Consequences

Make them pay, God; have them fall by their own schemes!  Scatter them in the multitude of their wrongdoings, for they are rebellious against You.  Psalm 5:10  NASB

Make them pay, God – With all the corruption and hatred in the world, I want the psalmist’s imperative to come true today.  “Make them pay, God!”  Yes, for sure.  Make all those who foster evil, who lie, cheat, steal, who murder, rape, and pillage.  Make them pay!  Let Your wrath pour out upon them.  Get even!

There are verses in this psalm that challenge me, that confront me, that humiliate me.  But this one—ah, yes—this one resonates!  I want my enemies—God’s enemies—to suffer!   I want the God of justice to bring the roof down on them, to hold them accountable for their lies, their deceit, their hate speech—and their acts and the acts of those they encourage.  I want justice!  Now!!  I don’t want to wait for the Judgment Day.  I don’t want to bide my time, enduring all this evil, until, at last, some day they will have to answer.  I want to see them punished now.  I want all those who used us for their own gains, who lied to us, who oppressed us, who killed us—I want them all to get what they deserve so I can witness their destruction.  It would feel so righteous to see them fall.

Oh, what did I just say?  That I want to feel vindicated by their demise.  Something’s wrong here.  Am I judge, jury, executioner?  Why do I resonate so strongly with the psalmist’s command?  Is it because I am morally injured?  Is it because I want revenge?  Is it because my own yetzer ha’ra seeks what I want, what I desire to feel?  Now I discover it’s hard to tell if I’m not motivated by my own need for vindication or if I’m aligned with God’s intentions.  Oh, I have no doubt that God agonizes over these same things.  But He restrains His wrath while I plead for it.  Why is that?  Maybe I have a statute of limitation on forgiveness.  God doesn’t.  So, despite the fact that I can identify with the psalmist’s anger, that very fact raises a crucial question about who I am.  Am I really like Him?  I don’t mean to suggest that God toleratesall this evil.  He doesn’t.  It’s just that He deals with it in another way.  If I’m offended by the despicable acts of evil men, how much more must God be offended?  The bitter taste in my mouth when I hear slander, lies, and deliberate misdirection is only a drop of what He must feel.  But His mercy outweighs His wrath.  Not so much with me.  And that means I need to change.  If I’m asked to be like Him, then I need to adjust my attitude toward evil to match His. Vengeance certainly belongs to Him, not to me.  So, while I feel the same way that the poet feels, that doesn’t make it holy.  While God hates evil far more than I, that doesn’t justify my reaction.  I’m a long, long way from “Father, forgive them for they don’t know what they’re doing.”

I see a chilling pattern here.  First, I ask God to condemn these people.  Then I ask Him to get even and, essentially, vindicate me.  But the verse says that their offense isn’t against me.  It’s against God.  If I let my anger toward their rebelliousness move in the direction I want, won’t I become just like them?  Won’t I remove God’s response because I see clearly how to deal with injustice?  Is my outrage about God’s name being dragged through the mud about God, or is it about my ego claim that He is my God?

Topical Index: revenge, vindication, vengeance, anger, mercy, Psalm 5:10