I found something interesting reading Psalm 7 today. The Psalmist being persecuted by a group of wicked men is counting on God’s judgement to deliver him. You know, I have seen this often through out the Psalms but it has taken a while to realize this concept in the Psalms: God judges the wicked in order to save the righteous. It’s strange to me how in today’s culture we celebrate the superhero when he defeats the villian, yet often when God judges the wicked He gets criticized as unloving. Perhaps we need a paradigm shift, a realization that sin isn’t just a personal failing but wickedness. Because when we water down sin, God looks like He is overreacting but in reality we are under reacting to sin. Like toddlers we may be ignorant of the real danger that sin poses to each one of us and that God is the hero delivering us from sin and from the wicked.
Oh, let the evil of the wicked come to an end, and may you establish the righteous— you who test the minds and hearts, O righteous God! My shield is with God, who saves the upright in heart. God is a righteous judge, and a God who feels indignation every day. If a man does not repent, God will whet his sword; he has bent and readied his bow; he has prepared for him his deadly weapons, making his arrows fiery shafts. Behold, the wicked man conceives evil and is pregnant with mischief and gives birth to lies. He makes a pit, digging it out, and falls into the hole that he has made. His mischief returns upon his own head, and on his own skull his violence descends. I will give to the Lord the thanks due to his righteousness, and I will sing praise to the name of the Lord , the Most High.
Psalms 7:9-17
Now before any witch hunts begin for wicked people let’s make a few things clear. God gives them the option to repent and be spared (Psalms 7:12). God does not rejoice when the wicked die and wishes that they would repent (Ezekiel 33:11). So we should not delight on the death of the wicked but seek their repentance so they can be saved. It’s not our job to take revenge on the wicked, it’s God’s. Don’t play God, obey God and love your enemies (Romans 12:19-21, Matthew 5:38-48). Preach the Gospel to them!
The final point is that we should be grateful for a God who not only has mercy on us for our sin but we should also be grateful for a God who will deal with and judge the wickedness of sin. God judged Pharoah and set the people free from his wicked rule. One day God will judge the wickedness in creation freeing us from a fallen world.