Heart Cries: For Justice – Will Things Ever Be Right?
Psalm 11
I’m talking today about the human “heart cry” for justice. I can imagine some of you thinking, “I don’t really want to hear any more about justice.” But, I’m convinced you do want to hear more. In fact, I think you cry out every day of your life to one degree or another for what the Bible means by justice which, I’m convinced, is both bigger than and different from what the world thinks about when it hears the word justice.
Let me illustrate. Chris, my son in law Mike, and I went to a Dodger game last Wednesday. We were able to get seats straight behind home plate so, more than I’ve ever been able to do, I watched how well the umpire called balls and strikes. Kenta Maeda was pitching for the Dodgers. For the 1st several batters in the 1st inning, the umpire did not call a single strike -- even though I thought that several pitches were in the strike zone. I told Chris, “Wow! This umpire has a small strike zone. We’ll probably see a lot of base runners tonight.”
When the Dodgers came to bat, the 1st pitch to the 1st Dodger hitter, Howie Kendrick, was, to my eyes, both high and outside the strike zone. But, the umpire shouted, “Strike!” And, because I was thinking about the topic of justice for my sermon this weekend, I wanted to shout back, “Injustice! Don’t you know the Bible says you are not to have unequal measurements and scales. That wasn’t a strike.”
Of course, he could have yelled back, as an old Major League umpire once said, “It’s only a strike if I call it a strike! I’m the final judge of balls and strikes around here!” And, the umpire would have been right about that. He had all the power. But, as everyone knows, it really becomes a problem if the one in authority – like the baseball umpire – has unequal and unfair standards. Fans scream out, “It isn’t right. It isn’t just.”
Now – to the Bible: Ever since sin entered the world in Genesis 3, this world has been filled with things that are not right, i.e., just. For example, when one student whose family is the biggest donor to the school gets an A on a mediocre paper and you get a C when you are sure yours is much better, you feel it’s unjust. When a man gets paid more for doing exactly the same job as a woman, you rightly say it’s unjust. When laws are made to get tough on drugs and then the statistics come out that the main users of illegal drugs are young white men, but the vast majority of those incarcerated because of drugs are men of color, you might get frustrated and say, “That’s not right.” When that happens, you want to fight back – to cry out against injustice.
Almost every day of your life, you can probably identify things about which you say, “That isn’t fair. That isn’t right.” Some are as small as whether an umpire is just or unjust in the way he officiates a ball game. Others are as big as what has been filling our news all week when, in places like Charlotte, NC and Tulsa, OK, we have people questioning the justice system in our own country and rebelling against it.
And maybe, you wonder whether the Bible has anything to say about this. And, of course it does. So, today, we’ll look at Psalm 11. You heard the Psalm as it was read and, I hope, you could relate to it. It speaks of those times in which the foundations of society seem to be crumbling. Make note of that right now: This Bible passage is not everything the Bible says about injustice. But, it provides the foundation for everything else.
Here’s what we’ll do today. We’ll start with a brief primer on what the Bible means by justice. Then, we’ll look at how King David called us to begin to apply the Bible’s message about justice to a specific situation. My prayer is that, anytime you struggle with things that seem unjust to you, you will come back to this Psalm and know where you too should begin to live by faith in a world in which so many things are wrong.
Brief Justice Primer
#1: The Definition: Justice is the condition in which everything, everywhere is right in every way. The words for justice in the OT (tsedek) and NT (dikaiosune) are translated in the English Bible in many ways so sometimes we are not aware of how pervasive the Bible’s teaching is about justice. Often the Bible’s word for justice is translated as “righteousness” -- and that leads us to think only about our own personal holiness. And, the Bible does say that growing to live a life free from sin is a genuine part of justice. But, it’s not all that it’s about.
What I call “big J justice” – justice as the Bible speaks of -- refers to everything in the universe that God is in control of being right – our relationships, the ecology, the economy, our health, etc. etc. -- everything being the way it’s supposed to be. Justice in the Bible is ultimately about everything that God is in control of (which is, of course, everything) being right, without any sin, flaw or failure.
#2: The Reality: The only thing in this world fully right is God. He is just and the standard of justice. There is a clear and powerful declaration of this in Jer. 23:6, “You are named the Lord, our justice.” Every human being has fallen short of the glory of God. Everything else in our world is negatively affected by sin. That’s why, in Rom 8, Paul says that all creation is groaning for things to be made right.
