like being surrounded by a pack of dogs baying for blood, roaming for food until they get their fill?

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[1] New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised (NRSVA)  New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition, copyright © 1989, 1995 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Psalms for Turbulent Times - Psalm 58: Surely, he is the Son of God

Psalm 58[1]

¹    Do you indeed decree what is right, you gods?^[a] Do you judge people fairly?
²    No, in your hearts you devise wrongs;  your hands deal out violence on earth.
³    The wicked go astray from the womb; they err from their birth, speaking lies.
⁴    They have venom like the venom of a serpent,
      like the deaf adder that stops its ear,
⁵     so that it does not hear the voice of charmers or of the cunning enchanter.
⁶    O God, break the teeth in their mouths;       
      tear out the fangs of the young lions, O Lord!
⁷     Let them vanish like water that runs away;       
       like grass let them be trodden down^[b] and wither.
⁸     Let them be like the snail that dissolves into slime;       
       like the untimely birth that never sees the sun.
⁹    Sooner than your pots can feel the heat of thorns,      
      whether green or ablaze, may he sweep them away!
¹⁰ The righteous will rejoice when they see vengeance done;
      they will bathe their feet in the blood of the wicked.
¹¹ People will say, ‘Surely there is a reward for the righteous;
      surely there is a God who judges on earth.’

Vengeful thoughts seethe through this psalm like the fumes of a forest fire reaching to the skies. This song’s writer has sought inspiration from nature and from the pangs of birth  -  timely and untimely -  to unfold feelings and passions which are fierce, if not downright violent. This is an uncomfortable psalm which may not normally find its place in communal worship (can you remember chanting this recently?). Yet it is truthful as a response to unjust dealings. And its underlying theology is straightforward – it is for the God of justice to take action against cruel, hateful and destructive people. But, this psalmist contends, it is also the right – even the reward – of the ‘righteous’ to witness the plummeting great fall of those termed 'wicked' when it happens. For such a fall, the psalmist suggests in verse11, will prompt people bear witness and say, ‘Surely it is God who judges the earth.’ 


This psalm’s use of the word ‘surely’ in verse 11 takes my thoughts to another powerful moment of testimony which uses that same word ‘surely’. It is when the centurion standing guard at the cross of Jesus says: ‘Surely, he was the Son of God’.[2] Bearing witness to an unjust death, the gospel writers leave these vital moments of truth-telling not to friends and followers of Jesus, or even his mother, but to a hardened meter-out of violence. It takes a man used to being an instrument of state vengeance(centurion), to see the true nature of Jesus, a man of non violence nor of vengeance for himself.



And, now another ‘surely’ verse from scripture comes to mind, that of the words of Isaiah the prophet:  ‘Surely He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed.’[3]

This psalm tells us that the poison of our experiences, the toxicity of the harm done to us by others who are like serpents, or with those whose words are as sharp as lion’s fangs – all this wrong and unjust suffering needs God’s action. For only in God’s righteous justice can the righteous ones, the victims of violence and oppression, then see their own reward and know that God is indeed sovereign.

Christianity holds that God chose to make this possible through the unjust suffering of Jesus on the cross – wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities. Thus, our lust for vengeance needs to be measured against this most extraordinary sacrifice whose reward is offered freely to all ‘who sin and fall short of the glory of God’ (Romans 3.23). The reward is a lifelong form of discipleship shaped by the Way of the Cross. And in following that path, we are invited to lose the desire to seek vengeance. Instead, part of the 'reward' would be to allow the broken body and blood of Jesus to continue its reconciling and wondrous work in us. 

There is a German word which has become common in usage in English:  Schadenfreude. The translation means something like ‘when another person's bad luck secretly makes you feel good’, that's Schadenfreude. This German word captures that satisfied feeling we might get when we witness (but don't instigate) someone else's justified misfortune. In German, Schadenfreude literally means "damage-joy," and it's always spelled with a capital S.  

Do you think this psalm promotes a ‘right’ or ‘reward’ for Schadenfreude? Or do you think that the Way of the Cross has no room for Schadenfreude?

Perhaps each one of us today needs something of that humble miracle of Jesus' sacrifice to jolt us out vengefulness (or a kind of enjoyment of Schadenfreude) and find ourselves transformed by Jesus - who calls us to pray for our enemies rather than find joy in their downfall. (There might be a warning here for all of us who are transfixed by the minor political intrigue of the fate of Dominic Cummins over his apparently errant trips to County Durham while suffering from Covid-19)

The death of Jesus is all the medicine we need to draw out our venom, heal our wounds and leads us into the way of peace. 

 

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[1] New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised (NRSVA)
New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition, copyright © 1989, 1995 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Footnotes: Psalm 58:1 Or mighty lords; Psalm 58:7 Cn: Meaning of Heb uncertain
[2] Matthew 27.54. Also Mark 15.39: ‘Surely, this man was the Son of God.’ Also Luke 23.47: ‘Surely, this was a righteous man.’ – all NIV New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

[3] Isaiah 53.4-6 New King James Version (NKJV) Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.