Year 8, Day 203: Psalm 58

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Psalm 58 is a dark psalm, darker than most people would care to acknowledge at first.  It’s easy to listen to these words and acknowledge the truth within.  Who hasn’t looked at the world and noticed that the wicked prosper and the evil seem to win?  Who hasn’t wondered if words like justice and righteousness are actual truths or simple ideological concepts that we’ve made up to make ourselves feel like there is purpose to life?  Who hasn’t occasionally wondered how long evil will continue to abound.  Who hasn’t longed for judgment day?

That’s human nature.  Everyone who has ever been hurt by another person – okay, all of us – understand the temptation to feel justice.  We want vindication.  We want a righteous decree telling the wrongdoer that they’ve been caught.  That’s why shows like Criminal Minds, CSI, NCIS, and Forensic Files are insanely popular.  In the end, the story is good because the bad guys get caught.  Most humans, although we are all sinful and corrupt, long for the time when evil will get what it is due.

Yet, that is a dark side to humanity.  Judgment Day in any form is not fun.  When I cry for vengeance, I only add my cry to the people who cry to see my evil avenged!  I am not perfect.  I am guilty of sin.  My flesh is corrupt.  I need to remember the guilt that I bear, too.  I need to remember that Jesus had to die for my sake as much as anyone else’s.

That’s the delicate balance in psalms like these.  It can be so easy to long for the crimes of others to be revealed and dealt with. In fact, it can even be righteous to do so!  God Himself knows that sin must be atoned, and that atonement had great cost and great pain involved.  We need to remember the balance between forgiveness and atonement.  We must seek the true balance between forgiveness and cost.

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