‘The righteous will rejoice when he sees the vengeance…’

After spending a lot of time reading through the Navarre Gospels, I’ve decided to step back in time to the Old Testament. Specifically, I want to learn more about the prophets and the psalms. One thing that’s always struck me about the latter is that they are impossible to reconcile with the squishy, saccharine God of the Suburbs. (Who is a false image, an idol deserving to be smashed.)
The smug bumper sticker that says, “God is too big to fit into one religion” is true if they’re talking about the anorexic, consumerist version of religion that passes for Christianity in far too many American churches. The God of the psalms is shown in his plenary nature, and is too big for an emaciated religion. The psalmist regards each aspect of the deity with love one moment, fear the next; he cries out for mercy because of his sinfulness in one psalm, then begs God for his enemies’ destruction in another. The hearts of the lion and the lamb truly dwell within this eclectic collection of songs.

There is great danger in calling for divine justice, here and now. “For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you” (Mt 7:2). Yet no one can deny the scriptural pedigree of appealing to God’s wrath at injustice.
Do you imagine that asking for judgment is appropriate for the Old Testament God, whereas we live under the New Covenant where God stands over all our actions, smiling and indulgent, ready to whisk us to heaven immediately upon our death? The testimony of the martyrs refutes you:
“…I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne. They cried out with a loud voice, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” (Rev 6:9-10)
While we always must pray for the conversion and deliverance of our enemies, and humble ourselves lest we think we are judges and not sinners, surely we can — and, dare I say, at times we must — pray for the destruction of the wicked before they can perform more outrages against the innocent. I leave you with Psalm 58 for you to ponder.
1 Do you indeed decree what is right, you gods?
Do you judge the children of man uprightly?
2 No, in your hearts you devise wrongs;
your hands deal out violence on earth.
3 The wicked are estranged from the womb;
they go astray from 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;
when he aims his arrows, let them be blunted.
8 Let them be like the snail that dissolves into slime,
like the stillborn child who 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 he sees the vengeance;
he will bathe his feet in the blood of the wicked.
11 Mankind will say, “Surely there is a reward for the righteous;
surely there is a God who judges on earth.”