#3: The Promise: God has promised to establish a kingdom of justice, a time and place when all he has created will reflect all who he is, i.e.., glorify him. As Rom 14:17 says, “God’s kingdom is of peace and justice.” That means that when God reigns fully, he will make everything right! It’s beautiful to think about and read about when God promises it in Revelation 21-22. Just think about a kingdom of peace and justice! Broken things healed and brought together. For that to happen, evil and injustice has to be punished. That which is wrong has to be made right. That’s what Jesus came to inaugurate. And, we are convinced that, what God will complete what he began in Christ.
#4: The Application: The Bible then must be understood in the two big applications of justice:
- Personal and individual – your sins need to be justly punished and your entire life needs to be made right. You need to be justified, i.e., made right with God (a central theme in Romans). So, for you as a sinner to have hope, your sin needs to be atoned for. Your life needs to be re-made. This is what we call evangelism and discipleship. You and I are bearer of good news to a sinful world that God loves. We tell people that they need to repent of their sins and place their faith in Jesus. We call them to become a part of a local church family and get them involved in the kinds of ministries of discipleship that will facilitate them becoming complete in Christ.
- Global and corporate – God says that not just my personal relationship to God, but all the affects of sin in the world have to made right. If you ask, “Pastor, what kind of wrongs will God make right?” I answer, “God will do more than we could ever imagine. The wrongs of children having to sleep on the street with no home, of people being addicted to drugs and unable to find freedom, of broken relationships in our families, of unjust laws in the nations of the world and even of good laws being unjustly applied.” The Bible speaks often of God righting the wrongs in his world. He loves the world he made.
#5: The Means: Bringing about justice is God’s work but he does his work through his people (see Micah 6:8). As God “does justice” so he calls us as his people to do justice.” That includes evangelism because evangelism is calling people broken from God to be made right with him. It includes discipleship because discipleship is about those parts scarred and broken by sin to be healed. And it includes working against the wrongs that sin has brought into our world. It means both punishing those who do wrong as well as caring for the victims of unjust treatment. That’s what the verses we read from Ps 146 are about.
So, God uses the work of Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit to make us right with him. He uses his people to further his work in the world until his kingdom of peace and justice is complete.
Psalm 11: A Short Song to Remind Us that God is Just and God Is God
I want to take a moment to give show you a very short Psalm that speaks of how people who trust God live in an unjust world but with God-glorifying faith. It’s one I hope you will make note of and take time to meditate on this coming week.
The Setting:
When he wrote this Psalm, terribly unjust things were happening to King David and everybody close to him knew it. I envision that it’s when his son Adonijah turned against him. At that time, David’s military and security leaders and so-called spiritual leaders turned against him too and joined the coup. I’m sure people felt that all the pillars of society were crumbling: political, religious and law enforcement.
What does David do? He starts with God.
The Person of Faith (1a): The only invulnerable refuge in this world is God.
In the Lord, I take refuge.
As I told you, this Psalm doesn’t say everything that David did – but it tells us where we always must start. The wrongs in his world were persistent. This kind of attempted coup happened over and over. The people surely thought, “It’s never going to change. Things will never be made right. This happened to you when you were a young man, David. It happened when you were middle aged. It’s happening when you are old! When will evil and injustice ever end?”
And David said, “In the Lord, I take refuge.” What do you think of that?
The Bad Advice (11:1b-3): Take matters into your own hands.
Flee like a bird, David…
In this situation, David was basically told, “It seems God isn’t going to help you, so run!”
This metaphor of scattering like a bird is a good one. Have you ever been walking in a meadow when there were a lot of birds who apparently had not been aware of your presence. Then, when you take a step and a branch breaks, they hear it and scatter wildly, flying away in terror. I like the illustration because the Bible never teaches us that we have to stay in a place of violence when evil people want to do harm. David never did that. He wisely chose to get out of harm’s way in such times. I say that because, if you are in a place of violence and abuse, the Bible doesn’t tell you simply to sit back and pray.
No, this metaphor of a bird speaks of a “knee-jerk reaction” in which you mindlessly run to and fro without even turning to God in faith. David was not going to do that. Even if he might have to leave his home to get to safety, it would be under the guidance of God. Read his story and you will see how, when he was getting away from those who wanted to do violence to him, it was not an act of panic but one of wise judgment.
One way to ignore God in the midst of injustice is to panic and forget that God is with you. In other situations, the advice people give is, “God isn’t going to do justice so you have to take vengeance against the evil yourself!” And David was sometimes tempted to do that. There is a powerful story of that in 1 Samuel 25 when David want to get revenge for a fool named Nabal. A wonderful woman named Abigail was able to bring him to wisdom so that he could learn the lesson that is taught throughout Scripture (Dt 32:35; Rom 12:19): “Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," says the Lord.”
