Go to God for Justice! Psalm 5

I remember the call from your sister informing me of what had been done to her. Shock and horror turned to rage, which turned to a deep desire for justice. At first it was justice I would bring, which, by God's mercy, turned to a justice only He could rightfully wield. 

The Psalmist is encountering injustice. Evil people are doing evil things and getting away with their evil. So his soul cries out, "Make them bear their guilt, O God!" Is that ok? Is it ok to want harm to come to others, even ask God for it to come?

Justice is good, because God is just. It is because we are made in the image of a just God that the Psalmist so wants justice. Yesterday, was 9/11 and as I listened to the firefighters who lost 353 of their fellow firefighters. I listened to wives who lost husbands, husbands who had lost wives, and I was glad Osama Bin Laden was killed, shot in the head, even that his wife that he hid behind was shot. I delighted in his death for in it was some sense of justice. Justice is good, and evil is bad.

You will encounter all kinds of injustice and already have. It is ok to feel the weight of the injustice and acknowledge it, but I think the Psalmist leads us well. He goes to God with his yearning for justice. His soul cries out to Him. His fists do not fly, nor his tongue spread hate to his community.

God can take our anger and pain, He seems to invite it. He wants us to wrestle with Him, for in so doing, He brings us close. When we go to God with a deep sense of longing for our enemy to get what they deserve, God actually gets us. The Psalmist ends, "For you bless the righteous, O Lord. You cover him with favor as with a shield." The funny thing about our longing for justice is no matter how strong our desire is for justice, we know, deep down, that we really don't want justice for the evil, for we too are evil. What has been done to us, or those we love, can often replace God as our shield for a time. We begin to look to the thing done to us to draw life from it, instead of from God. Yet, when emotion wears out, we are left with the reality that we don't want God to treat us as our sins deserve, and that we have more in common with our enemy than not.

So, when we go to God for him to get our enemy, he gets us as he reminds us of His gospel, His good news. He wrestles our hearts to a cross, the place justice was carried out on our sin on Him. We see the cost of justice and hate turns into love, judgment turns into mercy and, He wins our hearts. So go to God with your yearning for what those that hurt you deserve. Be honest with Him and let Him get you!  He certainly will.

Much love!
dad