The Just Judgment of the Wicked
To the Chief Musician. Set to “Do Not Destroy.” A Michtam of David.
“Do you indeed speak righteousness, you silent ones? Do you judge uprightly, you sons of men? No, in heart you work wickedness; You weigh out the violence of your hands in the earth.
The wicked are estranged from the womb; they go astray as soon as they are born, speaking lies. Their poison is like the poison of a serpent; they are like the deaf cobra that stops its ear, which will not heed the voice of charmers, charming ever so skillfully.
Break their teeth in their mouth, O God! Break out the fangs of the young lions, O Lord! Let them flow away as waters which run continually; when he bends his bow, let his arrows be as if cut in pieces. Let them be like a snail which melts away as it goes, like a stillborn child of a woman, that they may not see the sun. Before your pots can feel the burning thorns, He shall take them away as with a whirlwind, as in His living and burning wrath.
The righteous shall rejoice when he sees the vengeance; he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked, So that men will say, “Surely there is a reward for the righteous; surely He is God who judges in the earth.”
“Do you indeed speak righteousness, you silent ones? Do you judge uprightly, you sons of men? No, in heart you work wickedness; You weigh out the violence of your hands in the earth.” All over the world, there are those who scheme secretly to do wickedness and create mayhem. Although we may first think of terrorist groups such as Hamas, others are sitting behind computer screens, creating viruses and malware to disrupt the lives of people they will never meet. Others create pornography or mastermind human trafficking rings.
“The wicked are estranged from the womb; they go astray as soon as they are born, speaking lies. Their poison is like the poison of a serpent; they are like the deaf cobra that stops its ear, which will not heed the voice of charmers, charming ever so skillfully.” We might wonder if those committing hate crimes ever enjoyed a period of innocence or if they were always vicious.
“Break their teeth in their mouth, O God! Break out the fangs of the young lions, O Lord! Let them flow away as waters which run continually; when he bends his bow, let his arrows be as if cut in pieces. Let them be like a snail which melts away as it goes, like a stillborn child of a woman, that they may not see the sun. Before your pots can feel the burning thorns, He shall take them away as with a whirlwind, as in His living and burning wrath.” When writers of psalms want to curse someone, they don’t mince words. But we can also use these same verses as prayers against the wicked. Want peace in the Middle East? Pray these verses! Want human trafficking to cease? Pray these verses!
“The righteous shall rejoice when he sees the vengeance; he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked, So that men will say, “Surely there is a reward for the righteous; surely He is God who judges in the earth.” Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers tells us: “It is an allusion to a great conqueror, who, upon “returning with a complete victory from the slaughter of his enemies, dips his feet in their blood as he passes over their carcasses.”
APPLICATION: In the book Black Friday Coming Down, David J. Hunter describes the distraught family of two horrible young men. While Hunter was working as a police officer in Tennessee, he helped arrest two young men who were among the most evil felons he had ever met. When the mother of these young men reported to the police station, Hunter expected that she would be equally wicked, only to meet a sweet genuinely good woman grieving over the crimes her sons had committed. When this lady described all the efforts her husband and she had made to raise these men, it became obvious that they had truly “gone astray as soon as they were born.” This mother advised Hunter to lock her sons up, for as soon as they were free, they would commit even worse crimes.
Whether or not we choose to believe it, we stand before God every day. God sees everything we do and knows all our thoughts and the intents of our hearts. One of the fundamental laws of the Kingdom of God is this: the measure you give out is the measure you will receive, or “What goes around, comes around.” In an earlier day when many people lived on farms, people commonly said, “Be sure your chickens will come home to roost.” This saying refers to the fact that as free-range chickens will always return to the chicken house at night time, our actions have consequences and those consequences will catch up with us. My late mother was fond of adding, “and when they come back, they will have become turkey buzzards!” Sometimes we minimize the evil we have done, never realizing that evil doesn’t diminish; it continues to multiply like a virus.
While it is tempting to point fingers at others and criticize, one question for each of us is this: Are people better off or worse for being in our company? We have seen seemingly good people corrupted by a single evil leader. As soon as the influence of that leader has been removed, those same people revert to goodness. Are we building people up or tearing them down? Are we pointing them toward God or are we discouraging them? May God help us so that we will always influence people for righteousness and not for wickedness!
PRAYER: Father God, thank You for loving us and for caring for us. Lord, help us to remember that we live and move and have our being in You and that You know us better than we know ourselves. Let us always point people toward You and not toward Satan. In the mighty and precious Name of King Jesus. Amen.
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