David knew that revenge was not a right God had given to individuals but, when he was angry, he wanted to do it anyway. At the end of the story, David turns to Abigail and says, “May you be blessed for your good judgment and for keeping me from bloodshed this day and from taking revenge with my own hands (25:32).”
David was what people call “a man’s man.” He was a warrior. A fighter. But, by the time he wrote Psalm 11, more than those things, he had become a man who let God direct his life.
I’m sure you can imagine what people were saying to him in v.2. “Look, David. You’ve done no wrong. These evil an unjust people are pulling out their weapons and shooting whether you’re innocent or not.” Your security forces are ready to shoot you. Your religious leaders are ignoring you and some are betraying you. The foundations are being destroyed. There is nothing to do but to take matters into your own hands.”
But, David says there is another way that a person of faith begins his reaction to injustice.
#3: The Starting Point in Times of Injustice (11:4-6) – Remember that God Is Still God.
The Lord is in his holy temple; the Lord is on his throne in heaven. He sees everyone… (11:4).
In these three profound verses (vv.4-6), David shows us how to begin dealing with times of injustice. What David does is call us consciously and intentionally to remember some things. What should you remember?
- That God is with you (11:4a). The Lord is in his holy temple. This “holy temple” language is a reminder that God is not just “somewhere, out there” but he is with us. As Ps 46 says, “God is a very present help in times of trouble.”
- That the God who is with you is in control of everything (11:4b). The Lord is on his throne in heaven. God is not wringing his hands saying, “I wish I could help my man, David – but I can’t.” No, what may seem to be hopeless right now is not hopeless for God is God – and he is on his throne.
- That God uses trouble in this world to further his work in his people (11:4b-5a). “The Lord tests the just.” This language of God using trouble as a test really bothers some people. But, let me tell you that what David is saying that God brings great good out of what the world might think is an evil. In Genesis 50:20 there is a profound truth. A man named Joseph had been sold into slavery by his jealous brothers. It seemed senseless and terribly unjust. But, God knew. God used even the intended evil to further his work. Later, Joseph meets his brothers again and says, “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.”
In this Psalm, David uses the language of a test. All good teachers know that the value of a good test is to enable us to solidify what we have learned – and to apply it. David is saying, "This test that is happening is an opportunity for me to demonstrate to God, to myself and to the world, that my faith is in the Lord." I will fear nothing but displeasing him. I tell you: When unjust things happen to you, God knows. He will use it to bring about good things – just like he used the cross of Jesus to bring about salvation.
- That God will judge evil (11:5b-6). Punishing evil and injustice is God’s job. He will do it. Read vv. 5b-6. Let me ask you, “When you see injustice in your world or in your life, do you really believe that God will judge it? This does not mean that you do not speak about against injustice and work against what is wrong. The Bible is clear that we should do that. But, we are not the ones to take vengeance into our own hands. That’s God’s job and he will do it well.
The Call to Act as We Trust (5:7). God does justice and calls us to do justice too.
The Lord is just. He loves deeds of justice.
Let me ask you a question. When God says he loves deeds of justice, does he mean that he loves o do them himself – or that he loves it when we do them? It’s clear from the rest of the Bible that it’s both. Micah 6 is one of the clearest places that teaches this. In the first 7 verses, God reminds his people of how he had done things in their lives and nation throughout history to bring about justice. When the people brazenly ask, “So what? What do you want us to do about it?” God says, “Do justice. Love mercy. Walk humbly with me by your side (Micah 6:8).”
Do justice – what an interesting phrase. What does it mean practically? Well, that’s a question worthy of many sermons. But I’ll take you to two passages and let God use his Word to guide you. One is Proverbs 31:8 – “Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute.” Whenever we recognize that there is someone in our midst who has little voice and we have some influence, we are to be stewards of our opportunities and speak out for those who cannot do so themselves.
The other passage I want to leave you with is the one we read earlier, i.e., Psalm 146:
The Lord is the Maker of heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them—
He upholds the cause of the oppressed and gives food to the hungry.
The Lord sets prisoners free, the Lord gives sight to the blind, the Lord lifts up those who are bowed down.
The Lord loves those who are just.
The Lord watches over the foreigner and sustains the fatherless and the widow.
That’s what the Lord loves to do. That’s what he Lord does. And often, he does these things through you and me. It is to that kind of life of joining him in bringing about a kingdom of peace and justice that he has called you – to His glory.